Lady in Red-- Describe people with adjectives in the correct order (1. Opinion 2. Size 3. Color 4. Pattern 5. noun that you are describing)

When you describe clothing, use the adjective order: opinion, size, color, pattern.

(If there isn't a pattern, the word "plain" goes before the color.)

She's wearing a dramatic, long red sparkly dress.  I'm wearing a comfortable, large, plain blue tee-shirt.

Basic Vocabulary Review and Listening Practice: Women's Clothing   men's clothing

Basic Shopping Conversations (Despite American accents, this video uses a few British terms. Instead of lift, use elevator. Instead of trial room, we say fitting room  Instead of "make a bill," say, "ring this up.")  Most of the phrases are common in the USA too.

Challenge:  Explanations of Adjective Order and Difficult practice using all the categories

(NO SAS-C POMP= number, opinion, size, age, shape, color, pattern, origin, material, purpose)

Intermediate Level Shopping Conversation (Turn on CC if it's too fast...)

What is your favorite color?  What is your favorite season?  What's your favorite outfit?  

Describe what you wore when you looked really good.

Do you want to practice grammar?

Can you find any grammar mistakes in this grammar song?

Some people in our class got an excellent grammar education before this class.  Some never had a chance to learn grammar before. Here are links for some of grammar you should master before going to high intermediate.  If you want grammar practice, try these links.

Can you name the parts of speech?

Simple Present

Present Continuous=Present Progressive

Simple Present vs. Present Continuous

future with will

future with going to

Simple Past

Comparative and Superlative Adjectives

Old Fashioned Pronoun Use

Challenge: Adjective Order

Memory work:  80 Common Irregular Verbs 

Irregular Verbs - A variety of little-by-little lists, songs, and games to help you remember  

Non Count Nouns

Common expressions with Make or do

Where were you?

 There aren't many videos of this song.  "Outreach" is the wrong word.  It should be "our reach."

Is dating normal in your former country?

Do you like to go on dates?

Where are good places to go on a first date?

What do you do if you feel "ghosted?"

Outreach is a strategy to try to get more members into an organization.  "In our reach" means that with some effort, we can get it.  Fluent English is in your reach.

Glued 

I gave my love a cherry

 

Do you like to give gifts? 

When do you give gifts?

Who do you give gifts to?

What are good gifts to give to friends or childen?

How do you like your eggs?

 

Do you like to eat eggs?  How do you like them cooked?

Talking at a restaurant

Quizlet Vocabulary: Speaking about food

Grammar: Practice using count & non-count nouns

A few regional differences:  My family says "appetizer" rather than "starter." 

In this area, a 20% (minimum) tip is customary.  "Tip jobs" have a lower minimum wage, so servers don't get the minimum wage of $21/hour.  Servers usually get $2.13/hour from the restaurant, and taxes often take their whole paychecks.  Some restaurants require servers to pay some of their tips to bussers, "expo," (a person who doublechecks the order and arranges the food in a pretty way) and bartenders.

In the conversation at the end of the video, native speakers in this area say, "chicken sandwich" rather than chicken burger.  We'd probably say we like tacos or a taco if there's only one.

English for my Job-Hospitality

Food and drink Vocabulary from English Club  (Go down to see links to vocabulary and practice)

Grammar: count vs. non-count  (same link as the top)

What is your favorite restaurant nearby?  What is the best restaurant in your native country?  What is the best restaurant you ever ate at?

It feels like I'm falling in love

 

How do you feel right now?

Describe someone that's easy to fall in love with...

Sky full of stars

 I miss the dark skies and zillions of starts I could see from my grandmother's yard when I was a child.

We went to a special dark sky place to camp last year.

It wasn't very dark.

What are you going to do tomorrow?

What do you wear when you want to look good?

How long will I love you

 

How long does it take to clean your kitchen?

How long does it take to walk around your neighborhood after dinner?

How long should you know someone before considering marriage?

What's this? What's that?

 A lot of topics in this class feel easy because they are not new for most of you, but they are also not easy to remember to do every time you speak or write. If you are in my class for listening, try to have English conversations as often as you can.

Most of you learned food names, singular and plural, and count nouns a long time ago.

