Archive for the 'Grammar: Beginner' Category

Real ESL Video Lesson 29 - Gay Marriage and If Clauses

In this blog post, I talk about gay marriage being allowed in California. I use quite a few IF clauses to give you some more examples. One thing I want you to remember is that after IF, you need a subject and a present verb, usually simple present, but sometimes it can be present progressive […]

Real ESL Video Lesson 22 - THE in a Name

This is one of the most confusing parts of English grammar. Normally, you should not use THE before a name. But sometimes THE is part of the name.
For example, THE United States of America! Or the U.S. You can also say the U.S.A., though it’s very rare, except in military culture, to say the […]

Common Essay Writing Mistakes #1 - An Essay from Nafis!

One of my regular visitors sent me an essay about an experience he had in Niagara Falls. I told you to use sensory details in your writing. Below, I’ve posted most of his essay. You can read it first or after my comments. If you read it first, try to figure out if the highlighted […]

Real ESL Video Lesson 18 - The, A, An, Some + a Vegetable!

This is my next lesson on articles. I was in my kitchen, preparing for a party, so I took out a bunch of food and used it to explain articles.
When you watch, please notice how I pause. Sometimes I say “Um.” Sometimes I say something wrong and correct myself. It’s not the perfect way […]

Real ESL Video Lesson 18 - The + a place

Here’s an explanation of a basic part of English grammar: using the + a place.
If you take time to practice each rule for using the, a and an, you’ll master articles!
(to master something = to become an expert at something, to be very good at something)
(articles = a, an, the)
After you watch this, […]

Real ESL Video Lesson 11 - What did you do this weekend?

People ask you about what you did in the past all the time, so it’s important to know how to explain all the details of what happened in the past. Someone might ask you what you did yesterday or what you did last week. Do you know how to answer? Here’s a video lesson on […]

Real ESL Video Lesson 10 - Are you too pretty or too intelligent?

Are you too pretty or too intelligent? You’d better hope you are NOT too pretty or too intelligent. It’s much better to be so intelligent or very pretty. In this video lesson, I explain the difference between too + an adjective and so/very + an adjective. See the transcript below if you can’t understand.

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Real ESL Video Lesson 9 - Ordering Coffee!

Sometimes you really need a caffeine fix (a caffeine fix = caffeine to help your brain work). If you do, you don’t want to be stressed out about (to be stressed out about s.t. = to be worried about s.t.) how to order your java (java = coffee).
This is a simple explanation to help […]

Real ESL Video Lesson 5 - The Simple Present

Hi everyone,
You might think that you speak English too well to worry about the most basic verb tense, the simple present. However, I have students who are intermediate level speakers and still make mistakes with the simple present. Hope you like the video lesson!

To review, let’s put “run” into the simple […]