Most people who contact me usually say “I want to improve my English.” Great. But what does that mean? What do you need English for? As a busy adult, the first thing you need to get clear on is what you need English for. Do you want to read books? Watch films in English? These […]

We speak using words, right? Well, theoretically yes, but in reality they often work like groups of words. For instance, how much does it help to know the individual words in the following expression? “What have you been up to?” Not much. Knowing the individual meaning of the words “have” and “be” and “up” and

Speaking clarity is the result of various things. Which part of pronunciation is also key when it comes to speech clarity in English? It is rhythm of speech. You may ask, “Rhythm? So, is this an English tip today or a music lesson?” Well, what happens is that the two are related. As I have

I was helping a client perfect their business slide presentation the other day. I, again, saw a thing that quite a few people fail doing right. It is so simple, yet quite easy to fall for. The person doing the presentation wasn’t careful enough with the clarity of certain vocabulary that, for me, should precisely

Let’s discuss paraphrasing. “Para” here means alternative, “phrasing” means selection of words. I don’t mean using a synonym. I mean using various slightly different words to describe or say the same idea. A typical reason for paraphrasing is when someone doesn’t understand what you were saying the first time, and you want to help them