Practising English

In the series of vocabulary about the house, this week you can listen to vocabulary about my balcony, and views from it - interesting collocations about the things you find there and use. Audio script at https://www.practisingenglish.com/podcast-34.htm Contact Mike Bilbrough with a question or enquiry about advertising on Practising English Podcasts: https://www.practisingenglish.com/contact.htm M...

The Tudor Conspiracy (first chapter) a book for students progressing from B1 to B2 English, which can be listened to with the book available on all Amazon platforms.  This week we learn about Isabel, the university student from Seville and how she found her job in the strange little antique bookshop in London. Contact Mike Bilbrough with a question or enquiry about advertising on Practising Englis...

This is about the recent events in La Palma island where a volcano has erupted and destroyed much property and land. This podcast for practising English will use example of the passive voice. If you go to https://www.practisingenglish.com/podcast-32.htm , you can read the audio script and see the examples of the passive.  Contact Mike Bilbrough with a question or enquiry about advertising on Pract...

Formal and informal English is the third in this series and follows episode 13 and episode 26. In this episode I talk about the formal language of complaints and how we need formal language to express strong opinions so that the reader takes notice. I'll also mention how literary language also sounds more formal.  Contact Mike Bilbrough with a question or enquiry about advertising on Practisi...

This is the final episode of H.G. Wells short story. Today Mr Fotheringay's miracles go catastrophically wrong. Find out the terrible things that happen in this last part of the story - find out how all of Mankind is destroyed... Contact Mike Bilbrough with a question or enquiry about advertising on Practising English Podcasts: https://www.practisingenglish.com/contact.htm My NEW book: "...

Discussing the names of common tools we have at home, hammer, screws, nails, saw and drill etc. and looking at the idiomatic and metaphorical use of these words in English. Contact Mike Bilbrough with a question or enquiry about advertising on Practising English Podcasts: https://www.practisingenglish.com/contact.htm My NEW book: " B1 English Vocabulary Builder - 22 Short Stories for Learning...

Not just words from the bathroom like, soap, towel and toothbrush but also useful idioms and collocations about what we do in the bathroom. Listen to me giving you a tour around my bathroom and learn expressions like "have a nice soak in the bath" and "scrub your back". Contact Mike Bilbrough with a question or enquiry about advertising on Practising English Podcasts: https://w...

The third episode of H.G. Wells' The Man who could Work Miracles (part 3). The language of this short story has been adapted a little for learners of English at B2 and C1 levels. This week Mr Fotheringay demonstrates the miracles he is able to do but Mr Maydig is already thinking that he could do a lot more than turn a vase of flowers into a bowl of fish... Contact Mike Bilbrough with a quest...

And this is the second episode about formal and informal English - how to identify the formal and informal words and how to use them. And when we use them. This is a follow-up of podcast 13 on formal and informal English. I'll talk about word and sentence length and why these structures may sound more formal. Contact Mike Bilbrough with a question or enquiry about advertising on Practising En...

Today I'm going to talk to you about future continuous and future perfect . And what I would like to do is to try to put them into context for you with tenses and aspects of tenses that you already know such as present perfect and present continuous etc. You'll see that they all function in the same way - the only difference being that each is placed in a different time zone... Contact M...

The second episode of H.G. Wells' The Man who could Work Miracles (part 2). The language of this short story has been adapted a little for learners of English at B2 and C1 levels. This week Mr Fotheringay gets into trouble with working miracles so he goes to ask for advice from the local priest. Contact Mike Bilbrough with a question or enquiry about advertising on Practising English Podcasts...

I'm going to talk about walking holiday s and make a comparison with the popular beach holida y. This is useful practice for the long-turn monologue of IELTS speaking test or the discussion part with your partner in the Cambridge exam. Contact Mike Bilbrough with a question or enquiry about advertising on Practising English Podcasts: https://www.practisingenglish.com/contact.htm My NEW book:...

B1 / EELTS 4.5. Zero and first conditionals, the structure, how to use them and real-life examples of the conditional usage for listening practice and with audio script. See my new graded reader novel for B1 and B2 level students: The Tudor Conspiracy... See the audioscript at: https://www.practisingenglish.com/podcast-22.htm Contact Mike Bilbrough with a question or enquiry about advertising on P...

