Master English With Tim

How are English listening, English grammar and English pronunciation connected?
One way is consonant clusters. Consonant clusters, for example /bd/, /vd/, and /rdʒd/, are series of consonants pronounced together, without any vowels in them. Consonant clusters are often pronounced so quickly that they seem to be a single sound. You can find consonant clusters in the beginning, middle and end of English words. Consonant clusters at the end of words are critical for understanding and pronouncing the past tense forms of verbs so that everyone can clearly understand if the past or present is being spoken of.
Listen to Episode 116 to understand if you already master consonant clusters or need to study them more.

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If you want to learn the present perfect, or the passive voice, then you need to learn the past participle, also known as the third form of the verb. And you especially need to learn the irregular past participles! And the reality is that many students don't know the third forms of irregular verbs well.
What can you do to solve these problems? Well, Episode 115 is a great place to start! it will give you the forms you need for a solid base to learn the present perfect and the passive voice.

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Let's be direct: if you want a high score on IELTS or TOEFL, then you need to learn the 2809 words of the NGSL, or New General Service List, and their different meanings. Knowing NGSL vocabulary will help you to understand the details of what people say in English (instead of just the basics),

More episodes with words from the NGSL:
Episode 2: The NGSL- 2800 Words For Better English.
Episode 11: NGSL 1331-1340. 10 Words, 27 Meanings.
Episode 62: NGSL 1341-1350.
Episode 73: NGSL 1511-1520.
Episode 84: NGSL 1011-105.

Note: cover image created by AI.

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Why is English listening so difficult?
English listening is difficult because real English pronunciation is very different from what students hear in the classroom- DID YOU becomes DIDJA, WHAT'S YOUR becomes WUTCHER, and so on. This style of American English pronunciation is called chewing gum pronunciation, and it has the biggest effect on the most commonly used words, for example YOU and YOUR. The pronunciation of these two key words completely changes after specific sounds- after /t/, after /d/, and after /z/.
Listen to Episode #113 to learn the natural, real-world ways to say these key words so you understand them more easily in your day to day life.

For a general view of chewing gum pronunciation, listen to Episode 102.

Note: the horrific cover image was created by AI.

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The New General Service List, or NGSL, is a list of the most used words in English. If you know the words from the NGSL well, you can score higher on IELTS or TOEFL.
What's the biggest mistake English students make? Well, one of them is that they think that each English word has just one or two meanings. In reality, you need to know three, four, or even more functions for each word if you want to speak and understand English at an advanced level, with depth, detail and confidence.
Listen to Episode 112 to learn 27 functions of 10 words using 79 example sentences.

More episodes with words from the NGSL:
Episode 2: The NGSL- 2800 Words For Better English.
Episode 11: NGSL 1331-1340. 10 Words, 27 Meanings.
Episode 62: NGSL 1341-1350.
Episode 73: NGSL 1511-1520.
Episode 84: NGSL 1011-105.

*The cover image was created using AI.

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I'm not gonna lie- pronouns aren't "sexy" like verbs (and especially irregular verbs!) are. But we use pronouns really ALL THE TIME, and students often overestimate how well they know pronouns. So- listen to Episode #111 to consolidate and deepen your knowledge of this essential and misunderstood part of speech, or category of words.

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Everyone knows that phrasal verbs are difficult- "there is little or no connection between the words in a phrasal verb and its meaning", people say. This kind of phrasal verb does exist, but is not super common. In reality, you can usually get an idea of what a phrasal verb means by understanding the words that are in it- especially the base verb.
Listen to Episode #110 to understand the difference between these two types of phrasal verbs, and learn ten phrasal to understand native speakers better and speak in a more natural way.

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How well do you know the difference between action verbs and stative verbs?
While action verbs talk about classic actions like "walk", "try" or "jump", stative verbs talk about other categories of action, like things you do with your mind ("agree", "remember") or senses ("see", "smell"), or characteristics of things ("weigh", "cost"). Listen to Episode #109 to sharpen your vocabulary and make fewer grammar mistakes!

The cover image was generated using AI.

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Five words for IELTS and TOEFL:
BLOOD. APPROPRIATE. BLOCK. WARM. COUNT.
It's just five words, but these five words have 22 functions or meanings. That's around four meanings for each word!
And in fact, most English words have two or more meanings or functions. If you know these meanings or functions, you will understand advanced spoken and written English with greater depth, detail and confidence, and you'll also have a chance to express your ideas in English with more depth, detail and confidence yourself.
Listen to Episode #108 to learn 5 important words from the famous New General Service List, or NGSL, with 22 functions and 64 example sentences.

More episodes with words from the NGSL:
Episode 2: The NGSL- 2800 Words For Better English.
Episode 11: NGSL 1331-1340. 10 Words, 27 Meanings.
Episode 62: NGSL 1341-1350.
Episode 73: NGSL 1511-1520.
Episode 84: NGSL 1011-105.

The cover image was *not* generated using AI.

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People don't often think about their noses- but Tim does, and he's made a whole episode with over a dozen words for talking about noses- animals' noses (including pig SNouts), people's noses (including SNoots), and things people do with their noses (for example, SNore). Listen to Episode 107 for all the funny and interesting vocabulary you'll ever need for talking about noses.

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