Thursday, July 31, 2008

Thursday, January 10, 2008

30. ANALYZED Common Errors in English

Oops, I think I do still "LOTS" of mistakes, but I´m an ESL-Student and...,..and nonetheless, I think that´s just a good way to learn from other people´s typical grammar mistakes.


Recognize YOUR mistakes:

Common Grammatical Errors

Accurately described incorrect/correct sample sentences
http://www.umsl.edu/~keelr/rok/grammar.html

Englishplus.com
Accurately described incorrect/correct sample sentences
http://englishplus.com/grammar/mistcont.htm

Common Errors In English Usage
Compared definitions based on error-prone word pairs
With search engine
http://www.wsu.edu/%7Ebrians/errors/errors.html
Scroll down on this page !

http://www.cbi.edu/literature/errors.htm

University of Kentucky
Prof. Robert Tannenbaum´s very useful hints
http://www.uky.edu/~rst/Hints%20index.html
or
http://www.uky.edu/~rst/Hints.html

Hit Parade of Errors, University of Toronto
http://www.utoronto.ca/writing/hitparade.html

Oxford´s Classic Errors
http://www.askoxford.com/betterwriting/classicerrors/?view=

Jack Lynch´s Grammar and Style Notes
http://www.tp4.ruhr-uni-bochum.de/~ub/HTML/englishgrammar.html

English Language Institute
http://www.eli.ubc.ca/students/language/index.html

Karen´s Linguistics Issues
http://www3.telus.net/linguisticsissues/commonerrorsinenglish.html

J. Hodges
http://www.thomasu.edu/people/jhodges/gramglos.htm

Language Error Analysis (interactive)
http://esl.fis.edu/grammar/analysis/index.htm
Click on Student Writing 1 - 7

List of commonly misused English language phrases
Accurately described incorrect/correct sample sentences
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_frequently_misused_English_words

Garbl´s Editorial Style Manual
http://home.comcast.net/~garbl/stylemanual/a.htm

More ?, Go to the GRAMMAR section.

Saturday, January 5, 2008

29. Grammar (Who needs more ?)

Complete English Grammar - You don´t need more
____________________________________________________________________


Capital Community
College Foundation

(Nonprofit Organisation)




.
http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/
Grammar Index:
http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/index2.htm

The Tongue Untied !
http://grammar.uoregon.edu/toc.html

Hyper Grammar
University of Ottawa
http://www.uottawa.ca/academic/ar/partsp.html

Guide To Grammar And Style
Rutgers, State University of New Jersey
http://andromeda.rutgers.edu/~jlynch/Writing/
Grammar Index
http://andromeda.rutgers.edu/~jlynch/Writing/contents.htm


Online Writing Lab
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/esl/index.html
Grammar Index
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/grammar/index.html


Online Englisch Grammar
http://www.edufind.com/english/grammar/toc.cfm



A Friendly Grammar of Englisch

http://www.beaugrande.com/UPLOADGRAMMARHEADER.htm

Finnish Virtual University
http://kiepc10.cc.tut.fi/tamo/awe/grammar/index.html

Literacy Education Online
http://leo.stcloudstate.edu/catalogue.html#gram

Grammar Monster
http://www.grammar-monster.com/

Paradigm
http://www.powa.org/content/view/244/108/

The American Heritage® Book of English Usage
http://www.bartelby.com/64/

The Internet Grammar of English
http://www.ucl.ac.uk/internet-grammar/frames/contents.htm

Big Dog´s Grammar
http://aliscot.com/bigdog/index.htm

English at home
http://www.english-at-home.com/grammar/
http://www.english-at-home.com/speaking/

ESL Introduction
http://www.uhv.edu/ac/efl/main.asp

ESL BEE (Writing)
http://eslbee.com/

Michael Harvey´s
The Nuts and Bolts of College Writing
http://nutsandbolts.washcoll.edu/rhetoric.html

28. Phrasal Verbs


Phrasal Verbs are verbs + particle (adverb or "preposition") with idiomatic expression.

