Answers »

How to use 'a', 'an', and 'the' in English

English articles ("a", "an", and "the") come before nouns. They help to communicate which thing you're talking about, similar to words like "this", "my", and "all". And they're confusing to a lot of English learners. 

Articles are really, really hard!

If your native language doesn't use...

The Blog »

The Phrase Mixer is awesome.

The Phrase Mixer

I hope you don't mind me bragging.

I've recently updated the Phrase Mixer, the tool that lets PhraseMix Premium subscribers review PhraseMix English lessons. If you've never used it, try out the limited Phrase Mixer sample version for free.

The Phrase Mixer is something I thought of many years...

Concepts »

Objects

What are objects?

The "object" of a sentence is a noun which usually comes after the verb in English. Here are some examples:

I love you.

Did you pay the rent?

The object receives the action of the verb.

Sometimes a sentence doesn't have an object:

I want to rest!

Not many men know how to...

Premium Articles »

The most famous American TV catch phrases (Part 3)

In Part 1 and Part 2 of this series, I introduced 10 of the most famous catch phrases from American TV shows.

Here are 10 more, just for PhraseMix Premium subscribers:

 

  1. “You’re fired.”

    (Donald Trump, The Apprentice)



    In this reality game show, contestants...

Phrase Lists »

The most famous American TV catch phrases (Part 2)

In Part 1 of this series, I introduced 10 of the most famous catch phrases from American TV shows.

As I wrote in that article, a "catch phrase" is something that a certain character repeats again and again. Learning some famous catch phrases can be useful if you're an English learner because they...

Phrase Lists »

The most famous American TV catch phrases (Part 1)

You can learn some interesting English through TV catch phrases.

A "catch phrase" is something that a certain character repeats again and again. As a TV show continues, the audience starts to expect the character to use this phrase and gets excited when they hear it. Catch phrases are most...

Answers »

How do you use "suggest" correctly?

OK, I have to admit that no PhraseMix readers have directly asked me about this. But it's a common problem that I've noticed in a lot of emails and conversations with English learners: a lot of people use the word "suggest" incorrectly. So here's how you should use it.


The thing to remember is...

Premium Articles »

All the best English blogs

Do you read any blogs in English?

Blogs are great because they're written in more "normal" language than newspapers or magazine articles, plus you can find one that's on a specific topic that you're interested in.

Here are a few interesting blogs on different topics. Some I've read, and some I...

Premium Articles »

Where to find English audio with transcripts

As you probably know, listening to English while reading along is a super-powerful way to improve your listening skill as well as your vocabulary. Finding audio or video with matching transcripts or subtitles can be hard. But this post should make it a little easier!

The list below contains links...

Answers »

What's the difference between 'clean away', 'clean up', 'clean out', etc.?

Before I explain the differences between "clean up", "clean out", etc. here's a warning: if you don't already know these phrases, it's a bad idea to learn them all at the same time. Read this blog post to find out why.

If you already know these expressions and you'd like to figure out exactly how...