Vote results

Thanks to everyone who voted.

It was an overwhelming victory for 'speaking', so we hope you get lots of chance to practise.

Look out for a new poll soon.

Weekly idioms

This week, idioms with the word 'rain'...

Take a rain check

Come rain or shine

Rain on someone's parade

Right as rain

Enjoy!

Google sets

Do you want to increase your vocabulary?

Here's one way: Go to Google sets and type in a few words related to a set (e.g. fridge, oven, microwave for a set of kitchen vocabulary), then click the button and make a set of new words. You can then click on a word to get some internet links or see them in Google images, or look up any new words in a dictionary (like the one on the left of this page...)

Easy.

Here's our set from the above words (you can get 'large' sets, too). You can post any interesting ones you find in the comments.

oven

fridge

toaster

cooker

microwave

freezer

kettle

grill

hob

dishwasher

television

Weekly idioms

A new feature of our blog: Weekly idioms. Click on the idiom to see its meaning. This week's theme, idioms using 'break / broke'. Guess what they mean, then check...

Go for broke

A broken record

Break a leg

Break the ice

Which words we've been using the most:

News story

This interesting news story appeared in the paper today. What do you think? (Any words you don't know you can check in the dictionary on the left).

How does it feel to be so famous? You can also check the story for language - what tenses are used? Can you see any passive voice? Relative clauses? Different ways of saying 'say'?

Actually, we tricked you - it didn't really appear in the paper... we wrote it here: http://www.fodey.com/generators/newspaper/snippet.asp

You can write your own stories and send them to your friends, or post them in the comments below for everyone to read.

Vote results

Thanks for voting - these are the results:

Grammar / vocab Q&A 45%
Study tips 39%
Articles to read 30%
Thoughts from teachers 30%
News about IH 24%
Word of the week 15%

So, we'll try to include regular grammar and vocabulary items, and ideas for study (such as the links to useful websites already posted) and occasional extra fun things.

Thanks, and please now vote in the new poll. You only have a couple of weeks... :-)

Easter

noun
The most important and oldest festival of the Christian Church, celebrating the resurrection of Jesus Christ and held (in the Western Church) between March 21 and April 25, on the first Sunday after the first full moon following the northern spring equinox.

But, when is...

- Good Friday?
- Palm Sunday?
- Lent?

Who is the Easter Bunny?

Why do we have Easter eggs?

Write your answers in the comments below. A free egg to the winner!

Happy Easter!

New word

After the 'news' story last weekend, here's a new words, and some words related to it, for you to look up or ask your teacher about. :-)

hoax (n)
practical joke, joke, jest, prank, trick; ruse, deception, fraud, bluff, confidence trick; informal: con, spoof, scam, setup.

Visual dictionary

Are you a visual learner? Do you want to increase your vocabulary?

There is a great online 'visual dictionary' here. Just type a word in the search bar and watch lots of connected words appear.

Warning - some of the definitions are quite difficult, but you should be able to find lots of new words and can look them up in your own dictionary, if you need to.