Which one is correct "every day"or "everyday"?

Have you seen sentences with "every day" and others with "everyday" and you are not quite sure which one is correct?

Well, I've got some good news for you! They are both correct!

BUT, there is always a "but", right? They have different meanings, therefore different ways of using them.

Let's take a look at some examples

1. I wake up at 6:00 am every day.
2. She walks her dog every day.
3. For most Brazilians, everyday crime is a much more imminent threat than terrorism.
4. I am interested in writing about my everyday life.

Sentences number 1 and 2 use "every day" because they are saying that they do those activities each day. While sentences 3 and 4 use "everyday" because they want to say something like ordinary, typical or usual. "Everyday" is an adjective in those examples.

Let's rewrite the sentences using their alternatives.

1. I wake up at 6:00 am each day.
2. She walks her dog each day.
3. For most Brazilians, usual crime is a much more imminent threat than terrorism.
4. I am interested in writing about my ordinary life.

Can you tell the difference now? If so, write one sentence using "every day" and another using "everyday" on the comments below.

If you still can't understand the difference, let me know leaving a comment below.

See you next time!

English Students Struggle With The Present Simple As Much As With The Present Perfect

I've been teaching English as a second language since 2002 and I was really young when I started doing it.
Though I had been trained to teach English, my first class was not what I had expected. My students were old enough to be my parents or even grandparents.

No training can prepare you for real life. To me, there is nothing like practice. It is in the classroom, or in my current case on a Skype call, where we discover our students' needs and difficulties and how to address them.

I remember learning that students would have "heart attacks" when we started teaching the Present Perfect, for instance, but though it is a complicated verb tense, especially to Brazilians (we don't have this verb tense in our native language), what I realized is that Simple Present was not as easy for my students as I had anticipated or been trained to expect. Most of my students make mistakes when using this tense, probably the same amount of mistakes they make when using Present Perfect.

Sometimes I hear my students say things like "I'm like to travel",  I'm work for the government",  I'm go to the gym twice a week" when they should say "I like to travel", I work for the government", I go to the gym twice a week."

I guess this happens because the first thing most students learn is the famous Verb To Be and they probably think saying "I'm" is the same is saying "I", so they just stick verb to be everywhere.
Maybe Verb To Be should not be the first thing to be taught.

Another thing they struggle with is when the subject is not a pronoun. They will say things like: "My mother and my father works for Unilever". In their minds "my mother" is "she" and "my father" is "he" and when it's he or she we put the letter S in the end of the verb. Other times they think the S in the end of the verb represents the plural and since there are two people, then they must say "works". 

These mistakes are often made by adult learners and I sometimes wonder if this happens because of anxiety. Adult learners put a great deal of pressure on themselves and that might get in their way. There is no fun in learning for most of them.

With that in mind, when I teach the Simple Present to adults I always have them talk about the things they do for fun. 
I ask them to describe their weekends, to talk about celebrations, such as Easter, Christmas, New Years and they seem to enjoy it a bit more than talking about their routines.

If you are reading this and you are a student, how about writing about your favorite celebrations. What do you usually do? Where do you usually go? Who do you spend them with? What do you usually eat? 
(You could even record yourself speaking and send your audio to me. I'll be happy to check it for you. Send it to suporte@elearningforall.org)

If you are a teacher reading this, I'd love to read your comments on this topic and your suggestions.

Falar Inglês Com Sotaque É Um Erro?

Falar um idioma estrangeiro com sotaque é errado?

Vou responder essa pergunta, mas primeiro deixa eu te contar um pouco sobre como eu aprendo idiomas.

Eu comecei a aprender inglês quando era bem pequena, então o meu processo de aprendizagem foi mais natural e diferente dos muitos alunos que ensino hoje em dia, pois eles são adultos.

Eu imitava o que via nas séries de televisão ou nas telas do cinema. Comprava CDs e colava as letras no box do meu banheiro para poder cantar no banho, eu queria pronunciar tudo como os nativos pronunciavam e eu sou assim até hoje.

