Adele: When we were young

Messy Room

Messy Room - Adjectives and Prepositions by ProProfs » Preposition Trivia Quiz

Ada Lovelace and the History of Computers

Find out how Ada Lovelace shaped the development of computers in this KS1 guide on the history of computers. 

There is lots more to discover about how we use computers today in our interactive guides for KS1 and KS2 students.

Twelve Days of Christmas or All I want for Christmas is you

If you need the lyrics on paper...

5 Hobbies that can Make You Smarter

The Teacher's Secret

The Teacher’s Secret is a Korean folktale of a teacher and his students. What will happen if the students eat their teacher’s snacks? And what will he do if he finds out!?

Click on the image to read

James Cameron before Avatar

You can see the subtitles and choose English version, it is more interesting!

See it in Ted original

Bananas: Most Dangerous Fruit In The World

Remember to include my code (begonals).

Advent Calendar

Click on the image to enter

Irregular Verbs?

Click on the image to play

If you want to play more with the irregular verbs, enter  game 1, game 2, game 3.

Future Continuous or Future Perfect

The future continuous (will be + ‘ing’ form) and the future perfect (will have + past participle) tenses are used to talk about events in the future.

Future continuous

• Don’t ring at 8 o’clock. I’ll be watching Who Wants to be a Millionaire.
• This time tomorrow we’ll be sitting on the beach. I can’t wait!

We use the future continuous to talk about something that will be in progress at or around a time in the future.

• Don’t phone grandma now, she’ll be having dinner.
• The kids are very quiet. They’ll be doing something wrong, I know it!

These sentences are not about the future but we can use the future continuous to talk about what we assume is happening at the moment.

Future Perfect

• Do you think you will have finished it by next Thursday?
• In 5 years time I’ll have finished university and I’ll be able to earn some money at last.

We use the future perfect to say that something will be finished by a particular time in the future.

We often use the future perfect with ‘by’ or ‘in’

• I think astronauts will have landed on Mars by the year 2020.
• I’ll have finished in an hour and then you can use the computer.

‘By’ means ‘not later than a particular time’ and ‘in’ means 'within a period of time’. We don’t know exactly when something will finish.

• I promise I’ll have done all the work by next Saturday.

We don’t know exactly when he will finish the work – maybe Thursday, maybe Friday – but definitely before Saturday. 

From Learning English British Council

For some quizzes try: 

• British Council
• ESL Quiz

How to Express Frustration

Games: Verb Viper

Click here to start

Verb Viper is a language arts game that encourages your child to choose correct verb tenses (present, past, past participle), recognize correct verb forms (ran instead of runned), and recognize subject/verb agreement (I am, he is).

How Colours Affect Your Mood

Remember to include my code (begonals).

'It's toothpaste out of the tube'

My daughter starts middle school tomorrow. We've decorated her locker, bought new uniforms, even surprised her with a new backpack. But tonight just before bed, we did another pre-middle school task that is far more important than the others. I gave her a tube of toothpaste and asked her to squirt it out onto a plate. When she finished, I calmly asked her to put all the toothpaste back in the tube. She began exclaiming things like "But I can't!" and "It won't be like it was before!" I quietly waited for her to finish and then said the following:

"You will remember this plate of toothpaste for the rest of your life. Your words have the power of life or death. As you go into middle school, you are about to see just how much weight your words carry. You are going to have the opportunity to use your words to hurt, demean, slander and wound others. You are also going to have the opportunity to use your words to heal, encourage, inspire and love others. You will occasionally make the wrong choice; I can think of three times this week I have used my own words carelessly and caused harm. Just like this toothpaste, once the words leave your mouth, you can't take them back. Use your words carefully, Breonna. When others are misusing their words, guard your words. Make the choice every morning that life-giving words will come out of your mouth. Decide tonight that you are going to be a life-giver in middle school. Be known for your gentleness and compassion. Use your life to give life to a world that so desperately needs it. You will never, ever regret choosing kindness."

Adjectives+Prepositions to Remember

Bono and U2: I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking for

Remember to include my code (begonals)

How to say "Thank you" in 28 languages

Thanksgiving may often be seen as a thoroughly American affair, but variations of this celebration exist in other parts of the world as well. So, to honour the international character of the harvest festival, why not take out a few minutes in between stuffing your face with turkey and sweet potatoes to learn how to say thank you in other languages?

Click on the image to enlarge

Thanksgiving

Remember to include my code (begonals) to let me see how you did.

How to Cook a Thanksgiving Turkey

Remember to include my code (begonals)at the end of the test so you can let me see how you did.

In Memory: Leonard Cohen

Add my code (begonals)!

