Espresso English Podcast

A LOT of students ask me about "reported speech," when we talk about what somebody else said. For example:

• Direct Speech: "I've been to London three times."
• Reported Speech: She said she'd been to London three times.

There are a lot of tricky little details to remember... but don't worry, I'll explain them and we'll see lots of examples. There are also two quizzes for you to practice!

So much of English grammar - like this topic, reported speech - can be confusing, hard to understand, and even harder to use correctly. I can help you learn grammar easily and use it confidently inside my Advanced English Grammar Course. I will make even the most difficult parts of English grammar clear to you - and there are lots of opportunities for you to practice. If you want to take your English grammar to the next level, then my Advanced English Grammar Course is for you!

Lesson text & video: https://www.espressoenglish.net/when-do-we-use-anymore-vs-any-more/

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Lesson text & video: https://www.espressoenglish.net/which-is-correct-a-historic-event-or-an-historic-event/

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Lesson text & video: https://www.espressoenglish.net/which-is-correct-in-school-or-at-school/

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Lesson text & video: https://www.espressoenglish.net/difference-between-see-a-movie-and-watch-a-movie/

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Lesson text & video: https://www.espressoenglish.net/everybody-is-or-everybody-are/

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Lesson text & video: https://www.espressoenglish.net/when-to-use-havent-vs-dont-have/

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Lesson text & video: https://www.espressoenglish.net/do-we-get-on-a-bus-or-get-in-a-bus/

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Lesson text & video: https://www.espressoenglish.net/what-does-aint-mean-and-when-do-we-use-it/

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Lesson text & video: https://www.espressoenglish.net/have-a-good-look-or-be-good-looking/

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Lesson text & video: https://www.espressoenglish.net/speak-with-or-speak-to/

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Lesson text & video: https://www.espressoenglish.net/any-difference-between-should-and-supposed-to/

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Lesson text & video: https://www.espressoenglish.net/which-is-right-face-problems-or-face-with-problems/

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Lesson text & video: https://www.espressoenglish.net/do-we-call-someone-or-call-to-someone-on-the-phone/

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Lesson text & video: https://www.espressoenglish.net/in-a-long-time-or-for-a-long-time/

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Lesson text & video: https://www.espressoenglish.net/whats-the-rule-for-verb-infinitive-or-verb-ing-form/

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Lesson text & video: https://www.espressoenglish.net/whats-the-difference-between-the-ground-floor-and-the-first-floor/

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Lesson text & video: https://www.espressoenglish.net/why-cant-we-say-go-to-home-in-english/

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Lesson text & video: https://www.espressoenglish.net/how-to-pronounce-sts-at-the-end-of-english-words/

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Lesson text & video: https://www.espressoenglish.net/whats-the-difference-between-clever-smart-and-wise/

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Lesson text & video: https://www.espressoenglish.net/why-do-people-say-a-beer-and-a-coffee-if-those-words-are-uncountable/

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Lesson text & video: https://www.espressoenglish.net/what-does-it-mean-to-take-someone-for-granted/

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Lesson text & video: https://www.espressoenglish.net/whats-the-difference-between-incoming-and-upcoming/

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Today's question is about how to pronounce acronyms - terms like CEO - do we say their letters, or do we pronounce them as a word?

Lesson text & video: https://www.espressoenglish.net/how-do-we-pronounce-acronyms-in-english/

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Lesson text & video: https://www.espressoenglish.net/whats-the-difference-between-a-cook-and-a-chef/

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Our question of the day is about the future in English - what's the most natural way to talk about future plans?

Lesson text & video: https://www.espressoenglish.net/i-will-travel-im-traveling-or-i-will-be-traveling/

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Should we say "in the end" or "at the end"?

The answer is both, in slightly different situations.

"In the end" is more metaphorical, and "at the end" is more literal. Let's look at examples.

Lesson text & video: https://www.espressoenglish.net/in-the-end-or-at-the-end/

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The answer is YES in some cases and NO in others!

Lesson text & video: https://www.espressoenglish.net/can-you-end-a-sentence-with-a-preposition-in-english/

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Our question of the day - is "look" a state verb or an action verb? It can be both.

Lesson text & video: https://www.espressoenglish.net/is-look-an-action-verb-or-a-state-verb-in-english/

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A student asks, "How do you pronounce CON at the beginning of English words?" It depends – there are two pronunciations depending on whether that syllable is stressed.

Lesson text & video: https://www.espressoenglish.net/how-to-pronounce-con-at-the-beginning-of-english-words/

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Question: what's the difference between "rare" and "scarce"? Both of them describe things that are uncommon or hard to find, but there are two differences.

