Monday, July 23, 2012

Quick Lesson: Types of word in English

Did you know that all English words can be categorised into eight different types? So whether you are ordering a beer in London or writing a letter to a friend in Oxford, the words you use will be one of the types in this table!

type of word function or "job" example words example sentences
Verb action word, when something is happening or being (to) be, have, do, like, work, sing, can, fly Facebook.com is a web site. I like Facebook.com.
Noun thing or person foot, dog, work, music, town, London, friend, Joe This is my hair. It lives on my head. We live in London.
Adjective describes a noun a/an, the, two, more, good, big, small, well, interesting I have two dogs. My dogs are big. I like big dogs.
Adverb describes a verb, adjective or adverb quickly, silently, badly, very, really, slowly My hair grows quickly. When it is very long, it dries really slowly.
Pronoun replaces a noun I, you, he, she, some Emma is English. She is funny. I like her.
Preposition links a noun to another word to, at, after, on, but After my English lesson on Monday I felt more confident speaking to people.
Conjunction joins clauses or sentences or words and, but, when I like Emma and I like Maria. I like Emma and Maria. I like Maria but I don't like Emma.
Interjection short exclamation, sometimes inserted into a sentence oh!, ouch!, hi!, well Ouch! That hurts! Hi! How are you? Well, I don't know.

Which of these types do you think you use most when you are speaking? Is there a particular type of English word you find most difficult to understand? We would love to hear from you in the comments section!

Monday, July 16, 2012

My experience at Twin


I came to London four months ago because I wanted to improve my English. Thanks to Twin I got the opportunity to do so but also to live the experience in all the possible ways.

Before getting here I tried to rent a room but it was very difficult to do so while being in Argentina or Spain. Since I didn’t know anybody in London, I ask Twin to find a host family who I could live with during the first month. Thanks to them, I stayed with a lovely Jamaican family. My time with them couldn’t be better, their food was amazing and they were always taking care of me. However, after one month I moved to a flat with some students because I wanted to live more independently. Right now I live with another 5 flatmates; we all are from different countries and the only language we have in common is English so I can continue learning at home.



During my English lessons at Twin, I have the opportunity of meeting people from all over the world because the groups are very diverse. I really enjoy my lessons because I get the chance to practice a lot my English. My favourite teacher is Nyanda, she’s very easy going and you can never get bored with her. I really recommend her conversation class because she lets us speak about all kind of topics and it is very dynamic.
Despite having the chance of improving my English and making so many friends, the best part about being in London is London itself. From Camden Town to the night outs in the Centre, this place is amazing! My favourite experience so far was going to The Lion King Musical. Usually it’s quite expensive to go to this kind of shows, but I bought the tickets through Twin and I only paid £26. This is one of my favourite things about Twin you can get discounts for almost all the shows, trips and parties.

Finally, I must say that it has been one of the best experiences of my life and I hope it continues like that. Everybody at the school is very nice and they are always there to help you. I would definitely recommend this experience; I guarantee you won’t regret it!

María Acuña -Argentina