Assisto vídeo no Youtube, escuto rádios online, converso com nativos, tudo isso para falar da forma mais correta e parecida a um nativo.

Seis anos atrás decidi aprender espanhol e o meu processo de aprendizagem foi bastante diferente comparado a quando aprendi inglês, mas uma coisa foi igual, a minha obsessão para falar como os nativos.

Faço isso porque não gosto de explicar o tempo todo que sou brasileira (não porque tenha vergonha da minha nacionalidade), gosto de passar desapercebida, assim me tratam como qualquer nativo do local. Pode ser um pensamento bobo, mas assim me sinto mais confortável e parte da comunidade na qual estou vivendo.

Eu prefiro falar inglês ou espanhol tentando esconder meu sotaque para que as pessoas não percebam que eu não sou daquele lugar, mas isso não significa que ter um sotaque é errado.

Na verdade, manter um sotaque é, para muitas pessoas, uma maneira de manter uma conexão com suas origens e não tem nada de mal nisso.

A pronúncia é o que realmente importa, pois se você é capaz de pronunciar bem, as pessoas vão te entender e você poderá se comunicar perfeitamente.

Eu adoro a série Modern Family e adoro ainda mais a personagem Gloria que é uma colombiana. Ela tem um sotaque bem marcante, mas fala inglês bem e na maior parte do tempo consegue se comunicar.

Para nossa diversão, ela às vezes comete uns erros de pronúncia que geram muita confusão e eu queria mostrar um desses momentos no vídeo abaixo. Primeiro, assista ao vídeo. Depois eu te explico tudo!

Leia agora o diálogo da cena.

Gloria: Jay! This came for you.
Jay: Oh, hi, honey.What is it? 
Gloria: I called your secretary and told her to order you some crackers and those cheeses that you like.
the tiny little ones.
Jay: Thanks.

Gloria: I know that I have an accent, but people understand me just fine.
Jay: What the hell is this?
Gloria: I told you, Jay. I called your secretary and told her to order you a box of baby cheeses.
Gloria: Oh, so now that is my fault too.

Gloria explica que ligou para a secretária de Jay e pediu para ela encomendar uma caixa de "baby cheeses" que seria um tipo de queijo pequenininho como o que você pode ver na imagem abaixo:

Mas a maneira como ela pronuncia soa como "baby Jesus", menino Jesus. E é isso que Jay recebe. Nada a ver com o que ela tinha encomendado.

Se você quer manter seu sotaque, não tem nenhum problema! Simplesmente, fique atento para ter uma boa pronúncia e você não terá problemas!

Espero que você tenha gostado desse artigo e que te seja útil. Até a próxima!

P.S: Eu tenho um curso de pronúncia de inglês em 5 aulas de 1 hora via Skype que pode te ajudar. Mais informações através do email contato@elearningforall.org.

Learn English - Impeachment Vocabulary in English

In Brazil things are really complicated right now since many Brazilians are not happy with their president, Dilma Rousseff, and there is a process of impeachment happening as I write this post. 
Because of that some of my students have requested a lesson involving vocabulary related to this moment Brazil is going through. 

Let's get started with the steps of the Impeachment process by analyzing the image below.

Image by the BBC News

Now, read the important vocabulary and try to understand what each word means. If you have any doubts, feel free to write them on the comments.

Important Vocabulary

• corruption -  dishonest proceedings
• money laundering-to transform illegally obtained gain into seemingly legitimate funds. 
• rally - a drawing or coming together of persons, as for common action, as in a mass meeting:

• coup - A sudden, violent, and illegal seizure of power from a government.

• clash - A violent confrontation:

• motion - A formal proposal put to a legislature or committee:

• "bribe pipeline"- money or any other valuable consideration given or promised with a view  to corrupting the behavior of a person. The "bribe pipeline" is the name given to the Petrobrás scandal.

Lastly, read the sentences in which the vocabulary is used. The sentences have been removed from 2 articles one by the BBC News and you can read the full article here and the other by The Economist and you can read the full article here.

