Espresso English Podcast

Today we’re going to talk about the differences between the words review and revise. They’re used slightly differently in American English vs. British English. But by the end of the lesson you’ll understand clearly when to use each one. There are so many confusing words like this in the English language, and that’s why I wrote a book about them – it’s called 600+ Confusing English Words Explained. Everything in it comes from questions asked by students like you. So if you have a question about a pair of confusing words, you’ll likely find the answer inside!

Sometimes students write to me and say “I need to learn English FAST.” Maybe they have a deadline, like “I’m starting a new job or taking a test two months from now, so I need to be fluent by then” or maybe they just don’t want to waste time; they want to reach their goal of fluency as quickly as possible. Is it possible to reach fluency fast? And how can you do it? I’m going to explain my opinion and give you some tips in today’s lesson. Now go put these 5 tips into practice! I’d love to hear if you try some of these things and they help you - so please let me know how it goes. Our courses at Espresso English can help you learn faster and in an efficient way. More than 10,000 students have benefited from these courses, and I hope you will, too!

What’s the difference between homework and housework? These two words seem practically identical, but they actually have separate meanings and uses. I’ll explain in today’s lesson, so that you can be sure to use the right word. And at the end I’ll also tell you about a common mistake that English learners often make with homework and housework. Now you know the difference between homework and housework – and remember, doing homework is really important for reviewing and practicing what you learn!   A lot of our courses at Espresso English include homework. Sometimes that’s a quiz so you can test yourself on the lesson, and sometimes the homework is a writing task or speaking task where you can send your answers to our teaching team and get feedback.   Our students often find this the most valuable part of our courses, because then you’re not just watching or reading or listening to me in English, but you’re also using English yourself. It really makes a difference in helping you remember better!

If you want to make your English sound more natural, more like a native speaker, then pay close attention to today’s lesson. I’m going to teach you five phrases that English learners often use, but that native English speakers would never say – either because they’re incorrect or because these phrases just don’t sound natural. Remember – I don’t want you feel BAD about these mistakes; I want to help you learn from them instead! As you can see from these examples, these are NOT major, serious mistakes. They won’t cause communication problems; however, they do make your English sound a little strange, and they make it obvious you’re not a native speaker. So if your goal is to be fluent in English, then you should continually check for these small problems and fix them so that you can sound more natural. Of course, it can be hard to check for your own mistakes... and that’s why it’s nice to join a course where you can get some correction and some feedback from a teacher and native speaker. A number of our co

There are two phrases I hear many students say: "My English is terrible." "Sorry for my BAD English." Have you ever said these things? Be careful, because these two phrases are dangerous to your English learning! Listen to today's lesson to find out why you SHOULDN'T say these phrases... and what you SHOULD say instead.   I want to see you both succeed in learning English AND enjoy the process of learning! Another thing that can help you improve your skills and feel confident about your progress is joining a course at Espresso English. The lessons inside our courses are organized and teach you step by step to help you make real progress. Thanks for watching, and remember – your English is not “bad.” It’s simply a work in progress, and that progress should be celebrated :-)

Today you’ll learn some common English words that are often misused because they are so similar. The only difference between them is a space, or one letter. The context of the sentences will help you understand how to know whether to use one word or two. Already vs. all ready Sometime vs. some time Anyway vs. any way Everyday vs. every day Everyone vs. every one Apart vs. a part Altogether vs. All together Learn more inside the 600+ Confusing English Words Explained E-Book!

During this month of December, we have some holidays… and during holidays, many people give gifts to each other. So I thought it would be a good time to learn 25 collocations with GIVE! We’re going to start with some simpler ones and then learn some more that might not be so obvious, or might not mean what you think. Studying collocations is wonderful for learning how to put words together naturally. You can learn collocations fast inside my e-book, 1000 collocations in 10 minutes a day. Each lesson is full of useful expressions, and it’s really quick to read the lesson and then take the quiz to practice. I hope you’ve enjoyed this lesson full of expressions with “give,” and I hope you have a wonderful rest of the year!

