Learn American English Online Blog

Yellow Level students review for a test scheduled for tomorrow. The review is in two parts: Part 1 / Part 2.

Once you complete the review, you may take the Yellow Level Test.

Orange Level students who have taken the test for their level and done well on it might want to take a look at the Write in English section of the website. I don’t focus too much on writing here, but some students asked for lessons in writing paragraphs and essays, so here they are.

The word of the day is "burn."

Here’s a new video for the adverb "only."

 

Today is a holiday in the U.S.

The word of the day is "zillion." So we made it through the month by going from A to Z in the Word of the Day section. What should tomorrow’s word be?

Did you receive today’s email? If not, sign up for emailed lessons and updates on the home page.

The word of the day is "yack."

There’s a new vocabulary page for the subject of sleep.

Yellow Level students study the future perfect tense today. This is kind of tricky tense because it’s used to describe activities completed in the future.

Orange Level students learn about punctuation today. This is good to know for those interested in developing writing skills.

The featured lesson for today is Yellow Level Lesson Twenty-four: intensifiers. These are words that increase or decrease the value of an adjective. It’s important to understand the differences among various intensifiers because many students of English mix them up. When this happens, your English sounds a little off. Here are some examples:

  • I’m really tired.
  • You sure are hungry!
  • This is extraordinarily good.
  • He certainly likes his classes.
  • She has a very interesting job.

Orange Level Lesson Twenty-four demonstrates the use of appositives. This is especially good to know when working on your writing skills.

The word of the day is "xylophone." It’s hard to find words that begin with the letter "x." The "x" in this word sounds like a "z."

The word of the day is "wake."

wake up

  • He woke up when the alarm went off.
  • What time do you wake up in the morning?

The word of the day is "vaccinate."

I’ve moved the U.S. Citizenship link on the home page. It’s now down at the bottom of the home page. The information found there is intended for people who live in the U.S. now and are ready to take the U.S. citizenship test.

Can anyone tell me why I’m getting so much traffic to my website from Israel and Palestine? If you are from either of those two areas in the world and you found this site recently, did you come here though a particular link on a website? I’m curious to know, and if you could tell me, that would be enormously helpful. My email is [email protected] — Thanks!

The word of the day is "umbrella." As the Word of the Day section grows and takes on the character of an online dictionary, I’ll continue to add obvious words like "umbrella." it’s basic English, but it’s one of those words that people automatically think of when asked for a word that begins with the letter "u."

Yellow Level students learn about the function of adverbs today.

Orange Level students learn about question words.

While teaching at my regular classroom assignment yesterday, I was pleased and quite honored to receive gifts and cards from some of my Vietnamese students. It was a teacher appreciation day, which is a big day in Viet Nam for students to pay tribute to their teachers. I also received some nice notes of thanks from online students. You’re welcome and thank-you! That was so nice of you.

The word of the day is "tender."

Yellow Level students study height and weight today.

Students working in the Orange Level learn how to form embedded questions. An embedded question involved talking about another person’s question. The speaker isn’t making a question, so the word order is important. For example:

  • She asked what time it was.

A common mistake in this case would be for a person to say something like, "She asked what time is it." Learn more in Orange Level Lesson Twenty.

There’s a new reading exercise for the Blue Level: Saying goodbye.

The word of the day is "sense."

How did you do on yesterday’s quiz? Were you able to find the answers? If not, let me know.

The word of the day for today is "rain." I know this is kind of an easy word, but look at the sentences in which the word is used. Not only do you want to know the definition of a word, you also want to learn how the word is typically used.

There’s a new Word of the Day quiz for November 2014.

Today’s Yellow Level lesson shows you the differences between the present perfect continuous tense and the past perfect continuous tense.

Orange Level Lesson Seventeen explains how you can use the words "either" and "neither."

The word of the day is "queen." queen

The word of the day is "package."

I’m using a new forum for the chat rooms. Take a look and see what you think. For those who prefer the old Blue Level chat room, I’ll see if I can purchase a new domain for it and operate it as a separate site. There were just too many bad actors in the old chat rooms, particularly the Blue Level chat.

The Yellow Level lesson for today is on the past perfect tense.

