Espresso English Podcast

Today I'd like to teach you some common expressions with the word "think." You'll learn: inclined to think shudder to think can't think straight think nothing of (doing something) and many more! Lesson text: https://www.espressoenglish.net/10-english-collocations-with-think  1000 Collocations E-Book: https://www.espressoenglish.net/1000-english-collocations-in-10-minutes-a-day/ 

Some English words have what we can call “disappearing or dropped syllables” – reductions or eliminations of sounds in the middle of the word. One example is the word favorite:  We don’t say FAV-o-rit with three syllables We say it more like FAV-rit with two syllables – the “o” syllable disappears In today’s lesson, you’re going to practice your pronunciation with some of the most common English words that tend to have dropped syllables. Lesson text: https://www.espressoenglish.net/18-english-words-with-disappearing-syllables  Pronunciation and Shadowing Courses: https://www.espressoenglish.net/american-english-pronunciation-course/ 

"Know" is one of the most common verbs in English, and I know that you know what it means! But what you might not know is that we use this word in many idiomatic expressions, such as: for all I know know the drill not know what hit you you don't know the half of it You can learn these expressions with "know" in today's lesson! Lesson text: https://www.espressoenglish.net/10-more-english-expressions-with-the-word-know 300+ English Idioms Course: https://www.espressoenglish.net/english-idioms-course 

The English language has a lot of colorful words, which are great for improving your vocabulary. You'll learn 10 interesting verbs in today's lesson. Lesson text: https://www.espressoenglish.net/10-interesting-verbs-to-improve-your-english-vocabulary Vocabulary Builder Course: https://www.espressoenglish.net/vocabulary-builder-course/ 

Are you confused about how to use HAVE HAD and HAD HAD in English? Today’s lesson will help you! First, we need to understand the present perfect tense and past perfect tense. Both of these tenses are formed by using an auxiliary verb + main verb. Lesson text: https://www.espressoenglish.net/have-had-and-had-had Advanced English Grammar Course: https://www.espressoenglish.net/advanced-english-grammar-course/

In today’s lesson I’m going to give you four important tips for speaking English faster. A lot of English learners notice that native English speakers tend to speak fast, so they think that speaking faster will help their English sound more fluent. But you have to be careful – it can be dangerous to try to speak very fast in English if you don’t follow these tips. Lesson text: https://www.espressoenglish.net/how-to-speak-english-faster/ Pronunciation + Shadowing Courses: https://www.espressoenglish.net/american-english-pronunciation-course

In today’s lesson, I want to teach you some phrases that you can use in a specific situation – that is when you want to say something but you’re not completely certain that it’s correct. There are a few different phrases that we can actually use to show that we are saying something that we believe to be true, but we recognize that we might be wrong and we are open to correction. Lesson text: https://www.espressoenglish.net/learn-english-phrases-what-to-say-if-youre-not-completely-certain Everyday English Speaking Course: https://www.espressoenglish.net/everyday-english-speaking-course

Today I want to talk to you about a phrase that’s I’ve seen some students use – and that phrase is “According to me” – to express their opinion. Can we use this in English? Hmm. Lesson text: https://www.espressoenglish.net/learn-english-phrases-can-we-say-according-to-me Everyday English Speaking Course: https://www.espressoenglish.net/everyday-english-speaking-course

I want to teach you about a mistake that I often hear students making when speaking. It has to do with the difference between “I like …” and “I’d like …” It’s a very small difference, but it actually changes the meaning of the sentence and the way we use these phrases. Lesson text: https://www.espressoenglish.net/learn-english-phrases-i-like-vs-id-like Everyday English Speaking Course: https://www.espressoenglish.net/everyday-english-speaking-course

In today’s lesson, I want to teach you some phrases that native English speakers use when talking about making mistakes. Because you don’t just want to say, “I made a mistake. I made a mistake. I made a mistake” over and over, it gets boring and repetitive, so here are some different phrases you can use. Lesson text: https://www.espressoenglish.net/learn-english-phrases-for-acknowledging-mistakes Everyday English Speaking Course: https://www.espressoenglish.net/everyday-english-speaking-course

I want to teach you about a phrase that one of my students asked me about. That phrase is, “It can’t hurt.” This is an interesting expression. Lesson text: https://www.espressoenglish.net/learn-english-phrases-it-cant-hurt Everyday English Speaking Course: https://www.espressoenglish.net/everyday-english-speaking-course