Prepositions: see LINK






Introduction about separable and inseparable

phrasal verbs and idiomatic expressions
READ IT !
http://www.uhv.edu/ac/efl/phrasalverbs.asp
http://www.uhv.edu/ac/efl/phrasalverbstransitive.asp
continue on the bottom

Another Introduction about separable and inseparable
phrasal verbs and idiomatic expressions
READ IT !
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/630/01/
continue on the bottom

Verb and Preposition "Dictionary"

http://www.englishpage.com/prepositions/phrasaldictionary.html
Preposition and Phrasal Verbs
http://www.englishpage.com/prepositions/prepositions.html

Phrasal Verb VIDEO Dictionary (weird)
http://web.li.gatech.edu/~rdrury/600/oral/video/dictionary.html

A lot of Phrasals

http://esl.fis.edu/grammar/easy/phrase.htm

"Phrasalverbdemon"
http://www.phrasalverbdemon.com/index.html phrasalverbs

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phrasal_verb

Friday, January 4, 2008

27. Idioms [+ Proverbs)

English Idioms And Quizzes
http://www.idiomconnection.com/

Wordpower A - Z Category

http://www.wordpower.ws/idioms/a.html

Learn English Today

http://www.learn-english-today.com/idioms/idioms_proverbs.html

The Free Dictionary, use the browse feature
http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/get+tongue+around
(scroll down)

Using English
http://www.usingenglish.com/reference/idioms/

Idiomsite.com
http://www.idiomsite.com/

Idioms with pictures
http://humanities.byu.edu/elc/student/idioms/idiomsmain.html


Anna says:
Idioms and Phrasals are just a good way to learn a foreign LANGUAGE. There are certain differences between Idioms and Phrasal verbs. It´s easy to understand: Idioms are expressions which have a meaning that´s not (so) obvious from the individual words (of the "idiomatic expression" - THE "Idiom"). The single words have combined their "own" meaning. Phrasal verbs are verbs that consist of a verb and a particle (Prepositions, Adverbs), and they are partly separable and are following the tense patterns. What´s the best way to learn idioms ?. Use the given context and give the literal meaning of the single words as compound a new figurative context-related meaning, a new connotation. But take care, if you don´t know the literal (or even additional figurative) meanings of the single words which "merged to the idiom", then you´re in trouble as ESL-Student. You´d be screwed because there´s always an at least slight connection between the denotation of the single words and the connotation of the idiom. If you´re learning some new Idiom, and you see new words do some lookups and learn ALL the literal and figurative meanings of the single words too. BTW, Idioms are not that bad, they are "just Units" with own meaning and most of the idioms are fixed in their form.

26. ESL Podcasts + Academic Podcasts

Aj Hodge´s Effortless English Club
With free transcripts
http://www.effortlessenglish.libsyn.com/
Or enter his site via:
http://www.effortlessenglishclub.blogspot.com/


EnglishPOD - 4 ESL Levels (Good Job !)
http://www.englishpod.com/
(Huge archive, tagged topics)

Directory of Colleges and Universities
with Itunes sites:
http://itunesu.pbwiki.com

25. Some Dictionaries With Specific Topics

http://www.sex-lexis.com
http://www.synomizer.com Synonyms
http://www.acronymfinder.com
http://www.effingpot.com Britspeak
http://www.peak.org/~j.php AE-BE|BE-AE
http://engrish.com "All your base are belong to us"
http://fonetiks.org/index.html Phonetics
http://www.wordinfo.info/ Wordinfo
http://www.etymonline.com Etymology
http://www.oxid.ro Interesting browsing-features
http://www.juiciobrennan.com/hyphenator/Hyphenator
http://www.speech.cs.cmu.edu/cg Pronunciation Dictionary

You think you know "a certain word", or you´ve heard one somewhere but you have no idea about the rihgt spelling ?, that´s why you can´t find any entries in dictionaries ?, Go there, do the spell check with your similar misspelled word and find so "your" correct spelled word:


http://poets.notredame.ac.jp
(Great Performance)

http://www.spellcheck.net/


If you want to find some special slang expression or such idioms go to Google and do some lookups there. Maybe you have to disable SafeSearch. You could search for urbandictionary for example, or just double-click on: urbandictionary
____________________________________________________________________

Chat with a robot (Loebner Prize Winner)

http://www.rong-chang.com/tutorframe.htm

24. Un/Countable Nouns + More about it

Some common uncountable nouns and some nouns that can be either countable or uncountable:

HUNTER COLLEGE READING/WRITING CENTER
http://rwc.hunter.cuny.edu/reading-writing/on-line/countable.html

ADJECTIVES with un/countable nouns
http://www.washburn.edu/services/zzcwwctr/usage-adj.txt