Orange Level students learn how to use the word "wish" for situations that are not true now. Go to Orange Level Lesson Fifteen.

The word of the day is "only."

Here’s a new video on the subject of time:

To talk about something that did or did not happen in the past, you can use the following formula:

modal verb + have been + __________ing (main verb)

The modal verbs in this case are limited to the following choices: could, would, should, might, may, and must.

  • She would have been working today, but she took the day off.
  • He might have been thinking of another person when he named you as the person who made the mistake
  • You should have been paying more attention.

You can learn more in Yellow Level Lesson Fourteen. Make sure you go to the listening exercise located on the right-hand side of the page.

Orange Level Lesson Fourteen is on the past conditional. This is similar in some ways to today’s Yellow Level Lesson. How are they different? Look at both lessons and you’ll see!

Below are some examples of the past conditional. Some teachers refer to this as the "third conditional," and others call if the past unreal or the past contrary-to-fact. Whatever you call it doesn’t matter to me.

  • If he hadn’t been so impatient, he could have made a lot of money on that stock. (He sold his stock too early and he missed out on a big profit.)
  • If you hadn’t said something, I would have forgotten all about the meeting. (You reminded me and I made it to the meeting.)
  • If I’d woken up earlier, I could have gotten to work on time. (I woke up late and I arrived late at work. Purists might not care for this example because of the verbs chosen–woken and gotten. I don’t care. It’s American English. Deal with it.)

The word of the day is "name."

Today’s word of the day is "method."

You probably noticed that the chat rooms are gone. They were causing too much trouble, so I’m looking for something that will replace them. If you have any ideas for something that will allow students to communicate directly with each other on the website, let me know. Thanks!

You probably noticed that the home page has gone through some changes over the last few days. In response to students requests, I’m going to organize lessons for each level on the home page so that they’re easier for everyone to find.

There’s a new reading exercise for the Red Level: Dan has to do his laundry today.

The word of the day is "laundry."

The word of the day is "kink."

Yellow Level Lesson Eleven is on the creation of verb phrases with take the place of modal verbs. These "idiomatic modals" are important to learn because they are commonly found in everyday speech.

Orange Level Lesson Eleven shows you how to describe what another person said. This is known as indirect speech or reported speech.

The word of the day is "jelly."

If you’re working in the Yellow Level, today’s lesson is an introduction to modal verbs. These verbs are important to understand because they change the quality of the main verb. The meaning of the verb changes depending on the modal verb that you choose. For example….

  • Bob can make it to the meeting. (He has the time or the ability to get there.)
  • Bob can’t make it to the meeting. (He has a conflict with his schedule. )
  • Bob will make it to the meeting. (He has the meeting on his calendar and intends on being there.)
  • Bob must make it to the meeting. (Something important is going to happen.)
  • Bob might make it to the meeting. (There’s the possibility that he won’t be there. He has other things to do.)
  • Bob should make it to the meeting. (There are some very good reasons for him to show up.)
  • Bob may make it to the meeting. (The modal verb "may" is similar to "might" in this example.)

Students studying in the Orange Level learn about the sequence of tenses. This knowledge will become important for upcoming lessons this week.

The word of the day is "ill."

There’s a new reading exercise for the Violet Level: Staying at a Hotel.

Yellow Level Lesson Nine shows you the differences between the past and the past continuous tenses. I sent you an email lesson yesterday on this topic. Did it help you?

Orange Level Lesson Nine is on adverb clauses. These are clauses that describe when or why you do something.

I added a language translator to the home page above the search box, but I’m not sure if the quality of the translation is any good. Let me know if you think it’s helpful, especially for people whose first language is really different from English, such as Chinese, Arabic, Khmer, etc.

We always have to try new things, don’t we? I’m going to develop a new section of the website that features a different country each month. It’ll be like a Country of the Month section, or something like that. If you have pictures or interesting information regarding the country that you are from, just send it to me and I’ll use it in the future as I create pages for each of the 180+ countries around the world. Thanks!

 

The word of the day is "hack." There are several different way to use this word. Generally, it means to break into or cut into something, or a person does something in a way that goes around the rules, sometimes breaking the rules.

This is the audio recording included in today’s email lesson:

 

Remember, you can download Soundcloud recordings to your mobile device and take them with you while you are traveling.