Lesson text & video: https://www.espressoenglish.net/whats-the-difference-between-rare-and-scarce/

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How well do YOU know prepositions in English? Let's find out! This is a quiz lesson. I'll show you a sentence and give you three possible words to complete it. You'll have 5 seconds to decide which is the correct preposition before I tell you the right answer. There are 15 questions total – keep track of your score and let me know how you did!

When you're learning English, you want to get everything right – and these tiny words like prepositions can be very challenging. My Advanced English Grammar Course teaches you the rules (and exceptions) of the English language in detail. It will help you understand English grammar clearly and use it more confidently and correctly.

OK, are you ready to try this prepositions quiz? Let's get started.

Hey! I'm doing a special series called "ask the teacher" in August, featuring questions from real students like you! Our first one is this – what does the phrase "awfully good" mean?!

Lesson text & video: https://www.espressoenglish.net/what-does-the-phrase-awfully-good-mean/

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Get ready for LOTS of pronunciation practice - today we have a lesson teaching you how to pronounce the names of 50 U.S. states!

Want 250+ more words to practice? Take our FREE Pronunciation Power-Up Mini-Course! You'll learn how to pronounce:

• 50 jobs
• 50 food and drink words
• 50 countries
• 50 brand names
• 50 difficult words
• 20 bonus words

The next step is to continue improving your pronunciation in my American English Pronunciation Course + Shadowing with Shayna - these courses are designed to give you nice, clear, confident pronunciation in just 10 minutes a day!

Hey everybody - listen up! Do you know what that means? Telling people to "listen up" means you want them to pay attention. This is an example of a phrasal verb being used as a command. Another one you probably know is "Watch out!" - we use this when we want to warn somebody about danger.

Today I'll teach you 20 phrasal verbs that are often used as commands, and what they mean. Phrasal verbs like these are so common in everyday English, but they can be a little hard to learn because they're all so similar – back off, back out, back up, back away, etc.

That's why I created the Phrasal Verbs in Conversation Course – to help you learn them in a natural way, by studying conversations. You'll learn more than 500 phrasal verbs inside this course, and I think you'll really enjoy it.

Client and customer are two very common words in business English, but there's a difference between them... do you know what it is?

If you're learning English for your job or career, come join my Business English Course! You'll learn hundreds of practical English phrases for speaking with clients, customers, co-workers, supervisors, and more - so you can speak more confidently at work. The lessons also teach you lots of professional vocabulary for management, finance, marketing, and even idioms that are commonly used in business English.

Have you seen any good movies lately? Today we'll look at 10 phrases for talking about movies in English, learning useful vocabulary along the way.

If you want to learn more English phrases and expressions for everyday life, my Everyday English Speaking Courses are a great choice. These courses teach you lots of phrases that native English speakers use all the time, to help you speak more fluently. There's a discount when you join both levels together!

Affect and effect are two words that even native English speakers confuse - because they sound the same in spoken English, but they have different meanings. Today you'll learn not only the difference between these words, but also more than 50 COLLOCATIONS with affect and effect (common words used in combination with them). Make sure to join my e-mail list: https://www.espressoenglish.net/500phrases The English language has lots of confusing words, and you can learn a lot more of them in my e-book of 600+ Confusing English Words Explained! The "short and sweet" explanations in this e-book will make confusing words clear to you - so you can use them confidently. If you want to learn more collocations, we have two great options:

• 1000 Collocations E-Book (intermediate level)
• Advanced Vocabulary & Collocations Course (upper-intermediate / advanced level)

Has this ever happened to you – someone asks you a question in English, and you don't understand it at ALL? One reason for the difficulty is that when native English speakers are talking fast, we often change how we pronounce the words at the beginning of questions. It can be frustrating and embarrassing when you don't understand a question… but this video will help! When you know about these pronunciation changes, then you can recognize them when you hear them – and understand questions a lot better.

The secret to improving your pronunciation is practice, practice, lots of practice – and you can get it inside my American English Pronunciation Course. It will help you speak English more clearly, correctly, and confidently!

Let's practice 100+ words with long and short vowel sounds!

Download lesson text 👉 https://espressoenglish.lpages.co/long-short-vowels-pdf-audio/

A vowel is a sound we make with our mouth and vocal cords open, without touching our tongue to any other part of our mouth. In vowel sounds the air flows freely (differently from consonants, in which we block the air with our tongue, lips, or teeth). Vowels in English are represented by the letters A, E, I, O, and U. The letter Y is considered a "semivowel" because sometimes it represents a vowel sound, and sometimes it represents a consonant sound. English vowels can be divided into two types: long vowels and short vowels. The difference between them is in the duration of their pronunciation. Long vowels are pronounced with an extended sound, while short vowels have a quicker sound.

