Vocabulary
Do you ever stop and think about what the world would be like if we didn't have cleaners? Do you work as a cleaner or in the cleaning industry yourself?
We should all be very thankful that there are people in the world who toil away every day to clean up the mess the rest of us make.
Cleaning may not be the most glamorous job in the world, but it surely has to be one of the most important.
This video is my way of saying thank you to all the cleaners of the world, while teaching a good bit of vocabulary connected with cleaning, too.
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Confusing Words
There are three small English words that cause a lot of difficulty for many people. To, Too and Two are homophones and even native English speakers confuse them, too.
This video has been created to help you avoid confusion in the future. It aims to entertain you, too.
There are self-test questions under the video to help you practice what you have learned in the video.
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Idioms
You won't need a loan shark to enjoy this video about seafood idioms - it's free to watch. It'd be a fine kettle of fish if it wasn't.
I've cast my net wide in searching for these videos and I know that you're going to have a whale of a time learning these new videos.
There are homophones here, too.
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Idioms
If idioms have been driving you bananas, here is just the video you need.
It's a peach of a video, packed full of juicy idioms.
After you have mastered these idioms, life will be just a bowl of cherries.
This is the latest fruit of my labours and the apple of my eye.
Don't be a rotten apple, share this with your friends on YouTube and on the Internet.
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Idioms
It was a long time coming but this video is certainly the cream of the crop when it comes to my English language learning videos.
Now that it's finished, I look like the cat that got the cream.
I'm overflowing with the milk of human kindness so I'm sharing it with you in the hope that you will enjoy learning these 21 English dairy idioms.
If you know what side your bread is buttered, you'll take the time to watch it a few times
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Idioms
This video English lesson looks at all of the egg idioms I could think of.
Eggs must play a very important part in British life because there are so many idioms that mention them.
So be a good egg and get cracking on this video. If you don't learn them all, as sure as eggs is eggs, you'll have egg on your face. They might not be easy to learn, but you can't make an omelette without breaking eggs and at least you don't have to shell out on this video - it's free.
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Secret Recipe
There are many recipes for chilli con carne, but this is mine. It has taken me over 25 years to perfect the recipe and it's a secret that I'm going to share with you today. I'm sharing it with you on the understanding that you keep it a secret.
Not only will you learn how to cook the best chilli con carne you have ever tasted, but you will also increase your English vocabulary and learn about countable and uncountable nouns.
Vocabulary words include the verbs, chop, cut, peel, crush, fry, stir, boil, simmer and more. There are also nouns to do with cooking including the ingredients and the utensils such as pestle and mortar, frying pan, cleaver, hob, dessertspoon, tablespoon and more.
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Vocabulary
Do you know what a lunatic is? Do you know what lunacy is?
What is the difference between a waxing gibbous moon and a waning gibbous moon? Why are some tides so much higher than others? Does the Moon really influence the brain or even a woman's menstrual cycle?
These questions and more are answered in this English language lesson about our nearest celestial neighbour, the Moon.
There is a short related video lesson here.
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Astrology
This is one of a series of English lessons based on the theme of astrology. They are designed to teach you vocabulary, and especially personal descriptive adjectives.
If you were born between December 22nd and January 19th, then your star sign is Capricorn. Capricorn's element is Earth. Capricorn's ruling planet is Saturn. Capricorn is loyal with a good sense of humour. Prone to pessimism, they need the support of family and friends, even if they don't show it emotionally.
Other star signs: Aries | Taurus | Gemini | Cancer | Leo | Virgo | Libra | Scorpio | Sagittarius | Capricorn | Aquarius | Pisces.
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Astrology
This is one of a series of English lessons based on the theme of astrology. They are designed to teach you vocabulary, and especially personal descriptive adjectives.
If you were born between November 22nd and December 21st, then your star sign is Sagittarius. The symbol of Sagittarius is the archer. Sagittarius' element is fire. Sagittarius' ruling planet is Jupiter. Sagittarius cannot exist without their freedom. They need continual challenge in their work and relationships, and hate claustrophobic conditions.
Other star signs: Aries | Taurus | Gemini | Cancer | Leo | Virgo | Libra | Scorpio | Sagittarius | Capricorn | Aquarius | Pisces.
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Astrology
This is one of a series of English lessons based on the theme of astrology. They are designed to teach you vocabulary, and especially personal descriptive adjectives.
If you were born between October 23rd and November 21st, then your star sign is Scorpio. The symbol of Scorpio is the scorpion. Scorpio's element is Water. Scorpio's modality is Fixed. Scorpio's polarity is negative or feminine (yin). Scorpio's ruling planet is Pluto. Scorpio has a massive amount of emotional and physical energy that needs to be channelled positively if stagnation and depression are to be avoided.
