Practising English

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…

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 adje…

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…

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 su…

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 a…

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 sud…

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 t…

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…

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 …

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 repo…

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 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…

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. The…

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 ve…

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 i…

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 …

Hello, and welcome to practising English. This is my first podcast with you. In this episode, I'll talk about the following things:

1. I'll introduce myself and tell you about my professional background …