English Language Articles

Articles about learning, using and teaching the English language, including advice, tutorials, opinions and lesson plans from various authors and contributors. Articles cover topics from English grammar, spelling and punctuation, through to language teaching, career development, specialisations, and ideas and suggestions for the classroom.

Latest Articles & Notes

English Conditionals: An Introduction Pinned

Category: General Articles Topic: General

Everything you need to know about English Conditionals.

Big list of British and American vocabulary by topic

Category: Learning English Topic: Varieties and Dialects

Nearly 900 different UK and US meanings and expressions on food, travel, places, people, law and order, education, medicine, STEM subjects, business, sports and games, multi-word verbs, idioms, office vocab, the arts and media, nature, and politics.

100 words with different meanings in British and American English

Category: Learning English Topic: Varieties and Dialects

Big list of different UK and US meanings of expressions like bill, biscuit, blow off and brackets, including compound nouns and phrasal verbs.

How to teach British and American spelling and punctuation

Category: General Articles Topic: General

Teaching tips and classroom activities for colour/ color, kilometre/ kilometer, commas in lists, and other British and American spelling and punctuation differences.

How to teach British and American grammar

Category: Teaching English Topic: Varieties and Dialects

How to present and practise the most important grammatical differences between British and American English

How to teach British and American functional language

Category: Teaching English Topic: Varieties and Dialects

Important differences in requesting, thanking, etc in the US and UK, including how to teach those differences.

How to teach giving and asking for directions

Category: Teaching English Topic: General

Teaching tips and classroom activities for showing people where to go with "go straight ahead", "turn right", "take the second turning on your left", "opposite the station", etc.

The 100 most useful acronyms for EFL learners

Category: Learning English Topic: Learning and Teaching

The most important acronyms for English language learners to learn

The 100 most useful abbreviations for EFL learners

Category: Learning English Topic: Learning and Teaching

The most important short forms for people learning English as a foreign language.

British and American body language and gestures

Category: Teaching English Topic: Varieties and Dialects

A guide to gestures and body language in the UK and USA, including differences and similarities, and comparisons to other countries.

How to teach TOEIC Listening Part Two: Question Response

Category: Teaching English Topic: Exam Traps and Tricks

Teaching tips and classroom practice ideas for the question-response tasks in TOEIC Listening Section Two

How to teach present time expressions

Category: Teaching English Topic: Verbs and Tenses

Teaching tips, games and other classroom activities for "at the moment", "often", "once every two weeks" etc with Present Simple and Present Continuous.

How to teach the language of feelings

Category: Teaching English Topic: Vocabulary

Teaching tips and classroom activities for the language emotions, from very young learners to advanced learners.

The 150 most useful Business English abbreviations

Category: Teaching English for Specific Purposes Topic: Vocabulary

The most important business acronyms and other ESP abbreviations for EFL learners.

How to teach past time expressions

Category: Teaching English Topic: Verbs and Tenses

Teaching tips and classroom activities for time expressions with narrative tenses and Used to.