Espresso English Podcast

Today I want to answer a question from a student who asked how to pronounce words ending in -ILE, like the word "mobile." Words with this ending are a little tricky because there’s a pronunciation difference between British and American English.  I’m from the U.S., so I’m going to teach you the way we say these words in American English. We’ll practice 20 words with the -ILE ending - there are two different ways to pronounce it (plus a couple of exceptions). Come check out my American English Pronunciation Course if you want to improve your pronunciation so that you can speak more clearly and correctly! It has 30 lessons that are full of listen-and-repeat exercises, so that you can train yourself to pronounce words and sentences like a native English speaker. For additional pronunciation training, there's also my Shadowing with Shayna Course. You can get a discount when you buy these two courses together. Keep up the good work in practicing your pronunciation. Bye for now!

"Time" is one of the most common words in English - but do you know all the different ways you can use the word time? In today's lesson, you'll learn 16 common collocations with the word TIME, such as: waste time, kill time, it's about time, stall for time There's also a quiz to help you practice the collocations in this lesson - you can click here to try it! One common problem among adults who are learning English is not having much time to study. Between work, school, family, and hobbies, it's hard to sit down and study English for hours and hours. That's why I create lessons that are short but effective - and one of the best examples of that is my e-book, 1000 Collocations in 10 Minutes a Day. Each lesson takes only about 5 minutes to read, and 5 minutes to do the exercise. This e-book is perfect for you if you have a busy schedule, but you still want to make progress in your English. It also includes audio, so you can listen to the lessons as well. For now, try to write some sentences using the "time

This lesson is on one of the topics that’s most requested by my students – it’s all about phrasal verbs with the word “get.” We have get off, get by, get along, get over, get back, and lots more… and some of these have multiple meanings! These 20 phrasal verbs with "get" are very common in everyday English, so you need to learn them. I’ll make them clear with definitions and examples. Now you know 20 different phrasal verbs with “get” – but what’s the best way to remember them all? Phrasal verbs are easier to remember when you put them into practice – so try to write your own sentences using the phrasal verbs from this lesson. Inside my Phrasal Verbs in Conversation Course, you'll learn more than 500 phrasal verbs in English - and the course includes lots of opportunities for you to practice. After each lesson, there’s a quiz to help you review, and writing exercises to help you use the phrasal verbs you’ve learned.

If you want to speak fluent English, it's important to learn phrases and expressions - NOT just individual words. This is especially important when studying idioms. Why? Because it's often NOT possible to understand the meaning of the idiom by looking at the individual words... instead, you must learn the meaning of the entire idiomatic expression. In today's lesson, I’ll explain 10 idioms for describing strong emotions. I guarantee you'll learn something new! We have so many interesting and colorful idioms in English, but traditional English books often don't focus on idioms. This means you can be very good at "textbook English," but then you’ll have difficulty understanding TV shows, movies, and informal conversations – because these are all full of idiomatic expressions. If you're looking for a simple and fun way to learn the most common idiomatic expressions, sign up for my 300 English Idioms Course. You'll get 30 lessons that will help you discover English idioms in context - AND practice using the

Today's lesson is a quiz to help you practice some English words that are frequently spelled wrong. These spelling mistakes are made by both English learners and by native English speakers. Can you spell all 10 words right? It’s much easier to avoid mistakes in English when you know exactly what to watch out for! You can learn to correct the most common English mistakes inside my course, 200 Common Errors in English. These are the most common mistakes that are made by students who are learning English, just like you. I’ll teach you how to fix them, so that you can use English more confidently – without worrying about mistakes. Thanks for taking today's lesson, and I hope to see you in the course!

