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Do you want to improve your listening skills and understand movies as well? One of the most helpful ways to listen well is by using idioms, as most English native speakers use them. Sometimes, you watch a movie, but you do not have an idea of what they have said. That is because you are not familiar with the idiom that they use. That's why it is vital to be aware of Idioms. What is Idiom? An idiom is a group of words in a fixed order that has a particular meaning that is different from the meaning of each word on its own. For example,  in the phrase, "it's raining cats and dogs". How come it rains cats and dogs? It is illogical. So, you say this phrase when it is raining heavily. In this way, you can find that the actual meaning differs from the literal meaning. Using idioms also makes learning English so fun. For example, If you say, "the quiz is a piece of cake" instead of "the quiz is easy", it sounds more fun. Time to learn Idioms Here is a lis...

One of the biggest obstacles in learning the English language is speaking skills. You find people who reach an advanced level in English and have lots of vocabulary. However, when they speak English, they feel that they are beginners. That's because they do not know how to practice well and do not exert much effort when they learn a new language. Here are 10 ways to improve your English speaking skills. If you follow these ways, you will feel a big difference in your level.   Find a partner   Post on forums, colleges, or even the library. You don’t have to find someone overseas or live in an English-speaking country as online applications like Skype or Zoom are great for generally talking within your schedule. Watching someone speak the language or using visual aids will help speed up the learning process.   Speak English daily   If you do not have a speaking-English partner, talk to yourself. When you find yourself drifting in your head, do it in English. When you w...

What is word stress? Word stress is the emphasis we place in a specific syllable of a word when pronouncing it. In English words that have more than one syllable, we usually don’t pronounce every syllable with the same weight, so each syllable in a word can be stressed or unstressed.   In English we stress just one syllable in every word. We say that one syllable more loudly , we say it higher and we make it last longer .   Word stress is like a magic key to clear English. As you talk to people, listen to the news, watch movies, you must listen for and practice word stress. It will help you to understand what you hear and it will let others understand you.   Use an audio dictionary to listen to each of the words and mark which syllable gets the stress. Listen for the syllable that's a little louder and longer. You should practice to get it right.   Although English stress varies considerably, there are a few rules that will help you predict stre...