When you talk about your favorite things you talk about the best liked or most enjoyed things.
Examples:

• "What's your favorite color?" "Green."

Study the dialogue:

Leila is talking to her new friend Cathy:

Asking about favorite things:

• What's your favorite sport?
• What sport do you like best?
• What sport do you like most?
• What kind of sport do you like best?
• Who's your favorite football player?

Responding:

• My favorite sport is football.
• I like football best.
• I like football most.

Cause and effect

When we talk about an effect resulting from a certain cause, we use expressions such as: because, since, as, owing to, due to...

 Examples

• The police arrested him because he broke into a bank.
• The police arrested him since he broke into a bank.
• She can't read the letter as she is illiterate.
• He can't run fast for he is too fat.
• Owing to his intelligence, he managed to solve the problem.
• Due to the bad weather, they didn't go for a picnic.

Other ways to express cause and effect:

Describing:

What are some good ways to describe

• people?
• things?
• feelings?
• yourself?
• personality?

See the phrases below for examples of descriptions in English.

Questions:

How to express regret

wish / if only

You can express regret by using wish or if only:

I wish / if only + Past perfect

Examples:

Suggestions

The following English phrases and expressions are all used to make suggestions and give advice to people.

Making suggestions:

• Let’s revise our lessons.
• What about going to the cinema tonight?
• How about playing cards?
• Why don't we do our homework?
• Couldn't we invite your grandmother to our party?

Asking about direction

To ask about directions use these questions:

• How can I get to . . . from here?
• How can I get to . . . ?
• Can you show me the way to...?
• Can you tell me how to get to . . . ?
• Where is . . . ?
• What's the best way to get to . . . ?

Shopping expressions

These are expressions used when you go shopping:

• Can / may I help you?
• Can I try it / them on?
• What size do you wear? What size are you?
• What color would you like?
• Extra small, small, medium, large, extra large
• How does it fit?
• Where is the changing room?
• How would you like to pay?
• Can I pay by credit card / in cash?

Giving news

Giving good and bad news

• I'm really pleased to tell you...
• I've got a bit of good news to tell you..
• I've got some good / brilliant / great / wonderful / splendid news for you...
• You know what! I've got a bit of great news for you...
• Great news for you...
• I'm afraid I've got some bad news for you...

Telephone conversations

It is common that English speakers make phone calls either for business reasons or personal affairs. These are expressions you can use in your conversations on the phone.

• You 've reached .... company/department.
• How can I help you?
• Can I speak to Mr/Mrs.....?

Making a phone call to complain about something

Listen and learn the numbers in English!

The Basic Health Tips for Wellness

Listening materials for English learners

What is exposition?

The purpose of exposition (or expository writing) is not primarily to amuse, but to enlighten and instruct. The objective is to explain and analyze information by presenting an idea, relevant evidence, and appropriate discussion. Its essential quality is clarity. Most of the writing that you are required to do at school is expository (reports, tests, essays etc..) Similarly most of the writing you will do after school will be of this sort.
Examples of expository writing include:

• Reports
• Scientific reports
• Term papers
• Encyclopedia articles

How to write a business letter

What kind of letter is it?

A business letter is a letter written in formal language. There are many reasons to write a business letter. It could be:

• to request direct information or action from another party,
• to order supplies from a supplier,
• to identify a mistake that was committed,
• to reply directly to a request,
• to apologize for a wrong
• or simply to convey goodwill.

Narration

Tips to write a narrative essay

• Tell a story based on one of your own experiences.
• Use concrete details so that your readers can visualize what is happening. Give as many sensory details and vivid descriptions to involve the reader.
• You may use dialogue.
• Make sure that your narrative essay communicates a main idea or a lesson.
• Spend some time drafting what you can remember about the experience.
• Create an outline of the basic parts of your narrative.

Learn to write a descriptive essay.

Pre-writing

Write down notes
Try to be specific
Remember things we describe are what we

• feel: happy, angry, cold, hot ...
• see: big, large, small, tiny ...
• touch: coarse, hard, soft, smooth ...
• taste: sweet, sore, bitter,
• hear: loud, quiet, silent ...
• smell: bad, moldy, unpleasant, pleasant ...

