Learn American English Online Blog

At the end of every month, my students take tests for the level or levels they are working on. Are you ready to take a test?

Blue Level Test # 1  /  Blue Level Test #2

Red Level Test #1  /  Red Level Test #2

Yellow Level Test

The word of the day is "onion."

We’re coming to the end of the month, so students working in the various levels should be preparing for tests on the review pages.

Blue Level Review

Red Level Review

Yellow Level Review

The word of the day is "noodle."

 

Here’s a new video for adverbs in English:

 

There are many different ways to use the preposition "outside." Click here to take a look at some examples.

Students working in the Yellow Level study the future perfect tense today.

Red Level students learn about adjectives that have opposite meanings and do this exercise.

Blue Level students learn to use "want" in the present tense.

Yellow Level Lesson Twenty-four is your lesson of the day. Words like certainly, surely, definitely–among others– are called intensifiers. They increase the strength or the meanings of the words with which they’re used.

The word of the day is "legend."

This audio track matches the first half of the email that I sent out today to students:

 

In the last week or so, I’ve received a few dozen emails from students asking me to correct homework assignments that were given to them by their teachers in their home countries–wherever that might be. Please stop this. You can imagine how much time it would take to correct and return all those paragraphs and essays. This website offers free help in English grammar and usage. Students should use the website as a reference, not as a source for feedback on writing assignments.

The preposition "onto" is a little different from the preposition "on." I just added an audio track to a list of examples for the preposition "onto." Check it out! (Take a look at it.)

Did you receive an email from me today? If not, you can sign up for emailed lessons and exercises here.

If you no longer want to receive email from me, please unsubscribe from the email list. I will be eliminating students who no longer check their email. It costs a lot of money ($130 to $150) per month to send out email to students, so I’m hoping to limit email delivery only to students who really want to learn English and are willing to work hard to achieve their goal of mastering the language.

 

Yellow Level Lesson Nineteen is on the future continuout tense. This is your lesson for the day.

The future continuous tense is used to describe future, continuous activities. For example…

  • What will you be doing later today?

I could ask the question like this…

  • What will you do today?

However, by using the future continuous tense, I’m asking about activity over a period of time, such as an hour, or two hours.

Here’s how you can respond to the question above:

  • I’ll be hanging out with my friends.
  • I’ll be watching a movie tonight.
  • I’ll be making dinner.

The word of the day is "near." This is an important preposition to use when talking about a close distance.

There’s a new audio track for the preposition "instead of."

Why are so many people wearing green today? It’s St. Patrick’s Day!

The word of the day is "green." It’s not just a color.

There’s a new addition to the video lessons page for basic vocabulary words. I still need to add P – Z. They’re coming.

Today’s Yellow Level lesson is on indirect speech. How do you describe what another person has said? There’s a method to this that you must learn about. Look at these examples:

  • A: What time is it?
  • B: She asked what time it was.
  • A: Where are you going?
  • B: He asked me where I was going.
  • A: Can you help us?
  • B: They asked if I could help them.

Today’s word of the day is "indeed."

Did you receive today’s emailed lesson? If not, make sure that you sign up.

Today’s lesson is on the present perfect continuous tense:

 

There will be a temporary interruption to service as we change our servers this morning.

The word of the day is "ground." The ground is the place where we stand when we are outside. It’s the place where seeds are planted in the spring. It’s an area that we play on and enjoy recreational activities. This is a good word to know.

Modal verbs can change the meaning of the main verb in many different ways. Click here to learn how.

Important Announcement: We’re changing our email service in order to improve the quality of the email that you regularly receive from us. The new service is mailchimp. Information regarding the change will be coming soon.

The lesson of the day is on the past continuous tense.

Yellow Level Lesson Six is on comparative adjectives:

 

The word of the day is "extreme."

If you are new to this website, I recommend that you take a look at the section for slang words and phrases. Slang is an important part of your understanding of what Americans are saying. You don’t have to use the slang yourself; you just need to understand what it is and what it means.

Students studying in the Yellow Level learn how to form questions in the present perfect tense in Lesson Five. This is not a difficult thing to do. Just put the helping verb, has or have, before the subject. The main verb follows the subject:

  • Have you read the paper yet today?
  • Has she had any coffee this morning?
  • Have the students completed their assignment?
  • Why hasn’t the store opened yet?

The word of the day is "soon."

To make the present perfect tense negative, all you have to do is add "not" to the helping verb "have." The helping verb and the word "not" are usually in the form of a contraction.

  • I have read the paper. / I haven’t read the paper.
  • You have learned something. / You haven’t learned anything.
  • She has had some coffee already. / She hasn’t had any coffee yet.

Learn more about making present perfect tense verbs negative in Yellow Level Lesson Four.

The word of the day is "disaster."

In Yellow Level Lesson Three, you learn about the present perfect tense. This is an extremely important verb tense to learn about because it’s used so often to talk about the past and the present.

The word of the day is "crew."

I changed the Think in English page so that it should show up a little better on a phone. You can find it here.

 

Are you ready to move forward? If you did well on the Red Level, congratulations! Move on to the Yellow Level. If you feel like you didn’t understand most of the lessons in the Red Level, you can go back and repeat some of that, but don’t worry about not understanding everything! I think it’s helpful for students to always feel like they are making progress. Complete all seven levels and then repeat the lessons in order. You should notice a big improvement in your understanding of English grammar after working through the seven-level program for a second time.

Here’s the Yellow Level reading assignment for today: Christine is a photographer.

Each course level on this website has a checklist. Print out and keep the checklist next to your computer, tablet, or phone and use it to track your progress as you move through the lessons:

PRINT:

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