We often use “wish” to talk about our desires for the future, how we would like things to be different.

On special days such as people’s birthdays, religious days (Christmas for example) etc we want our friends and relatives to have good things.

This is why we say things like: I wish you a Merry Christmas or Best wishes for all the family; Best wishes on your birthday/wedding/engagement/confirmation

There are many children’s stories where a fairy/fairy godmother or some other such magical creatures give a person a chance to have 3 wishes  granted.

I think that my 3 wishes would be:

– I wish that every single child in the world has access to clean drinking water and sufficient food to live healthily.

– I wish that absolutely everyone in the world that wants to learn English can have access to learning tools for free, or almost free.

– I wish that nobody in the world should suffer in any way because of their age, gender, sexual orientation or religious belief, or because of war.

 What would your THREE WISHES be?

Leave a comment here (comment section below) with your wishes for yourself or for other people

How to use WISH with WOULD in English grammar

Use WISH and Past simple for the present

How do we use WISH for past regrets with the Past Perfect?

Here are some examples of how to make Resolutions (promises) for the New year:

• I’m going to listen to some English (radio, CD, podcast) in the car when I drive to work every day.
• I’m going to use the Rule of 5 for improving my English.
• I’m going to check my vocabulary lists everyday.
• I’m going to watch a TV programme/DVD/Youtube video in English everyday.
• I’m going to put a daily English habit in my life .

Check out new vocabulary here >>>>

We had record visits to our website during 2014.

An increase of 25% – Thank you all for your support!!

These are the top 10 articles based on numbers of visits:

1 : How to add the “s”; “es” or “ies” to verb endings in the Present Simple:

Plays, Likes, Tries, Wishes, Goes, Sits, Has, Sees, Flies

2: The historical and present day differences between:

Cathedral, Market, Church difference between City, Town, Village and Hamlet

3: How we use the Present Continuous for the future:

I’m leaving at 10.00 tomorrow, present continuous used for future arrangements

4: Exercises for the use of “used to + infinitive” or “would” for past habit:

Practice exercises: She used to live in London; I would normally walk to school

5: Exercises for practising “object questions” and “subject questions”:

Who does he teach? (object question) or Who teaches him? (subject question)

6: Grammar practice at B1 level:

B1 (PET) English grammar practise

7: The use of “play”, “do” and “go” with sports:

Sports: John PLAYS football; Mary GOES running; You DO gymnastics

8: Use “Present Continuous” for temporary situations:

Julia’s working in Chicago this month; present continous temporary situation

9: Rewriting exercises at B1/ B2 level:

B1 (PET) B2 (FCE) rewriting exercises and practice

10: Search English Language and Grammar exercises:

Find English Language and Grammar exercises in this Index

We hope you find them useful

Babies learn English …..

and any other language or languages they hear.

– Our brains are “pre-programmed” to be able to slowly make sense of all the strange sounds and language stimuli that they receive.

– Our brains then start to see the patterns of how their language or languages  are formed.

– It is normally only after thirty months or so that children begin to talk in any kind of understandable way.

– It can still take a few more years  before a child completely masters their language or languages.

It is absolutely essential to remember this basic reminder of how languages are learned. Knowing this and understanding it will help us all to make the right decisions when starting, or re-starting, to learn another language that is not our own mother tongue.

–          To be able to learn, understand and use a language it is necessary to have regular contact with the language.

–          It is also important to have a good language model, if possible.

–          Children do not spend one year learning the present then go on to the past

–          Remember the purpose of language is to allow communication with others.

So, why don’t you test yourself?

• – How many hours contact do you have with the English language every day, every week, every year?
• – What do you do?
• – Is it enough?

Is English a HABIT in your life? It should be!!

See more English grammar lessons >>>>

Ask us your English Grammar questions and doubts >>>>

Your brain works well with regular habits and with challenges

Your brain needs stimulation – language learning is a fantastic challenge to your brain

Make English a habit by regularly doing

• reading
• listening
• speaking and writing

Your brain is the best tool for learning a new language

But you brain needs to be convinced that you really want to learn English (or any other language)

The ONLY way that you can effectively improve your language learning is by:

• creating a habit of daily contact with the English language

It is essential that your language learning is regular and long lasting. That is only possible if it becomes a “habit”

It can only become a habit when you have done it every day for a minimum of 30 days, 60 is better.

I don’t have enough time!

– Decide what is more important – remember that if you don’t do it, you won’t speak better English

Remember that you learnt your own native language by regular hearing and listening when you were a baby

Why 30 days?

You have to convince your brain that you really want to change what you normally do.

Put an English language habit in your life >>

Use the Rule of 5 to activate your English language

Check out our video lessons >>>

Before you start learning English again, please remember that:

English is English

10 points to remember

1 – It is not French, Italian, Chinese, Swahili, Spanish or any other language.

