Duplication

Duplication is one way of vocabulary growth in English. It is kind of amusing to use such words when you speak, but they are informal. By and large, duplication is doubling one word with a change in either the initial consonant or the medial vowel. From this basis, there are two types of duplication:

1. Change in the initial consonant.
Examples:
Mumbo-jumbo: magician
Helter-skelter: something done quickly and without order.
Hotch-potch/ hodge-podge: a number of mixed up things.
Hob-nob: to spend time talking to people who are in a higher social rank than you.
Teeny-weeny: very small.
Nitty-gritty: the important details.
Higgledy-piggledy: confused
Hocus-pocus/ hanky-panky: language or activity that is meant to trick or confuse people, especially those of magicians.

2. Change in the medial vowel.
Examples:
Zig-zag: a line with many left and right turns.
Ping-pong: table tennis
Chit-chat: a casual conversation.
Mish-mash: a confusing mess.
Flip-flop: a pair of hosewore shoes.
Wishy-washy: someone who doesn't have a clear idea of what they want to be and can't decide what they want.
Riff-raff: an insulting word for people who are noisy, badly-behaved, or from a lower class.
Tittle-tattle: gossip
Dilly-dally: waste time because of not being able to decide.
Tick-tock: sound of the clock.

Note: words like fifty-fifty, goody-goody, and bye-bye don't belong to duplication, for there is no change at all in these words.

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Don't get higgledy-piggledy and enjoy English. ;-)

Eight tactics to Study any Book effectively

To approach any book, you should follow a procedure that would enable you to comprehend  it and get the best out of it. Here are eight tactics to help you get the maximum benefits of the book.

1. First of all, you need to explore the book thoroughly. You should first read the contents in order to have an overview of the whole book. Then read the entire book so that you get to know the different parts and understand the main idea of the book.

2. After having gotten a clear  general idea of the book, ask yourself how to benefit from the book, and how can the book make a turning point in your personality and life as a whole.

3. Raise some questions about the book and some of inquiries you expect to encounter.

4. Read the book again and pay attention to the details and underlying information. Don't forget to highlight keywords and significant points so that you can easily find the piece of info you look for.

5. While reading, try to summarize each chapter or section of a chapter.  When you finish reading the book, weave the chapter summaries into one integral summary for the whole book.

6. After havivg finished, answer the questions which you have already raised. Ask more questions and answer them.

7. Relate the book's theme to you and your society. This way, you can make a good use of the book and widen your intellectual scope of thinking and data association.

8. Write the lessons that you got from reading and studying the book and how you can apply them in your life.

Following these tactics will absolutely help you studying more effectively. If you like the article, please share and let others know about us.

Creative Methods for Teaching English Tenses

Teaching the tenses in English is something inevitable for all teachers. Moreover, the ability of the teacher to simplify his/her lesson, determines his/her proficiency in their career. Here we have a number of steps that would lead you to the best way to teach the tenses:

1. Provide the examples first.
The traditional technique of giving the rule then the examples is so much boring and ineffective because it makes the students' role so passive. But by giving the examples first, you give the students a chance to deduce the rule by themselves and have a contribution in the lesson. Here, the students interact and have an active role.

2. Let them infer the rule by themselves. After having given them the examples, let them infer the rule and then provide more examples by themselves.

3. Teach them the usage of the tense. Students must know appropriately when to use each tense so that they differentiate between them and use them aptly.

4. Give them the keywords. Keywords make it easy for students to determine the tense and use it properly.Examples of keywords are: soon, now, ago, since, already, usually, etc.

5. Teach them the negative and interrogative forms of the tense. They ought to be able to negate and interrogate  the sentences as they speak.

6. Let them give examples about their own lives. This helps them make grammatically correct sentences about realistic things they experience in their daily life.

7. As a task, write some statements and let them determine what are the tenses then change them into the negative and interrogative  forms.