- She had been due to attend a rally but instead has been lobbying congress members and party leaders for support.

- Ms Rousseff is accused of manipulating government accounts. She says her opponents are mounting a "coup".

- Metal barriers have been built outside the parliament building to keep the groups apart to prevent possible clashes.

- Latest estimates suggest those in favour of impeachment have just enough votes for the motion to carry.

- Ms Rousseff has also indicated lower house speaker Eduardo Cunha is among those trying to oust her. He is himself facing money-laundering and other charges.

- The corruption scheme, in which big construction firms allegedly funnelled billions of reais to Petrobras executives and their political masters in exchange for padded contracts, appears to have been started while Lula was in office.

- The chief prosecutor accuses Mr Cunha, who denies any wrongdoing, of managing the Petrobras “bribe pipeline”.

I guess you are now ready to talk about the political situation of Brazil in English, let's just hope things go well for the country.

Online English Lesson - Leonardo DiCaprio Oscars Speech

After a long long time I decided to blog again! Hurray!

My life has changed a lot, but one thing has not changed, my passion for teaching.

When I turn on my computer and call a student via Skype or Google Hangout all the problems disappear! I am right there with my student at that moment and it enlightens my day to feel that I am being helpful and that my student is learning something through me.

I chose to teach online because it enables geographic flexibility, you see I am Brazilian, but I live in Argentina and I absolutely love to travel. If I were to work in a school or a language course, I would not be able to visit my family in Brazil in May, for example or to accompany my husband to a course he will be attending in the US.

I love what I do and I love the way I can perform it, that's why I believe I am good at my profession. I have my flaws, of course, but I am always aiming to achieve perfection.

Anyways, enough about me! What I really wanted to do today was to share an activity I created for one of my students. It's about the Oscar, more precisely about Leonardo DiCaprio's acceptance speech for his first Oscar.

Here is the activity! If you wish to download it, click here.

A)Today we are going to watch the acceptance speech of Leonardo DiCaprio. Click here to watch it. Then answer the questions below:

1. Who are the ones he thanks?
2. What does he thank Mr Caton-Jones for?
3. What does he thank Mr Scorsesse for?
4. if you won an Oscar, what would your speech be like?

B) Now, click here to simply listen to Dicaprio's speech and complete the gaps on the script below:

Thank you, thank you all so very much. Thank you to the Academy, thank you to all of you in this room. I have to congratulate the other incredible ____________ this year for their unbelievable ___________.

The Revenant was a product of the tireless efforts of an unbelievable cast and crew I got to work alongside.

First off to my brother in this endeavor, Mr Tom Hardy. Tom, your fierce talent __________ can only be surpassed by your friendship _________.

To Mr Alejandro Iñárritu, as the history of cinema unfolds, you have forged your way into history these past two years. What an unbelievable talent you are. Thank you to you and Chivo for creating a transcendent cinematic experience for all of us. Thank you to everybody at Fox and New Regency, in particular Arnon Milchan. You were the champion of this endeavor. My entire team.

I have to thank everyone from the very onset of my career. Mr Caton-Jones for ________ me in my first film. Mr Scorsese for teaching me so much about the cinematic art form. To Mr Rick Yorn, thank you for helping me navigate my way through this industry. And to my parents, none of this would be possible without you. And to my friends, I love you dearly, you know who you are.

And lastly, I just want to say this: Making The Revenant was about man’s relationship to the natural world, a world that we collectively felt in 2015 as the hottest year in recorded history. Our production needed to move to the southern tip of this planet just to be able to find snow.

Climate change is real. It is happening right now. It is the most urgent threat facing our entire species, and we need to work collectively together and stop procrastinating.

We need to support leaders around the world who do not speak for the big polluters or the big corporations, but who speak for all of humanity, for the indigenous people of the world, for the billions and billions of underprivileged people who will be most affected by this, for our children’s children, and for those people out there whose voices have been drowned out by the politics of greed.

I thank you all for this amazing award tonight. Let us not take this planet for granted. I do not take tonight for granted. Thank you so very much.