Tag: B1

Intermediate 1

A2 · B1 · Learning English with songs

Learning English with songs: Feeling Good by Avicii

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Good morning! Today’s Monday and many of you may feel tired and not very motivated by the thought of starting a new week, but the funny thing is that some of us feel happy and full of energy because during the weekend we had time to think and plan new projects and Monday is the perfect day to set them to work. While I was writing an email, this song started playing on my computer and I thought that was just perfect to set people in a positive mood or sort of explain the feeling you have when you are happy and want to shout it out to the world. It’s another of Avicii’s wonderful songs Feeling Good. The lyrics deal with present simple, present continuous and vocabulary related to the natural world, so it’s suitable for students from A2 to B1 although you may want to see the pre-listening list of vocabulary below before doing the listening activity.

Vocabulary list

Breeze /bri:z/ = a soft wind – blossom /ˈblɒs.əm/= flowers on trees that become fruit – Dawn /dɔːn/= a period in the day just before the sun rises. Dragonfly  /ˈdræɡ.ən.flaɪ/ = large insect with four transparent wings that flies over water and can be of different colours like green or red. Butterflies (singular butterfly)  /ˈbʌt.ə.flaɪ/= an insect with large brightly coloured wings. Scent /sent/= the smell of something.

Feeling Good listening

A2 · B1 · B2 · phonetics

Silent letters in English words

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When you have a phonetic language like Spanish, for instance, it is quite easy to say the words you have learned from a book or  a dictionary because if you know the sounds of each letter you can do quite well when speaking the language and everybody will understand you. But this is not the case with English, which for a lot of people seems like a `crazy´language with its own rules. I already mentioned this feature of English in a post on phonetics and here I’m going to mention another feature that will also look pretty strange to many language learners, that is, letters that appear in the written form of language but should not be pronounced. These letters are called ‘silent letters’ because we do not pronounce them. About two years ago I created a slide lesson, but now that I (unfortunately), have a lot of time, I have also made a video where you can see and hear the examples some of the most typical silent letters.

There’s a quiz button at the bottom of this post.

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B1 · B2 · vocabulary activity

B2 Seafood vocabulary

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Here’s a short video with pictures and the opportunity to hear these words. You can also check your memory and spelling in the crossword you will find in this post. You can also download the paper version and keys.

Seafood crossword
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B1 · B2 · Sin categoría · Vocabulary · vocabulary activity

B2 Cooking vocabulary 1

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Is it bake or roast? Grilled or fried? Why do the English say both, roast potatoes and baked potatoes? Is it the same dish? Here’s a video with an opportunity to see pictures and hear these different cooking adjectives and nouns. In the video you have a short quiz to check your memory for these words.

B1 · B2 · vocabulary activity

B2 Cooking vocabulary 2

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Hello. In this post you’ll find a short video with pictures and a short quiz for basic cooking vocabulary for intermediate levels of English. Cooking vocabulary 2 covers more advanced verbs. If you’d like to check your memory and spelling, you can do the crossword that you’ll find in this post.

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B1 · Listening · songs

Learning English with songs Cover of Lovely (Billie Eilish)

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I this beautiful Billie-Eilish-song cover by TurnOfftheSystem is amazing! I’m absolutely lost for words and so proud to share it with the world. All the voices by the same guy, working on his laptop, using his mic, shut away from the world, in his room.

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B1 · B2 · vocabulary activity

Intermediate Shopping and money crossword

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Photo by freestocks.org on Pexels.com

Nothing like a nice and juicy crossword to get our neurons working on Monday. Try this crossword made on Crossword lab. By the way, why is it that whenever I look for a picture related to shopping, there are so many photos of women shopping? I hate shopping and I honestly don’t think that this is an activity that exclusively belongs to females. 😦

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B1 · B2 · Grammar activity

Phrasal verbs and prepositional phrases for shopping and fashion

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Is it pay by or pay with? Wrap up or wrap about? Uf! We all know that English prepositions drive us crazy and I don’t mean “the good type of craziness”. Here’s a short quiz to get you help you out with some of the most common expressions of this type.

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B1 · B2 · Vocabulary

Flipping cards: verbs for clothes and accessories

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Picture by KayDee Owens on Unsplash

What is it, match or suit? How do you pronounce k-n-i-t-e, nait, kite or whatever? Here’s another flipping card vocabulary activity with most of these verbs for intermediate students. You’ll also be able to hear the examples as I’ve included an audio.

Click here for the activity