LEARN ENGLISH with Dan

Improve your English today at ANGLOPOD.COM. Hi everyone, I’m Dan and today we’re going to focus on the verb WISH to talk about things we would like to be different but we cannot change. Why can we not change them? Well, either we don’t have the power to change them or they happened in the past, so it’s too late to change them!Let’s start with a simple example: I WISH I WERE taller. I WISH I WERE taller. Let’s look at this phrase carefully to understand it. I WISH I WERE taller. What does it mean? Firstly, this is a situation I would like to change. I’m not tall or I’m not tall enough. I want to be taller. Can I change this situation? No! I can’t stretch my body to be taller! I can’t eat special food to be taller. So this is a situation I can’t change.Secondly, am I talking about now, the present? Or am I talking about the past? Well, this is a wish about the present. I want to change this situation now. I’m not happy now, in the present. So, we use WISH followed by the verb in the past, in this case WERE, from the verb TO BE. So we don’t say I wish I am, we say I WISH I WERE. That is because this is not a real situation. So in English, we use the verb in the past to talk about an unreal situation in the present, in this case: I WISH I WERE.Now you might think, why do we use WERE and not WAS? I WISH I WAS? I WAS, YOU WERE, right? Well, the simple answer is that you could use either. They are both possible. You can say: I WISH I WERE or I WISH I WAS and everyone will understand you. In fact, it’s very common for people to say I WISH I WAS. It sounds more informal and you’ll hear people using it when they’re speaking all the time. So, I WISH I WERE taller, or I WISH I WAS taller. However, grammatically it is more correct to say I WISH I WERE, because this is not a real situation.OK, that’s how you talk about a wish or desire in the present, a situation you can’t change. Remember, use the verb WISH followed by the verb in the past, in this example I WISH I WERE or I WISH I WAS, if you want to sound a bit more informal. I WISH I WERE taller, I WISH I WERE smarter, I WISH I WERE richer, I WISH I WERE faster, I WISH I WERE stronger! What examples can you think of?So these are all examples of wishes about the present. How do we use it in the past? We’ll look at that in the next lesson. For now, go to ANGLOPOD.COM and try the quiz. Then write your own example sentences in the comments. Good luck and see you in the next class!Learn more: https://www.anglopod.com

19 Helmi 5min

Improve your English today at ANGLOPOD.COM. Hi everyone, I’m Dan and today we’re going to talk about your plans using the verb THINK. How do you describe the things you might do in the future?Well, a very simple way to talk about your future is to say: I’M THINKING OF, I’M THINKING OF. So, use the verb THINK in the continuous form, which is BE plus the verb with ING followed by the preposition OF. I’M THINKING OF. So you haven’t decided yet, you’re still making your plan. We say: I’M THINKING because this is not a complete action. You haven’t finished deciding. You are still THINKING.Then, because OF is a preposition, the verb that comes after must be a gerund, which means the ING form, in this case DOING. So, for example: I’M THINKING OF DOING IT, I’M THINKING OF DOING IT. So, don’t say: I’m thinking of do it, or I’m thinking to do it. Say: I’M THINKING OF DOING IT.Let’s try some examples: You could say: I’M THINKING OF GOING out tonight, or I’M THINKING OF TAKING the day off, or I’M THINKING OF CHANGING my job, or I’M THINKING OF HAVING a party.There are many possibilities. How many examples can you think of? It’s good to practise. Go to ANGLOPOD.COM and try the quiz. Then write your own example sentences in the comments. Good luck and see you in the next class!Learn more: https://www.anglopod.com

12 Helmi 3min

Improve your English today at ANGLOPOD.COM. Hi everyone, I’m Dan and today we’re going to look at the difference between LIKE DOING and LIKE TO DO. This often causes students lots of problems because the meaning changes between the two, but it’s not always obvious what the difference is. Don’t worry, in this lesson I’ll make it very clear for you. Let’s look at some examples to help us understand better. Firstly, you could say: I LIKE PLAYING football, I LIKE WATCHING movies. I LIKE EATING pizza, I LIKE DRINKING wine, I LIKE SPENDING time with friends, I LIKE GOING to the beach.What do these examples sound like? That’s right. They’re all examples of things you enjoy. So if you want to talk about something you enjoy, something that is nice to do, use LIKE followed by a gerund, which is the ING form of the verb. You could change the verb and still express how much you like or dislike something: I LOVE EATING pizza, I DISLIKE EATING pizza, I HATE EATING pizza, I DETEST EATING pizza.How about these examples: I LIKE TO GO to bed early, I LIKE TO VISIT the dentist twice a year, I LIKE TO EAT vegetables every day, I LIKE TO DRINK lots of water, I LIKE TO DO my homework as soon as I get home. What do these examples sound like? Look at the context. Do they sound like things you enjoy? Not really, right? Visiting the dentist or doing homework are not normally things we enjoy. So, when we use LIKE followed by the full infinitive, which means the verb with TO, this means that I think it is a good idea. I LIKE TO VISIT the dentist twice a year. I don’t enjoy it, but I think it’s a good idea. I LIKE TO DO my homework as soon as I get home. I don’t enjoy it, but I think it’s a good idea.So, LIKE plus the gerund means you enjoy it, LIKE plus the full infinitive means you think it’s a good idea, easy! Do you LIKE PRACTISING English? Or maybe you LIKE TO PRACTISE English. Either way, go to ANGLOPOD.COM and try the quiz. Then you can write your own example sentences in the comments. I think that’s both enjoyable and a good idea! Good luck and see you in the next class!Learn more: https://www.anglopod.com

