If you get your just deserts, you get what you deserve.
The word ‘deserts’, in the sense of ‘what you deserve’, has been used in English since the thirteenth century.
‘Just’, of course, means ‘fair’.
It should be noted that the pronunciation of deserts in this expression is stressed on the second syllable, as in ‘desserts’.
The spelling, however, is correct.
A desert is an arid and desolate region of land, and its use as ‘that which is deserved’ is now limited to this single phrase.
 Danny's been teaching English at EC for 10 years. |
There is power in words.
Twenty-six letters of the alphabet.
I fell in love with this song when I heard it on the American dance programme ‘So you think you can dance’.
It reminded me of a great tip that really helps some students to remember vocabulary. If you are having trouble remembering a word, try associating a movement with that word. Then when you hear that word you’ll think of the movement and remember the meaning! I challenge you to choose five new pieces of vocabulary and give each one a movement. I hope this helps!
Today, let’s focus on some idioms that we can use to talk about how we are feeling emotionally.
All you need to do is match the idioms with their literal meanings. How are you feeling today?
Lesson by Caroline
I recently had a Spanish oral test and I found it really helpful to predict the questions I thought they might and then ask my friend to ask me them.
It is difficult to do a speaking lesson for an online website, but with the help of a friend it can be done!
So, your challenge is to find a friend to ask you these questions and then practise away...!
After you have done the speaking, I’d be really interested to hear some of your answers!
Lesson by Caroline
Can you tell I’m feeling festive?!
Tomorrow I am going for Christmas dinner with my best friends from my undergraduate degree.
I have no doubt we will be listening to this and many other Christmas songs.
In fact, I used this lesson last Christmas with a private student! Can you complete the gaps with the vocabulary, all of which is related to Christmas?
Good luck & merry Christmas!
Lesson by Caroline
Unfortunately, English doesn’t come with one standard accent.
Not only do we have British, Australian, American, South African accents etc. We also have all the regional accents that make up those countries!
The difference between Southern and Northen English accents are massive and even native English speakers sometimes have difficulty understanding them.
So it is important that as an English learner you expose yourself to as many different accents as possible, outside of the classroom.
When you start learning verbs you will usually try to remember them in three different forms. The Present Simple, Past Simple and Past Participle. A regular verb will look like this:
Look (present simple)
Looked (past simple)
Looked (past participle)
This is such a beautiful song. If you haven’t seen the movie ‘Rent’ already then I strongly recommend it. In this lesson I’m going to let you try and hear the vocabulary as it’s all quite simple. Listen carefully!
Lesson by Caroline
Lots of us have been affected by the snow, but some people have been trapped by it in a pub for eight days! Read the article and then see if you can answer the true or false questions.
While thousands braved the cold to begin their Christmas shopping, seven people in North Yorkshire are praying for better weather after being snowed into a pub for eight days and counting.
