How to get the British accent! Lesson one

Today starts a new series of lessons focussing on how to get the British accent, the first lesson focuses on the "Glottal T" and "True T", a very important part of British pronunciation!

English lesson for Spanish speakers!

Hola a todos! Aprende Ingles, mejora tu acento, y disfruta esta clase muy especial de hoy! 

Estamos acompañados de Patricia Rodriguez de Antena 3 en España!

How to debate in English

How to debate in English - New YouTube English class!

Join these debates:

Abortion - Should it be legal? - www.youtube.com/watch?v=pt4id7l99UA
Can a person be moral without religion? - www.youtube.com/watch?v=TPz9pPPwRlA
Is animal testing necessary? - www.youtube.com/watch?v=P4N7xZ5-7q4
Should we tougher on drugs? - www.youtube.com/watch?v=zWMKQ2EKUPo
Should there be more gun control? - www.youtube.com/watch?v=8o3_1m94hYg
Does gender equality exist in the workplace? - www.youtube.com/watch?v=zpSElTHtYXs

Reference for debating vocabulary

Ways to give your opinion: 
I think that...
In my opinion...
I'm of the opinion (that)..
I like to think (that)...
I'm convinced (that)...

To emphasise a point:
I must stress (that)....

To repeat an important statement:
Just to reiterate...

To ask for opinion:
Where do you stand on...?
What's your opinion on...?

How to agree with someone:
You've got a point.
I see your point.

To say that you agree with/support a general idea:
I'm for...
I'm pro-...


How to disagree with someone:
I'm afraid I have to disagree (with...)
I'm not persuaded (that)...
I can't agree with you.
It's against what I believe.
I have to take issue with...

To disagree with a general idea:
I'm against...
I'm anti-...

To encourage further discussion:
Is it not therefore more beneficial to....?
Does it not make more sense to....?
Have you considered...?
Your opinion is biased.

Steam gets it!

"How to debate in English" new lesson coming soon!

Coming very soon!

Phrasal Verb - Go Off

Phrasal Verb - Go Off

Definition:
A device (Alarm, phone...) makes an alert noise

Rules:
Intransitive, Inseparable

Examples:
"I woke up late because my alarm didn't go off"
__________
"I was in the interview and my phone went off, I forgot to put it on silent!"
_________
"I set my alarm to go off at 6am"
_________
"We have to leave! The fire alarm's going off!"

Phrasal Verb - Come over

Phrasal Verb - Come over

Definition:
A casual visit/Approach

Rules:
Intransitive, Inspeparable

Examples:
"Do you want to come over later? We're gonna order pizza and watch 'Mean Girls'"
_____________
"When I called the donkey, he came over really quickly"

Phrasal Verb - Put Off

Phrasal verb - Put Off

Definitions:
1) Repel/Repulse from bad manners/behaviour
2) Delay an event

Rules:
Transitive, Separable

Examples:

"Tomorrow's quite busy for me, can we put off the meeting until friday?" (2)
____________
"I was quite attracted to him, but the way he eats his food with his mouth open... urgh! it really puts me off! (1)
_____________
"The smell was so bad in the restaurant that it put me off my food!" (1)
_____________
"We were going to play tennis today but the rain was so bad we decided to put it off until next weekend" (2)

Phrasal verb - put down

Phrasal verb - Put Down

Definitions: 

1) End an animal's life in a humane way

2) make someone feel bad by insulting them

Rules:

Transitive, separable

Examples:

"He always puts me down, and in front of everyone else, I don't know why, he's so nice with everyone else" (2)

_____________

"Our dog got really sick, and he was old so we had to put him down" (1)

_____________

Phrasal Verb - Take After

Phrasal Verb - Take after

Definition:
Resemble in appearance or personality

Rules:
Intransitive, Inseparable

Examples:
"I take after my mum more in looks, but I have more of my dad's personality and mannerisms"
____________
"I hope our kids don't take after you, you're quite ugly"

Phrasal Verb - Shoot Down

Phrasal Verb - Shoot Down

Definition:
1) To cause a plane to crash by shooting it
2) Put an end to an idea / Reject something

