Bonus English Lessons

I wish – new video

admin — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 15:27:11 +0000

I’ve produced a new video explaining about “I wish”.

You can find some exercises on this here:

http://englishgrammarsecrets.com/wish/menu.php

If you would like to get my new teaching videos sent automatically to your Ipod. subscribe to my podcasts at Itunes.

More email practice – and news about online English teaching

admin — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 14:52:28 +0000

Hello again,

At last we’ve got some sunshine here. We seem to have had weeks of snow and rain so it’s nice to be able to look out of the window and see a bright blue sky again.

My younger daughter lives in beautiful Dubai. She’s very happy there but she sometimes misses snow and rain

I got a lot of very positive feedback on last week’s exercise and so I have prepared a similar one for this week.

http://better-english-test.com/unit16/

I’ve had a lot of requests to provide consultations, seminars and lessons by Internet. I’ve not done this before because the technology was not good enough but now I think I’ve found a system which works (although not perfectly yet.)

So I’m putting on an EXPERIMENTAL ‘Open House’ seminar at 10.00 on Saturday morning, British time. The seminar will last for 30 minutes and will cost $3.

Check here to see what time 10.00 AM is in your country:

http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/fixedtime.html?day=6&month=3&year=2010&hour=10&min=0&sec=0&p1=0

If you want to take part, you need to do the following

1. Register your name here

http://www.wiziq.com/learning-online/

Even if you can’t take part in my experiment, this site will show you details of free lessons given by other teachers. I strongly suggest that you sign up.

2. About ten minutes before the experiment starts, go to this link and click the button to join the lesson

http://www.wiziq.com/online-class/272315-open-house

3. You will be asked to pay three dollars. You can do this by Paypal. If you do not have a Paypal account, look for the small link that says ‘pay by credit card’. It’s not necessary to join Paypal to use them to pay a bill.

4. You will then be able to join my experiment. You can talk to me in a text window. if you have a headset, plug it in and we might be able to chat briefly.

5. All this is as new to me as to you. It might be a disaster. I think it will be fun.

6. If you have any questions about English that you would like me to answer, please send them to pearson@stroppycat.com or post to my blog as grammar-teacher.com or twitter me at grammarteacher or send me a message on facebook at pearson grammar-teacher.

I hope to see some of you tomorrow.

Pearson

Remember your Exercises

admin — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 16:39:50 +0000

Hello again,

Today’s exercise is based on an email that I send out to new subscribers to my ‘improve your memory’ coaching program.

The exercises are here:

http://www.better-english-test.com/remember/index.html

If you’d like some more memory tips, go to this site and wait for about thirty seconds. A form will then appear, allowing you to sign up for some free tips.

http://www.remembermore.info

If you’d like to get the full ebook, this normally costs $27 but, if you click on the pay button, you will see that I’ve reduced the price to you to $7.

Best regards,

Pearson

A time for hearts – thank you email

admin — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 10:17:39 +0000

Hello again,

Thank you once again to the many people who sent me messages and helpful suggestions.

I can be contacted on Facebook at Pearson Grammar-Teacher (not Pearson Brown!)

On Twitter I can be found at http://www.twitter.com/grammarteacher .

My blog is at http://www.grammar-teacher.com

This week saw the start of the Year of the Tiger. Best wishes, if you celebrate this. It also saw Valentine’s Day. This is a day where you show your love to your partner. It’s a day for hearts.

My friend Dr Mani is a heart surgeon in India. He runs a charity to help fund operations on children with heart problems and every year, on Valentine’s Day, we make a donation to this fund on behalf of our readers. Today’s exercise is based on the charming reply we got.

http://www.better-english-test.com/unit15/index.html

I’ve been asked about more grammar exercises. Please remember that our site at

http://www.english-grammar-lessons.com contains the same explanations but DIFFERENT exercises to http://www.englishgrammarsecrets.com

If you want something more difficult, try the phrasal verb exercises at http://www.carolinebrownenglishlessons.com

Have a good week.

Pearson Brown

Writing and listening exercises

admin — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 18:04:42 +0000

Hello again,

Thank you to the many people who sent me nice messages. It’s always good to hear your news and suggestions for new lessons. Remember that you can leave me a message at my blog www.grammar-teacher.com , on Facebook at Pearson Grammar-Teacher or on Twitter at grammarteacher . I read every message I get sent, even though I sometimes get a few hundred

Today’s exercise is another writing exercise. You’ll find the details here:

http://www.better-english-test.com/unit14/index.html

Some people are asking about listening exercises. Remember that we have some good ones available without charge at

http://www.carolinebrownlisteninglessons.com

Have a nice day.

Pearson

Email exercise about requesting help

admin — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 16:24:28 +0000

Hello again,

I’m really sorry about the delay in sending you a new lesson. I had a really bad time with my health in 2009. Hopefully 2010 will be a lot better.

It’s very late but I would like to take this opportunity to wish all 85000 of my students a prosperous and happy 2010.

I can now be found on Twitter as grammarteacher and on Facebook as Pearson Grammar-Teacher.

I’ve just written a short exercise today as there are a lot of new subscribers. You’ll find it here:

http://www.better-english-test.com/unit13/index.html

I’ll be writing again next week.

Pearson

Complimentary and Complementary

admin — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 09:04:31 +0000

Hello again,

I made a mistake in yesterday’s exercise. Luckily, it’s a mistake you can learn from.

There are two different words, complimentary and complementary.

One comes from compliment – “saying nice things”.

He complimented her on her presentation.

Many people paid him compliments.

She was very complimentary about his work.

One comes from complement – “goes well together”.

This new system complements the existing system, it doesn’t replace it.

The jewellery complemented her dress beautifully.

We make a great team. Our skills complement each other perfectly.

So which form is better to use to mean a *free* drink?

In American English, the answer is clear. It’s a complimentary drink.

In British English, I’ve seen both forms used. Look, for example, at this Web page from a language school in Oxford.

http://www.oxfordenglishexperience.co.uk/index.php/courses-and-pricing

However, I think I was wrong to write ‘complementary drink’. The expression certainly started in the United States and I think that we should use the US form. I’ve checked up in the new Macmillan online dictionary and it says the correct term is ‘complimentary drink’.

http://www.macmillandictionary.com/dictionary/british/complimentary

I hope you found that useful.

Pearson