From the category archives:

improve your English

  • Language tip of the week: its or it’s?

    Posted by on March 15, 2012

    In this weekly post, we bring more useful content from the Macmillan Dictionary to English language learners. These tips are based on areas of English (e.g. spelling, grammar, collocation, synonyms, etc) which learners often find difficult. This week’s language tip helps with the difference between its and it’s. People often confuse its and it’s. The [...]

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  • Language tip of the week: avoiding sexist language

    Posted by on March 08, 2012

    In this weekly post, we bring more useful content from the Macmillan Dictionary to English language learners. These tips are based on areas of English (e.g. spelling, grammar, collocation, synonyms, etc) which learners often find difficult. To mark International Women’s Day, this week’s language tips are about how to avoid the offence that may be [...]

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  • Why use English when French says it better? An introduction to Pragmatics

    Posted by on February 16, 2012

    There are certain situations in which English speakers switch to using French. We will say, admiringly, that something has ‘a certain je ne sais quoi’, or we might wish someone bon voyage when they set off on a journey. There is a variety of reasons for preferring a French way of saying things, and one [...]

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  • Language tip of the week: apologize

    Posted by on February 07, 2012

    In this weekly microblog, we bring to English language learners more useful content from the Macmillan Dictionary. These tips are based on areas of English (e.g. spelling, grammar, collocation, synonyms, etc) which learners often find difficult. This week’s language tip helps with ways in which you can apologize or accept an apology. Ways of apologizing [...]

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  • Language tip of the week: names

    Posted by on January 31, 2012

    In this weekly microblog, we bring to English language learners more useful content from the Macmillan Dictionary. These tips are based on areas of English (e.g. spelling, grammar, collocation, synonyms, etc) which learners often find difficult. This week’s language tip helps with key words which are used for talking or writing about names. first name / given name: a [...]

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  • Language tip of the week: knowledge

    Posted by on January 24, 2012

    In this weekly microblog, we bring to English language learners more useful content from the Macmillan Dictionary. These tips are based on areas of English (e.g. spelling, grammar, collocation, synonyms, etc) which learners often find difficult. This week’s language tip helps with the noun knowledge. Knowledge is an uncountable noun, so it is never used [...]

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  • Word of the day: paraskevidekatriaphobia

    Posted by on January 13, 2012

    What do the months of January, April and July 2012 have in common? Here’s a clue: they might cause problems for anyone who suffers from paraskevidekatriaphobia. Still none the wiser? Okay, well, how about if I told you that any month in which the first day falls on a Sunday has a clash of day [...]

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  • Language tip of the week: jobs

    Posted by on January 11, 2012

    In this weekly microblog, we bring to English language learners more useful content from the Macmillan Dictionary. These tips are based on areas of English (e.g. spelling, grammar, collocation, synonyms, etc) which learners often find difficult. This week’s language tip helps with key words which are used for talking or writing about jobs. general job: [...]

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  • Language tip of the week: used to

    Posted by on January 05, 2012

    In this weekly microblog, we bring to English language learners more useful content from the Macmillan Dictionary. These tips are based on areas of English (e.g. spelling, grammar, collocation, synonyms, etc) which learners often find difficult. This week’s language tip helps with used to. Don’t confuse ▪  I am used to doing something ▪  I [...]

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  • Language tip of the week: make

    Posted by on December 27, 2011

    In this weekly microblog, we bring to English language learners more useful content from the Macmillan Dictionary. These tips are based on areas of English (e.g. spelling, grammar, collocation, synonyms, etc) which learners often find difficult. This week’s language tip helps with the verb make. When make means ‘to cause or force someone to do [...]

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