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Learning Tips
Daily English Listening: How to Build a Habit That Actually Sticks
A clearly structured fifteen-minute listening session holds up far better than a forty-minute session full of resolve that fizzles out halfway through. Here's how to build that session.
What Is Small Talk—And Why It's Harder Than a Presentation
Small talk is the short exchange that opens the way to a conversation. Here are the safe topics, the topics to avoid, sample lines for the office and for events, and why it's hard to follow by ear.
Does Passive English Listening Actually Work? The Honest Answer
Passive listening has its place, but it's narrower than you think: getting used to the rhythm, keeping the habit going, reviewing lessons you've already transcribed. Listening while asleep leaves almost nothing behind for your learning.
Learning English Through Songs: What Music Can and Can't Teach You
Music anchors vocabulary very well and teaches listening comprehension very poorly. A table of fifteen songs ranked by how easy they are to listen to, the common contracted forms found in lyrics, and five steps for turning a song into a verifiable lesson.
What Are Idioms? 25 Common English Idioms Sorted by Situation
An idiom is a phrase whose overall meaning strays from the meaning of its individual words. Here's how to tell idioms apart from proverbs and phrasal verbs, 25 idioms you'll run into often, and why they're so hard to catch by ear.
How to Introduce Yourself in English: Templates for 5 Real-Life Situations
Five sample self-introductions for five real situations, with sentence-by-sentence breakdowns, common mistakes Vietnamese speakers make, job-title pronunciation, and the part almost no one practices: listening back to the other person's name.
English Grammar: Memorized on Paper, Lost When Natives Speak
The grammar you've memorized on paper usually disappears when you hear native speakers talking fast, because most of it lives in unstressed sounds.
Seasons in English: Fall vs. Autumn and the Idioms That Come With Them
The four words are easy to memorize, but what surrounds them is what you actually use every day: fall vs. autumn, capitalization rules, and season-based idioms.
How Native Speakers Actually Tell Time in English
Two ways to tell time in English, a full trip around the clock with past and to, how to use a.m. and p.m., time markers throughout the day, and how to tell fifteen apart from fifty when listening.
English Numbers: The Complete Chart, How to Say Money and Zero
A number chart from 0 to the billions with phonetic transcriptions, how to read zero, decimals, money, and phone numbers, plus a listening drill to tell thirteen and thirty apart by dictation.
How to Write Dates in English: British vs. American Style
The two date orders used in British and American English, how to write dates in formal emails, the ordinal numbers that go with dates, how to say dates and years out loud, plus three spots Vietnamese ears tend to miss.
Ordinal Numbers in English: The 1st to 100th Chart and Common Mistakes
The full ordinal number chart from 1st to 31st plus the round-ten landmarks up to 100th, with pronunciation, six common spelling mistakes, how to use them in dates, building floors, and fractions, and how to train your ear to catch the -th ending.
Days of the Week in English: The Full Table, Abbreviations, and How to Say Them Right
The seven days of the week in English: a full table of IPA and abbreviations, four words people commonly mispronounce, the difference between on Monday and on Mondays, and how to train your ear to tell Tuesday and Thursday apart.
Months in English: The 12-Month Table, Abbreviations, Pronunciation, and In vs On
The 12-month table with abbreviations and pronunciation, where each name comes from, the rule for in vs on, and why November and December keep getting mixed up.
Standard English Pronunciation: The IPA Chart and Sounds Vietnamese Speakers Get Wrong
A compact IPA chart for quick reference, the sounds and stress patterns Vietnamese speakers commonly mispronounce, and why you have to hear the difference before you can say it right.
Wound Is the Past Tense of Wind, Not an Injury
The simple past and past participle of wind are both wound, pronounced /waʊnd/, rhyming with found. This whole page is about four different words that share two spellings.
English Vocabulary: How Many Words to Learn, and How to Make Them Stick
Before you download another vocabulary list, find out how many words you actually need, which ones to learn first, and why you still forget them after memorizing.
The Past Tense of Mow Is Mowed — Mown Only Fits in One Spot
The simple past of mow is only mowed; the participle can be mowed or mown. The trap: mowed sounds exactly like mode, and mown sounds exactly like moan.
Fled: The Past Tense of Flee (and Why Your Ear Keeps Hearing "Flew")
The simple past and past participle of flee are both fled. The trap isn't the rule — it's that fly is always lurking to take its place, and flee only lives in fast news-anchor speech.
Bet in the Past Tense: Still "Bet" — So Where Does the Tense Actually Go?
The simple past and past participle of bet are both bet. Since the verb never changes form, the sentence's tense lives entirely in the small words around it.