Small, ‘easy’ words

A lot of English learners want to learn new vocabulary. They want to learn as many words as they can. And that’s great! Keep learning them 👍

What I would suggest is to also pay attention to the small, ‘easy’ words that you already know. For example, a lot of English learners don’t pay enough attention to the small words, ‘a’, ‘an’ and ‘the’. The rules are easy, but there are so many exceptions! If you already know the basic rules, pay attention to when native English speakers use these small words and listen out for these exceptions.  

And then you also have words like ‘run’ or ‘get’ that are used VERY often in English, and they have a lot of different meanings. Can you use these words in more of your own sentences? Listen out for small words like these as well when talking to native English speakers. You will also start to see just how often these small words are actually used. (And ‘see’ is another small word that is used very often. So listen out for this as well 😉)

And lastly, phrasal verbs are used ALL THE TIME. So continue learning as many of these as you can. I am working on a fun video at the moment all about phrasal verbs, so keep an eye out for that in the next few weeks! 😊

Try and spend more time on words and phrases that are used a lot. It will really help you with your English speaking and listening skills.

Happy studying! 💪

Vocabulary

Here are a few words and phrases that I used in today’s post. I have highlighted them in bold above ⬆

Pay attention (to something) [phrase]

“To watch or listen to something carefully, or to think or consider something”

You need to pay attention to the teacher. Stop looking out the window!

Make sure you pay attention to the warning signs in the area.

Exception [noun]

“Something or someone that is not included in a group or a rule”

All my students are very good, but Jim is the exception. (This is just an example and NOT true at all! 😂)

There are a lot of exceptions to the grammar rules in English, unfortunately. (And unlike the previous sentence, this one is true and NOT just an example!)

Listen out for something [phrase]

“To listen carefully for a sound; to be ready to hear something”

I’m expecting my mum to arrive soon. Can you listen out for her car?

While you’re listening to the story, listen out for any new words that you don’t know.

Keep an eye out for something [phrase]

“To watch carefully for something”

I always keep an eye out for good books to read.

I’m expecting my mum to arrive soon. Can you keep an eye out for her?

Vocabulary – Listening Practice