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Past Irregular Verbs Song from ESL KidStuff (eslkidstuff.com). A song with a really catchy tune practicing the present and past forms of irregular verbs.

This is a sample of the song. To download the full song please go to eslkidstuff.com and become a member.

Lyrics:

La la la la la la – La la la la la la

Verse 1:
wake, wake, wake – woke, woke, woke
eat, eat, eat – ate, ate, ate
drink, drink, drink – drank, drank, drank
go, go, go – went, went, went

La la la la la la – La la la la la la

Verse 2:
sing, sing, sing – sang, sang, sang
swim, swim, swim – swam, swam, swam
have, have, have – had, had, had
come, come, come – came, came, came

La la la la la la – La la la la la la

Verse 3:
ride, ride, ride – rode, rode, rode
do, do, do – did, did, did
put, put, put – put, put, put
sleep, sleep, sleep – slept, slept, slept

La la la la la la – La la la la la la

Verse 4:
give, give, give – gave, gave, gave
write, write, write – wrote, wrote, wrote
read, read, read – read, read, read
run, run, run – ran, ran, ran

La la la la la la – La la la la la la
La la la la la la – La la la la la la

About Song:
Song Theme: Saying the present and past forms of irregular verbs.
Target Vocab: wake – woke, eat – ate, drink – drank, go – went, sing – sang, swim – swam, have – had, come – came, ride – rode, do – did, put – put, sleep – slept, give – gave, write – wrote, read – read, run – ran.
Song Length: 3:02

Credits:
Song written by ESL KidStuff

© Copyright:

All songs on ESL KidStuff are protected by copyright. You may download the songs for your own use (you may not make copies for others). Copying of the songs for others or sharing online is strictly prohibited. Sharing your access details is also prohibited.

Past Irregular Verbs Song (British)

Describe Your Friend song from ESL KidStuff (eslkidstuff.com). A catchy song to practice using adjectives to describe people.

This is a sample of the song. To download the full song please go to eslkidstuff.com and become a member.

Lyrics:

Tell me about your best friend!

Chorus:
What does he look like?
What does he look like?
Tell me all about him.

Verse 1:
He is tall
He's got short hair
He's got brown eyes
He's got blonde hair
But most of all, he is great!

Tell me about your best friend!

Chorus:
What does she look like?
What does she look like?
Tell me all about her.

Verse 2:
She is short
She's got long hair
She's got blue eyes
She's got black hair
But most of all, she is great!

About Song:
Song Theme: Using adjectives to describe the physical appearance of people
Target Vocab: What does s/he look like?, Tell me all about him/her, s/he is/has got …, tall, short, long hair, short hair, brown eyes, blue eyes, blonde hair, black hair, s/he is great.
Song Length: 1:01

Credits:
Song written by ESL KidStuff

© Copyright:

All songs on ESL KidStuff are protected by copyright. You may download the songs for your own use (you may not make copies for others). Copying of the songs for others or sharing online is strictly prohibited. Sharing your access details is also prohibited.

Describe Your Friend (British)

English has a large number of similar sounds with only very small minor variations.

Today, we are going to practise two similar vowel sounds; /e/ 
and /eɪ/;

wet /e/

wait /eɪ/

test /e/

taste /eɪ/

Listen to the following words and put them into the correct columns. I will say each word two times:

/e/ /eɪ/
waited ✓
wreck 
rake
saint
sent
hail
hell 
shed 
shade
bend
vetted

Come back tomorrow and check your answers.