Want to improve your pronunciation even more? Join my pronunciation course! Pronunciation & Shadowing Courses: 30 lessons each course: Listen & repeat words & phrases to practice all the sounds of American English and speak more continuously. Pronunciation evaluation: Send us a recording of your speaking, and get corrections and feedback from an Espresso English teacher. Speak English more clearly & confidently!

Don't say "I'm thinking to buy a new car." The correct way is "I'm thinking about buying a new car." There are actually multiple prepositions we can use after the verb "think," but what's the difference between them? That's what you'll learn in today's lesson!

How can you improve your grammar so that you don't make mistakes with prepositions? I have resources for all levels – from my Basic & Intermediate Grammar E-Books to my Advanced Grammar Course. These lessons will explain English grammar clearly, so you can understand and use it confidently!

Download the PDF of this lesson text - https://espressoenglish.lpages.co/100-idioms-free-pdf-audio/

Now let's continue learning inside my 300+ Idioms Course! The lessons in the idioms course are more than just lists... instead, they help you learn the expressions more actively:

• First you'll see examples of idioms in sentences, and you'll try to guess what they mean from the context.
• Then, you can watch a video where I teach the idioms' meanings.
• Next, try a quiz to see how well you remember the idiomatic expressions.
• Finally, there are short-answer questions to help you practice using these common idioms yourself – and you can get feedback and correction.

Download the PDF of this lesson text - https://espressoenglish.lpages.co/100-idioms-free-pdf-audio/

Now let's continue learning inside my 300+ Idioms Course! The lessons in the idioms course are more than just lists... instead, they help you learn the expressions more actively:

• First you'll see examples of idioms in sentences, and you'll try to guess what they mean from the context.
• Then, you can watch a video where I teach the idioms' meanings.
• Next, try a quiz to see how well you remember the idiomatic expressions.
• Finally, there are short-answer questions to help you practice using these common idioms yourself – and you can get feedback and correction.

Do you know the English words for toiletries? Wait... what are toiletries? Like – a toilet + trees? No – toiletries are things used for taking care of your hygiene and appearance. Today you'll learn 20 vocabulary words for common personal care items.

When you expand your English vocabulary, then you can speak more fluently, without having to stop and think "oh, what was that word again?" or check Google translate all the time. You can improve really fast inside my Vocabulary Builder Courses, because each one teaches you more than 1000 English words, covering lots of topics in daily life. The courses include not only lessons, but also quizzes and short-answer exercises to help you practice.

Prepositional phrases are groups of words starting with a preposition, that describe nouns, verbs, and adjectives. We'll see lots of examples in this lesson!

Lesson text: https://www.espressoenglish.net/prepositional-phrases-examples-sentences-usage-tips/

500 phrases e-book: https://bit.ly/FreeEbook500Phrases

Verb + preposition combinations: https://www.espressoenglish.net/english-verbs-prepositions-list/

Adjective + preposition combinations: https://www.espressoenglish.net/common-adjective-preposition-combinations/

Advanced English Grammar Course: https://www.espressoenglish.net/advanced-english-grammar-course/

You know what it means to make a phone call. But what does it mean to call the shots, call someone's bluff, or call dibs? Today you'll learn 10 idioms and expressions with "call."

To be fluent in English, you need to be familiar with common idioms, these little phrases or expressions that can't be translated literally! You can learn more than 300 idioms in 30 days when you join my course. The lessons will not only teach you the idioms... but also help you practice them to remember them better.

What's an EFFECTIVE way to improve your English listening? Join my Listening Course (50% off this week) to improve your skills step by step!

👂 Here's how the listening lessons work:

1. Before the listening, I'll pre-teach some key vocabulary, so that you won't be completely "lost" when hearing new words. 2. Listen the first time for the general idea only. 3. Listen again, now trying to understand the specific ideas. 4. Listen again, now trying to get specific words. 5. Finally, listen a last time with a transcript – to clear up any doubts and understand 100%.

This method works because it's ACTIVE LISTENING that helps you make progress towards understanding everything.

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❤️ Vocabulary Builder Course: https://www.espressoenglish.net/vocabulary-builder-course ❤️ Advanced Vocabulary Course: https://www.espressoenglish.net/advanced-vocabulary-and-collocations-course/

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❤️ Vocabulary Builder Course: https://www.espressoenglish.net/vocabulary-builder-course ❤️ Advanced Vocabulary Course: https://www.espressoenglish.net/advanced-vocabulary-and-collocations-course/

⭐ Website: http://bit.ly/EspressoEnglishNet ⭐ TikTok: https://bit.ly/EspressoEnglishTikTok ⭐ Instagram: https://bit.ly/EspressoEnglishInstagram ⭐ Facebook: http://bit.ly/EspressoEnglishFacebook ⭐ Twitter: http://bit.ly/EspressoEnglishTwitter