English with Dane

Here we go with another read-along episode! I love these. Let's read an article together and learn about new things while picking up new vocabulary along the way. Today we're reading this article about motivation in life and business written by James Clear, a New York Times best-selling author. I think this article is inspiring and hopefully, it will help you by giving you some good tips on how to approach (como enfocar) your journey to becoming the most fluent English speaker you can be. You...

Advanced phrasal verbs this time, and in a format that might be more fun. I play clips from movies, and you have to figure out what each phrasal verb means. I've been doing a lot of phrasal verb stuff recently, but I think it's important to get comfortable with them. Don't get discouraged if you don't decipher all of these, the point is to become aware of them, and eventually incorporate them into your day-to-day. Try the challenge and let me know what you think.

Here we go again with more phrasal verbs! After episode 121 (What are Phrasal Verbs and How to Learn Them) I realized it would be much better to group phrasal verbs by particle (UP) instead of the main verb, so this episode is about exactly that. I'll talk about different phrasal verbs with UP, and give you a few meanings for each so you can practice them and incorporate them into your day-to-day because that's what it's about. Today's phrasal verbs are: turn up, give up, heat up and put up w...

This episode has been a long time coming. This is a question I often get from students, and so I've put this episode together to answer it. There's no real difference between increasing your vocabulary in English and in your native language, but when it comes to a second language, the effort needs to be more present. I feel that a lot of you are experiencing a lack of confidence when it comes to speaking English because you feel like you're going to get stuck mid-sentence and not know how to ...

This might seem like a basic episode (or not) but I think it's a necessary one. I get a lot of questions about phrasal verbs from a variety of students, beginners and more advanced ones too, so I thought I would address those questions with an episode dedicated specifically to what they are, and more importantly: how to learn them. This episode includes three practical tips to make your life easier when it comes to learning phrasal verbs, while at the same time comforting those of you w...

GET ready! GET a pen and paper and take notes because it's GETTING real. 😂 All jokes aside, this is a topic that a lot of English learners have a difficult time with, so here's a quick guide on how to use the verb to get. This episode was inspired by Maura who is one of my Patrons and with whom I had a long conversation with last week. She told me it's hard to wrap her head around (good expression there) the concept, so hopefully this will help clear up any doubts you had.

An important episode in which I address, or talk about, a question I get asked very often about studying grammar and how important it is. Over the last year or so, I've noticed some teachers preaching to disregard, or not care about, grammar when trying to level up your English and while there is some good that can come out of this approach, I think it's restrictive and can hurt your development in the long run. It's better to understand guidelines and then choose to ignore them, than to igno...

This episode of English with Dane is full of new, practical vocabulary for you! We're reading a weird news story about some toy thieves in Holland and it will give us the opportunity to look over new words, expressions, idioms, etc to add to your arsenal. Who knew that Lego and Pokemon items could be valuable enough to have people smashing their cars through windows to get their hands on them! ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ The story in question: Van smashes through Dutch toy store window to steal Lego and ...

I know how you feel about idioms, so here are some more! I also like talking about them because it gives me a chance to reflect on how I speak, which idioms I use the most, and how I interact with people in general. Idioms are a great way to make yourself sound more natural in when speaking English, so I always recommend to have some in your back pocket (there's another idiom!).

It's been a while since I did one of these movie reviews so let's see how it goes. You guys voted on Instagram and Moview Review won so here it is. I reviewed the 2021 movie The Suicide Squad which I watched a few weeks back. Maybe it's not the movie you want to talk about, but really, the point is to arm you with the tools (darte las herramientas) to talk about your favorite (or not) movies with friends, colleagues, or whoever you're chatting to at the time. So I hope this episode does exact...