Flickr CC: Jeff Golden

Similar sounds

Syllable stress

A syllable is a word, or part of a word, which contains a single vowel sound. Every word contains at least one syllable, Some examples include: 
Pen
Watch
Cat

The following words are examples of words with two syllables. 
garden: gar / den
hotel: ho / tel
consist: con / sist

Here are some examples of words with three syllables:
September: sep / tem / ber
department: de / part / ment
telephone: te / le / phone

And these words have four syllables:
kindergarten: kin / der / gar / ten
information: in / for / ma / tion
January: ja / nu / ar / y

When words have two, three or four syllables we usually stress only one syllable and not the others. The syllable that is pronounced with the most emphasis we call a ‘stressed syllable’ and in spoken English the correct stress is important otherwise you may not be understood. Listen to the following words and choose the correct stressed syllable:

Frustration frus / tra / tion 
Delicious de / li / cious 
Flexibility flex / i / bil / i / ty 
Mysterious mys / te / ri / ous 
Incredible in / cred / i / ble

Write your answers in the comments box below and we will tell you if you are right or wrong.

Syllable Stress

Past continuous

You use the past continuous tense to talk about something that occurred in the past.

Past continuous tense is used when the action you’re talking about started before the moment you’re describing, but had not finished.

For example, in past tense, you might say: 
‘I watched a film on TV yesterday. The film started at 7pm and finished at 9pm.’

When we use the past continuous we say:
‘At 8pm yesterday I was watching TV.’

The past continuous can be used to say that something happened in the middle of something else.

For example, in past tense, you might say:
‘I cooked dinner yesterday. My sister called me.’

When we use the past continuous we say: 
‘I was cooking dinner when my sister called.’

Flickr CC: Dwight Sipler

Past Continuous

Asking for advice.

There are many ways to ask for advice, here are some of the more common ones:

What do you think I should do about _____?
‘What do you think I should do about the broken window?’

What should I do about _____?
‘What should I do about John? He never does his homework.’

What would you do about____?
‘What would you do about finding a new job? I don’t know where to start.

What do you think I should do? 
‘I can’t decide which car to buy. What do you think I should do?’

What do you think I should do about_______?
‘What do you think I should do about a new hair style?’

Can you give me some advice about_______?
‘Can you give me some advice about how to apply for a new course?’

Flickr CC: Rita M.

Asking For Advice

Loud / aloud / allowed

‘Loud’ is an adjective and means to make a lot of noise.
Turn the music down, it is so loud.
And it can also refer to bright clothes.
Wow, look at his shirt, it sure is loud.

‘Aloud’ is an adverb and means to speak out, so you can be heard. 
The teacher told the students to read aloud.

And ‘allowed’ is a verb meaning to have permission.
We are not allowed to ride our bikes in there, look at the sign on the gate.

Flickr CC: Sam Leighton

Loud Aloud Allowed

Word Pairs

‘Wine and dine’; means to entertain someone with food and drink - often with a motive in mind. 

The only way to win the new contract is to wine and dine the clients.

‘Sink or swim’; means to fail or find a way to succeed.
Note that we always say ‘sink or swim’ in that order.

The phrase ‘sink or swim’ is used to talk about someone who is thrown into a difficult situation where they must succeed without help from others.

It’s a difficult job and there’s no training. He will sink or swim.

Word Pairs

More tongue twisters

Tongue twisters are an excellent way to practise your pronunciation. Listen to the following tongue twisters and follow the script below. Then, practise saying the tongue twister yourself.

Practise a few times slowly so you can pronounce the sounds of each word. You will hear yourself improve each time. You might also like to record your voice then compare your pronunciation to ours.

Tongue twister number 1 
A big black bug bit a big black dog on his big black nose.

Listen again. 
A big black bug bit a big black dog on his big black nose.

Tongue twister number 2
Santa's short suit shrunk.

Listen again.
Santa's short suit shrunk.

Tongue twister number 3
Whether the weather is warm, whether the weather is hot, we have to put up with the weather, whether we like it or not.

Listen again. 
Whether the weather is warm, whether the weather is hot, we have to put up with the weather, whether we like it or not.