Center for Communication Practices
http://www.rpi.edu/web/writingcenter/esl.html

The Writing Center
http://www.law.cuny.edu/wc/students/multilingual/articles.html
(scroll down)

The University of Texas at Austin
http://www.utexas.edu/student/utlc/lrnres/handouts/1504.html

Some Common Uncountable Nouns:

accuracy darkness fun inferiority admiration economics furniture information advice efficiency garbage integration aggression electricity generosity intelligence air enjoyment gravity irritability assistance entertainment happiness isolation behavior estimation health junk boredom equipment heat justice bravery evidence help knowledge chemistry evolution homework laughter clothing excitement honesty leisure comprehension fame ignorance literature courage foolishness immigration luck luggage peace recreation stuff machinery permission relaxation superiority mail physics reliability survival math poetry research tolerance merchandise pollution sadness traffic money poverty safety transportation music pride scenery trouble news productivity shopping violence nonsense progress significance water oxygen propaganda slang wealth participation psychology snow weather pay rain status wisdom

Some Nouns that can be either Countable
or Uncountable :

abuse drama jail reading adulthood duck jealousy religion afternoon education language revision age environment law rock anger evening liberty science appearance exercise life school art fact love shock beauty faith lunch society beer fear man sorrow belief fiction marriage space breakfast film meat speech cheese fish metal spirit chicken flavor milk stone childhood food morning strength cloth freedom murder surprise college friendship nature teaching commitment fruit paper temptation competition glass passion theater concern government people theory crime hair personality time culture hatred philosophy tradition death history pleasure trouble desire home power truth dinner hope prejudice turkey disappointment ideology pressure understanding discrimination imagination prison weakness disease injustice punishment wine divorce innocence race writing

Thursday, January 3, 2008

23. Homophones/Homographs +More

Homophones (words that sound alike but differ in spelling and meaning), are just a great chance for ESL-Students to pick up those groups of side by side arranged words from scratch. That´s a huge advantage unlike native speakers who learn these words divided and by listening. So take the chance. You´ll also learn the pronunciation of new words by recognizing their consonance, and with it you´ll get a better "feeling" for the "burden" of English pronunciation :-). There are a lot of similar pronounced words with small but important differences as well, but that´s another challenge. For the contentious term "Homonym" go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page, it pays.

An English HomophonesDictionary

http://www.earlham.edu/~peteromofone.htm
(scroll down)

Homophones AND confused words

With sample sentences, partly with audio

http://grammar.ccc.commnetrious/notorimes.htm

Alan Cooper´s Homonyms with definitions

http://www.cooper.com/alan/homonym_list.html

About 300 Homophones
http://www.taupecat.com/personal/homophones/

Plain List

http://www.all-about-spelling.com/list-of-homophones.html
Plain List
http://www-personal.umich.edu/~jyke/homophone_list.htm#English

Plain List

http://www.bifroest.demon.co.uk/misc/homophones-list.html


Homographs + Heteronyms
A Homograph is a word that has the same spelling (look alike) as another word but with a different meaning
.
(Heteronyms are Homographs with different pronunciation)



Huge Heteronym Directory + Pronunciaton
http://www-personal.umich.edu/~cellis/heteronym.html

List of selected English Homographs + samples
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_English_homographs

The Heteronym Page with Pronunciation
http://jonv.flystrip.com/heteronym/heteronym.htm

Prof. Sally Kuhlenschmidt´s Collection
Homographs in the same sentence.

http://www.wku.edu/~sally.kuhlenschmidt/homgraph.htm
! "He said that he ate jam in a traffic jam" ;-)

That´s a very interesting approach to the topic:
Homographic concordances and collocations

Version 1

http://io.uwinnipeg.ca/~clark/cog/norms/clark.out
Version 2

http://io.uwinnipeg.ca/~clark/cog/norms/bodner.out

Semantics: Homographs
http://www.student.seas.gwu.edu:8080/portnoy/HomographsFME


Antagonyms (Words with opposite meanings)
http://www-personal.umich.edu/~cellis/antagonym.html

Pleonasms
Needless repetitions as "overused cliché" ?
http://www.wordfocus.com/pleonasm.html