Other star signs: Aries | Taurus | Gemini | Cancer | Leo | Virgo | Libra | Scorpio | Sagittarius | Capricorn | Aquarius | Pisces.
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Astrology
This is one of a series of English lessons based on the theme of astrology. They are designed to teach you vocabulary, and especially personal descriptive adjectives.
If you were born between September 23rd and October 22nd, then your star sign is Libra. The symbol of Libra is the scales. Libra's element is air. Libra's polarity is positive or masculine. Libra's ruling planet is Venus. Libra is rational and fair, but the need for balance creates paralysing indecision. This English lesson will help you understand the vocabulary used to describe people in general and Libra in particular.
Other star signs: Aries | Taurus | Gemini | Cancer | Leo | Virgo | Libra | Scorpio | Sagittarius | Capricorn | Aquarius | Pisces.
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Astrology
This is one of a series of English lessons based on the theme of astrology. They are designed to teach you vocabulary, and especially personal descriptive adjectives.
If you were born between August 23rd and September 22nd, then your star sign is Virgo. The symbol of Virgo is the Virgin. Virgo's element is Earth. Virgo's polarity is negative or feminine. Virgo's ruling planet is Mercury. Virgo is charmingly modest with a strong critical faculty. They are the busiest people and will do anything for anyone.
Other star signs: Aries | Taurus | Gemini | Cancer | Leo | Virgo | Libra | Scorpio | Sagittarius | Capricorn | Aquarius | Pisces.
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Astrology
This is one of a series of English lessons based on the theme of astrology. They are designed to teach you vocabulary, and especially personal descriptive adjectives.
If you were born between July 23rd and August 22nd, then your star sign is Leo. Leo's symbol is the lion. Leo's planet is the Sun. Leo's modality is fixed and Leo's polarity is positive.
Other star signs: Aries | Taurus | Gemini | Cancer | Leo | Virgo | Libra | Scorpio | Sagittarius | Capricorn | Aquarius | Pisces.
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Astrology
This is one of a series of English lessons based on the theme of astrology. They are designed to teach you vocabulary, and especially personal descriptive adjectives.
If you were born between June 21st and July 22nd, then your star sign is Cancer. The symbol of Cancer is the crab. Cancer's ruling planet is the Moon. Cancer has a profound need for family, though their powerful emotions can be smothering. They have a keen intuition that can be spoiled by a tendency towards anxiety.
Other star signs: Aries | Taurus | Gemini | Cancer | Leo | Virgo | Libra | Scorpio | Sagittarius | Capricorn | Aquarius | Pisces.
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Astrology
This is one of a series of English lessons based on the theme of astrology. They are designed to teach you vocabulary, and especially personal descriptive adjectives.
If you were born between May 21st and June 20th, then your star sign is Gemini. The symbol of Gemini is twins. Gemini's element is Air. Gemini's modality is mutable. Gemini's polarity is positive or masculine (yang). Gemini's ruling planet is Mercury.
Other star signs: Aries | Taurus | Gemini | Cancer | Leo | Virgo | Libra | Scorpio | Sagittarius | Capricorn | Aquarius | Pisces.
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Astrology
This is one of a series of English lessons based on the theme of astrology. They are designed to teach you vocabulary, and especially personal descriptive adjectives.
If you were born between April 19th and May 20th, then your star sign is Taurus. The symbol of Taurus is the bull. Taurus' element is Earth. Taurus' modality is fixed. Taurus' polarity is negative or feminine (yin). Taurus' ruling planet is Venus.
Other star signs: Aries | Taurus | Gemini | Cancer | Leo | Virgo | Libra | Scorpio | Sagittarius | Capricorn | Aquarius | Pisces.
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Astrology
This is one of a series of English lessons based on the theme of astrology. They are designed to teach you vocabulary, and especially personal descriptive adjectives.
If you were born between March 21st and April 19th, then your star sign is Aries. The symbol of Aries is the ram. Aries' element is fire. Aries' modality is cardinal. Aries' polarity is positive or masculine (yang). Aries' ruling planet is Mars.
Other star signs: Aries | Taurus | Gemini | Cancer | Leo | Virgo | Libra | Scorpio | Sagittarius | Capricorn | Aquarius | Pisces.
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A British Christmas
Just like the festivals of Saturnalia and Yule from which it sprang, Christmas is a time of feasting.
Everyone eats and drinks much too much.
This lesson looks at the food eaten at a traditional British Christmas.
This lesson is part one of a five part series looking at the British Christmas.
Watch and Listen videos have no on-screen words to help your listening skill development.
