Espresso English Podcast

I hope you’re ready to learn some awesome words! You don’t want to use the same basic English words over and over... instead, you want to use interesting and powerful words to express yourself better. Today I'll teach you 20 verbs that will supercharge your vocabulary. That’s actually a good example – I could say “improve your vocabulary” or “expand your vocabulary” but the word “supercharge” is so much more descriptive; it creates a mental picture of getting a huge boost in vocabulary power! If you like this lesson, then you’ll probably love Level 2 of my Vocabulary Builder Course, where you'll learn 1,000+ words that will really enrich your vocabulary. Every lesson inside the course includes ways for you to practice - quizzes and short-answer questions to help you use these new words yourself. Come join if you’d like to supercharge your vocabulary even more!

One HUGE step towards fluency is learning how to think directly in English. This will help you speak with fewer pauses and express yourself better! But many students say... “It’s too hard! “I don’t know enough English words!” “I need to think in my native language and translate.” "I'm not advanced enough to do that." Today I'm going to show you 4 simple steps to help you develop the skill of thinking in English, without translating from your native language. If you practice these steps, you will succeed and you'll see a big improvement in your English :-)   I hope you can see that you don’t need to be super advanced to learn to think in English – you can start today. Try one of the four steps this week. Thinking in English is a very important skill for fluency, but you’ll need a lot of other skills, too – like a strong vocabulary, clear pronunciation, listening comprehension, and the ability to understand common phrasal verbs and idioms in English. You can improve all your skills inside our courses at

Do you know the difference between “making trouble” and “taking the trouble”? What about “having fun” and “making fun”? Today I’m going to clarify 20 confusing collocations with the words do, have, make, and take. The meaning often changes depending on which verb is used. If you want to remember these collocations better, I’d encourage you to try writing your own example sentences using each one – this will help establish the differences in your memory. You can learn even more with my e-book, 1000 Collocations in 10 Minutes a Day. It’s full of quick lessons and quizzes that will teach you tons of common collocations, so that you can expand your vocabulary and be able to express yourself better in English – and also avoid mistakes with collocations, avoid putting words together in a way that sounds unnatural. I believe this is actually my most popular e-book; everyone loves how easy it is to complete the lessons! Thanks for watching and I’ll talk to you next time :-)

Welcome to the final lesson in our pronunciation power-up mini-course! So far we’ve practiced 200 English words for jobs, food/drink, countries, and brand names – and I’ve saved the best for last. The theme of today’s lesson is difficult words to pronounce, so I’ve selected 50 of the words that English learners often find hard to say. If you’re serious about improving your pronunciation and you want to practice more with me, you can join my American English Pronunciation Course, which will help you speak English more clearly and confidently. Are you ready to try these difficult words? Let's jump in - listen and repeat! If you’ve made it to the end of this list, great job! Those words aren’t easy. A lot of students ask me, “How can I know if I’m pronouncing a word correctly or not?” and I always encourage you to check an online audio dictionary. For example, if you look up a word in thefreedictionary.com, you can click on these audio icons to hear the American pronunciation and the British pronunciation. W

Hi! It's day 4 of our Pronunciation Power-Up Mini-Course, and today's theme is brand names. Nowadays a lot of brands and companies are really big and well-known – so we’re going to practice pronouncing 50 of the biggest and most famous brand names. Remember, in your native language, you might pronounce these exact same names differently – because of the different pronunciation rules of your language. But when you’re in a conversation with an English speaker, you’ll want to modify your pronunciation and say these brand names the same way native English speakers would say them. All right, get ready to practice repeating after me – 50 brand names in English.   Thanks for practicing with me! Tomorrow is the final day of our mini-course, but if you want to continue training and improving your pronunciation, make sure to check out my American English Pronunciation Course, which has 30 lessons to help you even more. Inside it, you’ll practice all the sounds of the language – both in individual words and in sen

Welcome to day 3 of our pronunciation power-up mini-course! Today we’re going to practice pronouncing the names of 50 countries in the world. Some of these might be similar to how they’re said in your native language, but others will NOT be the same, so pay close attention to any small pronunciation differences from what you might be used to. I really wish I could do ALL the countries in the world, but unfortunately we don’t have time in this short video – so I just took the top 50 countries by population size. Listen and repeat so you can practice saying these countries’ names in English. One of my favorite things about teaching at Espresso English is that I have students from all over the world. And I know you’re all working hard on your English! I wanted to clear up one question about my American English Pronunciation Course. Someone asked, “Will this course give me an American accent?” But the problem is, that’s the wrong question to ask. The reason it’s called the American English Pronunciation Co

