Welcome to the Britlish Library.

Buttercup

English humour can be difficult for non-native English speakers. This is why simple English jokes are a very good way of teaching vocabulary, and why I’ve chosen a very simple joke for this lesson. I’m not going to write the joke here as it depends for its humour entirely on a homophone. A lot of jokes in English depend for their humour on the way completely different words can sound identical due to the speech features we find in spoken British English. This is one of those jokes. Listen to the joke and then do the exercises so that you can learn about why it is so funny.

S or Z

When do we use the /s/ sound and when do we use the /z/ sound, and what’s the difference? Let’s find out… The two sounds /s/ and /z/ are very close and cause endless confusion for students. There are some rules and the rules are normally to do with the voiced and unvoiced sounds. A voiced sound is that made when we use our vocal cords. /z/ is the voiced form of the sound /s/, which is unvoiced. Put your fingers on your throat when you say the word buzz. You should feel a vibration in your throat at the end of the word. This is caused by the vocal cords vibrating and adding to the sound. Now say hiss. This time you should not feel any vibration in your throat. Your vocal cords are not involved in making the sound /s/.

Bookshop Memories by George Orwell

An essay by George Orwell which will help you improve your reading while developing your vocabulary. This essay is from one of my favourite English authors, George Orwell. Eric Arthur Blair, as Orwell was christened, was born in British India in 1903, and sadly died terribly young in 1950 in London. He died of tuberculosis, back then, an untreatable infection of the lungs. Orwell gave us such works as Animal Farm (1945) and Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949) My favourite Orwell novel is Down and Out in Paris and London (1933). Orwell wrote many essays on different subjects and each is an insightful look into a bygone age. I recommend the following strategy for doing this English lesson: Listen to the essay on the next page. After listening to the essay, listen to it again while following the text, which is also available in the resources at the top left. After you have listened to the essay at least twice, and have read through the text, move on to the exercises. In the exercises, only listen to the audio if you really have to. If you have questions about the vocabulary in the text, refer to the glossary on the next page. Bookshop Memories by George Orwell.

Pronunciation Activation Pack 1 - Vowel in Tree / iː /

Master the Vowel in Tree / iː / with this English Pronunciation Activation Pack. The biggest problem for students is hearing and producing the difference between the long vowel / iː / and the short vowel / ɪ /. These two sounds are next to each other on the IPA chart and are thus very similar. The difference is one of length, and the Pronunciation Activator will give you lots of practice with minimal pairs containing the long vowel / iː / and the short vowel / ɪ /. With enough practice you will soon be able to distinguish the two sounds. Pronunciation Activation Pack 1 - Vowel in Tree / iː /

See Look Watch

Learn to use the verbs, see, look, and watch, with this English Activation Pack. The three English verbs, see, look, and watch, are frustrating for many of my students. I think this is because they all seem very similar and are to do with the eyes. This English Activation Pack will help you see how the three verbs differ in meaning. We will look at ways for you to learn, remember, and use these different verbs correctly. All you have to do is sit back and watch the theory part of my English Activation Pack in the video above.

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.

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.

Literature

Some students like to sit back and listen to some interesting English. It doesn't get much more interesting than some of the old classics from English literature. These lessons have been created to help you get the best from the vocabulary found in some of the old classics. As you listen and read your way through these lessons, you also broaden your understanding of English culture.

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.

Sounds Rude

There is an important subset of English which is hardly ever touched on by teachers, and never by the textbooks. This subset of English is the English which sounds rude. The swearwords and curses, which make up a surprisingly large part of daily speech, are neglected by most teachers because, well, they sound rude. This course aims not to titillate but to teach the vocabulary that other teachers shy away from. If you are not offended by strong language, and would like to learn, remember, and use this "taboo" language, then you should take a look at these lessons. Please do not complain if you are shocked by the contents. You have been warned.