Practising English

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...

We usually use the past continuous with words, like when , or as or while . So we often say, while she was coming home , a friend greeted her in the street. Or, as she was coming home , a friend greeted her in the street, or when she was coming home , a friend greeted her in the street. Contact Mike Bilbrough with a question or enquiry about advertising on Practising English Podcasts: https://www....

What is reported speech ? What "to report" means is to say something that has been said before. So really what we're doing is we're repeating something that somebody said earlier. And that's what reported speech is - we're reporting what we can call direct speech . Today, I'll discuss using questions, adverbs and imperatives with reported speech.  See transcript...

Short story in intermediate English for enjoyment and learning. In the middle of the village, there is a church in the square. And the church is called Santa María , or St. Mary's. Now, when we were there, somebody told us that the bells of the church clock were rung by this little old lady from the first hour in the morning, until the evening. Now, what was also a little bit of strange, we t...

Hello, and today, I'm going to tell you another story. And I'm going to bring in some useful vocabulary, especially adjectives to talk about people's appearance. In other words, what people look like, and the story is called, Mr. Briefcase has a bad day.  Audio script at Practising English... Contact Mike Bilbrough with a question or enquiry about advertising on Practising English P...

Modal auxiliaries - what are they? Well, words like can, could, may, might, would, shall, etc. And the problem is that they are defective. What does that mean? Well, they're not like other verbs. They don't have an infinitive, or they don't have a past participle form. Now, that means that if we're talking about can , well, what are we going to do if we want to use can as an in...

Today I'm doing another session on A2/B1 English for Cambridge exam or IELTS 4.5 and useful vocabulary. And the vocabulary category today is likes and dislikes. First of all, I suppose most of the verbs which express like have verbs after them or the infinitive after them, which ends in ING . So, for example, we say I enjoy playing football , I enjoy playing football. Also, I talk about when...

Hello, and today I'm going to tell you another wonderful story called Tom and the Gorilla! And the level is B2 to C1, and some interesting language here for you, and also an issue as well about the importance of intonation. You can find the transcript to this podcast at https://www.practisingenglish.com/podcast-3.htm and an exercise on the vocabulary at https://www.practisingenglish.com/b2-le...

I'm going to talk about the B1 Cambridge exam, and more specifically about the speaking exam. And part two of the speaking exam, which is talking about or describing a picture or photo. You can find the audioscripts to these podcasts at https://www.practisingenglish.com/ Contact Mike Bilbrough with a question or enquiry about advertising on Practising English Podcasts: https://www.practisinge...

Hello, and welcome to practising English. This is my first podcast with you. In this episode, I'll talk about the following things: I'll introduce myself and tell you about my professional background as an English teacher, researcher and writer. I'll talk about the learners of English who will most benefit from these podcasts.  You'll find out about the levels of English used (...