Practising English

The Tudor Conspiracy is a reader for B1 students studying for B2 level English. In this chapter Isabel and Philip, who now believe the quarto to be a fake, visit the Holy Trinity Church, where Shakes…

Help with understanding the different tenses and aspects in English. Here, I explain in simple language and with examples the past perfect (she had already left). I explain its structure and why we u…

Following on from the podcasts on zero and first conditionals, second and third conditional, we now look at the circumstances when we mix conditionals. This happens when we make references to both pa…

This is chapter 8 from my book, The Tudor Conspiracy, which is a reader for B1 students studying for B2 English level exams. In this chapter, Isabel and Philip visit David Buddle's laboratory where t…

Part of a series of B1 level talks on the grammar, structure and use of the conditionals in English. This is the third conditional. Learn what the phrases 'spilt milk' and 'water under the bridge' me…

Grammar study for B1 level English. Today I'm continuing with the series of conditional studies. The last one was episode 22 on the zero and first conditionals and today we're looking briefly at the …

The continuing story of The Tudor Conspiracy for B1 students studying for B2 level English. Available in book form and now these weekly audio podcasts. Isabel and Philip drive on to Stratford-upon-Av…

This podcast is about words which go with comparatives so that we can add more precision to what we mean. So the words that we're using are words like not quite, slightly, almost, easily, a good deal…

In this episode, I talk about the different genres of books and give some examples I have on my bookshelves. I explore the language associated with books: the different types of book, the parts of a …

This is the continuing story of The Tudor Conspiracy - a reader for B1 students studying for B2. In this chapter, Isabel and Philip decide to head for Stratford-upon-Avon to meet the antique book aut…

B2 level podcast story listening - talking about ability in the past and useful vocabulary explained before the story begins. Verbs like: manage to, be able to, which we use for certain single events…

Help with IELTS, Cambridge B2, C1 speaking exams, phrases and expressions talking about the question of how sport influences our lives. I bring in lots of useful language for students to copy and lea…

This is the continuing story of the Tudor Conspiracy - a reader for B1 students studying for B2. In this chapter, Isabel and Philip set out for Oxford and the Bodleian library. They meet the libraria…

A look at how to write the story for Cambridge Preliminary writing exam practice part 2 and in this case the story-writing option. I look at the use relative pronouns and how to use them in the story…

English is a language we call a stress-timed language. Perhaps it's unusual, because many other European languages are syllable-timed, especially Latin-based languages, like Spanish and Italian, for …

Graded reader for B1 and B2 students.  You can buy the book and follow the reading every week of each chapter. In this chapter, Isabel and Philip go for a coffee and talk about the mysterious missing…

This is a podcast on tips for approaching the part 1 sections of both the IELTS and the Cambridge FCE speaking exams. It's about the brief questions you will be asked and how to answers them: the voc…

Hello, and today I'm going to talk to you about the passive voice. I'll talk about its structure, about how to change from the active voice to the passive voice and why we use the passive.

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Chapter 3 of the reader for learners of English progressing from B1 to B2. In this chapter, Isabel takes the bus to the Globe Theatre and meets Philip. Philip gives Isabel a tour of Shakespeare's the…

And today I'm going to talk to you about... that. Exactly that... going to. I'm going to talk about going to. Now I think the going to structure is something that most learners of English acquire qui…