5 Helmi 4min

Improve your English today at ANGLOPOD.COM. Hi everyone, I’m Dan and today we’re going to look at a very common verb that is often confusing for students to use in a sentence. We’ll look at some examples to learn how to use it and we’ll also see how not to use it. The verb in today’s lesson is SUGGEST and how we use it when we want to SUGGEST an action.The reason why it causes problems is because it has a specific verb pattern. So when we use SUGGEST, we say: I SUGGEST THAT… followed by the rest of the phrase. Here are some examples:I SUGGEST THAT you practise your English. I SUGGEST THAT you do your homework on time. I SUGGEST THAT you study harder. I SUGGEST THAT you listen to English every day. After SUGGEST use THAT followed by the rest of the sentence.It’s also quite common to drop or leave out THAT if we’re speaking quickly or informally. So you can say: I SUGGEST you study harder. I SUGGEST you study harder.However, we don’t say: I SUGGEST YOU to study harder. Don’t use the full infinitive here. “I SUGGEST THAT you study harder” or “I SUGGEST you study harder. You could also say: I SUGGEST STUDYING harder, so SUGGEST plus a gerund. That’s possible. So, “I SUGGEST THAT you study harder”, “I SUGGEST you study harder” or “I SUGGEST STUDYING harder”.Here’s a different verb you could use. Instead of SUGGEST, you could use RECOMMEND. “I RECOMMEND THAT you study harder” or “I RECOMMEND you study harder” or “I RECOMMEND STUDYING harder”. But remember, don’t say: I RECOMMEND you to study harder.OK, I SUGGEST THAT you go to ANGLOPOD.COM and try the quiz. Also, I RECOMMEND WRITING your own example sentences in the comments. Good luck and see you in the next class!Learn more: https://www.anglopod.com

29 Tammi 3min

Hi everyone, I’m Dan, and this is ANGLOPOD, a podcast and website to help you improve your English: https://www.anglopod.comToday we’re going to talk about our experiences using the verb ‘FIND’. You probably know how to use the verb FIND when you’re looking for something lost, but this is a different way of using this verb. This is a very common and useful phrase to learn. In this phrase, we use the verb ‘FIND’ followed by the pronoun ‘IT’ and then an adjective to describe the experience. Here are some example sentences to show you how we use it:I FIND IT EASY to speak English. I FIND IT EASY to speak English. So this is the verb FIND plus the pronoun IT followed by an adjective, in this case EASY, but you can think of any other adjective to change the meaning. I FIND IT EASY. I FIND IT EASY. I FIND IT EASY to speak English. So this just means that the experience of speaking English feels easy to me. I FIND IT EASY.Let’s change the adjective to change how we feel about the experience. I FIND IT HARD. I FIND IT HARD to speak English. Maybe you feel more like this. I FIND IT HARD to speak English. Or use a different adjective with the same meaning. I FIND IT DIFFICULT to speak English. You can describe anything you want. Just choose the right adjective. I FIND IT BORING to do homework, I FIND IT EXCITING to go travelling, I FIND IT SHOCKING to read the news, I FIND IT TERRIFYING to watch horror movies, I FIND IT INTERESTING to learn about history, I FIND IT USEFUL to speak English. You can also use it in the past. When I was a child, I FOUND IT HARD to learn English, but now I FIND IT EASY!That’s it! Now you practise it. Go to ANGLOPOD.COM and try the quiz. Then you can write your own example sentences in the comments. Good luck and see you in the next class!

