Welcome to the Britlish Library.

I hope you will enjoy the 227 British English lessons in the Britlish Library. I have designed the lessons to help you improve all areas of your English skills from writing and speaking, to listening and reading.

The British English lessons in the Britlish Library are full of multimedia content in the form of videos, audio files, animations, and engaging image files. This multimedia content makes learning British English much more fun and engaging than simply reading text in a book.

Latest British English Lessons

Here are the 5 newest British English lessons from the Britlish Library. I add new lessons to the Britlish Library every week so make sure you bookmark this page.

Alaska

This “Alaska” joke gets its humour from the pronunciation features of British English. If you understand the rhythm of English and how weak and strong syllables behave when we speak, you will be able to understand the humour of this joke. The Britlish Library lesson explains how and why the joke is funny and gives you plenty of exercises to help you learn, remember, and use these pronunciation features.

Wind Idioms

There are quite a few wind idioms in British English. I have created an Activation Quiz to teach you 15 of them and give you some practice using them. These 15 idioms include put the wind up, take the wind out of someone’s sails, and an ill wind, to name just a few. You can learn these idioms by doing the multimedia-rich, interactive activator in this lesson.

Take Phrasal Verbs and Idioms

There are a lot of British English idioms which use the verb take and this lesson will help you to learn, remember, and use the most common ones including, take a bath, take a break, take a bullet, take a chance on, take a dim view, take a firm stance, take a gander, take a hike, take a joke, take a leaf out of, take a load off, take a lot of stick, take a pew, take a running jump, take a step back, take a swing at, take after, take as it comes, take a backseat, take your breath away, take a breather, take a trip down memory lane, take your eyes off, take a fancy to, take for a spin, take for a fool, take for granted, take to heart, and take with a pinch of salt.

Bring Idioms and Phrasal Verbs

There are a lot of British English expressions that use the verb bring and they include, bring round, bring before, bring down a peg, bring home the bacon, bring in from the cold, bring into disrepute, bring into service, bring into view, bring out in droves, bring out the best, bring out the worst, bring the curtain down, bring to a close, bring to a head, bring to a standstill, bring to account, bring to bear, bring to book, bring to heel, bring to knees, bring to life, bring to mind, bring to senses, bring to the boil, bring to the test, bring under control, bring up, bring up on charges, bring up the read, bring up to date, and bring up to speed. This lesson will teach you how to use these expressions.

Yacht

The word yacht is a difficult word to spell and to pronounce. In this lesson I’ll tell you what yacht means, show you how to pronounce it with a standard British English accent, and give you some examples of its use. I’ll also look at other vocabulary which is associated with yachts such as boat, craft, cruise, engine, luxury, manage, own, sail, sailing, ship, and trip. You can also practice your knowledge of the IPA symbols and pronunciation with some IPA transcriptions of these words associated with yacht.

Random British English Lessons

Here are three random British English lessons taken from the 227 British English lessons currently in the Britlish Library. I add new lessons every week, so be sure to bookmark this page. Sign up for a free membership and you will get an email each time I add a new lesson to the library.

Pronunciation Activation Pack 12 - The Vowel in Clock / ɒ /

Activate the Vowel in Clock / ɒ / with this English Pronunciation Activation Pack. In this Pronunciation Activation Pack we will be looking at the last of the pure vowels / ɒ /. We will look at the letter combinations that give the / ɒ / sound. We will look at lots of words which have the / ɒ / sound in them. Finally, we will activate your ability to hear and produce the / ɒ / sound correctly. Letter Combinations for / ɒ / - This short vowel sound has these letter combinations: O, A (following /w/), OU, OW, AU, and ACH. There are four other vowel sounds that cause confusion with the / ɒ / sound. I won’t be repeating minimal pairs in this Pronunciation Activation Pack. Instead, I’ll look at the / ɒ / vs / ɑː / minimal pairs. I will look at the / ɒ / vs / əʊ / minimal pairs when we look at the / əʊ / gliding vowel sound later in this course. Pronunciation Activation Pack 12 - The Vowel in Clock / ɒ /

Future 3 - GA14

The second most common way, after will, of talking about the future in English is by the use of be going to. I have already shown how an –ing form needs the finite verb be to form the continuous aspect. Be going to is the present continuous and acts as an auxiliary verb, like will, to talk about the future. We use be going to to talk about future things which are already planned. We use be going to to talk about future things which we can predict from present evidence. There is often no difference in meaning between be going to and the present continuous. When we talk about events that are outside of our control, we tend to use be going to NOT the present continuous. Sometimes there is not much difference, if any, between using will, or be going to when talking about the future. Only when we have evidence that something is going to happen should we prefer be going to. We can say that we are going to do something in the immediate future by using be about to. This British English grammar is essential for all students of English and the many exercises in the pack will help you master it quickly and enjoyably.