Today you’ll learn 14 conversational English phrases about the weather. If you want to know how to talk about the weather in English, beyond the basic phrases of “It’s sunny” and “It’s raining,” then this lesson is for you.  As you can see, these are real English phrases that native English speakers use to talk about the weather – from hot weather to cold weather, good weather to bad weather – I hope you’ve learned some useful vocabulary and expressions today. To continue learning everyday English, come check out my Everyday English Speaking Course, where you can learn English phrases in the context of conversations about daily life, traveling, shopping, restaurants, and more. Thanks for joining me for this lesson - bye for now!

Today we're going to practice pronouncing some difficult English words that feature the letter R, like choir, drawer, rural, library, temperature, and more. Do you have a difficult word that you want to know how to pronounce correctly in English? If so, tell me about it, and I'll add it to my list for future lessons! If you want to continue learning pronunciation and practicing with me, come check out my Pronunciation and Shadowing Courses. They will help you learn to pronounce English words and sentences more clearly and naturally. Keep on practicing and with time, you will be able to pronounce these difficult R words well. 

We’ve just started the month of February, and I realized it’s been a long time since I did an English vocabulary lesson with pictures – so in today’s lesson, you’re going to learn 10 vocabulary words starting with the letter F. In addition to learning what these words mean, you can also practice pronouncing them by repeating the words after me. That’s just a small sampling of the many English words we have, starting with F. You can continue learning English vocabulary inside my Vocabulary Builder Courses. The lessons in those courses have lots of pictures, so it’s easy to learn the words – and there are exercises to help you practice. There are two levels of the Vocabulary Builder Course, and you can get a discount when you buy both levels together.

Today I'm going to explain the expression "hindsight is 20/20." It's now the year 2020, so I thought this would be an interesting phrase to learn! I don't want you to have regrets about your English learning. I don't want you to get to the end of the year and then to look back and say, "Oh, I should have studied harder, or I wish I'd taken that course, but I didn't, and so my English didn't really improve this year." Instead, I want you to take action! Practice your English every day. Join one of my courses. Just keep working on your English consistently as the months go by. Then, when we get to the end of the year, you won't have regrets. You won't think, "Ah, I wish I'd dedicated more time to my English, but hindsight is 20/20." Instead, you'll be able to say, "I did my best this year, I learned a lot of new things, and my English has improved in the year 2020." That's my hope and my wish for you! And I'm so glad I can help you learn more English through these lessons.

When you're learning a language, it's common to feel sad about your progress. You want to become fluent... but it seems like that goal is so far away! If you hear an expression that you don't know, or have difficulty understanding a fast conversation, it's easy to lose confidence in your abilities. You might think negative thoughts like "My English is so bad." You might wonder, "Will I ever become fluent in English, or is it impossible for me?" Let me tell you about my language-learning experience...

Do you often feel nervous when speaking English? Today I'm going to tell you my top tips for improving your confidence when speaking English. First, I'll give you three reasons why it's important to improve your confidence about your English. Then, I'll teach you three mental exercises and three physical exercises that will help you speak English more confidently! If you do these things, then your confidence will improve! I believe that YOU CAN learn to speak confident English, because I've seen many of my students become more confident by taking my lessons and practicing these tips. If you want to learn more from me, come join my English courses. You'll get clear and practical lessons that will help you learn vocabulary, phrases, grammar, pronunciation, idioms, and much more.

Every year I like to teach a lesson on new words that have been added to the dictionary recently. The English language is always changing and evolving, and we're always creating new words or new meanings for existing words. Today you're going to learn 10 new words and definitions that were added to the dictionary in the past year. These are just a few of hundreds of new words that have been added to the dictionary in the past year, and I hope you found them interesting! It's really important for you to have a good foundation of English vocabulary, so that you can express yourself without pausing and trying to think of the words. My Vocabulary Builder Courses can help you get this good foundation of essential English words. These courses are really helpful in building your vocabulary so that you know what to say in English. Thanks for joining me today, and I'll talk to you in the next lesson!