Hope you like these new ideas and found them interesting and innovative. If you did, please share and tell a friend about us. O:-)

Mastering spelling

Spelling is one of the hardest parts of learning English language because of the huge difference between letters and sounds. To be able to spell a word correctly,  you need to consider these tips:

1. When memorizing a new word: look at it carefully. Consider each and every letter.

2.Break it down into it's basic constituents. For example: the word "international". Its root(basic constituent) is "nation". So, inter- and -al are infixes. Now it becomes easier for you to memorize the spelling of the word international after having known that it consists of three parts.

3.Think of a similar word in English. E.g: "notion" is similar to our word "nation". It is easier for us to learn when we make comparisons; therefore, comparing nation to notion helps us to remember its spelling.

4.Close your eyes and imagine the letters one by one. Sometimes we memorize the words while we think about other stuff. We might look at the word and say it out, but our mind is busy thinking about another issue. Consequently, closing our eyes and imagining the word would absolutely help solving this obstacle and keep the mind present.

5. Spell it aloud letter by letter.
You might be asked about the spelling of a word when you don't have a chance to write it down. You will be coerced to spell it out then. spelling out the words is difficult because the mind gets busy with two processes: speaking and thinking of the word's spelling simultaneously. But you will have no problem if you have already trained yourself by spelling out the words letter by letter.

6. You need to understand some basic rules for spelling. For instance, we use 'ie' except before 'c'. we use 'ei' as in believe, achieve, chief, etc and conceive, receive, ceiling, etc.
Remember: there are always exceptions like seize.

7. Memorize the words as smaller chunks. It's hard to remember long words that include silent and doubled letters. But when we divide such words into smaller parts it becomes easier. For instance, the word millennium can be divided as mill.enn.ium.

8. When you make a mistake in spelling, go and check it up in the dictionary instantly, for we learn better from our mistakes.

Applying these steps, you will be able to remember the spelling of words easily. It might be hard to apply them, but this is natural because everything is hard in the beginning.

Expect amazing lessons, tips, and information next time. Kindly, share and invite.

Ten Powerful Tips for Listening

Listening is the first skill to acquire a language. Actually, infants learn to speak through listening. They keep listening to peaple around them, and then they try to imitate. Bit by bit, they speak. Therefore, English learners should focus on listening and listen as much as possible because you will repeat, when you speak, what you have already listened to.

The following 10 tips make a powerful listening strategy that will enable you to both understand what you listen to and speak very well.

1. Try to, initially, get easy English audios or videos. There are many on the Internet. With the course of time, you can get advanced listening materials.

2. Identify the topic of the audio/video.
Identifying the topic makes it easier for you to understand the general idea and have a clear picture of the material. In videos, the topic is usually written rather than stated. Sometimes, the topic is not at all mentioned, so you ought to guess and infer it.

3. Identify whether it is a talk, a dialogue, a story, a lecture, or a discussion. This will help you understand who is speaking and whom is s/he speaking to. When doing so, you get the framework of the listening material and comprehend the situation. You will listen with a clear visual image of the situation.

4. Understand the main idea. Usually main ideas are preceded by key words such as: the main idea is, I will speak about, the bottom line is, what I am after is, etc. when you hear these or similar phrases, get ready for the main idea.

5. Understand details such as numbers, colors, names, etc.(you should have a notebook to help you jot down the info). In order for you to take notes easily and skillfully, you need to practice note-taking and learn how to write fast. Here is an exercise to help you: try to get some audios and write down all what you hear. Gradually, you will be able to simultaneously understand and write quickly.

6. Develop making inference ability to understand indirect information. Sometimes, information might not be stated clearly. For instance, a person might say: She uttered her first word when she was two years old. Three years later she joined school. How old was she when she joined school? You, as a listener, should enumerate and give the answer, which is "five". 

7. Intonation and change of voice are highly significant. When listening, you might encounter a man who suddenly changes his voice to imitate Marlin Monroe. Here, you should understand that he is imitating someone else. You should also understand the purpose for which he changes his voice. Further, understandung intonation helps you distinguished statements from questions, suggestions from invitations, and so on.

