The English words “than” and “then” look and sound a lot alike, but they are completely different. If this distinction is harder than it should be, read this lesson and then try again: Than vs Then
English language
Spanish in English
The Spanish language has contributed numerous terms to English. Spanish is a Latin language, so some of these terms come ultimately from Latin, while others are from various Native American or African languages: Spanish in English
Lay vs Lie
The English verbs lay and lie are commonly confused by even native English speakers. I’m not lying when I say that you can now lay your fears of not knowing the difference to rest: Lay vs Lie
French in English
Ever notice a certain je ne sais quoi about certain expressions in English? Become au fait about them – a rendez-vous with this index gives you carte blanche to learn some of the de rigueur French expressions scattered throughout English. Once they’re déjà vu, it’ll be a fait accompli… bon voyage! French terms in English
Loose vs Lose
I don’t know why so many people write “loose” when they mean “lose,” but the fix is simple: just lose the extra o! Loose vs Lose
Teaching English
When I decided to start a site on English, I had no idea what I was getting into. The lessons on English difficulties are fairly easy – I just write down what I know, double-check in the dictionary, and voilà. What turned out to be much harder is writing the ESL lessons. I thought I’d be clever and offer them not just in English, but in French and Spanish as well. That is, there are ESL lessons written in French from the French speaker’s perspective, and the same thing in Spanish. These sound quite tricky, but in fact they’re pretty easy too – since I have studied both French and Spanish, it’s not difficult to approach each issue “backwards” and see it from that language’s point of view.
So it turns out that the really tough features are the ESL lessons written in English! Trying to explain my native language using only my native language, without anything to compare it to and while trying not to use overly complicated vocabulary, that’s the hardest part. I would have thought it would be the easiest – you just never know. 🙂