22 Tammi 4min

Hi everyone, I’m Dan, and this is ANGLOPOD, a podcast and website to help you improve your English: https://www.anglopod.comToday we’re going to learn how to use the verbs that talk about likes and dislikes followed by ‘when’ to describe how we feel about a certain time or situation. This is a simple sentence to use but a very common error. Let’s look at an example sentence.You could say: “I LIKE IT WHEN you cook me dinner” or “I LOVE IT WHEN you kiss me goodnight”.Notice that we need to use the pronoun ‘IT’ between the verb and ‘WHEN’. So, this means it’s wrong to say: “I LIKE WHEN” or “I LOVE WHEN”. You need to add ‘IT’ between the verb and ‘WHEN’, otherwise it won’t sound natural.So practise saying that: “I LIKE IT WHEN”, “I LOVE IT WHEN”, “I DISLIKE IT WHEN”, “I HATE IT WHEN”. Repeat it a few times to get the sound and the rhythm of the phrase. “I LIKE IT WHEN”, “I LOVE IT WHEN”, “I DISLIKE IT WHEN”, “I HATE IT WHEN”. “I DISLIKE IT WHEN you arrive late”, “I HATE IT WHEN you get angry with me”.As you can see, these are verbs that express feelings, how we feel. Can you think of other verbs to use when describing your feelings? Here are some more examples:“I ADORE IT WHEN” - that means I really, really love it. “I DETEST IT WHEN” - that means I really, really hate it. “I ADORE IT WHEN you buy me flowers”, “I DETEST IT WHEN you make a mess”.OK, time to practise, so go to ANGLOPOD.COM and try the quiz. Then you can write your own example sentences in the comments. Good luck and see you in the next class!

15 Tammi 3min

Hi everyone, I’m Dan, and this is ANGLOPOD, a podcast and website to help you improve your English: https://www.anglopod.comToday we’re going to learn how to use the verb TRY and how the meaning changes depending on the form of the next verb we use after it.So what’s the difference between TRY TO DO and TRY DOING? Let’s look at an example sentence to see how we use them:You could say: TRY TO SPEAK English or TRY SPEAKING English. But what’s the difference? What do they mean? Firstly, you could say: I will TRY TO SPEAK English every day. This means to make an effort, to work harder. Maybe you have an exam soon and you want to get a good grade, so you need to study harder, you need to make an effort. Maybe you’re too busy or even a bit lazy and you should practise more. So, you say: I will TRY TO SPEAK English every day.However, you could also say: I will TRY SPEAKING English every day. This sounds more like you want to see if this is useful or fun. I will TRY SPEAKING English every day. You’re trying something new to see if it’s a good idea or if it’s something you like.Here’s a different example: I will TRY SPEAKING English so they can understand. Again, you’re trying something new to see if it is useful or helpful. Maybe you’re talking to someone who doesn’t speak your language, so you decide to use English to see if they understand you better. I will TRY SPEAKING English so they can understand.That’s easy right? OK, practice makes perfect, so go to ANGLOPOD.COM and try the quiz. Then you can write your own example sentences in the comments. Good luck and see you in the next class!

8 Tammi 3min

Hi everyone, I’m Dan and this is ANGLOPOD, a podcast and website to help you improve your English: https://www.anglopod.com/Today we’re going to learn how to use the verb REMEMBER and how the meaning can change depending on the form of the next verb we use after it.So what’s the difference between REMEMBER TO DO and REMEMBER DOING? Let’s try an example sentence to see how we use them:You could say: REMEMBER TO DO your homework or REMEMBER DOING your homework. But what’s the difference? What do they mean?Well, the first one, REMEMBER TO DO your homework, means you don’t forget. If you don’t REMEMBER TO DO your homework, your teacher will be very angry with you and maybe give you extra homework as punishment! You don’t want that, right? Nobody wants extra homework! So, always REMEMBER TO DO your homework! Another way to say this is DON’T FORGET TO DO your homework. So, REMEMBER TO DO means DON’T FORGET to do.REMEMBER DOING your homework, means you have some memory of the action. It happened in the past and you have a memory of that action. You could tell someone where you were, what time it was, how long it took, who you were with, because you have a memory of this event. So, you could say: I REMEMBER DOING my homework! I can describe the action from my memory.You can use FORGET in the same way. If you FORGET TO DO your homework, it means you don’t remember and your teacher will be angry with you. If you FORGET DOING your homework, it means you did it in the past but you have no memory of the event. Maybe you were very tired when you did it!That’s easy right? OK, practice makes perfect, so go to ANGLOPOD.COM and try the quiz. Then you can write your own example sentences in the comments. Good luck and see you in the next class!

1 Tammi 4min