2 – You cannot expect that one verb form (tense) in the English language will be the exact equivalent of a verb form in your own language.

3 – Words that are similar in other languages are often used in different ways.

4 – English verb forms are relatively easy to form but sometimes it is difficult to know when to use one form or another.

5 – It is important to get to know the basics of  English Grammar but please do not get obsessed with grammar.

6 – The most important part of learning a language well is the practical day to day understanding and communicating in English

7 – Beware of having a non-native English teacher  they could possibly make the same wrong assumptions about the use of language as you!

8 – But not all native English people will know why they use one verb form or another ……… but they will use grammar correctly and will know when you use the wrong form.

9 – Receiving a good model of English is very important.

10 – Try looking at this article  Is Grammar Important .. ? to see another viewpoint on the importance of English grammar.

Have a look at some English grammar lessons

Try some of these English grammar exercise

English vocabulary, expressions and often confused words

Expressions for bad moments

My mother often reminds me that:

Life is not always a bed of roses

A bed of roses is an area of a garden with lots of beautiful roses that look and smell so nice. They seem almost perfect.

Sometimes you might have seen romantic images of rose petals on a bed

The expression “Life is not always a bed of roses” means that life has good moments, like the bed of roses, but there are also more difficult times.

We must be optimistic because there will be more roses, even if at times we can only feel the thorns.

How many hours of contact do you have with English every year?

We almost take it for granted that we will find English speakers in airports, hotels and tourist information offices. But in many countries it is more difficult to find English speakers at bus stations, as taxi drivers, in small shops, in small restaurants and in the street.

Not so in Sweden, Holland and Denmark.

So what is so fantastic about these three countries that have so many good English speakers?

Well they have good teachers with an excellent level of English,  ……. but that is not the real explanation.

It is true that these countries have, for many years, adopted a positive encouraging attitude to language learning which has enabled them to develop their commercial and political links with the rest of the world.

But probably the most influential matter that has led to the high level of English language acquisition and acceptance in these countries is television. TV programmes and films that are produced in English are not dubbed into Dutch, Swedish or Danish but are shown in their original English version with subtitles in the local language. These means that from their infancy Dutch, Swedish and Danish children are usually exposed to the English language on a regular basis and both they and their parents treat the English language as a normal part of life.

– The attitude to learning English is very positive.

– They are exposed to the English language many hours of every week. This is extremely important for people to assimilate correctly how English is used.

So, if you don’t live in countries like Sweden, Denmark and the Netherlands, things are probably a bit more difficult. But do not despair!

You can adopt a similar attitude to English language learning in your house and family. To become a fluent speaker of  the English language you have to be a fluent listener of the English language. If you are also an avid reader it helps as well.

• Find every opportunity possible to be in contact with English

• Find English language TV stations. At first it might be a little difficult to follow, but please don’t give up! Remember babies spend 2 – 3 years listening to their mother tongue before they start speaking.

• Download podcasts from the BBC and other sites. Listen to the same section of dialogue two or three times a day for at least a week.

• If  you go to classes and have a textbook, find the CD for all the dialogues in the book. If the student’s book doesn’t include them all, ask your local bookshop to get you the Teacher’s CD. Listen to the unit you are doing, the one before and the one after, two or three times a day. It’s not necessary to listen very hard, you can just have it playing in the background whilst you are driving or eating

• Find English blogs, messenger etc where the communication is in English

and

the most important thing to remember is:

Only you can learn a new language for you. Nobody can do it for you

Languagewell will be updating a number of times a week, so that we can give you more information and tips to help you improve your language acquisition.

Do you want to be an English teacher for non-natives? >>> here

Most of us have seen, read, listened to or watched:

How to ..*.. in 30 days

A simple guide to mastering ..*..

5 steps to ..*.. success

I became a ..*.. in 60 days

* in these spaces you can substitute:

become a millionaire; internet richness; start your own business; eliminate back pain etc etc

Most of these people have become very rich telling people what to do. But they KNOW that almost everyone who reads or listens to their advice will do NOTHING. They do not understand why most people can’t do what is necessary to become succesful at something – ingrained habits that need a very determined and persistent effort to eliminate and substitute with effective habits.

Succesful people, and gurus, have acquired these effective habits possibly without effort and they think that everyone can do it.

But they can’t. The people with ingrained ineffective habits don’t understand their problem so they look for a “magic formula” to be succesful in life.

The result:

Gurus become richer!

In the morning, look in the mirror and smile

• – Start the day with a smile

Before you go to bed at night, look in the mirror and …. smile

Smile at 5 new people everyday

Make someone happy, smile

When you answer the phone, smile

• – People will notice it in your voice

When you write an e-mail or text message, smile

A smile  a day keeps the doctor away