Describe your feelings, your thoughts, your actions, ...

Pre-writing

State the "controversy" in the form of a yes/no question.

Should guns be made legal?
Is television harmful to children?

Divide your paper into two parts:

Pros	Cons
Guns can be helpful to defend ourselves from dangerous criminals... ...	Guns can be harmful, especially at the hands of irresponsible people... ...

Pre-writing

Choose one experience from your life that is interesting enough to be told.

Introduction

Think of an introduction that will make the reader eager to know more about the experience.

Body

Use simple past or past continuous tense. If something happened previous to the personal experience, use past perfect.
Write down some quick notes about the experience.
Don't worry about grammar. Take five minutes at the end to proofread your essay.
Remember every detail and try to visualize it.

How to write a cause and effect paragraph

What makes something happen is called a cause. An effect is what happens as a result of the cause. Here are a few basics on writing a coherent cause and effect paragraph.

Pre-writing

Decide whether to write about a cause or an effect or both. You can choose to discuss only the causes or only the effects of an event. Alternatively, you can discuss the causes AND effects of a certain event.
Make a list of causes or effects. Then narrow down that list to include only the most important causes or effects

Follow these steps to write a book or film review.

Pre writing

Remember and take notes of the plot of the story. What impression did it produce on you?

Writing

• Introduction: give the title and author of the book. If you're reviewing a film mention the director or actors.
• Body:
  1. Summarize the plot in a few sentences.
  2. Mention the setting: the place and time of the plot.
  3. Say something about the main characters.
  4. Say something about the content.

This is a list of vocabulary items related to the parts of the body.

arm	back	beard	ear
elbow	eye	eyebrow	eyelashes

This is a list of vocabulary items related to color

Images	Colors
	Black
	Blue
	Brown
	Green

This a list of countries and nationalities.

Country	Adjective	Person
Afghanistan	Afghan	an Afghan
Albania	Albanian	an Albanian
Algeria	Algerian	an Algerian
Andorra	Andorran	an Andorran
Angola	Angolan	an Angolan
Argentina	Argentinian	an Argentinian
Armenia	Armenian	an Armenian
Australia	Australian	an Australian

This is a list of vocabulary items related to the seasons of the year and the weather.

The seasons of the year:

Summer
In summer,	it's hot. it's sunny. people go to the beach. People usually go on holiday.

Autumn
In autumn,	it's often windy. it's cloudy. it's a bit cold.

Months days and times of the day

This is a list of vocabulary items you can use to talk about months, days and times of the day

The months of the year

1	January
2	February
3	March
4	April
5	May
6	June
7	July
8	August
9	September
10	October
11	November
12	December

Learn the vocabulary related to numbers

Cardinal Numbers:

Numbers from one to ten:

This is a list of vocabulary items related to personal relations: people and family members

People

man

woman

baby

boy

girl

Family members

An idiom (also called idiomatic expression) is an expression, word, or phrase that has a figurative meaning conventionally understood by native speakers. This meaning is different from the literal meaning of the idiom's individual elements. In other words, idioms don't mean exactly what the words say. They have, however, hidden meaning.

Examples

• "Kick the bucket"
• "Spill the beans"

Being able to make and cancel an appointment is an important skill in English. You need to be able to:

• make an appointment,
• respond to an appointment and
• cancel an appointment.

Here are some expressions you can use to do this concisely and clearly.

Sometimes you may have no particular interest or concern about something and you want to express indifference during a conversation. Here are some expressions you can use:

Expressing indifference

• So what?
• Who cares!
• I don’t care!
• It’s all the same to me.
• I have no preference.
• I suppose so.
• I don’t mind.
• It doesn't matter to me

Expressing shock and disbelief

It is sometimes difficult to say how you feel in unexpected situations, such as natural disasters, bad news .., especially when you feel sad.
Here's a list of some common expressions to help you express

•  shock
• and disbelief.

Shock:

I was	shocked to hear… stunned by... taken aback by…
... came as	a complete shock.
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