STORYTIME! ;)

Hello!
I was thinking lately, why not to write funny (sometimes a little bit scary) stories on this blog and emphasize useful words and phrases for you? Some of them will be true, some of them - imagined.
So, here you are. The first story on this blog:

Once upon a time, there were two friends – Mike and Alice. They had known each other since they were in kindergarten, they were very close. Mike was  15 and Alice was 14 years old. One day, in their town there were some rumours that supposedly (meaning: possibly, it may be true, but it isn't checked) the abandoned house in the forest nearby was haunted. Mike and Alice decided to go and check if that was really true.

The next morning, they met in the park.  ‘Are you ready?’ asked Alice. ‘Yeah, of course’ responded Mike, but he wasn’t  so sure. They started walking through the park. At first glance, Mike and Alice looked like a normal couple of friends, walking and talking during a sunny day. They were trying not to look suspicious. Before walking into the forest, they suddenly stopped….

They grabbed and turned on their torches. ‘Are we sure that we wanna do this? I have a bad feeling about that house’ said Mike. ‘Oh, Mike. Don’t be childish’ Alice was a little bit annoyed. ‘Okay, I just don’t want us to regret it later’ Mike was trying to cover his fear.

They walked into the forest. It was really dark. Luckily, the house wasn’t far away. After 15 minutes  Alice and Mike were standing in front of the haunted house. They carefully and very quietly went up the stairs.The stairs creaked and they stopped and held their breath. Nothing happened, so they slowly opened the door and walked inside. The first thing they saw was a long, dark corridor with many doors to other rooms. The friends walked through the corridor and they were in a huge room with some furniture and lots of spiders’ webs. It was really quiet. Alice started talking ‘See? These are only rumours, this house isn’t…-‘

She suddenly stopped. They heard a very loud and weird noise behind them. They slowly turned around. Alice screamed and then covered her mouth with her hand. Mike was standing with his mouth open. In front of them there was a scary creature which looked like it was made of fire. Behind this creature ghosts started to gather. They looked like corpses that came out of their graves. The creature struck (meaning: past form of strike - to hit) the nearest chair and roared. Then it smashed (meaning: hit and break) the table and the table caught fire. Mike and Alice were fleeing (meaning: to flee = to run away) as fast as they could. Behind them everything was on fire and the creature and ghosts were following them. They ran out of the house. The haunted house was totally demolished (meaning: totally destroyed). The fire was everywhere around them. The forest was burning. They couldn’t see the monsters anywhere. They ran to their houses scared to death.

The next day, everywhere on the TV news was about a huge fire in the forest. It turned out that the fire had raged all through the forest, and also the abandoned house The friends decided not to go there anymore. They were very scared, but they didn’t tell anything to their parents. They won’t forget what happened for the rest of their lives.

I hope you like it! :) Let me know in the comments what do you think about my story? ;)

Alina :D

Different ways to apologise in English! ;)

Hello!
I will present you many ways to say sorry in Great Britain.

Firstly -  how to pronounce apologise/apologize (in American English - only: apologize).
Apologize - /əˈpɒlədʒaɪz/
(I recommend to you an english - english dictionary: Oxford Learner's Dictionaries. It has a British pronunciation and an American pronunciation!)

1. The most common and simple way is just to say: sorry! (British people use it all the time!) For example when you step on somebody's shoe, you can say: Sorry! Oh, sorry! Or you can say: I'm sorry. To emphasize (make it stronger) that you want to apologise, it is good to say: I'm so sorry! I'm incredibly sorry! I'm terribly sorry! I'm really sorry! 

      2. When you want someone to forgive you, you can say: Please, forgive me! 

      3. Now we have: Excuse me. This can be used for example when you need to get passed and someone is blocking your way, you say: Excuse me! Can I just get through? Or it is also used to get attention: Excuse me, everyone! Excuse me! Can you listen to me now? 

