Verb up

I took my IELTS test today, and I wanted to share my experience with anyone who is currently preparing for the exam. Hopefully, my feedback will help you feel more confident and less nervous on test day.   Speaking : Stay Calm and Keep Talking First of all, try not to stress too much about the Speaking test. It was not as difficult as I expected. Of course, the experience can depend on the examiner, but the questions themselves were quite simple and familiar. I was asked about my name, where I live, what I like most about my apartment, animals, whether I had ever visited a zoo, and the most famous animal in Algeria, among other similar questions. For Part 2, try to speak for the full two minutes. The examiner will explain that you have two minutes to talk, so do not worry about going over the time. They will stop you when the two minutes are finished. The most important thing is to remain calm and speak naturally. Do not overthink the questions. If you make a small mistake, simply ...

In IELTS Academic Writing Task 1, you have 20 minutes to describe a chart, graph, or table. Most students struggle not because they don't understand the data, but because they lack the specific vocabulary to describe trends accurately. After 17 years of teaching, I’ve distilled the "must-have" vocabulary and the structure that consistently earns Band 7+.   The 3-Part Structure for Task 1:   1        Introduction (1 sentence): Paraphrase the prompt. If the prompt says "The graph shows the number of people visiting Morocco," your introduction should say "The line graph illustrates the volume of tourists who traveled to Morocco between [Year] and [Year]." 2        Overview (2 sentences): This is the most important part. Identify the two most obvious trends. Do not use numbers here. Example: "Overall, the number of visitors increased significantly over the period, while the amount spent per visitor saw a sl...

Fluency at work isn't about knowing 20,000 words — it's about having the right phrases ready for the moments that matter: the meeting, the email, the client call. Below are twenty phrases I teach professionals worldwide, organized by the situation you'll actually face. Each one replaces a weaker alternative that non-native speakers tend to use.   Starting and leading meetings   1        "Let's kick things off." (replaces "I want to start...") 2        "The purpose of this meeting is..." — state it in one sentence. 3        "Let's move on to the next item on the agenda." 4        "I'd like to hand over to [name]." — the polite way to pass the floor. 5        "Let's wrap this up." — ending a meeting decisively.   Agreeing and disagreeing professionally   6        "I ...

If you speak Arabic and struggle with English, some of your mistakes aren't random — they're predictable. In seventeen years of teaching Arabic-speaking students, I've seen the same seven errors appear again and again, because they come from structural differences between the two languages. The good news: once you know what's coming, you can fix each one deliberately.   1. Dropping the verb "to be." Arabic allows "I happy" and "She at school" because the verb to be is often implied. English never does. Before any adjective or prepositional phrase, check for is/am/are/was/were. Fix: read your sentence aloud — if something feels "floating" without a verb, add it.   2. "I am agree" instead of "I agree." In Arabic, a state ("I am in agreement") is natural. In English, agree, disagree, understand, and know are verbs — no "am" allowed. Fix: memorize this list of state verbs that never ...