Joanne Reilly 
English Academy
 

Idioms are phrases that are used in everyday language giving a figurative rather than a literal meaning to something. Read on to find out more... Native speakers use these phrases more often than we realise. You don't have to use them yourself, but it is important that you understand what they mean. Here are 9 idioms you will most likely have heard of, plus a brief example of how to use each one: Ahead of the game "We are known for being ahead of the game when it comes to ado

These words tell us how likely something is to happen and are great to use when talking about the future, especially with regards to career development. Will - something is certain or very likely Might - something is possible Won't - something is impossible or very unlikely (won't = will not) Will Use this word carefully because it tells someone that something is certain or very likely to happen. Don't say something will happen if there is a chance that it won't (will not). I

These are great words to use when you want to check information. They are used at the start of a question to find something out. Who is used when we want to find out about people in general. What is used when we want to find out about a thing, action, event or idea. Who Who wrote this song? Who is joining us for dinner this evening? Who would like another coffee? Who is doing anything interesting this weekend? Who would like another cup of coffee? What What is the name of the

We all have to do it...attend a meeting. This can be one of the hardest things to do in our non-native language. Why? People talk over each other They talk quickly The agenda moves on and you haven't said what you wanted to say It takes you a while to process what has just been said You want to say something but can't think how to put the sentence together You are embarrassed to speak in front of your colleagues in case you make a mistake I could go on and this is all from my

These are useful words to use in performance reviews or interim appraisals. We use these words to talk about ability: What someone can or can't do now, in the present. What someone was or wasn't able to do in the past. What they might be able to do in the future. Can or can't (cannot) - present Used to talk about ability right now. Alice can motivate her team, even when times are difficult. Ben can't find his locker key, he's looked everywhere. I can finish this report by the

Marketing and advertising is the way to let people know that your company exists. Many organisations have internal departments to do this, or they employ outside agencies with expert knowledge to help. Whatever your role, you may need to talk about marketing and advertising. Here are 9 key words you should know: Advertising agency "We're going to use an advertising agency to help us promote our brand." This is a company that develops strategies to find your target market (the

When you work for an international organisation chances are you will need to speak in English a lot of the time. You will need to write in English, take meetings in English, maybe have your lunchbreak in English if your boss is visiting from abroad. How can I describe this? What if you need to talk to your IT helpdesk in English? Your computer doesn't work, or your email is acting up (phrasal verb meaning to not work properly). How can you communicate clearly with your Englis

When you email new customers or suppliers you want your message to be formal and professional. You want to give them a good impression of your company. There are 7 small changes you can make to your email to do this. You can change some of the informal phrases to formal words: 1) Request To ask for something. Informal: "I'm writing to ask for a chat about our new products." Formal: "I am writing to request a meeting with you to talk about our new line of coffee machines." NOT

Native English speakers use these essential expressions, also known as phrasal verbs, in everyday language all the time. When you are learning English these phrases can be confusing. Why? They are made up of two words, that when put together, have a different meaning to the two words separately... What is a phrasal verb? It is two words that are put together to create a new verb. Chill out Is a phrasal verb. Chill - is used to describe feeling cold. "I feel a chill, is there

Meeting someone for the first time can be scary, especially when you have to speak in your non-native language. Speaking from experience, I am often so worried about making a mistake that I make one anyway and feel embarrassed, prompting me to stay quiet for the rest of the meeting or visit. This is not great, and I don't want this to happen to you. Here are a few ways to introduce yourself, and how to respond appropriately: It's nice to meet you is a phrase that is easy to

These two small words are really great to use when linking parts of a sentence together, or giving more information about something. For example (like and such as) I enjoy playing ball sports, like football, rugby and tennis. I enjoy playing ball sports, such as football, rugby and tennis. They enjoy creative hobbies, like painting, knitting and writing. They enjoy creative hobbies, such as painting, knitting and writing. Like and as can both be used in these sentences, w

You can communicate in English. I know this because you're reading this blog post. So what is the difference between the English you learnt at school and Business English? Business English is formal English. We use it at work to: be clear communicate professionally make use of specialist vocabulary show cultural awareness The English you learnt at school helped you to pass your exams. You can use it when you go on holiday, to sing along to the lyrics of a pop song or just to

This is something that I often hear native English speakers get wrong! Follow these tips to work out whether to use what or that. That is a thing That refers to a specific thing "I like that dress you are wearing." - that refers to the dress. What is a question What is used to ask a question "What are you going to wear to the party tonight?" - what asks for more information, in this case about your outfit! "I like that car." In this sentence 'that' refers to the specific car.

Do you sometimes get stuck trying to work out whether it is 'a apple' or 'an apple'? Is it 'a university' or 'an university'? Keep these tips in mind and you won't get stuck again... Tip 1 As a general rule if a word begins with a vowel a, e, i, o, u then we use 'an'. If a word begins with any other letter we use 'a'. Using this rule we have 'an apple', 'an egg' or ' an ice-cream '. We also have 'a hamburger', 'a banana' or 'a bicycle' for example. an ice-cream However, as wi

When you think of travelling to the UK do you immediately think London? There is so much for everyone to do there and so many well-known sights to see it's the obvious choice. If you are looking for somewhere with great shopping opportunities, combined with the attractions of a seaside holiday, visit Portsmouth and Southsea! Photo taken from www.visitportsmouth.co.uk Portsmouth and Southsea are located right next to each other on the south coast of England. As the name sugge

A beautiful Mediterranean island where English is one of the official languages. This makes Malta the ideal place to enjoy the sunshine and practice your English! We visited in April and had the most amazing time! To save you time looking on a map, Malta is located to the south of Sicily and to the north of Africa. Given this location you can understand why it enjoys around 300 days of sunshine per year! For 150 years it was a colony of the British Empire who brought the Engl

In my opinion, this is the most difficult of the four skills to master. With this skill I feel that we are really 'putting ourselves out...

Listening requires a lot of focus. How often have you found yourself drifting off inside your own head when someone is talking to you, in your own language? You are mentally adding to the shopping list, or trying to compose a response to a WhatsApp message. There are many internal distractions that prevent us from listening. In our native language this is one thing, we might be able to pick up a general idea from the few words we have listened to, but what about in a foreign

How much do you need to write in your new language? Studying to achieve a qualification? You will need to write quite a bit. Going...

I'm guessing that if you opened this blog post then reading is not your favourite pastime. Unfortunately though it's something we all...