Hi everyone! It’s day 2 of our pronunciation power-up mini-course, and today we’ll be practicing 50 words for food and drink. Remember - in order to get the most benefit out of these lessons, you need to actually SAY the words yourself. Don’t just watch... speak! Actually, if you want to challenge yourself even more, try listening and repeating with your eyes closed. Why? Because sometimes it’s actually better for you to use ONLY your ears, and NOT your eyes. In English, the way a word is written often doesn’t seem to match the way it’s pronounced. So seeing the word can sometimes lead you in the wrong direction, because you think or assume it’s pronounced one way, but in fact it sounds different. OK? So maybe try this video once with your eyes open, and then once with your eyes closed. Ready to pronounce 50 food and drink words? Repeat after me! One final thing I want to remind you is that practicing your pronunciation is like doing exercise at the gym – you don’t go to the gym once or twice and then

Hello and welcome to our Pronunciation Power-Up Mini-Course!   We’re going to practice pronouncing 50 words a day for 5 days - a total of 250 words. This will give you a quick boost in your pronunciation.   The #1 most important thing is for you to PARTICIPATE in these lessons by listening and repeating the words aloud. There's space in the video for you to say each word immediately after I do. Try to pronounce it exactly the way I did. When you do this, you’re training your mouth to say each word correctly. Each day of the mini-course will have a theme, and today's theme is jobs - so we’re going to practice saying 50 common job titles.   Those were 50 words for common professions, and now you know how to pronounce each one like a native English speaker. If you want to continue training your pronunciation with me, I have an American English Pronunciation Course that will teach you all the sounds of the language. In that course we focus on the sounds themselves, like the difference between seat and sit, o

Next week I'm giving a FREE mini-course called "Pronunciation Power-Up!" In video games, a "power-up" is something that increases your skills quickly - and that's what we're going to do with your pronunciation  :-) This 5-day mini-course will help you practice 250 words so you can pronounce them correctly and confidently. The mini-course will run from March 1-5. To get the lessons, just register (again, it's free!) by visiting EspressoEnglish.net/minicourse and entering your e-mail address. Or keep listening because the episodes will be published on this podcast :-)

When should you use the word drank and when should you use the word drunk? They are pronounced differently AND used differently! Today you'll learn how to use drank & drunk correctly. To learn more about confusing English words - how to understand them clearly and use them correctly - get my e-book called 600+ Confusing English Words Explained. It covers TONS of words that are often mixed up by English learners. I'll explain these words to you and include examples to make them perfectly clear!

Learn 16 American English slang words and expressions about food and drink!  Read the slang words and example sentences, listen to the pronunciation and repeat the words and sentences out loud to improve your English speaking. At the end of the lesson, try the quiz to test your understanding of these American slang words. Learn slang & informal English easily with our e-book.

Some English phrasal verbs are easy to understand, like "give away" or "wake up." But others are hard to figure out - like beef up, fawn over, and wipe out! What do these phrasal verbs mean??? Let's have fun today by learning 10 interesting phrasal verbs! The problem with English textbooks is that they often teach you only the "basic" phrasal verbs like wake up, turn off, and get out - but there are thousands and thousands of interesting phrasal verbs in English, as you can see from this lesson! Examples are very important because they show you the situations in which you can use the phrasal verb. If you study only a list of phrasal verbs and definitions, without seeing the context, it will be harder to remember and easier to make mistakes. That's why I teach phrasal verbs inside dialogues in the Phrasal Verbs in Conversation Course! This makes it more fun to learn them, and you can see exactly how to use each one in context - so you can use them in your English, too.

Do you feel like you keep forgetting what you learn in English? Maybe you study words and phrases and grammar… but then it doesn’t stick in your mind, and you can’t seem to remember things when you need to use them. So what can you do about this problem? How can you actually remember what you learn, so that it becomes part of your English and you can use it confidently? I do have some tips to help you review and remember English more effectively - so you can grow and expand your skills! I can also help you further when you join my courses. The lessons inside are quick, so it’s easy to do them every day – and many of them also have quizzes and exercises that can help you practice and review. Also, when you’re following a course, you can just take the lessons in order instead of constantly looking around the internet for something new to learn.