Rules:
Transitive, Separable

Examples:
"The investors shot my business idea down without even thinking about it!"
___________
"My boss always shoots me down before I get a chance to speak." :(
___________
"I shoot down any idea that I think won't make our company money"
___________
"I asked her to go out with me but she shot me down"

Phrasal Verb - Move out

Phrasal Verb - Move out

Definition:
Change house

Rules:
Intransitive, Inseparable

Examples:
"I'm moving out this Saturday, I found a really good flat in Camden!"
_____________
"I want to move out"
_____________
"I moved out of my parents house when I was 19!"

Phrasal Verb - Tag Along

Phrasal Verb - Tag Along

Definition:
Follow someone, usually uninvited

Rules:
Intransitive, Inseparable

Examples:

"Where are you guys going?"
"Just to get some lunch"
"Is it ok if I tag along?"
_____________
"We're gonna show the new guy around the offices, do you want to tag along?"
_____________
"John's coming with us today"
"I don't like that idea, I don't want him tagging along, he's annoying"

Phrasal Verb - Back Up

Phrasal verb - Back Up

Definitions:
1) Reverse
2) Support

Rules
1) Intransitive/Transitive, Separable
2) Transitive, Separable

Examples:
Definition 1:
"You're too far forward, you'll have to back up a bit"
_______________
<--- The man is trying to kiss the dog, but the dog keeps backing up.
_______________
"If you back the bed up against the wall more, there'll be more space in this room."

_______________________________________
Definition 2:
"Why don't you ever back me up in conversations?! You never support me"
__________________

"My argument is backed up by solid evidence"

Desert & Dessert - Common mistakes

Quick, short lesson for you today, looking at a common English spelling mistake, "Desert" & "Dessert"

Enjoy! 

As always, if you'd like us to teach a lesson about a certain topic, send us a message!

Keep with the times, grandpa!

A common belief held by non-native English teachers is that the English language hasn't changed - at least in the last hundred years and will continue to not do so. Today I was hit with this belief from a supervisor of a group of English teachers (non-native). The first example I could think of was with stative verbs, and how "I'm loving this burger right now", or "I'm understanding a little more in classes this week than I was last week" have become not only acceptable, but preferable in common everyday English.

The point of today's post? English teachers need to be kept up to date with everyday English, not just business, not just formal ways of speaking, whether you like it or not, English is like a teenager, (and is actually mostly shaped by teenagers) forever changing its mind about which words are, let's say, "the popular kids in school" these days. So keep with the times, grandpa! The English language is so heavily influenced by technology and pop culture, that more or less every 5 years or so (Actually probably more frequently), not only slang expressions, but our entire way of using English changes, not massively, but enough to be given attention in classes. For example, watch this video and tell yourself THIS isn't already happening...

You know you studied English at Malvern House when...

...You told your friends that you study close to where Harry Potter got his train from

You never understood what this pointy/beepy game was

These symbols made no sense

Primark became your best friend

This photo makes you feel late for class

A class in the park was the best class

You have a favourite side

You love this woman

And you understand why this photo is depressing :(

Phrasal verb - Blow off

Phrasal verb - Blow off

Definition:
1) Dismiss something or someone, or someone's
2) Release tension (blow off some steam)

Rules:
Transitive, Definition 1 - Separable. Definition 2 - Inseparable

Examples:
"We had a plan to meet today but he just blew me off"
___________
"I need to blow off some steam"
___________
"I've pretty much blown off all my classes this week, I just stayed in bed, the classes are boring."

Phrasal verb - Pass on

Phrasal verb - Pass On

Definition:
1) Give something to another person
2) Tell news to someone, spread gossip

Rules:
Transitive, separable

Examples:
"When you're finished reading this book, pass it on! Let someone else read it!" (1)
__________
"Don't pass it on, it's a secret, but Anna is pregnant!" (2)

Phrasal verb - Cool Down

Phrasal verb - Cool down / cool off

Definition:
Decrease the heat


Rules:
Transitive and intransitive, separable

Examples:
"I'm so hot! I need to cool down!"
_________
"Your food is too hot! Let it cool down for a while."
_________
"Cool yourself down with a bottle of water over your head!"