Linking Consonants - An Introduction

An introduction to linking consonants in British English. Linking consonants occur when a consonant at the end of a word is followed by a vowel sound during the unbroken sound stream within a speech segment. This lesson explains how linking consonants work, gives examples of sentences containing linking consonants and examines why each linking consonant happens, and then moves on to activate your ability to hear the linking consonants in sentences. By understanding how linking consonants work, you will improve your listening skills, too.

Teen or Ty Numbers

In this lesson: We will look at how to distinguish between teen and ty numbers. We will look at the stress patterns in words. We will look at stress shifts in English words. We will look at making syllables prominent for effect. Whether it's thirty or thirteen, forty or fourteen, fifty or fifteen, or anywhere up to ninety or nineteen, this lesson will help you to make sure you never make a mistake with these numbers.

Present Perfect Continuous - GA9

The perfect aspect of the present tense is marked by the auxiliary verb have plus the past participle. Remember that the tenses are shown by the auxiliary verbs, be, do, and have. If we have the present tense of have followed by a past participle, we have present perfect. So, if have plus a past participle gives us the perfect aspect, and be +ing gives us the continuous aspect, then together we should get the perfect continuous aspect. Well, it’s easy enough to name the aspects and the tenses, but you may be wondering how, when, and where we should use the perfect continuous aspect. In this Grammar Activation Pack we will look at the present tense, perfect continuous aspect. The very name of the structure tells us a lot about it. The present tense tells us there is a connection with the present, that is, now. The perfect aspect uses the past participle which shows a connection to the past. The continuous aspect talks about something happening over a period of time; in this case from a time in the past to the present. This British English grammar is essential for all students of English and the many exercises in the pack will help you master it quickly and enjoyably.

Britlish Library English Lesson Categories

I have categorised the lessons in the Britlish library into the following categories: English in Use lessons, Exams and Tests lessons, Grammar lessons, Humour lessons, Idioms lessons, Information lessons, Literature lessons, Phrasal Verbs lessons, Sounds British Pronunciation lessons, Spelling lessons, Vocabulary lessons, Writing lessons, Sounds Rude lessons, and more.

You can select all of the lessons in each of the random categories by clicking on any of the images below.

Idioms

Once I realised that idioms were incredibly problematic for my students, I set about gathering as many idioms as I could and making videos about them for my YouTube channels. I am determined to make idioms as accessible for all students as any other part of the English language. Reading and memorising lists of vocabulary is not the most productive, interesting, or useful exercise in English language learning. I wanted to create a series of lessons in the form of Activation Packs that would encourage the reader to not only learn and remember the idioms, but also to have fun with them, as having fun is a great aid to learning and remembering. It is important that you know as many idioms as possible as native English speakers use them with alarming regularity. I hope that as you work your way through the Idiom Activation Packs you will make some of the idioms your own and use them regularly like a native.

Vocabulary

Did you know that there are over 600,000 words in English? That's a lot of words, and far more than any human being could ever manage to learn. Even Shakespeare only used around 55,000 different words in all of his works. Mind you, he did actually invent quite a few of them. To get a good mastery of English, you do need to expand your vocabulary as much as possible. The more words you know, the better your English will be.

Exams and Tests

If you are preparing for one of the internationally recognised exams such as IELTS, or the exams from Cambridge Assessment English, or Trinity, then the lessons in this category will be very useful to your studies. If you simply want to test your English abilities in and see how you are progressing in your studies of English as a second or foreign language, then the tests in this category will help you. You can test your abilities in English by seeing if you make the same mistakes that advanced users of English or even proficient users of English make. There's also an English level test with a hundred questions to test your general level of English. Don't be afraid of making mistakes, as it's through mistakes that we improve in anything we do, including learning English.

Phrasal Verbs

Phrasal verbs are like idioms and have to be learnt individually. They are an essential part of your English vocabulary, and without them you will not be able to say that you have any degree of fluency in English. This course of English Activation Packs has been designed to make learning, remembering, and using phrasal verbs as easy and enjoyable as possible. English speakers use phrasal verbs all the time, so you need to at least be able to understand what they mean. Use them yourself and you will sound much more like a native than if you don't.

Spelling

One of the most difficult parts of English is spelling. This is because many of the sounds in English are not always represented by the same letter combinations. This for this reason, even native English speakers find it difficult to spell some words. These lessons have been created to help you to learn how to spell some of the more difficult English words.