Today I want to answer a student question about the phrases I’m afraid and I’m scared. Is there any difference between them? How do we use these in spoken English? Lesson text: https://www.espressoenglish.net/learn-english-phrases-im-afraid-im-scared Everyday English Speaking Course: https://www.espressoenglish.net/everyday-english-speaking-course

This month, I want to focus our lessons on phrases, some kind of informal phrases that you might hear in every day spoken English. You might not be sure how to use them or what they mean. Today’s lesson is going to focus on a few different phrases all using the word ‘kidding,’ like ‘I’m just kidding,’ or, ‘no kidding,’ or, ‘are you kidding me?’ You’re going to learn how to use each of these in conversational English today. Lesson text: http://www.espressoenglish.net/learn-english-phrases-with-kidding Everyday English Speaking Course: https://www.espressoenglish.net/everyday-english-speaking-course

Today we’re going to practice pronunciation of words ending in -ow. Make sure to check out my Pronunciation and Shadowing Courses for a lot more pronunciation training, including an evaluation of your English pronunciation. I noticed a mistake that some of my students are making with this word: ALLOW. They are saying it like “alloe,” but it’s actually pronounced “allow.” It’s funny, the words low (the opposite of high) and below (which means “under”) have the same “o” sound in “no” – low, below. But the word allow has the ow sound as in the words now and how. Lesson text: https://www.espressoenglish.net/how-to-pronounce-allow-low-and-other-words-ending-in-ow/

Today I want to teach you about the confusing words criticize, criticism, critique, critic, and critical. These are all similar and they come from the same roots, but they have different functions and some slightly different meanings. Lesson text: http://www.espressoenglish.net/difference-between-criticize-criticism-critique-critic-and-critical 600+ Confusing English Words E-Book: https://www.espressoenglish.net/600-confusing-english-words-explained/

A "joke" is a funny comment or short story that is supposed to make people laugh. Do you know any good jokes? Today's lesson will teach you some useful English vocabulary for talking about jokes and humor! You'll learn: how to describe a funny joke vs. a bad joke what it means to be a "laughingstock" when to say "just kidding" Now you know some new vocabulary words! Improving your vocabulary is a great way to become more fluent in English. When you have a vocabulary, you can express yourself the way you want to, without pausing to think of the right word. You'll learn hundreds of useful words in my Vocabulary Builder Courses. Not only will you LEARN new words, but you'll also PRACTICE them, which is very important!

English pronunciation and spelling are very tricky - the same letter can be pronounced in different ways, and the same sound can be spelled with different letters. Today you're going to learn about a common pronunciation mistake that students make with the letter "U," and practice words with the long and short U sounds. I first noticed this mistake when I was doing evaluations for students in my Pronunciation and Shadowing Courses. Everyone who takes one of those courses gets feedback from me on their pronunciation! If you're interested in getting your pronunciation evaluated and corrected, click here for more information about the courses.

Today is my birthday! I'm now 33 years old  :-) That's why today's new English lesson will teach you 30 expressions with "party." This word actually has a few different meanings in English - take the lesson to find out what they are! Do you want to get me a birthday present? The best thing you can do for me is to SHARE my lessons on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube! Knowing that thousands of students like you all over the world are learning English from me is the best birthday gift I could receive.

In American culture, people go to bars to socialize, flirt, and even to get to know business colleagues. In today's lesson, you'll learn 21 expressions about bars and drinking alcohol. Many of them are slang or informal expressions. This is a guest post by my teacher friend Ryan from EnglishForMyDream.com.

A phrasal verb is a combination of a verb + preposition that has a specific meaning. Sometimes the meaning of the phrasal verb is quite different from the meaning of the regular verb by itself! I often see students make mistakes by mixing up regular verbs and phrasal verbs. Here are some common verbs and phrasal verbs in English, and the situations in which each one should be used. Lesson text: https://www.espressoenglish.net/regular-verbs-vs-phrasal-verbs/ One of the best ways to learn phrasal verbs - and remember them - is in context. My Phrasal Verbs in Conversation Course can help you do that. Each lesson is based on a dialogue, so it's easy to see how the phrasal verbs are used naturally. There are also quizzes and practice exercises to help you put the phrasal verbs into practice.