Flickr CC: Thorsten Ludewig

More Tongue twisters

The final ‘s’ sounds in words can be confusing as there are three different ways that we can pronounce ‘s’ endings. Listen to the following three words and listen for the difference:

Cooks Earns Damages

There are slight differences here: 
Cooks makes the /s/ sound. Cooks / cooks. Other examples are:

Checks
Graduates
Hates

Earns makes the /z/ sound. Earns / earns. Other examples are:

Boys
Girls
Hours

Messages makes the /iz/ sound. Messages / Messages. Other examples are:

Closes
Damages
Faces

Listen to the following examples of words ending with ‘s’ and Identify the correct sound. We will tell you if you are right or wrong:

wants
things 
sandwiches 
products 
loves
places
paints 
lives 
phrases

Flickr CC: William Chew

'S' Sounds

How to join a conversation

If you hear an interesting conversation, it’s a good idea to listen in and make sure it’s appropriate to join. 

If it’s a personal or private conversation, the speakers might not want you to interrupt. You‘ll have to use your own judgement, and take a risk.

If they seem friendly and open, you can try to find something interesting to add. Don’t try to change the subject or talk too much about yourself. 

Remember to smile, be friendly and ask questions about others.

You could try one of these phrases for joining in:

‘Excuse me, I overheard you talking about…’
‘Hi, my name is … ‘
‘I heard you talking about…’
‘Did I hear you say…?’

Here are some examples:

‘Excuse me, I overheard you talking about travelling to Australia. My sister went there last year. When are you going?’

‘Hi my name is Shirley. I heard you talking about Adelaide university. I’m a student there, too. What do you study?’

‘Did I hear you say you’re watching the new Game of Thrones series? I’m half way through it, I love that show. Where are you up to?’

If you find it hard to find a natural way to join the conversation, you can say:

‘Excuse me, would you mind if I joined your conversation? I don’t know anyone here yet, and you look interesting to talk to.’

Of course, not everyone wants new people to join their conversation. If it doesn’t work out, don’t take it personally. Try again next time.

Flickr CC: Ruth Ellison

How to join a conversation

Doubt or Question?

Many English learners confuse the nouns ‘doubt’ and ‘question’.

A ‘question’ is something you ask when you want to find out information.

‘Can you answer my question?’

‘Does anyone have any questions?’

The noun ‘doubt’ describes a feeling of not being sure about something.

‘I have doubts about my ability to pass the test.’

‘I never had any doubt you could do it.’

So if you have ‘doubts’ it means you feel uncertain.

If you have ‘a question’, it means you want to ask something in order to find out more information.

Flickr CC: Noelia

Doubt or Question?

Practising contractions

Pronouncing contractions can be tricky - let’s practise some:

‘I am’ becomes ‘I’m’.
I’m

I’m going to the beach.
I’m going to come with you.

‘You are’ becomes ‘you’re’
You’re
You’re going to the beach today, aren’t you?
You’re late.

‘She is’ becomes ‘she’s’
She’s

‘She’s coming to the beach with me.’
‘She’s running late again.’

‘He is’ becomes ‘he’s’
He’s

‘He’s coming to the party.’
‘He’s already here.’

And ‘it is’ becomes ‘it’s’
It’s

‘It’s too late to start watching a movie now.’
‘It’s too hot to go to the beach today.’

Flickr CC: Rob Parker

Practising contractions

Gonna and Gotta

In informal English conversation, we often use shorter, versions of common word combinations.

One of the most common is ‘gonna’ - short for ‘going to’.

When we say the words ‘going to’ very quickly, they run together and sound like ‘gonna’.

So ‘Are you going to wash the car today?’ becomes:
B: ‘Are you gonna wash the car today?’

And ‘We are going to go home for dinner.’ becomes:
‘We’re gonna go home for dinner.’

We also shorten ‘got to’ so it sounds more like ‘gotta.’
Here, ‘got to’ means ‘have to’ or ‘must’:

So ‘I have got to wash the car today,’ becomes:
‘I’ve gotta wash the car today.’

And ‘I have got to go home for dinner,’ becomes:
‘I’ve gotta go home for dinner.’

Flickr CC: Bark

Gonna and Gotta

Australia Plus Learn English is a free service for anyone learning English and is produced by the ABC, Australia's national public broadcaster.