It's just a couple days away from Christmas, which is a major holiday in the United States. So in today's lesson I'm going to teach you about the difference between the words holiday and vacation. English learners often ask me about this, and it's a little tricky! Now put it into practice! What’s your favorite holiday? Describe it in English. What did you do on your last vacation? Write about it in English. One common expression you’ll often hear in December is “Happy Holidays!” - wishing someone a nice season of celebration, regardless of whether they celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, or another special time. So, happy holidays to you! Make sure to follow Espresso English on YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter so that you don't miss any lessons in the new year.

Today's lesson is about common mistakes, but first I want to say one thing: Please don't let the fear of errors stop you from speaking English!  It's MUCH more important to communicate and practice your speaking, even if it's not perfect. However, one of the fastest ways to correct your English errors is to focus on avoiding the most common mistakes - and I'll teach you 5 in this lesson. In my years of experience as an English teacher, I've heard many of the same errors very frequently, so I created a course to help you fix them!  It’s called 200 Common Errors in English, and you’ll learn how to avoid errors in grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, spelling, and more. Click on the link for more information and free samples. I think you'll find it very helpful in correcting any mistakes you might be making in English.

If you have difficulties in listening to and understanding English, you're not alone. This is one of the most common problems for English learners. It's frustrating and embarrassing when you can't understand, but in this lesson I'm going to explain why it's so difficult and teach you how to improve your listening skills. You can also improve your listening skills by joining my Listening Course, which has 45 lessons with exercises that help you understand more and more. The audios in this course are available at both slow and fast speeds, so you can listen at whichever level feels most comfortable. Whether or not you choose to sign up for my Listening Course, I hope this lesson has given you some practical tips for working on your listening and learning how to understand English better!

Today I’m going to explain the difference between LATER and LATTER. These words are only different by one letter, but they have different meanings and they're pronounced differently, too. That’s all for now! If you want more, you can find lots of great explanations inside my 600+ Confusing Words E-Book. Thanks for joining me for today's lesson, and I'll talk to you later :-)

After last week's lesson on common informal phrases, a lot of students e-mailed me saying, "please make more lessons like this!" So today I'll teach you more: You'll learn informal spoken expressions like "No hard feelings," "Join the club," and "Just my luck!" (that last one might be different from what you expect...) Let me know if you have any questions about these phrases - or if you have another phrase that you're not sure what it means or how to use it. One of the best ways to learn real phrases to use in daily life is to join my Everyday English Speaking Courses.  You can see what the lessons are like by taking the free samples available here: Free sample - Level 1 Free sample - Level 2

There are lots of little phrases that native English speakers use in daily life. But if you don't live in an English-speaking country, then you don't have the chance to hear these expressions - except maybe in movies or TV shows. So today I’ll teach you 8 common informal phrases that you might not find in textbooks - and I'll give you examples of situations in which we use them. Do you want to learn more conversational English? I’d like to invite you to join my Everyday English Speaking Courses - the lessons are based on dialogues, so you can learn phrases in context.  There are two levels of the course - Level 1 focuses on practical situations (traveling, socializing, shopping, etc.) and Level 2 has more advanced conversations. These are my most popular courses!

Today's lesson is all about the expression "gonna” and when you CAN and CAN'T use it. I'll also tell you about "gonna go" - is this correct? Listen to the lesson to find out. I hope this lesson has been helpful! If you want to learn more from me, come check out my courses, where I can teach you about conversational English, grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, phrasal verbs, idioms, business English, and more.

Today's quick pronunciation tip involves a very common verb: the word "say." You might be surprised that there's slightly different pronunciation in the different forms of this word. In this lesson I’m going to ask you to repeat after me, because the best way to practice pronunciation is for YOU to say the words and sentences out loud, not just watch me say them  :-) You can get a LOT more pronunciation training inside my courses called American English Pronunciation and Shadowing with Shayna.  Inside these courses, you can practice all the different sounds in English - both in individual words and in sentences. The lessons will help you improve your pronunciation and reduce your accent, so you can speak more clearly.