"be on the same wavelength" - English idioms

English Idioms - Be on the same wavelength

Definition: 
To easily understand each other, to connect about and have the same opinion on a lot of topics.

Examples: 



"I like that we have the same mind about things! We're always on the same wavelength"
____________
"Ok, YOU don't understand my reasons for doing this, but the boss will get it! We're on the same wavelength about this!"
____________
Chandler: Then I went over to Beefsteak Julie's....
Rachel: Beefsteak Charlie's?
Chandler: Yes! See you and I have always been like -- (Motions as above to mean on the same wavelength)

The difference between "House" and "Home"

"House" and "Home" ... What's the difference?

A house is a building

"I live in a house, you live in a house, on my street there are lots of houses..."

But "home" has more emotion, more feeling! It's where you live, but not JUST that.

"I live in New York, but my home will always be in London"

So not necessarily where you live, it's where you feel comfortable and happy living/staying. 

If you have any requests for lessons on differences in English, leave a comment or send us a message!

Don't forget to watch our English lessons on YouTube! www.youtube.com/papateachme

Learn how to give directions in English, and prepositions of place

Aly and Tom go to visit the Queen's baby or whatever in this prepositions lesson.

Minute English lessons - Shade & Shadow

Learn English in under a minute with our series of short, amazing English lessons on YouTube!

Phrasal verb - Stand up

Phrasal verb - Stand up

Definition:
1) Arrange to meet someone, then cancel without telling them.
2) To rise to an upright position on your feet.

Rules:
Transitive, Separable

Examples:

"I was standing there for an hour, you didn't tell me anything! I can't believe you stood me up!"
________________
"I'm sorry for standing you up yesterday!"
______________
"Ok so we're meeting tonight at 9??"
"Yeah!"
"Ok if you have to cancel, just let me know! Don't stand me up!
"I'm not gonna stand you up! I promise!"

How to use the word fuck

How to use fuck and its conjugations

Is 'fuck' really so bad? It's not a 'bad' word (Well, it is, and people like your boss might not like it) it's just a strong word to show that you feel strongly about something

Phrasal verb - be up to

Phrasal verb - Be up to

Definition:
1) To be someone's decision
2) To be someone's responsibility (be down to)

Rules:
Transitive, Inseparable

Examples:

"What do you want to do?"
"I don't mind, it's up to you, you decide!" (1)
___________
"Coach! We're down by 2 points! there's five minutes left in the game!"
"We can win this game! Come on guys! It's all up/down to you" (2)

Phrasal verb - Beat Up

Phrasal verb - Beat Up

Definition:
1) Hit someone repeatedly to inflict physical damage. (AKA "kick someone's arse/ass"
2) To reproach oneself

Rules:
Transitive, separable

Examples:
"He kissed my girlfriend so I beat him up"(1)
______________________
"Oh I'm such an idiot! I deserve baaaad things to happen to me!"
"Don't beat yourself up about the situation, you didn't do anything wrong!"(2)

Prepositions of place - YouTube lesson!

Learn prepositions of place with Tom's little ball!

Phrasal Verb - Put up

Phrasal Verb - Put up

Definitions:
1) Construct
2) Provide living/sleeping arrangements for someone

Rules:
Transitive, Separable

Examples:

"They put up the new office buildings in about 2 months! It was so fast!"
________________
"My company put me up in a five star hotel! Awesome!"

Teaching English to Putin!

Уроки английского языка для русских студентов!!

Using contractions in English

A point about contractions: It's better and more natural to use contractions in English, however, in Joffrey's case here:

Or in Bill Clinton's case in the 1990s: "I did..not...have...sexual relations with that woman".

To NOT use contractions makes the sentence sound stronger, perhaps more formal, and it has been said by language experts that people tend to not use contractions when they're lying, perhaps to try and sound more convincing! So... remember to use your contractions!