8. Keep your concentration on the listening stuff and don't let your mind wander. Keep your mind focused as possible as you can. To do this, you need to enjoy the thing you listen to or have a strong desire to comprehend it.

9. Listen and repeat. In order for you to improve your accent, you need to listen, pause the audio or video, then repeat the utterence. As a matter of fact, this is the best way to polish your accent and speak a native-like accent.

10. Do not get frustrated and quit when you listen but don't understand. It's just a matter of time and effort. You need to struggle and strain yourself in the beginning, but once you just learn the basics and apply these tips, it becomes second nature.

Reading without applying will lead you nowhere, so go ahead and start applying these tips.
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Articles

There are three articles in English: a, an, and the. Articles used to be categorized as a separate part of speech, but in the recent grammar books, they are classified under the heading of adjectives, apparently, because they, like adjectives, come before nouns or refer to them.

When using nouns, you have to use an article before them, depending on the type of nouns: definite or indefinite, countable or uncountable, singular or plural, and whether they begin with a vowel sound or a consonant one.

a, an vs. the:

"a" and "an" are indefinite articles. They precede indefinate nouns.(Nouns that are not specific.)
"The" however is a definite article. It precedes definate nouns. (Nouns that are specific.)

Countable vs. Uncountable:

countable nouns can be:
1.Singular: We use "a/an" and "the"
2. Plural: We use "the"
Uncountable nouns have only one form:
We use only "the" if the uncountable noun is definite.

Using "a" and "an":

If the noun begins with a vowel SOUND, we use "an".
For instance, an  apple, an orange, an animal, an athlete, an umbrella, etc.
Words like hour and honor begin with a silent "h" letter. So the first sound in these words is vowel. Thus, we use "an" before them.

On the contrary, if the noun begins with a consonant SOUND, we use "a". For example, a cat, a car, a hat, a man, etc.
Words like uniform and unicorn begin with a vowel letter and a consonant sound. Our focus is on sounds not letters. As long as they begin with a consonant sound, we use "a" before them.

Using "the":

We use "the" with singular, plural, and uncountable definite nouns.
1. It precedes nouns that are mentioned for the second time.
E.g: A cat showed up holding its kitten. The kitten was black.
2. It is used before nouns of which there is only one.
E.g: the moon, the sun, the universe, etc.
3. Before nouns that are known to both the speaker and listener.
E.g: Close the window, please.
4.Before nouns preceded by superlative adjectives.
E.g: the best player, the greatest dramatist, etc.
5. Before nouns preceded by ordinal numbers.
E.g: the first winner, the twentieth century, etc.
6. Before proper nouns.
E.g: the Nile River, the Red Sea, etc.
7. Before abbreviations.
E.g: the USA, the UK, the UNICIF, etc.
8. Before adjectives that describe a whole class of people.
E.g: the poor, the educated, the aristocratic, etc.

Using no artical(∅):

Sometimes we use no article before the nouns. This case is called ∅( no article). We use this case when we make a generalization when the noun is plural or uncountable.
Examples:
1. Cows give milk.
2. Milk is useful for the bones.
These two sentences begin with  nouns that are not preceded by no article because they are generalized. Notice that the first noun is plural and the second is uncountable.

To put it differently:

Nouns can be:

Countable:
1. Singular» a/an ( indefinite) 
2. Plural» the ( definite)
                   ∅ (generalization)

Uncountable
(Only one form)» the (definite)
                            ∅ (generalization)

Note:
We use articles before nouns or adjectives that precede nouns.
For example:
1. A tall man. 2. An elegant lady.
3. The strong wrestler.
Notice that the articles in the previous examples come before the adjectives(tall, elegant, strong) but they refer to the nouns( man, lady,wrestler).

With a little practice, it will be a second nature and you will master using articles. And remember: share and invite your friends. ;-)