All About English!!!

Figurative language is speech or writing that departs from normal meaning or sound to create a create a special effect. These "literary devices" as they are called are: alliteration, hyperbole, idioms, metaphors, personification, onomatopoeia and similies. In this post, we'll cover the first device, "Alliteration." It is the repetition of a sound in a sentence or in a series of sentences. An example is: Samantha soared down the street on her sleek skateboard. Here the repetition is of the sound of the letter 'S.' *Stay tuned for tomorrow's definition and example of 'hyperbole.' www.englishteachinghoboken.com

                                                             The comma The comma is a much misused and often over used piece of punctuation. The complexity of its usage stems primarily from the fact that there are several different situations in which the comma is the correct piece of punctuation to use. The trick is to identify those situations so as not to use the comma in places where it really should not be. The following are some of the situations in which a comma should be used: 1. To separate the elements in a list of three or more items. E.G: The potion included gobstoppers, chewing gum, bran flakes and coleslaw. There appears to be some debate about whether or not to include a comma to separate the last two items in the series. Personally I was taught to omit the...

PREDICT: Try to figure out what might happen next. VISUALIZE: Picture the people, places and events being described. CONNECT: Connect what you are reading to other texts and the real world. QUESTION: (Self-Questioning): Ask questions about the material you are reading. This is crucial for the continuous development of ideas. CLARIFY: Investigate and Identify the main points and summarize. EVALUATE: Judge the story and the actions of characters. This is also important to develop your creativity and opinions.

The first thing you need to do is learn the 8 "Parts of Speech." *NOUN-: The name of a person, place, thing or idea. *PRONOUN-: It substitutes a noun or a noun phrase to avoid repetition. *ADJECTIVE-: It describes or gives more information about a noun or pronoun. *VERB-: It shows an action or a state of being. *ADVERB-: It provides meaning to a verb, an adjective or another in a descriptive, specific or limiting way. *PREPOSITION-: It shows the relationship of either a noun or pronoun to another word. *CONJUNCTION-: It joins words, ideas and phrases together, showing how they are connected. *INTERJECTION-: It is a word or phrase that shows a strong emotion.

Remember to be able to read fluently you need to recognize sounds and patterns, comprehend the words you read and understand how the words work together in a sentence to convey meaning.                                                        Developing Reading Skills: A lower level reading skill is comprehension. Higher level reading skills are identifying purpose and intent.                                                     If You Are A Beginning Reader: 1) You need to identify, understand and manipulate the English phonemes. They will help you understand meaning when you see patterns in root words, prefixes and suffixes. 2) The English language is read from left to right. 3) The English language is...

Here are some words that both non-natives and natives find confusing. During my 20 years of  teaching English, I have often seen this confusion myself. Let's take a stab at these, shall we: *Affect is a verb as in "She was affected by her parents's divorce." *Effect is mostly a noun as in "We should wear sunscreen to protect our skin from the effects of the sun." *Than is used for the comparison of two things as in "The population of Denmark is taller than the Japanese." *Then is used to illustrate a period of time when something happens in succession "First I climbed the tree, then I picked the apple." *There shows us where something is or to express a place as in "There is the ball over there by the bucket." *Their is a possessive pronoun as in "Their (the designers) clothing line for the fall is highly anticipated." *They're is a contraction for "they are" as in "They're fro...

                            Here are Some Simple tips to Improve Your English Speaking: 1) Of course, the best way is to immerse yourself in a native speaking environment and engage in as many interactions as you can. Shyness shouldn't be an excuse, and keep in mind that the more you speak the less shy you'll feel as you become accustomed to speaking. 2) Listen to a variety of English programs and English accents. This will train your listening skills and you will also learn different English expressions. Better yet if you can record these programs, play them back, listen and take notes. Then, you can practice saying these expressions. 3) Also record your own speaking voice. In this way, you'll get a much better idea about how you speak. Is your speaking pace natural sounding, or too slow or fast and if your pronunciation is clear, your grammar is accurate and your vocabulary is appropriate or if you need to...

Be careful when using the Present Perfect Tense. Even native speakers sometimes get confused as to when to use it instead of the Past Tense. Remember, we use this tense if we are speaking about something that has happened or began in the past, but still is relevant or continues up to this present day. For example: I have known her for 10 years. Another example is: I have been traveling to Paris since I was a young girl. The Present Perfect is either Has or Have+ the past participle of the following verb. In this case it is Have + "known" and Have + "been" in the examples mentioned above. Also, it is important to note that the Past Tense are for actions that happened in the past, but are finished. They are no more connected to the present, unlike the Present Perfect. An example is: long ago, butterflies "developed" a camouflage strategy to protect themselves from predators. Another hint is that a time is given for the use of the Past Tens...

Many of us think that we use the Simple Present Tense when we discuss a situation that is happening at the moment, but this is not grammatically correct. Remember, we use the Present continuous for these kinds of situations. So this is when we use the Simple Present Tense: 1) When something is generally or always true. Examples: People "need" food; It "snows" in winter. 2) For situations that are more or less permanent. Examples: I "live" in New Jersey; He "works" in a bank. 3) For routines/things that we do regularly. Examples: I "brush" my teeth twice a day; Do you smoke (when asking about a routine/habit). 4) For short actions described in sequence. Example: He "takes" the ball, and "runs" down the wing and "scores." 5) For future uses discussing a timetable or fixed plan. Examples: School "begins" at 9:00 am; The plane "doesn't' arrive at 7:00 pm, it "arrives...

Remember: *Every sentence needs at least a subject and a predicate. The subject of the sentence is the noun that  is acting or being. The predicate is the phrase that consists of the verb and the object (not every sentence needs an explicit object). *The verb and the subject of a sentence need to agree. This means that if you are using a plural or a singular noun, you need to use either the same form of the verb respectively. *The best way to frame a sentence is by using the active voice. An example is: "Sammy threw the ball to Jane," rather than "The ball was thrown to Jane by Sammy." As you can see, the active voice is easier to read and more direct and engaging, although there are a few instances as in historical or academic reports when the passive voice is used. *Verb tenses also need to agree throughout a piece of writing or spoken language. *All subsequent verbs with the same intention need to agree. *The structure of your...