Learn English with Foo Fighters - Everlong

Learn English with Foo Fighters

First: Download the worksheet for the song

http://www.papateachme.com/everlong.pdf

Second: Watch the amazing song and complete the worksheet

Finally: Give yourself a high-five... Why? Because you're awesome! ;)

Phrasal Verb - Patch Up

Phrasal Verb - Patch Up

Definition: Fix

Rules:
transitive, separable

Examples:
"They tried to patch up the road with tape!?"
_______
"We've had a lot of problems in our relationship recently, but we're trying to patch things up"
_______
"I put a hole in my jacket!"
"Don't worry, we can patch it up, it's only small"

Improve your writing in English - Linking words

Improve your writing in English

Firstly: Watch this lesson about linking words and do the test at the end.

Secondly: Complete this worksheet to practice using "Despite/In spite of"!
http://www.papateachme.com/despite.pdf

Finally: Look n the mirror and say "WOW, I'm not ONLY good-looking, but I'm also good at writing in English!"

Happy learning! ;)

Improve your English this summer with Papa Teach Me!

Summer Sale!

This summer, improve your English online with Skype and Papa Teach Me!

Contact us to start your course! 

papalessons@gmail.com

www.papateachme.com

Learn English with Guns N Roses!

Learn English with Guns N Roses!

Today's song lesson is "Sweet child of mine" by Guns N Roses,

Download the worksheet...

http://www.papateachme.com/sweet-child-o-mine.pdf

...And listen to the song to improve your English:

Happy learning! ;)

American English VS. British English (Happy Independence Day, USA!)

We love you, USA!

Phrasal Verb - Go Through

Phrasal Verb - Go through

Definition:

1) To examine carefully

2) To experience

3) To perform/recite/do something in order to remember it in the future

Rules:
Transitive, Inseparable

Examples:

"I went through all the evidence again and again, and I think he's innocent!" (1)

_________

"The Stark family has been through a lot! Their son is crippled, Rob was killed, let's see what happens in season 2!" (2)

_________

"We went through an amazing period where we didn't fight, we were so happy, but then we broke up suddenly!" (2)

________

"Let's go through the present perfect grammar" (3)

Phrasal verb - Give up

Phrasal Verb - Give up

Definition:
Quit

Rules:
Transitive/Intransitive, Separable

Examples:
"The dog gave up trying to bring the thing into his bed"
____________
I wish Joffrey would give up the throne, but he's an arsehole so he won't
____________
"You should give up smoking!"
____________
"I went running today, but I gave up after 5 minutes"

Phrasal Verb - Deal with

Phrasal Verb - Deal with

Definition:
Manage/handle a situation

Rules:
Transitive, inseparable

Examples:

"I couldn't deal with the amount of work i was given, so I quit my job"

________

"You're so annoying!"

"Deal with it!"

Phrasal Verb - Hang out

Phrasal Verb - Hang out

Definition:
Relax (usually with friends)

Rules:
Intransitive (Transitive with 'with'), inseparable

Examples:

"What are you doing? 

"Nothing, just hanging out with a few friends"

__________

"I can't hang out with you any more Joffrey, you killed my father!"

__________

"I promise! Nothing happened! We only hung out! We're only friends, nothing more!"

Phrasal Verb - Come between

Phrasal Verb - Come between

Definition:
Interrupt a process/relationship

Rules:
Transitive, Inseparable

Examples:

The goat came between the two turtles during their 'special time'

_________

I love you but your work keeps coming between us!

__________ 

Nothing will come between us again, I promise!

