Emma's ESL English

I'm currently doing some decorating in my house and I'm having to watch the paint dry! This got me thinking about all the different idioms we use related to paint.  Vocabulary To paint the town red - to have a fun night out, probably involving alcohol and maybe making some trouble! To whitewash something - Whitewash is a kind of watered down paint that was used by poor people to colour the...

In this episode we are looking at the vocabulary we use when we talk about seeing something. We cover looking at our phone, watching movies and some phrasal verbs and alternative words we might use. Vocabulary We're always looking at our smart phones these days! In this sentence we are talking about all the people generally with smart phones, so they could be doing a variety of things they are...

In this episode we are looking at sentences using 'have got' and especially at time phrases using 'have got'. We use 'have' for many different things: possession or ownership, relationships, illnesses and how things or people are. 'Have got' is often used in less formal situations. I have three cars. I've got three cars. I have a boyfriend. I've got a boyfri...

Last week I came across an idiom using 'guts' and when I started thinking about it, I realised we have SO MANY! So I thought I'd look at some today. Vocabulary Follow your gut/intuition/instinct - to pay attention what something inside you is saying and do what it says. Not like 'I'm hungry'!! More like 'this person is bad/good'. Trust your gut - When you pay attent...

In this episode let's consider the time words 'by' and 'until'. It can be tricky to know which one of these to use, just like yesterday's 'during' and 'for'. 'Until' means something will continue until a point in time, it often seems more urgent than 'by'. 'By' means we need to do something before a future moment. I need to buy my Chr...

Today was a grammar class with the focus on time phrases using 'during' and 'for'. 'During' is used to say when something happens; 'for' is used to say how long it lasts. We can use 'in' instead of 'during' most of the time, but we can't say 'for' instead of 'during' because the grammar and use is different. We will eat a lot duri...

On English we often use ' one day ' or ' some day ' to talk about the future. When we use these we don't know exactly when something will happen in the future, often we're not even sure if it will happen at all. If you know that you want something to happen in the next few years then you're much more likely to say 'I want to get a new job in the next few years.'...

The question from my student was: do we need an article 'a' in the sentence ' too much drinking in too short a time '? Good question! The Problem Although we use 'time' as a noun often in English, it is tricky. Sometimes 'time' is countable, sometimes it's uncountable. Sometimes it needs a definite article, sometimes it needs an indefinite article and sometimes...

This episode I read a little excerpt from Terry Pratchett's 26th Discworld novel, Thief of Time . You can find the English version of the novel here . You can also get them on Audible . It is very possibly available in your own language if you are interested in reading it, since Terry's books have been printed in 37 different languages. Here is Terry talking about how he classified his boo...

In episodes 18 an 19 we looked at the beginnings and middles of your emails. Today we're looking at the ends. Just like before I've focused on three levels of email. Level 1 - Can you send me the project file - Jack - Thanks Jack Level 3 If you start with: Dear Director Smith we can end with: Sincerely Jack Johnson And although there are many other options, I would advise sticking with &#3...

Today we are talking about what to say after you've started your email. After 'Dear Sir' what comes next?  If we start with yesterday's beginning of: 'I hope you don't mind me getting in touch Jane' or 'Hello Jane, I hope you don't mind me getting in touch.' We can go on to say: How are you? I hope you're doing well. How are you? It's been a while. I...

Today we are talking about how to begin your emails. We will be talking about emails all this week.  So many people need to write emails in English these days, even though English is not their native language. English is confusing at the best of times but when we start to think about politeness and etiquette and English, things get even more complicated. Hopefully these next three podcasts will he...

English changes and evolves depending on where in the world it's used and which industry or culture it's being used in. In this episode we listen to a conversation between an American and a Chinese artist. The music slang they use common in this specific scenario: American West Coast Music Industry. The Chinese artist has adapted his English to this scene, he definitely didn't learn so...

In this episode we are analysing a short piece from a recent UK radio show. We will look at some common vocabulary and grammar from this kind of show, this vocabulary is common across the music scene and wider UK. You don't need to listen to the show to enjoy this episode. The show is called Radio One's Chillest Show. It is 2 hours of relaxing modern music. Hopefully you can listen to it h...

Today we are looking at a grammar point: when you want to agree with someone, do you say 'me too' or 'me neither'? You could agree with someone from two perspectives: 'me also' - me too 'also NOT me' - me neither, me either, nor me Example Vocabulary Me Also ' I had dinner already.' - 'Me too.' 'I hate that new TV show!' - 'Me too!' &...

Today, carrying on from yesterday's theme, we're looking at ways we can talk about being full, full of food and...full of alcohol! Vocabulary Idiom - I could eat a horse! - For when you're really really hungry. *Cultural note: as I mentioned in the podcast, we don't eat horses in the UK...but there are lots of other animals that we do eat. Idioms and phrases for when you've eat...

Today we're talking about idioms and phrases, many of which sound like they're related to food, but they can be used for other things. We started with: ' bursting at the seams '. The seam of your clothes is the bit where the two sides are sewn together, like Mr Dursley's clothes in Harry Potter. This idiom can be used to mean you feel very full after eating. It can also mean a...

Today we are looking at a piece of grammar. It's not very simple! I will put the examples here and some links to places for more information. Examples 'I watch TV all the time.' - correct 'The majority of children like ice cream.' = 'Most children like ice cream.' - correct 'Most of the time I have pizza for dinner.' - correct - meaning often or commonly 'I...

Today we looked at some vocabulary related to shopping. First we thought about deciding what to buy. ' Shop around ' - 'I want to shop around some more.' - I want to spend some more time looking before I buy. ' To weigh up the pros and cons' - to look at the advantages and disadvantages of something. ' I hope this pans out ' - Also 'I hope this works out' -...

Today we talked about some vocabulary we might use when we're having an argument or discussing an argument. We started with things that might cause an argument. 'I'm always catering to their needs' - you do what they want or you try to help them, but you don't prioritise what you want or need. 'It was really off-putting ' - We can also say, 'it really put me off&#39...

I live in the UK and we LOVE talking about the weather. It's our most common small talk conversation, with strangers and friends! We have so much vocabulary to talk about the weather so let's learn some of that today. I know you learned 'It's raining' and 'It's sunny' at school, but can you use any more interesting or creative terms to describe the weather where you...

On today's episode we were looking at some vocabulary that you might hear at work. As I mentioned some of it could be quite negative situations, and you can use all of them for situations outside of work too. Vocabulary Idiom - 'It blew up in my face ' - when something went really badly wrong. Often you got in trouble or maybe someone got hurt because of it. Perhaps you thought you wer...

Today, celebrating Star Wars Day, I talked about some of the idioms and vocabulary you can find in the very first movie: Star Wars: A New Hope . Please let me know if you find a version with English subtitles! You can rent the movie on Amazon, but I really hope you all already have a copy. 🤞 All the Star Wars movies begin with the now very famous phrase: ' A long time ago in a galaxy far far...

In this episode I expanded on a question from a learner. He wanted a way to start a conversation in the minutes while he and his colleagues waited for everyone to enter the room for a meeting. In this episode we will cover: How was your weekend? How are you? How's it going? How you doin'? Did you have a good weekend? What did you do over the weekend? Did you do anything nice over the weeke...

In this episode I answer a question from a listener. This episode covers a lot of dating vocabulary and considers some pronouns we can use when talking about gender queer or non-binary people. In this episode I answered a question from a listener. He said: 'I read this sentence in a book: "he asked me out to dinner", why not just say: "he asked me to dinner"?' In this e...