Interesting
http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/more.html

Interesting Spies
http://www.wordspy.com/



? More like that:
> From the author so-called: Past "Tenses":
>
>Past Simple I went
>Past Emphatic I did go
>Past progressive I was going
>Past Perfect I had gone
>Past Perfect Progressive I had been going

Past Necessitive I had to go
Past Usitative I used to go
Past Intentional I was going to go
Past Potential I might have gone
Past Potential Progressive I might have been going
Past Potential Necessitive I might have had to go
Past Potential Intentional I might have been going to go
Past Perfect Intentional I had been going to go
Past Perfect Necessitive I had had to go
Past Usitative Necessitive I used to have to go
Past Habilitative I could go
Past Contrahabilitative I could have gone
Past Conditional I would go
Past Contraconditional I would have gone
http://www-personal.umich.edu/~jlawler/aue.html

22. Reading - Free ebooks + More

Gutenberg Project
http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page
or
http://www.promo.net/pg/

Texts
http://eserver.org/

Free Online Library
http://www.readprint.com/

World Wide School Library
http://www.worldwideschool.org/library/catalogs/bysubject-top.html

The Online Books Page
http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/

Alice

http://www.cs.cmu.edu/afs/cs.cmu.edu/user/rgs/mosaic/alice-ftitle.html

21. For AMBITIOUS ESL-Students (4)

Compare the different English speech accents.
That´s a very scientific approach. Audio + Text.
Browse by atlas/regions

Georg Mason University
The Speech Accent Archive, Huge Database
http://accent.gmu.edu


The Audio Archive, Audio/Text
http://alt-usage-english.org/audio_archive.shtml

BORED ???
Answer These Questions. NOW !
http://iteslj.org/questions/

Sentence Diagrams
http://www.geocities.com/gene_moutoux/diagrams.htm

20. "Daily" ESL - Video - Podcast

(Was a ?) "Daily" ESL - Video - Podcast
Mostly with FREE transcripts !, and exercises.
600
Video - Podcasts archived !
Very useful and entertaining as well



That´s Sarah.

Looks like a felon ?

At the identity parade ?

No, she´s the host.


http://www.geociom/thedailyenglishshow/
or

http://www.geies.com/thedawatch.html
or
via Youtube
http://www.youtube.com/profile_videos?user=thedailyenglishshow
You´ll find the transcripts also on the youtube page next to the player
click on -> "About this Video" or click on -> "more"

Transcript Archive:

http://thedailyenglishshow.blogspot.com/
(Most of the Videopodcasts have transcripts + short exercises)
e.g.
Videopodcast http://tdesvideo.blogspot.com.mn.html
Transcript
http://thedaiow.b.com/2007_ive.ht

© thedailyenglishshow.com

19. ESL Podcasts (3)

The Bardwell Road Centre Podcast

For English language students, by English language
students at St Clare's, Oxford
("International English" Authentic Speech,
entertaining)

http://bardwellroad.podomatic.com


18. ESL Podcasts + F R E E transcripts

ESL Aloud with transcript
http://esl.libsyn.com/

5 ESL Categories with transcript
http://www.eltpodcast.com/

English through stories with transcript
http://www.englishthroughstories.com/scripts/scripts.html

Several ESL levels with stranscript
http://www.podcastsinenglish.com/index.htm

Funny with transcript and exercises
http://www.archiecomics.com/podcasts/

"Breaking News" with transcript
http://www.breakingnewsenglish.com/

China 232 - with study guide
http://www.china232.com/

Better at English (Video) with transcript
http://www.betteratenglish.com/

17. Affixes

AFFIXES
It-e-m-ize and Re-cogn-ize
[go-out of/action] + [again-know/action]

Prefixes, Roots, Suffixes:

http://www.betterendings.org/ds.htm#ROOT

Prefixes and Suffixes:
http://www.prefixsuffix.com/

English Prefixes & Combining Forms:
http://indodic.com/affixListEnglish.html

Introduction:
http://ancienthistory.about.com/library/698.htm
(scroll down)

Affixes Introduction
http://www.bartelby.com/64/83.html
(Scroll down and then back and read !)

Prefixes and suffixes in categories:
http://ingilish.com/english-affixation.htm

Wednesday, January 2, 2008

16. Don´t miss this !

Corey Arnold´s
challenge in Alaska.
Awesome Story !


