Get the Meaning Right, both Ways:
as a Listener and as a Speaker

How do you get the meaning right?

By learning and practising, of course! I once came across one method advising students to stop at every word they didn't know, or were in the danger of merely guessing its meaning and look it up in a good dictionary straight away. One MUST NOT guess, nor ignore an unknown word. One must clarify its meaning before stepping forward.

Let's learn some English idioms in a systematic way, with the BBC. Here are a few lessons for you, on condition that we all respect the BBC Online Services terms and conditions. I apologise for the size of the video screen - this is bigger than my website's middle column, thus infringing on the right column space. There is nothing I can do to change the size, this is why I place the videos on a separate page. I hope you enjoy learning new phrases every day!

English idioms: Football, Boxing, Athletics,

A few mistakes that can get in the way of learning

One of the most common mistakes when speaking English is caused by bad pronunciation. By pronouncing one letter slightly longer or shorter than it should be, you may very easily say something else than you intended. You know the classic joke about 'a sheet on the bed' and not a 'shit on the bed'. 'Man' or 'men' etc. - these words are called minimal pairs and they can be challenging to many students.

Another puzzling aspect of English words is that a shift in the word's stress can change not only its meaning, but also its grammatical category. For example 'address'.