Don't Be a Word Bore: Alternative Ways to Say Hurry Up

In today’s busy world, whether we’re working or studying, it seems we’re always in a hurry! To hurry up means to speed up your actions and it’s often given as a command. For example: Hurry up and get out of bed; you’ll be late for school! Hurry up; we’re going to miss the start

15 most common English idioms and phrases | EF English Live

Every language has its own idioms and expressions and the English language has plenty of phrases that is useful to learn. Idioms are words or phrases that aren’t meant to be taken literally and usually have a cultural meaning behind them.

Accept or except? The top 10 confusing English words you need to know

Should you accept an invitation or except one? Do you eat dessert or desert after your meal? English is full of confusing words [https://englishlive.ef.com/blog/language-lab/commonly-confused-words-compliment-and-complement/], but with these simple explanations you can master usi

Don't be a word bore: Alternative ways to say "Walk"

The way we walk often depends on how we feel – we walk differently when we are tired, happy, sad, afraid, full of energy – and the words that we use for walking often reveal the way that we feel at the time too. English words for walking can describe far more than just the physic

Masters of English: who was Shakespeare and what can he teach me about English?

Shakespeare is one of the most famous English writers there has ever been. In fact, even people who don’t speak English have probably seen one of his plays translated or made into a film in their own language. The most well-known of his plays, Romeo and Juliet has been translated

5 steps to help you write a story in English

Storytelling is a useful skill to have. Even if you aren’t a writer, incorporating elements of a story within lessons, presentations or even sales pitches can be a great way to help people understand and connect with what you are telling them. Our online English course [https://e

From Frankenfood to Glamping: OMG! It’s the New Words of the Past Decade

The English language is always changing, but especially so over the past ten years. Thanks to the rise of the internet, social media, and smartphones, the English language [http://www.englishtown.com/en-us/] has a whole range of new words that have sprung up as a result of these

Expat living: how hard is it to understand a Scottish accent?

I have to admit, after the first terrible weeks in Scotland, when I struggled to find a job, when I missed London and my friends, and when the weather was horrible, I am now slowly falling in love with it. Edinburgh is an amazing city, it looks like a city from another century.

Get it right: while, during and throughout

A mistake that I hear very often as an English teacher, is learners getting mixed up between ‘while’ and ‘throughout’ when they are talking about two actions happening at once. Luckily, this is something that’s easy to get right if you think about the differences in the way these

What to say if you didn’t understand someone in English

Learning a new language can be a tricky business; but you want to get it right. Right? When you are learning English [https://englishlive.ef.com/en/], a lot of effort is put into picking up vocabulary, spelling, reading and writing. However, the area where your learning becomes

Alternative Ways of Saying ‘to travel’

Everybody loves to travel, so it’s no surprise to find that the English language has plenty of words you can use when you’re going on holiday. Words to describe long trips round the world, to short getaways that let you take a little break from the stresses and strains of everyda

The Basics of Tense

When you’re speaking English, the most common sentence construction to use is Subject-Verb-Object. The verb in the sentence tells you when in time the sentence is happening, if the action was completed, or if the action is still continuing. This time frame is what we call the ver

The origins behind English weekday names

The English language days of the week are named after celestial bodies and mythological figures from history. A mish-mash of cultures and traditions have had an influence on the naming of the days and for those of us studying the English language they provide a fascinating insigh

Don't Be a Word Bore: Alternative Ways to Say Yes

The English word ‘yes’ is thought to come from the Old English word ‘gēse’, meaning ‘may it be so’, and can be traced back to earlier than the 12th century. In the centuries since, lots of alternatives to the word ‘yes’ have sprung up in the English language, and there are no man

English Grammar Help: Clearer or More Clear?

Anyone studying English will tell you that it’s not the most straightforward language in the world. There are plenty of grammar rules to learn, but the English language frequently likes to break them! One area that causes particular confusion for people studying English: the comp

7 English expressions for cold weather

British people are famous for loving to talk about the weather. The unpredictable climate in the UK certainly gives us plenty to talk about. Winter is a great time to talk about the weather in English because we have lots of interesting English vocabulary [https://englishlive.ef.

What is a ‘schwa’ and how will it help my pronunciation?