__________

My love of ice cream is really coming between me and my fitness goals!

phrasal verb - look into

Phrasal verb - look into

Definition:
Investigate

Rules:
transitive, inseparable

Examples:
The police are looking into the case carefully! We don't want to miss any clues!
___________
_________
"I'm looking into how I can become a detective!"
_________
"I think your girlfriend is cheating on you"
"No she isn't, you're crazy!"
"Want me to look into it more?"
"NO!"

phrasal verb - pig out

Phrasal verb - Pig out

Definition:
Eat lots of junk food

Rules:
Intransitive, inseparable

Examples:
"I'm gonna sit here and pig out until i have no feelings about anything"
__________
"He doesn't do any exercise, he just sits there and pigs out all day"

Phrasal verb - Eat out

Phrasal verb - Eat out

Definition:
Eat food at a restaurant, not at home

Rules:
Intransitive, Inseparable

Examples:
"I'm too lazy to cook today, let's just eat out"
__________
"Is it more romantic to eat out, or to cook for your date?"

Phrasal verb - Take out

Phrasal verb - Take out

Definitions:
1) Withdraw cash from an ATM
2) Go on a date with someone and pay

Rules:
Transitive, Separable

Examples:
"I need some cash, come with me, I need to take some money out!"
__________
"No, no, I'm paying for the dinner, I'm taking you out, remember?!"
__________
"I wanted to take her out, but she had a boyfriend"

Phrasal Verb - Blow up

Phrasal verb - Blow up

Definition:
Explode

Rules:
Transitive/Intransitive, separable

Examples:
The toaster blew up when he put a knife inside it
_________
The guy almost blew himself up when he was trying to fix the electricity in his house
_________
The terrorists blew up a bus of penguins

Phrasal Verb - Pass by

Phrasal verb - Pass by

Definition:
to go or move past

Rules:
Transitive, separable

Examples:
"I was watching tv and suddenly a cat passed by in a box on a skateboard"
________
"Do you know that guy? Or is he just someone passing by?"
________
"WTF, I was calling your name and you just passed right by me without saying hello!"

Phrasal verb - Keep up

Phrasal verb - Keep * up

Definition:
Continue, maintain something (at the same rate)

Rules:
Transitive, separable

Examples: 
"I learned to speak English really well in England, but since then I just haven't kept it up, so after a while I forgot everything!"
_________
"You run so fast! I can't keep up with you!"
_________
"I went out drinking with them, but I couldn't keep up with the amount they drink"
_________
"You're doing so well at learning phrasal verbs! Keep it up!"

Phrasal verb - Ask out

Phrasal verb - Ask out

Definition:
Invite on a romantic date

Rules:
Transitive, Separable

Examples:
"He asked her out, and she said yes!"
________
"I'm going to ask her out"
________
"I've never been asked out"

Phrasal Verb - Come out

Phrasal Verb - Come out

Definitions:
1) To exit in order to join people OUTSIDE a place
2) Express a secret (come out AS gay)
3) To result in something (come out OF)
4) To be released into the public

Rules:
Intransitive, Inseparable

Examples:
"Where are you?"
"Still in the club!"
"Come out!" (1)
___________
"Our son came out as gay last year, and of course we support him!"(2)
___________
"We talked for hours about our problems"
"And did anything come out of it?"(3)
"No, nothing, we're still arguing!"
____________
"When did this movie come out?"(4)
"It's old, it came out like 10 years ago"

Phrasal Verb - Knock Out

Phrasal Verb - Knock Out

Definition:
Render someone unconscious

Rules:
Transitive, Separable

Examples:
Manny Pacqiao Knocked the other guy out!
____________
The smell was so bad it almost knocked me out!
____________
Don't worry, during the operation you'll be knocked out, so you won't feel a thing

Phrasal Verb - Breathe in/Out

Phrasal Verb - Breathe in/Out

Definition:
Breathe IN = Inhale
Breathe OUT = Exhale

Rules:
Transitive/Intransitive, Separable

Examples:
"Breathe out, so I can breathe you in" - Foo Fighters
_________
"Breathe in.... Hold it.... and Breathe out! And relax!" - Yoga classes
_________
"My chest hurts when I breathe in" - A fat person at the doctor

Phrasal verb - Fall off

Phrasal verb - Fall off

Definition:
<----- What happens to the woman (To drop from something else)

Rules:
Transitive/Intransitive, Inseparable

Examples:

She fell off (of) the car as the driver started to leave

__________

I was dancing on the table, but I was so drunk that I fell off