Spelling in English is not phonetic, meaning that the letters used to spell words don’t always make the same sounds. This is part of what makes English pronunciation tricky. You can’t just look at a word and know for sure how to say it.

And then you throw in the fact that English has...

Words are extremely powerful.

The words we use can impact how others see us: strong or weak, certain or uncertain, trustworthy or untrustworthy, confident or unconfident…

In this lesson I’ll share 10 phrases to avoid around the office as well as suggestions of stronger words to use...

You're having a wonderful back-and-forth conversation with your colleague. You've shared some interesting banter but now you need to get back to work.

Or perhaps you're having a completely draining exchange with that annoying guy from across the hall and you're desperate to escape.

Either...

Hey! How are ya?

Hi! How’s it goin?

Hey there! How ya been?

These are all examples of common greetings in American English. Greetings are typically the first words we speak when we see someone and they set the tone for our interactions. It's not just WHAT you say when you greet...

"How’s the..."

"What’s that..."

"Is this..."

"With someone..."

"Earth’s atmosphere..."

The transition from the /s/ or /z/ to the TH sound can be tricky and a lot of you have written and asked for help with these combinations.

In this lesson I’ll share the 3 key things...

In the business world there are a ton of very common expressions used in daily conversation that don’t make a lot of literal sense. In this lesson, you’ll learn 10 common business expressions to help you sound more fluent and professional.

Be sure to watch to the end of the listen-...

As we kick off the New Year it’s a great time to talk about how to pronounce the 12 months.

This lesson is different than any other you may see about pronouncing the months of the year because not only will we talk about the SOUNDS within each word but we’ll also talk about the...

It’s an exciting and special time of year. You’ll often hear the months of November and December referred to as “the holidays” as we bounce from Thanksgiving to Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa and on into New Years celebrations.

It’s a busy time of year- often filled...

"I've been working here for seven ears."

"We moved here three ears ago."

For a lot of my students, making "years" and "ears" sound like 2 different words is seriously tricky.

And we talk about years a lot, right? In sharing big life events, anniversaries, ages and when talking about how fast...

There's a delicate balance between integrating variety into your vocabulary and using words that are "too fancy" and rarely used by native speakers in casual conversation.

In this lesson you’ll learn 20 advanced English words (interesting adjectives that native speakers REALLY use) to sound...