Short story in English by H.G. Wells in four parts with updated language so to be useful for learners of English but still in the H.G. Wells style. Part 1 - Mr Fotheringay finds out he has a special gift - he can work miracles. Contact Mike Bilbrough with a question or enquiry about advertising on Practising English Podcasts: https://www.practisingenglish.com/contact.htm My NEW book: " B1 Eng...

A visit to my kitchen and a description of the utensils you'll find there, the expressions used and also some related food vocabulary too. Contact Mike Bilbrough with a question or enquiry about advertising on Practising English Podcasts: https://www.practisingenglish.com/contact.htm My NEW book: " B1 English Vocabulary Builder - 22 Short Stories for Learning the Words and Phrases Studen...

I'm going to talk to you about indirect questions . In fact, I'm going to talk to you about direct question s as well. So what is a direct question? Well, an example is, What is the time, please? Now, an indirect question has a little phrase before the direct question. Something like, Could you tell me what the time is, please?  Contact Mike Bilbrough with a question or enquiry about adv...

The history of Britain's favourite drink and some useful vocabulary about how to make a nice cup of tea. Contact Mike Bilbrough with a question or enquiry about advertising on Practising English Podcasts: https://www.practisingenglish.com/contact.htm My NEW book: " B1 English Vocabulary Builder - 22 Short Stories for Learning the Words and Phrases Students Need to Pass the B1 Exam "...

A funny story using vocabulary connected with a doctor's surgery and also some basic tools we use at home and the grammar point about present perfect continuous for actions that begin in the past and are still continuing. Contact Mike Bilbrough with a question or enquiry about advertising on Practising English Podcasts: https://www.practisingenglish.com/contact.htm My NEW book: " B1 Engl...

And today I'm going to talk to you about extreme adjectives . And also about the adverbs that qualify them or that go with them. So what do I mean by extreme adjectives? Well, we could divide the adjectives into two groups. Those adjectives which are gradable , we say, by gradable, we mean that those adjectives can be less or more.  Contact Mike Bilbrough with a question or enquiry about adve...

Hello. And today I'm going to talk about two verbs go and come . Now, they're very common and very simple verbs, aren't they? Well, they do have complications in their use for learners of English. Let's talk about them. Contact Mike Bilbrough with a question or enquiry about advertising on Practising English Podcasts: https://www.practisingenglish.com/contact.htm My NEW book: &...

Today, I'm going to talk about language around the bicycle . When you get on your bicycle, you say you push off , you push off and you start pedalling. Isn't it lovely to go out on your bicycle on a sunny day, when it's not too hot, not too cold? At the moment, I'm cycling along the river - along by the side of the river.  Now, I think the first thing we could talk about is the...

Hello, and today I'm going to talk about the difference between formal and informal English. Now, it's very important to be able to distinguish between formal and informal English. Why? Well, if we are being too informal in circumstances which require more formality, well, we could get ourselves into trouble. And the other way around as well. If we are too formal with people who are expe...

Montague Pilkinson was flying over the desert one day when the engine of his little plane suddenly broke down . It made that sort of noise as engines do when they start to go wrong. The plane then suddenly started to drop out of the sky - nose first, down, down down it went... Contact Mike Bilbrough with a question or enquiry about advertising on Practising English Podcasts: https://www.practising...

Hello, and today, I'm going to talk to you about hypothesizing in English, or making hypotheses. So what do we mean by hypothesize? Well, it means that we talk about things that we would like to be true, but they seem impossible. So they're similar in a way to conditional sentences , like the second conditional. https://www.practisingenglish.com/podcast-11.htm Contact Mike Bilbrough with...

And today we're going to talk about very large numbers, how to use them. And also an interesting article about outer space. Now, when we talk about numbers, I mean, large numbers, hundreds, thousands, millions, [billions] and trillions. Well, we usually use them in the singular. So we say a million, or 1 million , 2 million , two million five hundred thousand , several million . So we don&apo...