" Linking is a feature that belongs to connected speech," Professor Lovegood said that morning. "That is, when we speak naturally we don't pronounce a word, stop, then say the next word in the sentence." Professor Lovegood turned to the students. "Fluent speech flows with a rhythm and the words bump into each other. To make speech flow smoothly the way we pronounce the end and the beginning of some words can change depending on the sounds at the beginning and end of those words." Linking is a way of joining the pronunciation of two words so that they are easy to say and flow together smoothly. When we say a sentence in English, we "link" words to each other. Due to this linking, the words in a sentence do not always sound the same as when we say them individually. Then, if you recognize and use linking, two things will happen: You will understand other people more easily. Other people will understand you more easily. There are ...

Are you ready to do this listening about fast food industry? Come on!! Reference list: https://www.esleschool.com/reading-use-of-english-part-3-set-4/

Professor Scamander entered in the classroom and began his lesson about silent letters. Silent letters are letters that can’t be heard when the word is spoken. There are silent letters in some English words because over hundreds of years we have changed how we pronounce those words but kept the old spelling. The spelling tells us how the word used to be pronounced: eg in medieval times, people used to sound out the letter k in the word knock . Below are some examples of words with silent letters. Can you think of any others? If so, let us know it. Silent n  -> Autumn, damn, column. Silent g  -> Sign resign foreign. Silent b  -> Thumb doubt plumber . Silent k  -> Knock know knee . Silent t -> Listen mortgage watch. Silent h  -> Hour ghost honest. Silent w  -> Wrist wrote wrong. Silent l  -> Half calm talk. Silent u  -> Guess guard tongue. Sometimes we can forget to include letters when they can’t be h...

"Do you remember why and how we use the passive voice in English? Well, let's have a quick review of the basis," Professor Lovegood added vigorously. Let's see. In English, we differentiate between active and passive voice. In the active voice, the subject is the 'actor' that performs ac action. This is called the agent . For example: Professor Malfoy drank two cups of tea . In this sentence, Professor Malfoy  (that is the actor) did an action ( drank ). The object ( two cups of tea ) receives the action. Thus, the sentence is about the subject , not the object of the verb. On the other hand, in the passive  voice, the situation is the opposite. We begin with the object, which is more important in this case, becoming the subject. For example: Two cups of tea were drunk [by Professor Malfoy] This is how we build a sentence using the passive voice: Subject ( Two cups of tea ) + BE verb ( were ) + past participle ( drunk ) [+ by the ag...

English verbs are complicated according to pronunciation. That is because they are all very similar in ending, but it does not mean they are pronounced equally. In regular past forms, all verbs are used with the same ending (-ed), but pronunciation changes depending on the verb and letters used in the verb. There are three different ways of pronouncing these two letters with these sounds: /ɪd/, /t/ and /d/.            -It will be pronounced as /ɪd/ when it is preceded by /t/ or /d/ as in  wanted  or  needed .            - It will be pronounced as /d/ when it is preceded by a voiced sound (b, g, v, z, th, j, m, n, ng, l, r, or vowel sound) other than /d/ as in  moved.        -It will be pronounced as /t/ when it is preceded by a voiceless (p, k, f, s, sh, x, and ch) other than /t/ as in  looked  or in  fished. Now you will hea...

ARE CELEBRITIES BAD FOR YOU? Celebrities are everywhere nowadays: on TV, in magazines, online. Is this preoccupation with famous people harmless fun or is it bad for us? How many people are truly obsessed with modern media idols? And on the other side of the coin, can fame be harmful to the celebrities? Studies suggest that the vast majority of teenagers do not really worship celebrities. Researchers have identified three kinds of fans. About 15% of young people have an ‘entertainment-social’ interest. They love chatting about their favourite celebrities with friends and this does not appear to do any harm. Another 5% feel that they have an ‘intense-personal’ relationship with a celebrity. Sometimes they see them as their soulmate and find that they are often thinking about them, even when they don’t want to. These people are more at risk from depression and anxiety. If girls in this group idolise a female star with a body they consider to be perfect, they are more likel...

-You will listen a dialogue between Harry Potter and Albus Dumbledore. Fill in the blanks the following sentences according to what you have heard. Bibliography: Rowlings, J. K. (1997). Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s stone.