Native English speakers use a lot of informal expressions in day-to-day life! Lately, I’ve been paying attention to my own conversations – and today I’ll teach you 10 English expressions I’ve used in recent situations. It's much easier to learn and remember phrases when you can see them in context. But if you don't live in an English-speaking country, where can you find conversations to learn from? You can listen to podcasts and interviews, but they don't explain the expressions you might not know. In my Everyday English Speaking Course, you'll listen to short conversations and then learn the phrases frequently used by native speakers!

Today I'm going to give you some tips for pronouncing "world" - a lot of students find this very difficult. We'll also practice work and word, since these are two more that English learners have a hard time pronouncing clearly and correctly. Remember, you CAN master these difficult words with practice! If you want to be fluent in English, your pronunciation doesn't have to be "perfect" (there's really no such thing as perfect pronunciation) - but it does need to be CLEAR so that other people can understand you. I can help you get that nice, clear, confident pronunciation in my Pronunciation & Shadowing Courses. The lessons inside will help you practice and improve fast.

This week is the holiday of Thanksgiving in the United States... so in today's lesson, you'll learn useful expressions with the word THANK or THANKS  :-) I'll also teach you about a couple common mistake - make sure to watch the whole video so you can avoid the errors. If you want to improve your spoken English by learning more REAL phrases that native English speakers use - then join my Everyday English Speaking courses! You'll learn exactly what to say in everyday situations, social situations, and more.   The Everyday English Speaking Courses are based on conversations so you can learn the expressions in context. These are our most popular courses!

A student asked about the following four phrasal verbs: flip out freak out piss off tick off She asked, “Are they all the same? Are they all appropriate to use?” Good questions – I’m going to explain them in today's lesson! Piss off, tick off, flip out, freak out Can you see how it's essential to learn phrasal verbs like these in context, with examples? And it's also very important to put them into practice yourself. You can learn 500 more phrasal verbs in a natural and effective way inside my course: Phrasal Verbs in Conversation! Each lesson in the course contains: a conversation my explanation of the phrasal verbs in the conversation a quiz to help you practice and review the phrasal verbs short-answer exercises to help YOU use the phrasal verbs (and you can send these in for feedback and correction!) If you want to be fluent in English, you need to know common phrasal verbs. You can join my phrasal verbs course to get started today :-)

The English language has a number of words that sound nice and are fun to say! Today I'll teach you 10 words that many people find beautiful - you can learn what they mean and practice pronouncing them in order to expand your vocabulary. If you're working on getting your vocabulary up to a more advanced level, there are 1,000 more words waiting for you inside our Vocabulary Builder Course - Level 2. OK, now get ready to listen and repeat 10 beautiful English words... Which one was your favorite? Do you have any English words that you enjoy saying, simply because you think they sound pretty? Let me know – I’d be interested in finding out which words you think are nice to say and hear. And if you want to learn more about our many online English courses, click here for more information as well as some free sample lessons you can try. Thanks so much for joining me today - I'll talk to you in the next lesson!

Do you ever use the wrong word in English? It's a very common problem - and it affects students at all levels, from beginner to intermediate to advanced. These mistakes are especially common when the two words appear very similar - like "interfere" and "intervene" or "relation" and "relationship" - or when they seem to have the same meaning, like "problem" and "trouble" or "staff" and "employees." Today I'm going to teach you the differences between all these super-confusing words I just mentioned, as well as a few more. I hope this lesson has helped clarify these super-confusing words! If you have any words that confuse you, let me know and I'll add them to my list for a future lesson. But you might find many of your questions answered inside my 600+ Confusing Words E-Book. You can see exactly what's covered in that e-book when you click on this list of all 600 words you'll learn.