Doubts in Relative Clauses?

We have just seen how to use relative pronouns, when we can omit them and if we need commas or not.

If you need more practice have a look on this BBC LearnEnglish review and then these exercises:

• Try an exercise where the relative pronoun is the subject here.
• Try an exercise where the relative pronoun is the object here
• Try an exercise about defining relative clauses, both subject and object here
• Try another exercise about defining relative clauses, both subject and object here

And now the list we can solve in class.

Tough Mudder

We are 10-12 miles of mud and obstacles built to test your mental grit, camaraderie and all-around physical fitness. We are a team-oriented challenge with no winner, no finisher medal, no clock to race against—just an ice cold beer and a few good scrapes from a day spent outside and free from everyday bullshit. We are for anyone who has ever followed their gut, tried to defy gravity, chosen “dare” over “truth,” taken risks, sought thrills, or is generally awesome at life. Turns out, it's all been training. We are made for this: tough mudder.

And you, are you brave enough to solve the quiz? click on the image and guess...

Australia and New Zealand

On Natural Geographic's Australia and New Zealand's webpages you'll get basic information about these countries, with videos relating their history and nature.

After that try to answer these Webquest about Australia, Australian Quiz or New Zealand Trivia.

Do or Make?

Past habits without 'used to': Stop Saying

Is there another way of talking about past habits without using 'used to'? This is the question that Tim tackles in this video. In it he has to reveal some of the dark secrets of his past as well as some of his present habits, which can't all be recommended.

From BBC Learning English

Making Words Plural

TED:ed: 'At what moment are you dead?'

 For as far back as we can trace our existence, humans have been fascinated with death and resurrection. But is resurrection really possible? And what is the actual difference between a living creature and a dead body anyway? Randall Hayes delves into the scientific theories that seek to answer these age-old questions.

Watch the video and answer the questions.

Halloween, trick or treat?

Doubts with another...?

Monsters

Mobile Madness

Can you write text messages in English?

Try yourself

Quiz: which Hunger Games character are you?

Find out which Hunger Games character you most resemble – may the odds ever be in your favour (that you get your favourite character)! Before you start, make sure you’ve read about the language of the Hunger Games, and 8 words you need to know to survive The Hunger Games.

Are you selfless like Peeta? A survivor like Katniss? Are you superficial like Effie or a show off like Finnick? As cray as Johanna, or as calculating as President Snow?

Find out in our quiz clicking on the image!

Via Oxford Dictionary Blog

Alyssa Carson has Big Dreams

Remember to include my teacher's code: begonals

The Terracotta Warriors

Special Reporting

If you want more practice, try  Perfect English Grammar and Agenda Web

Reported+speech+suggest,offer+and+other from Carmen Ortiz

10 Colour Idioms

Games: Word Frog

Click here to play

Word Frog is a language arts game that provides practice in matching antonyms, synonyms, and homonyms. The target word appears on the frog, with the word category underneath defining the relationship to be matched.

Demonstrative Adjectives

Words are CATegorical

Click here to start

Students or teachers can print posters (really cute ones) for any part of speech, use teacher tools to find out fun activities to use in the classroom, students can make up wacky stories using parts of speech, test their knowledge and much more! VERY engaging with terrific pictures.

Dates

10 Curious Facts About Great Britain

1. Nowhere in England is further than 75 miles (121 km) from the sea (the nearest beach to Madrid is 360 km away in Valencia!). The coastline of Britain is 11,073 miles (17,820 km) long.
2. Every day 165 million cups of tea are drunk in Britain. Whether to put milk into the cup before or after the tea is the cause of considerable debate!
3. The London Eye is the tallest observation wheel in the world, and each rotation takes about 30 minutes. The structure is 443 feet (135 m) tall and the wheel has a diameter of 394 feet (120 m)
4. The British coronation ceremony is over 1,000 years old. Ever since William the Conqueror was crowned on Christmas Day in A.D. 1066, Westminster Abbey has been the setting. The coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953 was the first to be shown on television.
5. Queen Elizabeth II travels with her own toilet seat and feather pillows, and she is the only person in Britain who travels without a passport. During her 63-year-long reign, she has visited 128 countries.
6. The London underground, or the “Tube,” is the oldest in the world. The first line was built in 1863. The underground now has 270 stations and is the 11th busiest in existence.
7. England took part in the shortest war in history. It fought against Zanzibar in 1896 and Zanzibar surrendered after just 38 minutes! The East African forces suffered about 500 casualties, while only one British sailor was injured.
8. The first postage stamps appeared in England. The first nation-wide stamp (and first adhesive stamp) was the Penny Black, introduced in 1840. Because Britain was the first country to issue national stamps, British stamps still have the unique distinction of not mentioning the country’s name on them.
9. The one-and-a-half mile journey from Westray to Papa Westray in the Orkney Islands in Scotland is the shortest scheduled flight in the world. The trip takes less than two minutes.
10. The most popular ‘convenience’ food in the world was invented – or so the story goes – by an English aristocrat with a passion for gambling, the Earl of Sandwich. So he didn’t have to stop playing and to keep his hands clean for the cards, the Earl of Sandwich asked for meat to be put between two slices of bread.

