Free Games for Practising English

Do you know that one of the best ways to improve your English is to play with it?
Below you can find some funny sites! Enjoy and let me know which one you like best!

• English Online: Grammar of Doom and Shoot a Sentence.
• BBC Skillwise
• ESL Games Plus
• British Council Learn English
• ESL Games World
• Vocabulary.co.il
• Grammar Ninja

Books are magic

What do you know about Harry Potter? Look for these virtues and write down a definition for each of them. If each virtue is linked to a character, which one can you identify with? 

(70 words)

20 Words and phrases English owes to Shakespeare

A foregone conclusion (Othello) – said when the outcome of a situation is clear from the beginning.

The truth will out (the Merchant of Venice) – meaning that the truth will eventually come out, no matter what you do to try to hide it.

I haven’t slept a wink (Cymbeline) – meaning not to have slept at all.

Too much of a good thing (As You Like It) – used to warn against excess. Too much of a good thing can be bad for you.

To wear your heart on your sleeve (Othello) – meaning to show your emotions, especially romantic feelings, openly.

There’s method in my madness (Hamlet) – meaning that beneath apparently chaotic behaviour there is some kind of order.

The green-eyed monster (Othello) – meaning jealousy (jealousy and envy are associated with the colour green in English, as in ‘green with envy’).

The world’s your oyster (The Merry Wives of Windsor) – this means being able to do anything you want because you have the opportunity to do so, either through talent, looks, luck, power or money.

To make your hair stand on end (Hamlet) – used to describe something very scary.

They’re all still in common use today, so why not try throwing one or two into your conversation?

Ten funny English common sayings

I have just come across this website where you can find funny common sayings with images which are used in colloquial English.

--> Follow the link and enjoy!

Guess who?

Today I propose you a little game to play. I am giving you a certain number of clues to discover our mysterious man!
"Follow the rabbit" (remember Alice in the Wonderland!) in order to find out.

April 23^rd 1564    

November 27^th 1582    

Around 1590? He went to London   

April 23^rd 1616   

Are you still lost in the fog? Read some more hints below:

• April 26^th, 1564 recorded in the register of the Holy Trinity Parish Church the baptism, so it is agreed that he was born on April 23^rd.

• The father was a gloves maker and the mother a woman called Mary Arden.

• November 27^th 1582. Marriage licence, he married Anne Hathaway.

• May 26^th 1583 his daughter Susan was born.

• February 2^nd 1585 Hammet and Judith were born.

• During a period known to scholars as the “ dark years”, a period for which we have no biographical information, he moved to London for career reasons. His father has suffered some financial difficulties and it was necessary for our mysterious man to find a work that would support his family. He managed to obtain a position with Pembroke’s Men and continued to work for London theatrical companies.

• April, 23^rd, 1616 death of a fever and on his tomb was written: 

“Good friends for Jesus sake forbeare

 to dig the dust enclosed here 

blessed the man that spares these bones 

and cursed be he that moves my bones”

• You would ask what’s in the middle…  I suppose you have already discovered who we are speaking about.

• He is considered a genius and the best playwright ever, he wrote thirty-eight plays of which the most famous ten tragedies. Let mention them:

1. Antony and Cleopatra
2. Coriolanus
3. Hamlet
4. Julius Caesar
5. King Lear
6. Macbeth
7. Othello
8. Romeo and Juliet
9. Timon of Athens
10. Titus Andronicus