This month we’ve been doing a series on different ways to say things in English, in order to help expand your vocabulary and know what to say in lots of situations. Today we’ll cover 20 ways to say "thank you" – phrases for expressing gratitude and appreciation. We’ll start out with some basic ones you probably already know, but keep watching so that you learn some new ones! Thank you so much for joining me; I hope you learned some new phrases today! To continue learning real-life English, join my Everyday English Speaking Courses. More than 2,000 students love these courses! In addition to helping you learn phrases from the dialogues inside the lessons, the Everyday English Speaking Courses also have opportunities for you to record yourself speaking and get feedback from a teacher on our team. I hope you gave a great day. Thanks a million for being my student  :-)

Today you're going to learn 20 different ways to say "sorry" in English. Why should you learn all these different expressions? Because they're used in different situations. There are many different times we might want to say "sorry," but we'd use different words depending on whether we spilled some coffee, or hurt someone's feelings, or made a mistake at work. Some of these phrases are more informal and casual, and others are more serious. This means you're not just learning a bunch of equivalent ways to say the same thing - you're learning what native English speakers would say in different situations, so that you can be more fluent. Now you know a whole bunch of different ways to say “Sorry” in English – for minor things and major problems, in formal situations and informal situations, and at times when you want to get someone’s attention or express sympathy. If you like learning how to use phrases inside real situations, check out my Everyday English Speaking Courses, where all the lessons are based on sit

Last week you learned 20 different ways to say "yes" in English, and today you’ll learn 20 different expressions for "no." These are especially important to learn because we often want to be polite when declining an invitation or request – it sounds a little rude to just say "no." Or maybe you want to add some additional information to the simple answer of "no" – a lot of today’s expressions include extra meaning. This is just a very small sample of the many ways we have to say "no" in English – there are many, many more!   As you can see, these different expressions all add slightly different meanings. A lot of them are commonly used in some situations, but don’t sound natural if used in another situation.   This is why it’s so important to learn words and phrases in context, so that you can use them the right way. The lessons inside the Everyday English Speaking Courses are based on dialogues that help you learn phrases in the real situations where we use them. It's our most popular and practical course

Today you’re going to learn a lot of different ways to say “yes” in English. But wait – why should you learn these expressions, when you could just use “yes” to keep things simple?   There are two good reasons: So that you can understand native English speakers, because we use these expressions all the time. If you only know the word “yes,” then you might be confused when you hear someone say “Why not?” or “Be my guest!” So that you can express your own answers in creative ways. Some of these expressions actually add additional meaning beyond a simple “yes,” so it’s important to learn types of situations where you can use them. Let’s get started with these 20 ways to say yes! Instead of showing you a big list of words, I’m going to show each one inside a little situation.   Now you know 20 different ways to say “yes” in English, in all sorts of different situations – formal and informal, replying to questions about facts, favors, and offers. To continue improving your spoken English and learning the

Today you're going to learn 14 business English “buzzwords” – informal expressions that you might hear at work or in a professional context. I'll tell you a little story that will teach you expressions like: push the envelope a shoestring budget streamline pitch an idea the lion's share ...and more There are tons of these informal expressions used in the business world, and my Business English Course includes several lessons about business idioms. You'll also learn practical phrases and vocabulary for phone calls, meetings, presentations, negotiation, networking, customer service, and more. Click here to see the lesson list!

Today I’m going to teach you how to use worse and worst correctly. Even some native English speakers confuse these words!   After taking this lesson, you’ll understand the difference clearly - and you'll also learn a few expressions with each one.   The opposite of worse is better, and I'm here to help your English get better! You can learn more when you join one of my online courses. At Espresso English, you can improve all your English skills - from grammar to vocabulary, speaking, listening, reading, and much more. I hope you enjoyed today's lesson, and I hope to see you inside a course!

Do you know what color these words describe: maroon, fuchsia, hazel, and ivory? You probably learned simple colors like red, yellow, and blue in your first year of English... but the language has a lot more color words than these basic ones! Today you'll learn 12 interesting vocabulary words for colors. One quick note: Online, you'll often find very long lists of color words - but many of those are NOT in used in everyday English... they are typically used to describe different colors of paint, nail polish, or makeup, but they are not common in daily life. The words I'll teach you today are some of the more common ones. Expanding your vocabulary is a great way to become more fluent in English - because when you know more words, you can express yourself better and say exactly what you want to say. I created two great courses to help you improve your vocabulary - they're called the Vocabulary Builder Course Level 1 and Level 2. You'll learn and practice more than 1000 useful words in each level! Level 1