Thursday, July 27, 2017

Salmon and Often

Salmon and Often


I've often noticed that speakers of English as a second language mispronounce salmon.

It looks like it is straightforward enough to pronounce: sal - mon, but in fact the L is silent. To pronounce it correctly, imagine that the spelling is "sammon". It rhymes more or less with 'famine' even though the spelling is quite different. (English is strange that way.)

On the other hand, 'often' is one of those words that has two accepted pronunciations - with or without the 't' sound. This is not a UK/US thing; the words simply has two accepted ways to pronounce it. There are many words in English like this. Like I said, English is strange.

You can listen to the pronunciation(s) of these words here:


The Cambridge dictionary doesn't give the audio pronunciation for 'often' with a t sound, but it lists the phonetic spelling for it.)

Wednesday, July 19, 2017

2 Common Mistakes

















Do you ever make these two mistakes in your English?

Common mistake 1:

A: Would you like a drink?
B: Yes, I like some coffee?

"I like some coffee" is not correct. The speaker means to say: "I'd like some coffee" or "I would like some coffee".

"I would like" is a polite way to say "I want". It is different from "I like".


Common mistake 2:

A: Can I have a napkin?
B: Sure, I get you one.

"I get you one" is not correct. It should be "I'll get you one". We use the future form here, even though it is the near future!

It is easy to make this mistake because "I get" and "I'll get" might sound alike to English learners. However, people who are proficient in English can easily hear the difference!


If you tend to make these mistakes, don't worry - it is quite easy to correct yourself.

Wednesday, July 05, 2017

Vocab Maze - A Wordsearch Game

Here is a simple and fun game for ESL learners.

You are given a topic and you have to find three related words in a mini word grid.

It's simple, fun, fast and it works on mobile devices too.

Play it here: www.roadtogrammar.com/vocabmaze/




Business English Listening Activities

I have just uploaded a new listening section on Road to Grammar's business English page. It features 20 short conversations suitable for...