Wow!
Another year went by already?
Whoosh! That was fast!
2019 was a bit of a bumpy year for a lot of people.
But what lessons can we take from it?
Well, I guess there are lots of “moral” lessons we can take to make our lives richer and help us make better decisions in 2020.
But there are lots of English lessons, too!
So, here are my seven favourite Clark and Miller lessons from 2019 …
In-Depth Vocabulary
In 2019, I wrote a lot of “exhaustive” vocabulary posts.
In these posts, you can dive deep into a single subject and get all — yes ALL — of the vocabulary around that subject.
Well … almost all. I mean, there’s a lot of vocabulary out there!
Talking about the Weather in English
Sure, sure … you know how to talk about the weather, right?
It’s snowing. It’s rainy. It’s sunny. There you go!
But did you know that there are at least 17 other ways to talk about rain?
And seven more ways of talking about snow?
Animals in English
When I started this post, I really didn’t realise how in-depth and long it would be.
It turns out that there’s LOTS of animal vocabulary.
Not surprising considering how many animal species there are.
“Yes. But exactly how many?” I can hear you ask.
Good question.
Google says 8.7 million.
Which is a lot.
Where Grammar Meets Vocabulary
Language is a funny thing.
A lot of people think that the key to learning a language is memorising long lists of words and grammar rules.
But that’s not all you need.
If you want to speak a language well, you need to dive into that area where grammar and vocabulary work together.
The good news?
It’s much more fun than just grammar or just vocabulary.
7 Little Drawings That Will Help You Remember English Rules Forever
Is it “in the island” or “on the island”?
How can you remember phrasal verbs?
Is it “during” or “for”?
Some questions are really best answered with a simple, funny and ridiculous picture.
So here are seven of them!
Want more? You can find 95 more of these in the Clark and Miller book, 102 Little Drawings That Will Help You Remember English Rules Forever (Probably).
How to use get
“Get” is a funny little word.
It’s so small! Yet it has so many uses.
There’s good news, though — all of these different uses kind of have the same meaning.
What’s more, they all behave in the same way.
This post gives you a few simple rules for “get” that will get you using it perfectly!
Got it?
Communicate Better in English
Remember that language is a living thing! It’s not just sets of rules and data.
It’s something that humans use and create and adapt and change.
And, if there’s one thing I know about humans, it’s that they are ridiculously social animals.
That means that when we’re in different situations, we kind of have a different “script” — a set of phrases that send social signals to the people we’re talking to.
15 Ways to Say Congratulations in English
OK — so we all know how to say “congratulations,” right?
“Congratulations!” There. I said it!
But using the same word again and again can get boring and a little … insincere.
For social situations like this, it’s always good to have more than one set phrase at the ready.
So here are 15 more ways to say congratulations.
20 Ways to Say Goodbye in English
Yeah, I get it.
Saying goodbye is difficult and sad.
But we’ve all got to do it sometimes, right?
And sometimes there’s a bad way to do it:
Don’t do that!
Do this …
The Deep “Grammar Philosophy” Post
What You Never Knew About English Verbs
OK, so you’ve been learning English for a while now, right?
But do you ever start thinking about the language in a really, really abstract way?
Do you ever imagine grammar like this?
You don’t?
Well, that’s OK, because back in the ‘80s, a guy called Mike Lewis wrote a book with a beautiful, abstract way of looking at the English tenses.
So I decided to summarise these amazing revelations in one post.
The past tense? It’s not about the past!
“Will”? It’s not about the future!
Enjoy these mind-blowing “discoveries” and more on the continuous, perfect and “going to” forms.
OK! Great stuff!
I hope there was lots of juicy information for your curious brain there!
In the meantime, let’s look forward to a fantastic 2020 with more learning, more madness and … maybe let’s have it go by a little slower this year?
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4 thoughts on “My 7 Favourite English Lessons From 2019”
I love your email lessons. I am from America but learn new things about my language with every one of your lessons.
Thank you, Kandy
Cheers Kandy!
Yeah — I learn loads of stuff too just from doing the research for these posts!
Thanks for following! 🙂
Great Lessons
Dear GABY,
COMPLIMENTS OF THE SEASON. i just loved all your LESSONS.
SUSAN.J