A MUST READ

http://www.felacface.com/SF/ew&id=606&Itemid=104
Reading Lesson (
Contemporary English) ;-)
(And lots of useful idioms, phrasals and STUNNING pictures)

15. Prepositions

Prepositions (Very useful)
http://www.towson.edu/ows/prepositions.htm

Preposition Introduction A Must Read !
http://www.uhv.edu/ac/efl/prepositions.asp

About Prepositions
http://rwc.hunter.cuny.edu/reading-writing/on-line/prep-def.html

Problematic Prepositions
http://www.utexas.edu/student/utlc/lrnres/handouts/1503.html

Rules
http://grammar.uoregon.edu/prepositions/prepositions.html

OWL Prepositions of direction
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/esl/eslprep.html

Simple Prepositions
http://web2.uvcs.uvic.ca/elc/studyzone/200/grammar/prepo.htm

Simple Prepositions
http://depts.gallaudet.edu/englishworks/grammar/main/prep.htm

14. For AMBITIOUS ESL-Students only (3)

Don´t hesitate, GO THERE and read and grasp this. Listening Comprehension and Note-Taking
http://www.uefap.com/listen/listfram.htm
University of Hertfordshire

13. Listening Comprehension (1) Audio/Script

Listening + transcript + quiz
http://www.elllo.org/

Interactive Listening Activities
University of Illinois
http://www.iei.uiuc.edu/lcra2/11++/index.html
http://www.iei.uiuc.edu/lcra2/10++/
http://www.iei.uiuc.edu/lcra2/7++/
http://www.iei.uiuc.edu/lcra2/9++/
http://www.iei.uiuc.edu/lcra2/lcra_index.html

Listening + transcript
http://www.thesportsinterview.com/Alyssa.html
more:
http://thesportsinterview.com/

Listening + transcript
http://www.ezslang.com/

Listening + transcript
http://www.manythings.org/listen/

Listening + transcript
http://www.englishclub.com/listening/everywhere.htm

Listening and Reading
http://www.loudlit.org/
http://content.loudlit.org/audio/matchgirl/pages/01_01_matchgirl.htm



Listening + quiz
http://www.esl-lab.com/

Listening + quiz
http://eslbears.homestead.com/Blank.html

Listening + quiz
http://www.eflclub.com/2songs/songs.html

Listening + quiz
http://www.eflclub.com/2songs/songs.html

Listening + quiz
http://www.iei.uiuc.edu/California/index.html

Listening
http://literalsystems.org

Listening
http://www.audiobooksforfree.com/home

Reader´s Digest
Listening/Reading
http://www.rd.com/stories
http://www.rd.com/content/rd-out-loud-podcasts----dramatic-true-stories/

12. Pronunciation (2) (audio-visual)


BAD Pronunciation ????

Ready to bear the
consequences ??

Pronunciation with instant sound
http://www.fonetiks.org/
(mouse over)


SPOKEN English grammar

http://www.spokenenglish.org/

"Minimal Pairs" - simply mouse over to hear
http://www.shiporsheep.com/

"Minimal Pairs" - Practice & Quizzes
http://www.manythings.org/pp/

q.v.
Pronunciation (1) - Video/Audio

Tuesday, January 1, 2008

11. For AMBITIOUS ESL-Students (2)

Tip for ambitious ESL-Students who are looking for collocations or concordances to improve their "English" or to do some lookups by using a text related context.

http://corpora.informatik.uni-leipzig.de/?dict=en

For each word, the most significant words appearing
  1. as immediate left neighbor
  2. as immediate right neighbor
  3. anywhere within the same sentence
are given.

There is also a free download version (mSQL) http://corpora.informatik.uni-leipzig.de/download.html


Do some lookups at The Collins Wordbanks Online English corpus. It is composed of 56 million words of contemporary written and spoken text. Check up some word, idiom or phrasal verb in rhetorical contexts. Notice the settings !. Take your time.

http://www.collins.co.uk/corpus/


BNC British National Corpus (100 million words)
http://www.natcorp.ox.ac.uk/
+
BNC Information about multiple word queries:
http://www.natcorp.ox.ac.uk/using/index.xml.ID=simple



Webster (1913)
http://www.ibiblio.org/webster/#search_form
Notice the query syntax

Michigan Corpus of Academic Spoken English
http://quod.lib.umich.edu/m/micase/
Site is sometimes temporarily shut down

http://www.tooyoo.l.u-tokyo.ac.jp/~kmatsum/corpus/myconc.html