Listen on iTunes / Spotify / Acast / Stitcher / SoundCloud
Have you ever walked away from an English lesson saying, “What?! How?! Why does this language have to be so complicated?!”
If you’ve felt like this, you’ve either just walked out of a lesson on reported speech, or you were in the Arabic class by mistake. (Don’t do that again.)
But if you’re getting frustrated with reported speech and all its stupid rules, there’s some good news:
It doesn’t have to be this way.
In this podcast episode, we look at more common, more natural alternatives to reported speech.
We also ask why English learners and English teachers can be so obsessed with “good English” and “correct English” and “proper English,” why lawyers speak trashy English, and why the English we think we speak isn’t the English we really speak.
Listen on iTunes / Spotify / Acast / Stitcher / SoundCloud
Prefer to read? Check out Why Reported Speech Is a Waste of Time (And What You Should Say Instead).
- Podcast Episode 8 – Grice’s Maxims: An Interview with Ali Uygur Erol
- Podcast Episode 1 – Say vs Tell … What’s the difference?
- Podcast Episode 2 – Buffalo Buffalo
- Podcast Episode 3 – What on Earth is an Ergative Verb?
- Podcast Episode 4 – Interview with Hugh Dellar – “One phrase at a time”
- Podcast Episode 5 – Cambridge Cambridge Cambridge
- Podcast Episode 6 – The English Verb
- Podcast Episode 9 – Enjoy Studying Again with the Self-Study Menu
- Podcast Episode 13 – Tips From A Polyglot – Interview With Lindsay From Lindsay Does Languages
- Podcast Episode 15 – English Articles and the Stock Market Dance
- Podcast Episode 10 – Interview with Christian from Canguro English – The paint is still wet
- Podcast Episode 7 – How to Sound Smart (and Witty) in English
- Podcast Episode 11 – Three Things That Surprised Me About the UK
- Podcast Episode 12 – How Not to Die in an English Conversation
- Podcast Episode 14 – Teaching English Through Storytelling – An Interview With Ariel Goodbody
- Podcast Episode 17 – Don’t Destroy the Universe! Word Order in English
- Podcast Episode 16 – Does Business English Really Exist? An Interview with Shanthi Cumaraswamy Streat
- Podcast Episode 18 – Grammar for a Full Life – A Weird and Wonderful Interview with Professor Lawrence Weinstein
- Podcast Episode 19 – The Back of 2020: A New Year’s Ramble
- Podcast Episode 20 – What Should I Read in English?
- Podcast Episode 21 – Watch Movies and Improve Your Listening in English – An Interview with Cara Leopold
- Podcast Episode 22 – Grammar, Perception and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
- Podcast Episode 23 – Why You’re Not Free in English (and How This Can Help You)
- Podcast Episode 24 – International Communication in English with Chia Suan Chong
- Podcast Episode 25 – Actionable English Mindset Advice with Krisia Justesen
- Podcast Episode 26 – The Beatles and Your English Learning Journey
- Podcast Episode 27 – Why Pragmatics Gives You Superpowers – An Interview with Andreas Grundtvig
- Podcast Episode 28 – Talking about Comedy with Luke from Luke’s English Podcast
- Podcast Episode 29 – I’ll have a beer and a wife, please.
- Podcast Episode 31 – Cooking Verbs in English
- Podcast Episode 30 – Do You Need Grammar to Understand What People Are Saying?
- Podcast Episode 33 – Reported Speech, True Love and Why Lawyers Speak Trashy English
- Podcast Episode 32 – Schrödinger’s Adjective and Three Other Pieces of Grammar Philosophy
- Podcast Episode 34 – Amy Winehouse, Britney Spears and Pattern Grammar
- Podcast Episode 36 – 10 English Proverbs
- Podcast Episode 35 – A chat with Zdenek from Zdenek’s English Podcast | DELTA, Native Speakerism & Dogme
- Podcast Episode 37 – Three Hot Takes About English (And Why We Use “Some”)
- Podcast Episode 38 – Tithead! Swearing with Emma from the Procrastination Podcast
- Podcast Episode 39 – The Cat and the Cornflakes – 5 English Pronunciation Hacks
- Podcast Episode 40 – 2 English teachers, 10 phrasal verbs. English with Rob Interview
- Episode 41 – ’90s Slang vs ’40s Slang | A Chat With My Dad in the Garden
- Episode 42 – When is a Mistake a Mistake? Errors Innovations And Angloversals
- Episode 43 – Some, Any, Metal Bands and Why You’re Not Talking To Someone’s Leg
- Episode 44 – The Quest for the Holy Grail of English Grammar | An Interview with Christopher Walker