Do you remember (1) this/that   (2+) these/those? A student asked about those terms today.

Easy Quiz from test-English.com

UsingEnglish.com Quiz

Count-Non-Count

My class presentation on count and non-count

Video: Some things you can count and some you can't...

Practice using a or an only with singular count nouns

Easy Partitives (In this game, fruit is count (grrrrr) and a piece is thicker than a slice

Similar Information -- Who Wants to be a Billionaire Style

Partitives Game (Partitives are containers or pieces that make non-count nouns countable)

Quizlet -- Count or Non-count

More Practice!!

Advanced Class List of Non-Count Nouns

Birthdays

 

Do you enjoy parties?

Do you like birthdays?

What were your important birthdays?

Happiness

 

What do you do when you would like to feel better?

I read and eat crunchy food.  I call my friends.  I take a walk.  I sometimes go swimming.  I sometimes go shopping.

Do you like to dress up?

We say "dress up" both for costumes and beautiful formal clothes.

Kids and adults in the US often wear costumes on Halloween.  My children liked to do theater so they dressed up in costumes when they were actors.

 Did you ever wear a costume?  I had a great glow-in-the-dark ghost costume in fifth grade.   

Some people dress up for parties.  What do you usually wear to parties?  What was your best outfit ever?

Right where we are

 

Are you in a relationship?  If yes, how old were you when you met?  What do you like to do together?

If no, describe a good partner for you.  

Frequency

We use frequency adverbs to talk about how often things occur or repeat.

(Don't forget to write sentences with FAs for homework!)

I often teach my classes to put frequency adjectives before most verbs, but after the verb "to be" because that's how we usually speak them in the USA.

It's okay, however, to start or end a sentence with a frequency adverb especially to emphasize the frequency in poetry, lyrics, or writing.

Quiz: Click on the words to put them in the sentence in the correct order. Make a mistake? Click in the box to start over.

Kahoot: Adverbs of Frequency

How often can you speak or listen to English?  When can you speak or listen to English?  How often do you have fun?  What fun things do you do?

He doesn't want to talk, and she doesn't either.

Formal English:  The stars in the sky don't mean anything to you.  Not 

The stars in the sky don't mean nothing to you.

Using English Quiz: Practice Simple Present

EasyESOL.blogspot: agree with too or either

Quiz to practice too vs. either. The ones that aren't at the end of the sentence are "too" meaning also.

What are some things you and your partner/friend/family member agree on?

My husband likes spicy Chinese food, and I do too.

My daughter likes chocolate, and I do too.

My mother likes to read novels, and I do too.

My husband doesn't like to run marathons, and I don't either.

My daughter doesn't like scary movies, and I don't either.

I don't like to iron clothes, and my mother doesn't either.

Dance

 

I love to dance, but I don't usually dance at parties.  I am excited that my student picked this as a favorite song because I sometimes do a line dance to "Dance Monkey."  Some of my classmates won a prize in the 2019 Senior Olympics by dressing up as monkeys and doing this dance.

Do you like to dance?  How often do you dance?  What's your favorite kind of dance?  Do you like to watch dancing?  Did you ever take dancing lessons?

Happy Fourth of July!!

This next video is super-fast for our level, but it repeats enough that it's good for training your ears. Understanding every word doesn't make the song easy to understand.

History of Independence Day -- Also fast, but clearly spoken.  Make sure you turn the closed captioning (CC) on.

ESOL Explanation of Independence day with a transcript.

Some U.S.A. patriotic songs you will probably hear today...

Read about the flag and other USA symbols...

During fireworks, you usually hear "Stars and Stripes Forever."

Listening: Interview with questions about the Fourth of July


Reading/listening practice -- press the triangle to hear the story as you read it.

funinfairfax.com:  Fireworks in Northern VA (scroll down for the 4th)


Are you enjoying the fourth of July?  What are you doing?  Does your former country have an independence day celebration?  When is it?  What do you do?

All of Me

 

Are you in a romantic relationship?  

(If Yes)  How did you meet your current partner?  Do you do any small things for the person you love?

  

(If No)  Do you like to talk about family?  Can you describe how you met a good friend? How do you stay in touch with old friends?