Thanks to Oxford CultureMania

Nothing Compares to You

Remember to include my teacher´s code to see how you did: begonals

Confusables

Animal-based Idioms

Just give me a reason

Gerunds

Which Harry Potter Character Are You?

The Harry Potter universe keeps expanding, with 2016 seeing both a film of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them and a stage play, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. 

J.K. Rowling is nothing if not a linguistic innovator, and we’ve already explored the Harry Potter books’ linguistic innovation and use of Latin. Given Rowling’s love of language, both in naming spells, creatures, and sports and in her characters’ dialogue – we thought we’d help you find out which Harry Potter character you are…

Via Oxford Dictionary Blog

Rio Paralympics 2016 Trailer

Learning

Welcome to School Again!

Too early??

Summer Rules

See You in September

Try those links on the right column about Useful Skills instead!

How Well Do You Know Football Terminology?

Are you man of the match, or merely watching from the sidelines? Click through those eight questions to find out how well you know the language of the beautiful game.

Via Oxford Dictionary Blog

Every day vs. everyday

Everyday (with no space) doesn’t mean the same thing as every day (with a space). In speech, however, they do sound the same. No wonder it’s so easy to confuse them with one another. What does each phrase mean and how do you use them?

Everyday (as one word) is an adjective. Thesauruses list average, ordinary, and standard as synonyms. “Everyday clothing,” then, refers to the ordinary clothes you wear on regular days, as opposed to outfits designated for special events or holidays. Occasionally, people use everyday as a noun—it’s a shorthand way of referring to their everyday routines. Here are some quotes to help you understand how to use everyday.

Every day means “each day.” The easiest way to remember this is to think about the space separating the two words. Because of that space, “every” is simply an adjective modifying the word “day.” If you paired every with any other word, it would mean each.

“Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.” ―Pablo Picasso

I want to buy every album that Barbra Streisand has ever made. = I want to buy each of Barbra Streisand’s albums.

I want to eat mashed sweet potatoes every day of my life. = I want to eat mashed sweet potatoes each day of my life.

Via Grammarly Blog

ED or ING ?

For more info, enter Learning Language Base

Tag Questions

 For more Voice of America lessons subscribe the youtube channel.

Such and So. How to Use?

Ten Common Writing Mistakes

More Practice on Reported Speech

Exercises: 1,  2,  3,  4,  5,  6, 7, 8, 9    and 10

Exercises in PDF

What are the Origins of Country Names?

Why your country is named so? Using the list of countries as determined by the UN and information from the Oxford Concise Dictionary of World Place-Names, from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe, discover surprising and intriguing language facts from around the globe.
Some examples:

Andorra

The name Andorra comes from a local Navarrese word, andurrial, meaning ‘shrub-covered land’. It has also been suggested that the country took its name from Arabic al-Gandura, ‘the wanton woman’, a legacy from the Moors.

Australia

Imaging the existence of a land located in the Southern hemisphere, the Greeks came up with the name Terra Australis Incognita, meaning ‘Unknown Southern Land’.

Bangladesh

Bangladesh means ‘Land of the Bengalis’, from deś, ‘land’ or ‘country’. The Bengalis take their name from Banga, the chief of the Dravidian-speaking Bang tribe.

Canada

Canada’s name is perhaps derived from the Huron-Iroquois word kanata, meaning ‘village’ or ‘settlement’.

Luxembourg

Luxembourg is originally found as Luciliburhuc, meaning ‘little castle’.

Spain

Spain may come from the Punic span or tsepan, ‘rabbit’, which were numerous in the peninsula, or from the Punic sphan,‘north’, since it was north of Carthage – or it may come from the Basque ezpaña, ‘lip’ or ‘extremity’, a reference to this south-western area of Europe.

Go on reading in OxfordWords Blog

Managing the Punctuation Jungle

Click here to get the original

Tense Games: Spin the Wheel

Click on the image to practice Present Perfect / Simple Past

Confusing Verbs

Tense Games: Ladders and Snakes

Try this game to review past tenses

Click on the image

Tense Games: Escape the Hangman

Practice Present Perfect with the hangman

Click on the image