"You are listening, aren't you?"
"She does speak English, doesn't she?"
Tag questions, also simply called tags, are a great way to sound more natural and more native. They also can make you sound more friendly- and who doesn't want that? In this week's episode, Tim explains to you everything you need to know about tags, and finishes your lesson with a short, fun quiz to test your new knowledge of tags.

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This week has been super, super busy- so I will need to publish the next episode later than you're used to hearing it. I hope to publish it today- and the wait will be worth it!

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Episode 89 will help you speak with impact! For example:
Millionaires live in wealth... but billionaires live in opulence, or extreme wealth. And the richest people of all, like Elon Musk (love him or hate him) live not just in opulence, but in utter opulence.
Advanced vocabulary like opulence, words that express more extreme ideas,really help you to "spruce up" your speech (make it more interesting) and make people listen.
Listen to Episode 89 to learn ten words and expressions with meanings that are truly STRIKING.

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Few people like job interviews- it's often a question of bad, worse and worst, even if you do get the job you want. Okay, there are exceptions, but not many.
In Episode 88, Tim tells about a tragicomic (sad and funny) interview he attended earlier this year. Let Tim's pain and disgust become your entertainment and jollification, just by listening to Episode 88.
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Cover image: By Edvard Munch - National Gallery of Norway 8 January 2019 (upload date) by Coldcreation, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=69541493

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People associate the US with hard work- but don't forget that here in the US (but also Canada!), we spend around 15 percent of the year in the holiday season that starts with Halloween and ends with New Year's. The second holiday in this long holiday season is of course Thanksgiving. In this week's episode, Tim tells about his Thanksgiving travels before telling how he shared this special holiday with family and a couple of new friends.

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In this week's episode, Tim focuses on just one phrasal verb, take down, with three different meanings and ten examples.

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Word roots are an awesome (and sadly underused) tool for learning vocabulary. A word root is a group of letters at the beginning of a word that has a certain meaning. For example, several English words include the Germanic root DR- which is connected with drinking or liquid. This shared meaning across several words makes words more interesting and it makes their meanings easier to learn.
If you're curious about word roots, then don't forget to listen to episodes 15, 19, 34, and 45.

Photo credit: Dan Lundberg.
Mangrove roots at low tide - Mangrove - Wikipedia

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Words are like stairs- they take you to beautiful places, but only if you do the work!
This week, Tim continues progressing through the 2800 words of the New General Service List, or NGSL. This week's five target words are: wind, none, exchange, budget and famous. Five words, twelve meanings. If you think you know these five words but only know one meaning for each one... then you don't really know these words.
Tim has said it before, and now he's saying it again: if you want to really master English, you need to know the different meanings of words!

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Learning vocabulary is the biggest task you have when studying English, so it's natural to try to learn more words and expressions... But you also need to know words well, and not stop just at pronunciation, spelling, and one meaning. In Episode 83, Tim explains what it means when you REALLY know your vocabulary, or if your knowledge is too basic and you need to go back and learn more.

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Everyone knows about Halloween costumes and trick or treating... but some Halloween traditions are more personal and secret. In Episode 82, Tim shares some unique personal and family Halloween traditions involving skeletons, pudding and haunted garages.

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