- The Origins of Christmas | Watch and Listen
- The Symbols of Christmas | Watch and Listen
- Father Christmas | Watch and Listen
- The Death and Rebirth of Christmas | Watch and Listen
- Christmas Food | Watch and Listen
The video lessons use words, sounds and images to help you learn not only the vocabulary of Christmas, but also the interesting history of this most popular of festivals.
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A British Christmas
The Puritans banned Christmas in 1647.
People rioted, but Christmas was not restored until 1660. Even then the Church of England frowned on the celebration. Things got so bad that writers like Charles Dickens decided to revive Christmas by making it popular again.
Dickens wrote A Christmas Carol which helped create our modern Christmas.
The Victorians invented the Christmas card and Christmas crackers. Our commercial Christmas was born.
This lesson looks at the death of Christmas in Britain and at how it was resurrected in the Victorian era.
This lesson is part one of a five part series looking at the British Christmas.
Watch and Listen videos have no on-screen words to help your listening skill development.
- The Origins of Christmas | Watch and Listen
- The Symbols of Christmas | Watch and Listen
- Father Christmas | Watch and Listen
- The Death and Rebirth of Christmas | Watch and Listen
- Christmas Food | Watch and Listen
The video lessons use words, sounds and images to help you learn not only the vocabulary of Christmas, but also the interesting history of this most popular of festivals.
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A British Christmas
The most recognisable symbol of Christmas is Father Christmas.
Santa Claus, as he is also known, has a long history that goes back to the Germanic gods. He is a fusion of Christian and pagan figures merged into the figure we know today as recently as 1822.
The Santa we recognise was first drawn by Thomas Nast in 1863.
Before then he wore a green cloak.
Nast added his reindeer – a suggestion, perhaps, of Odin’s horse Sleipnir.
This lesson looks at the evolution of Santa into the jolly, bearded fat man children and marketers love today.
This lesson is part one of a five part series looking at the British Christmas.
Watch and Listen videos have no on-screen words to help your listening skill development.
- The Origins of Christmas | Watch and Listen
- The Symbols of Christmas | Watch and Listen
- Father Christmas | Watch and Listen
- The Death and Rebirth of Christmas | Watch and Listen
- Christmas Food | Watch and Listen
The video lessons use words, sounds and images to help you learn not only the vocabulary of Christmas, but also the interesting history of this most popular of festivals.
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A British Christmas
There are many symbols associated with Christmas.
The most famous is Santa Claus, but there are others like holly and mistletoe.
These evergreen plants have their roots in the ancient festivals of Yule and are still important today.
This lesson explores the Christian symbols and those connected with Yule and Saturnalia.
It also looks at more recent developments that have made Christmas so commercial.
This lesson is part one of a five part series looking at the British Christmas.
Watch and Listen videos have no on-screen words to help your listening skill development.
- The Origins of Christmas | Watch and Listen
- The Symbols of Christmas | Watch and Listen
- Father Christmas | Watch and Listen
- The Death and Rebirth of Christmas | Watch and Listen
- Christmas Food | Watch and Listen
The video lessons use words, sounds and images to help you learn not only the vocabulary of Christmas, but also the interesting history of this most popular of festivals.
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A British Christmas
This English language video lesson looks back in time to the ancient festivals that came before Christmas. The pagan Yule festival and the Roman Saturnalia being the most important.
It explains the importance of the Winter Solstice and the reason we celebrate Christmas on December 25th. It also gives the other names of Christmas that you will meet in English – Yule, Xmas, Noel and Yuletide.
It answers that question that has always puzzled English speakers – why do we say Xmas?
This lesson is part one of a five part series looking at the British Christmas.
Watch and Listen videos have no on-screen words to help your listening skill development.
- The Origins of Christmas | Watch and Listen
- The Symbols of Christmas | Watch and Listen
- Father Christmas | Watch and Listen
- The Death and Rebirth of Christmas | Watch and Listen
- Christmas Food | Watch and Listen
The video lessons use words, sounds and images to help you learn not only the vocabulary of Christmas, but also the interesting history of this most popular of festivals.
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Grammar
Question tags are those small questions that we add to the end of sentences, aren't they?
They cause problems for even the most advanced of student, don't they?
This video English lesson will give you all the rules you need to never make a mistake with question tags again, won't it?
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Word of the Week
Blood is the most important thing in our bodies.
Lose too much and we die.
It is so important that many expressions in English use the word, Blood.
This lesson looks at the language of blood and the expressions that we make from the word.
Expressions like: Blood is thicker than water | Bloodshed | Cold-blooded | In cold blood | Blood run cold | Hot-blooded | Blood up| Blood boils | Blue blood | Fresh blood/new blood | Half-blood | To run in the blood | Own flesh and blood | Young blood | Blood clot and more.