      4. Pardon me! It has the same meaning as excuse me, but also when we want to interrupt (meaning: make something stop) a conversation, we can say: Oh, pardon me, could I just butt in (meaning: interrupt) here?

      5. When you did something very bad, or you just want to emphasize your apology, you might say: I owe you an apology. I'd like to apologise. I sincerely apologise for what happened. I take full responsibility for my behaviour.

      6. How to say sorry for being late? Being late in England is very, very rude, so that one is useful!
Sorry I'm late! Sorry for being late! Sorry for keeping you waiting! 

      7. Now some slang words to say sorry:
Whoops! My bad! Soz! (the last one only in texting!)

      8.  When we are sorry for someone, for example when someone passed away (meaning: died) or someone lost a familiy member, or just didn't get a job.
I'm so sorry to hear that! If someone died - I'm sorry for your loss. 

      9. What if words aren't enough to say sorry?
The most common things you can do in England are:
To give flowers.
To give a bottle of wine.
To give a hardwritten card.

That's all for now.
Bye!
Alina :D

How to read DATES? :)

Hi!
I'm gonna show you today how to read dates correctly. Let's get started. :)

The first thing I'd like to say is that there is a difference between American dates and British dates.
In America we would say: MONTH - DAY - YEAR. For example: February 9th 1981, 02.09.1981
In Britain: DAY - MONTH - YEAR. For example: 9th February 1981, 09.02.1981

When we read a date, we say: The 9th (ninth) of February 1981 (nineteen eighty one). You do not have to write that, but you should say that. In American English you can just say, for example: My birthday is February 9th 1981, but not in British. In British you say: My birthday is the 9th of February 1981.

How to read years?
With years before 2000 we split it up into two sections.
18/25 - eighteen twenty five
10/57 - ten fifty seven
19/94 - nineteen ninety four
When we get past the year 2000, there are two acceptable ways to say the date.
The first one:
2002 - twenty o (/əʊ/) two - with the years before 2010 we must say "o". With the years after - 2018 - twenty eighteen
The second one:
2002 - two thousand and two
2018 - two thousand and eighteen
Don't forget about the 'and' with the years starting with two thousand!

Now just a quick reminder about cardinal and ordinal numbers, I guess you now that already, but in  case you do not:

CARDINAL NUMBERS	ORDINAL NUMBERS
one - 1	first – 1st
two - 2	second – 2nd
three - 3	third – 3rd
four - 4	fourth – 4th
five - 5	fifth – 5th
six - 6	sixth – 6th
seven - 7	seventh – 7th
eight - 8	eighth – 8th
nine - 9	ninth – 9th
ten - 10	tenth – 10th

And all months in English:
January /ˈdʒænjuəri/
February /ˈfebruəri/
March /mɑːtʃ/
April /ˈeɪprəl/
May /meɪ/
June /dʒuːn/
July /dʒuˈlaɪ/
August /ɔːˈɡʌst/
September /sepˈtembə(r)/
October /ɒkˈtəʊbə(r)/
November /nəʊˈvembə(r)/
December /dɪˈsembə(r)/

I hope that now you'll know how to read dates!
See you!
Alina :)

5 ways to learn English faster!

Hello, this is Alina and I'm gonna show you 5 WAYS TO LEARN ENGLISH FASTER! :D

1. TALK TO YOURSELF IN ENGLISH. Of course, you don't have to do it in public, just in your room while doing something. It really helps and after some time you can even think in English and that is pretty amazing :)

 2. WATCH FILMS/SERIES IN ENGLISH. I do it everyday and it is actually helping. The best option for  me is to watch films in English with English subtitles, so I can not only improve my listening skills and hear how to pronounce words, but also learn how to write these words. I honestly recommend you the British series 'The crown' about Elizabeth II's life. But it is not a boring biography, it is a really good, entertaining series. And there is awesome and gorgeous as always British accent in this series. <3

3. SWITCH EVERYTHING TO ENGLISH. Actually - everything. Set language in your phone to English, in your computer, laptop, tablet, read magazines in English, read your favourite quotes in English, write stories in English. I did it and I'm happy about it.