Can you guess what the most common sound in the English language is? Maybe ‘s’ or ‘t’? Actually, it’s a sound that we call a ‘schwa’. In the phonemic pronunciation chart that many English schools use, it’s represented by the symbol /ə/. The sound of a schwa is like the ‘a’ in ‘ab

An A-Z of Figures of Speech – A: Alliteration, Assonance, Anaphora, Antithesis

The English language is full of figures of speech – where words are used in special ways to achieve a special effect. Figurative language – where figures of speech are used a lot – is often associated with novels and literature, and poetry in particular. But the truth is, we all

Don’t be a word bore: alternative ways of saying ‘great’

As you’ll no doubt have discovered during your learning journey, English is a language that is rich and descriptive. Often you’ll find many, many words that mean the same, or almost the same thing. The English language is definitely not short of ways to say great! Today we want t

EFSET joins LinkedIn’s Add to Profile Program

Standing out professionally is one of the hardest things to do in today’s job market; and proving your English is becoming more important than ever. Today, EF (Education First) announced it has joined LinkedIn’s Add to Profile program [http://blog.linkedin.com/2014/11/20/showcas

Don’t be a Word Bore – Alternative Ways of Saying ‘to talk’

If there’s one thing the British love to do (even more than queuing) it’s talk. Whether it’s on the phone, at the bus stop, round the watercooler at work, over the garden fence or down the pub, you’ll find that people love to chat – and that they have plenty of words for talking

How to know whether to use ‘the’ or not

Knowing when to use an article can be confusing for English language learners. My students always have trouble with this and often put ‘the’ in front of people’s names. Articles are, in a way, adjectives to the noun; they describe and modify nouns. In this blog post we will be lo

How many words are in the English language?

Many people estimate that there are more than a million words in the English language. In fact, during a project looking at words in digitised books, researchers from Harvard University and Google in 2010, they estimated a total of 1,022,000 words and that the number would grow b

Truncated Sentences – what they are, how to use them, and why…

TRUNCATE Verb Past tense: truncated; past participle: truncated 1. Shorten (something) by cutting off the top or the end. “a truncated cone shape” When you cut something short you truncate it, and you can truncate many things – including sentences. Why do people cut sentences

Don’t be a Word Bore: alternative ways of saying ‘Thank You’

Thank yous come in all shapes and sizes. A thank you can be a deeply felt expression of gratitude towards someone who has done you a favour, given you a gift, or done something very special for you – this is a special kind of thank you. Or it can be a simple and polite expression

Easy English mix-ups: dessert and desert

‘Dessert’ and ‘desert’ are two words that are spelled differently, pronounced differently, but are very easily confused. So let’s look at each of these words separately and then we can discuss tips on how to remember which word is which. Dessert (Noun) A ‘dessert’ is a sweet (o

British terms of endearment: ‘Sweetheart’, ‘love’, ‘darling’...

What do you call your loved one? An important part of the process of falling in love is creating our own little world, and our language plays a big role in that. When we meet and fall in love, a whole new language develops, one of play-words and silly names that no one but the ha

English grammar help: how to use ‘can’, ‘may’ and ‘might’

These three words can sometimes cause quite the confusion. So let’s try to change that by getting some more practice in! ‘Can’ and ‘May’ Can – The physical or mental ability to do something. For example; “Can you play the violin?” May – Authorization or permission to do somethi

Weird English phrases and their meaning: Not to be taken literally!

The English language is full of bizarre English phrases, idioms and proverbs which, when taken literally, seem to make no sense at all. Let EF English Live [https://englishlive.ef.com/en/] guide you through a few of our favourite sayings – and decipher them to help you avoid conf

English grammar help: how to use ‘should’, ‘would’ and ‘could’

‘Should’, ‘would’ and ‘could’ are auxiliary verbs that can sometimes get confusing. They are the past tense of ‘shall’, ‘will’ and ‘can’ but are also used in other situations. ‘SHOULD’ CAN BE USED: 1. To express something that is probable Examples: “John should be her

5 ways to make your English writing more dramatic

When we write in English, we are usually told that clarity is the most important thing. For example, when you write an email using short, simple sentences is the best way to make sure people will understand your email. There are times, however, when you can have a bit more fun an

Confused words: Homework vs. Housework

Work and home are two of the most important places in many of our lives, so it’s no wonder there are so many English expressions [https://englishlive.ef.com/blog/career-english/5-business-english-expressions-get-one-step-ahead-english-boss/] related to both places. Many of the mo

Don’t be a Word Bore – Alternative Ways of Saying ‘Hungry’

Hunger – noun – a strong desire or need for food – the discomfort, weakness, or pain caused by a prolonged lack of food – a strong desire or craving: a hunger for affection The English language has a surprisingly large number of words that mean ‘hungry’. They describe all di

The ten most famous opening lines from English books

FAMOUS OPENING LINES OF BOOKS Reading English books is an excellent way to help your learning and get a cultural kick at the same time. Looking back at all that has been written by accomplished authors throughout history, it’s extremely difficult to pick just ten books to mentio

English mysteries: Why do we use a capital for "I" but not "me"

I’ve been an English teacher for quite a long time. In that time, I’ve seen a lot of people’s writing. In that writing, I’ve seen a lot mistakes. Of all those mistakes, there is one in particular that stands out: Forgetting to use a capital ‘I’ when writing in the first person.