Kind of or Kinds of? – Don’t Forget the S in Kinds!

English with a Smile

Celestine Chua

Here is a mistake that is made a lot, so please have a good look at the difference between kind of and kinds of. When you speak about kind of with more than one thing, you need to use kinds of with an s. If the thing that is described is more than one, you also need to put an s after this word, too. For example: I have different kinds of pens.

Let’s study a few examples:

What kind of pen do you use? I use different kinds.

What kind of fruit do you like? Oh, I like many kinds of fruits.

Another example:

This cafe has the kind of design that I like.

More than one kind of design was used in the new museum.

We get all kinds of children at our nursery school: quiet children…

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A Quick Guide in Using Plenty Of – Plenty of Fish in the Sea

English with a Smile

When you say there are plenty of cats in the street, it means there are enough cats, or more than enough (= too many).

If you say that you have plenty of money in your bank account, you’re in a good position. It means you have enough money.

If you go on a picnic and you’ve taken plenty of food, it means you won’t be hungry.

So plenty means enough or as much as you need.

Please note you can use plenty with the singular and the plural. So with one thing or with many things.

See for yourself what the difference is:

Singular: There is plenty of flour in the cupboard.

Plural: There are plenty of pencils in the drawer.

By the way, there is an idiom that says: “plenty more fish in the sea” or “there are plenty of fish in the sea.” When do you say this?…

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Infographic: Prepositions

conversationallyspeaking

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Informal English: How to Invite Someone Out

Teach Taught Taught

Students often complain that the way people speak in the street isn’t the same as the way they learn to do in class. So in this post I just tried to think what words and expressions I’d use to invite someone out. In the most natural/informal way possible..

HOW TO INVITE SOMEONE OUT

Obviously you could go for the standard question ‘Would you like to go to the cinema tonight?’. Nothing wrong with it, but how about trying one of these alternatives which sound a bit more ‘informal’?

• FANCY+ING: do you fancy going to the cinema tonight?
• FANCY + NOUN: (do you) fancy a movie tonight?
• FEEL LIKE + ING: do you feel like going to the cinema tonight?
• FEEL LIKE+ NOUN: do you feel like a movie tonight?
• TO BE UP FOR + ING: are you up for going to the cinema tonight?

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Slenderman Sickness

Creatively English

There is not even a slight slackening of the Slender sickness within even my most slovenly students.  🙂 And so last week we continued with  a pair of Slender Man FCE type reading exercises.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/202280562/Slender-Man-Reading-Test-1

http://www.scribd.com/doc/202282062/Slender-Man-Reading-Test-2

We interspaced these with ‘entries’ from the Marble Hornets Slender Man YouTube Series.

There was concentration, jumping, screaming and howling laughter. 🙂

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Wordination

Daisybrain

Iron is both an essential nutrient and a health hazard linked to heart disease and cancer. But they should have known about this contradiction – after all, iron forms the basis of the word ironic.

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How We Write

A Point of Contact

How we write has changed over the past century, says Mcwhorter. Much of it comes down to expectations, and this makes sense to me since language is a social, negotiated process. There was a time when written language was expected to be thought-out, formal stuff. Examples of this are tired, beaten, rough-edged civil war soldiers and their highly structured letters to home.

Much of the lecture provides examples of written language from journalism and in comparing 6th grade reading between then and now. The difference is in the formality, the preparedness. Writing wasn’t how people spoke, speaking and writing were far different mediums because an informal style of writing hadn’t developed yet. Today, the two are much more comparable.

The old style writing culture, the highly prepared & formal style, comes out of an America that celebrated it’s literacy and use of language, it took pride in writing, it…

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Video: English Pronunciation

conversationallyspeaking

Listen to these three video series on English pronunciation from Interesting Things ESL. Listen and repeat these English sentences, and learn new vocab through the third video series on words with “R”.

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How to sound like a native speaker?

Speak English Like A Native.

WARNING:
Is that what you really want? To sound like a native speaker of English? Then be prepared to live as two different persons in one. Relax, I’m not talking about schizophrenia, I’m talking about creating a new identity that can coexist with the old one peacefully. You will have to be comfortable speaking with two very different voices and using two radically different modes of expression. Sounding like a native speaker in a second language is far more complex than most people think. Learners seeking to attain that level also need to understand and be extensively exposed to the native speakers’ common patterns for social practice.

Before we start, let’s make one thing clear…
There is a misconception that speaking like a native speaker is the ultimate attainment in second or foreign language learning. That is simply inaccurate. Being a native speaker of English (or any other language) doesn’t…

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READING ESL

Welcome To Grey Bruce Georgian

Reading ESL:stories and readings in English for ESL learners
If you would like to learn about Canada and improve your English reading and comprehension skills this is an excellent site to explore. Reading ESL offers lots of stories about Canada on many different subjects. After each story you can check your knowledge by reviewing the vocabulary help list, comprehension check and fill in the blanks question section!

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