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Vocabulary Builder
The influenza virus has been killing people for thousands of years.
The virus mutates rapidly, sometimes creating deadly strains against which we have no defence.
There is a current deadly strain called swine flu that has been declared a pandemic. Thousands of people have died, and thousands more are expected to die.
This video looks at this disease, examining the symptoms and providing useful medical vocabulary for English language students.
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Vocabulary Booster
We are all of us part of a family of one sort or another.
Family members have various names in English and some of them like husband, wife, uncle, aunt, nephew and niece, are among the few English words that have gender.
This video shows how the members of an extended family are related to each other. From grandfather and grandmother though parents - father and mother - to sons, daughters, brother and sister, grandchildren and cousins, this video Lesson gives you all the words you need to describe your own family in English.
A related Crossword Puzzle and Hangman game can be found here: Crossword Puzzle
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English Expressions
The heart makes many expressions in English, and not just to do with love and romance.
There are many common expressions that use the word heart in this video lesson.
If you can find it in your heart, do this lesson.
Don't let your heart sink if you can't get all the answers right away. Watch the video as many times as you want.
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English Expressions
Eyes play a part in many English Expressions. This lesson looks at 47 of the most common.
Do you know what connection eyes and the belly have?
Do you know how a man with brown eyes can be called a blue-eyed boy?
Have you got eyes in the back of your head?
Has anyone ever given you their eye?
These questions and more are answered here in this Video English Lesson. The English in the lesson is mainly British English.
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Vocabulary
An English lesson like no other before. It's not a typical ESL subject, weaponry, but the language is interesting.
The lesson traces the development of weapons from a simple rock to the atomic bomb.
Replete with sound-effects, images, pronunciation and phonetics, this memorable lesson will help you to improve your listening and pronunciation as well as your vocabulary.
Prepare to be blown away by this lesson.
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Cooking
This lesson not only teaches you English, but it also shows you how to make a delicious Spanish potato omelette.
It teaches some of the vocabulary used in cooking, and gives you the recipe for making this delicious and popular Spanish dish.
There is a video of how to make the omelette, and some test questions about the content of the lesson.
You also have two exercises that challenge you to reassemble the recipe.
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Financial Terms
This lesson looks at basic vocabulary used when talking about money:
- earn
- account
- bank
- banknotes
- borrowed
- change
- coin
- currency
- lent
- note
- salary
- spend
- sum
- wages
- waste
- win
There is an self-test exercise for each of the words.
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Health
The U.K. is on the brink of an obesity epidemic, one that will cost as additional $90 billion per year by 2050, says a study called The Foresight Report. This is a government-led research project that says that by 2050, 60 per cent of adult men, 50 per cent of adult women and about 25 per cent of all children under 18 could be obese.
"Britain has become a nation where overweight is the norm," reads the report.
This lesson looks at the language of obesity and weight loss.
The news reporter's accent is Canadian English.
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Phrasal Verbs
170 flashcards giving definitions and examples of the most common separable transitive phrasal verbs.
These flashcards will help you learn and remember this difficult aspect of English.
Separable transitive phrasal verbs are those in which the verb can be separated from the particle, and which need an object to complete the meaning.
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Phrasal Verbs
130 flashcards giving definitions and examples of the most common inseparable transitive phrasal verbs.
These flashcards will help you learn and remember this difficult aspect of English.
Inseparable transitive phrasal verbs are those in which the verb cannot be separated from the particle, and which need an object to complete the meaning.
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Phrasal Verbs
110 flashcards giving definitions and examples of the most common intransitive phrasal verbs.
These flashcards will help you learn and remember this difficult aspect of English.
Intransitive phrasal verbs are those in which an object is not needed to complete the meaning.
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Aesop's Fable
The lesson about Belling the Cat includes some listening exercises in English. The lesson includes some grammar and vocabulary exercise in English. The lesson includes some reading and some writing exercises.
All the listening material has been recorded by a native British English speaker without any strong regional accent.
It is based on the original text "The Aesop for Children" published by Rand McNally & Company of Chicago in 1919.
It includes illustrations from the original book, and also from other books.
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Computing
This lesson is a short look at the history of the Sinclair ZX Spectrum computer from the 1980's.
It introduces some basic computer vocabulary and is based on an authentic English text taken from the Internet.
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Financial Terms
If you are a business person, or anyone interested in borrowing or lending then this is the English language lesson for you.
This is a short lesson that briefly looks at the terminology of borrowing and lending.
Very useful if you are confused by the terms, "borrow" and "lend".
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39 Lessons for Intermediate, B1 level students...