Superlative adjectives describe people and things that are the best, the worst, the biggest, the smallest, the most interesting, the least difficult, etc. Don’t confuse superlative adjectives with comparative adjectives:

  • This cell phone is better than my old cell phone. (comparing two things)
  • This is the best cell phone I have ever owned. (evaluating several things in a group)

Go to Yellow Level Lesson Seven to learn more.

There’s a quiz to determine your knowledge of comparatives and superlatives.

The Orange Level lesson for today show examples of clauses that begin with the word "that."

The word of the day is "grow."

Yellow Level students study comparative adjectives today.

Orange Level students learn about noun clauses.

There’s a new reading exercise for the Blue Level: Oscar took his dog for a walk.

The word of the day is "function." This word comes as a suggestion from one of my regular classroom students. Thanks Yussuf!

I’m now accepting photos for the month of November if you want to be included in the Photos section of the website. Why send in your photo? You don’t have to, but it helps everyone who visits the website to realize that this is a website free and open to anyone, anywhere in the world. The photo collection goes back to 2008! If you send in your photo please include your first name only and the name of the country that you come from. Thanks! It makes the website more fun when students participate.

The main lesson for today is on the formation of questions in the present perfect tense.

Students in the Orange Level study compound-complex sentences. This is one of the most popular pages on this website.

The word of the day is "exist."

 

Students studying in the Yellow Level this month learn how to make present perfect tense verbs negative today.

Orange Level students learn about complex sentences.

There’s a new audio recording for proverbs that begin with the letter "d." Notice how many of them begin with the word "don’t." I guess it’s natural to tell other people what not to do.

There’s also a new audio recording for the preposition "without."

The word of the day is "deliberate."

Did you receive today’s emailed lesson? If not, sign up for lessons on the homepage. Here are the answers for the exercise:

 

Students learn about the present perfect tense today. This is an extremely important verb tense to understand because it covers a range of possibilities when talking about time. Form the present perfect tense like this:

S + has or have + the past participle

The main verb is in the form of the past participle, which means you really have to remember how verbs change from one form to another. Regular verbs and an "ed" ending when they are in the form of the past participle, but irregular verbs change their form completely, or they don’t change at all. Here are some examples:

  • He has finished his work. (regular verb: finish)
  • They have lived there for two years. (regular verb: live)
  • How have you been? (irregular verb: be)
  • I’ve put on a lot of weight. (irregular verb: put)
  • The students haven’t written anything. (irregular verb: write)

Orange Level Lesson Three is on the formation of compound sentences. A compound sentence is made up of two independent clauses joined together by a conjunction.

  • Bina works in New York, but she lives in Connecticut.

The word of the day is "conserve." When you conserve something, you save it.

The word of the day is "bounce." When something bounces, it hits up against a surface or a situation and then it returns.

Today Yellow Level students learn about the differences between the verb "have" in the present tense and the past tense. This is extremely important to understand before learning about the present perfect tense, which students will study in tomorrow’s lesson.

Have you printed out the Yellow Level checklist yet? Keep the checklist next to your computer and mark off lessons as they are completed.

There’s a new Think in English exercise: stove.

Orange Level students study the differences between clauses and phrases.

Orange Level students also have a checklist to print out.

Hey, if you use the checklist and complete all of the lessons that are listed, could you take a picture of it and send it to me? This gives other students a good example of how to track progress made on this website. Thanks!

It’s a new month, so students move forward to the next level. If you were studying in the Red Level and did well on the review and the tests, you can on to the Yellow Level. If you didn’t do well on the review and the tests, I think you should repeat the Red Level.

The Yellow Level focuses on perfect tenses, continuous tenses, comparatives and superlatives.

Yellow Level Lesson One is a review of question formation in the past tense. The reason for this review is so that students understand some of the key differences between the past tense and the present perfect tense and other perfect tenses.

Students who were working in the Purple Level move to the Orange Level. In the Orange Level, students learn about sentence formation. The first lesson is about simple sentences.

The word of the day is "access." I’m going to go back to creating new entries for the Word of the Day page by going through the alphabet from A to Z for the month of November.

Click here to go to October 2014

Click here to go to the LAEO Blog Archive.

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