Today we’re going to talk about the differences between the words review and revise. They’re used slightly differently in American English vs. British English. But by the end of the lesson you’ll understand clearly when to use each one. There are so many confusing words like this in the English language, and that’s why I wrote a book about them – it’s called 600+ Confusing English Words Explained. Everything in it comes from questions asked by students like you. So if you have a question about a pair of confusing words, you’ll likely find the answer inside!

Sometimes students write to me and say “I need to learn English FAST.” Maybe they have a deadline, like “I’m starting a new job or taking a test two months from now, so I need to be fluent by then” or maybe they just don’t want to waste time; they want to reach their goal of fluency as quickly as possible. Is it possible to reach fluency fast? And how can you do it? I’m going to explain my opinion and give you some tips in today’s lesson. Now go put these 5 tips into practice! I’d love to hear if you try some of these things and they help you - so please let me know how it goes. Our courses at Espresso English can help you learn faster and in an efficient way. More than 10,000 students have benefited from these courses, and I hope you will, too!

What’s the difference between homework and housework? These two words seem practically identical, but they actually have separate meanings and uses. I’ll explain in today’s lesson, so that you can be sure to use the right word. And at the end I’ll also tell you about a common mistake that English learners often make with homework and housework. Now you know the difference between homework and housework – and remember, doing homework is really important for reviewing and practicing what you learn!   A lot of our courses at Espresso English include homework. Sometimes that’s a quiz so you can test yourself on the lesson, and sometimes the homework is a writing task or speaking task where you can send your answers to our teaching team and get feedback.   Our students often find this the most valuable part of our courses, because then you’re not just watching or reading or listening to me in English, but you’re also using English yourself. It really makes a difference in helping you remember better!

If you want to make your English sound more natural, more like a native speaker, then pay close attention to today’s lesson. I’m going to teach you five phrases that English learners often use, but that native English speakers would never say – either because they’re incorrect or because these phrases just don’t sound natural. Remember – I don’t want you feel BAD about these mistakes; I want to help you learn from them instead! As you can see from these examples, these are NOT major, serious mistakes. They won’t cause communication problems; however, they do make your English sound a little strange, and they make it obvious you’re not a native speaker. So if your goal is to be fluent in English, then you should continually check for these small problems and fix them so that you can sound more natural. Of course, it can be hard to check for your own mistakes... and that’s why it’s nice to join a course where you can get some correction and some feedback from a teacher and native speaker. A number of our co

There are two phrases I hear many students say: "My English is terrible." "Sorry for my BAD English." Have you ever said these things? Be careful, because these two phrases are dangerous to your English learning! Listen to today's lesson to find out why you SHOULDN'T say these phrases... and what you SHOULD say instead.   I want to see you both succeed in learning English AND enjoy the process of learning! Another thing that can help you improve your skills and feel confident about your progress is joining a course at Espresso English. The lessons inside our courses are organized and teach you step by step to help you make real progress. Thanks for watching, and remember – your English is not “bad.” It’s simply a work in progress, and that progress should be celebrated :-)

Today you’ll learn some common English words that are often misused because they are so similar. The only difference between them is a space, or one letter. The context of the sentences will help you understand how to know whether to use one word or two. Already vs. all ready Sometime vs. some time Anyway vs. any way Everyday vs. every day Everyone vs. every one Apart vs. a part Altogether vs. All together Learn more inside the 600+ Confusing English Words Explained E-Book!

During this month of December, we have some holidays… and during holidays, many people give gifts to each other. So I thought it would be a good time to learn 25 collocations with GIVE! We’re going to start with some simpler ones and then learn some more that might not be so obvious, or might not mean what you think. Studying collocations is wonderful for learning how to put words together naturally. You can learn collocations fast inside my e-book, 1000 collocations in 10 minutes a day. Each lesson is full of useful expressions, and it’s really quick to read the lesson and then take the quiz to practice. I hope you’ve enjoyed this lesson full of expressions with “give,” and I hope you have a wonderful rest of the year!