4. WATCH VIDEOS ON YOUTUBE. There are so many amazing British people that are making videos about British accent, generally English and they are giving great lessons. You can learn lots of things from those videos.

5. PRETEND YOU ARE BRITISH. When you go to the shop or something you can pretend you talk only in English and talk to shop assistants. Or when you're in the park you can ask people questions in English, pretending being British. It can be real fun and you can easily learn how to use English in public, in normal situations. :)


Hope it helped, those were quick tips about English.
Goodbye!! :D

British expressions and idioms #1

Hi! :) Welcome to very useful and funny BRITISH EXPRESSIONS! :D
So... let's get started! (meaning: let's start, very common)

1. ACE /eɪs/  - brilliant, excellent/something went the way we wanted.

          She is ace at riding a horse!
          I think I aced this exam! :)
   
      2. ALL TO POT - something went wrong, out of control.
        
           The birthday party went all to pot when everyone started yelling at each other.
   
      3. BLIMEY /ˈblaɪmi/ - a way of expressing surprise, when you're looking at something surprising or   impressive.

          Blimey! Look at that! That's amazing!

       4. BLINDING /ˈblaɪndɪŋ/ - slang form of great, excellent.

           This drawing is blinding!

       5. BLOODY /ˈblʌdi/- very common, often used as an expression of anger, but also used to emphasize a comment.

        Oh, bloody hell! - anger
        That's bloody cool! - emphasize a comment

       6. CHEERS /tʃɪəz/- doesn’t have the same meaning that it does in other countries – of course, it still means ‘celebrations’ when toasting a drink with some friends, but in British slang, it also means ‘thanks’ or ‘thank you’.
         
             Cheers for getting me that drink, Tom!

        7. FORTNIGHT /ˈfɔːtnaɪt/ - period of two weeks.

            I'm going away for a fortnight to Greece for summer holidays.

        8. KNACKERED /ˈnækəd/ - exhausted, very tired.

            I'm absolutely knackered after working all day.

        9. HUNKY-DORY /ˌhʌŋki ˈdɔːri/- the situation is cool, okay.

         Yeah, everything is hunky-dory at home.

        10. MINGING /ˈmɪŋɪŋ/ - disgusting, gross
          
              It looks minging! You must clean it!


That's all for now.
I hope you found it bloody cool! :)
Cheers for reading! Hope everything is hunky-dory and clear! ;)
Bye!
Alina

Differences between British English and American English #1

Hello! In this post I'm going to show you the difference between British English and American English. Hope you'll enjoy! :)

THE MOST COMMON DIFFERENCES

BETWEEN BRITISH ENGLISH

AND AMERICAN ENGLISH

1. Words that have the same meaning, but are written differently:

BRITISH ENGLISH	AMERICAN ENGLISH
centre	center
dialogue	dialog
realise	realize
neighbour	neighbor
lorry	truck
labour	labor
flat	apartment
underground/tube	subway
car park	parking lot
football	soccer
bill	check
sweets	candy
crisps	chips
chips	fries
lift	elevator
toilet	restroom
holiday	vacation
theatre	theater

     2. In British English we usually say: 'I have got a nice house'. In American: 'I have a nice house'.
      So in British we use 'got' and in American not.

 3. In British English we use Present Perfect quite often, but in American English we use Past Simple instead of Present Perfect (of course Present Perfect isn't forbidden there! You can use it, but it isn't very common).
British: 'I've just finished tiding my room!'
American: 'I just finished tiding my room!'

 4. Prepositions:

BRITISH ENGLISH	AMERICAN ENGLISH
at the weekend	on the weekend
in a team	on a team
talk to somebody	talk to/with somebody
jump out of a window	jump out the window
different from	different from/than

 



I hope I helped! See ya in the next post! ;)