Practising English with Apps 5: Irregular verbs Sergeev Sergey

Google Play Store

Today I want to present you another app related to the learning of the irregular verbs, I have thought that this one is better for students of Bachillerato, rather than the other one I presented which is for younger students, or even for adults who want to review them.

This app has a much more serious interface and many more verbs, we can start reviewing verbs right away or we can open the menu in which we have 4 possibilities:

1. Word groups: we can set the app to work on different types of groups of verbs in terms of difficulty or different  coincidences in the forms of the verbs.
2. Word list: you can choose the verbs you want to work on.
3. Preferences: you can set limits of time or number of questions and other settings.
4. Additional: here you find additional information on the author and about the paid version.

The dynamics is very simple, when you start, a verb in Spanish appears together with three gaps for the base, the simple past and the past participle forms; you can type directly the answers, however, you can also listen to it, choose from 4 different options or directly check the answer of a particular form. At the end, you are given a percentage of right answers.

What do you think of this app? Do you prefer this one or the other one (Irregular verbs 2)?

Leave a comment and tell us!

Practising English with Apps

Back to school with Friends!

I was thinking wether to write about the famous British rowing competition in which Oxford and Cambridge crews fight to win (this year Oxford won) or about tomorrow's celebration of April Fool's Day in the UK (always on 1st April).
However, as I wish my readers, mostly students, to get strenght to finish the course, I decided to include this video of my favourite TV comedy show, which, as you probably know, is Friends. There are 10 series with many episodes and it would be a hard task for me to choose one or other scene, so, I choose this compilation of bloopers.
A blooper, gag reel or outtake is a part of the recorded material which is not finally included and not normally shown on TV because it includes mistakes of the acting team or any other incident which makes it not appropriate to be broadcasted. Even though it is completely in English, most of them are easy to be laughed at and understandable.
Are you a Friends' fan like me? Did you like the video? 
Would you like to watch it in class?

Practising English with Apps 4: Irregular verbs 2

Irregular verbs 2

Now that we are on holidays, we are going to continue with the apps' series. This time, I am presenting you one to learn English irregular verbs. When you open the menu, you find a list of the verbs which are in the game and you can listen to the three forms (base, past and past participle). You also find an Options button, if you click there, you can change the amount of verbs you want to play with in each game.

 You find the game by clicking on the Practice button. You see three chests and one of the three forms of the irregular verb; you also see four keys accompanied by the other two forms and other similar ones; besides, you can listen to the three forms if you do not remember them. You click on Check and you see if you are right; at the end of the game you can replay the wrong ones only, so that you can learn them better.

What do you think of this app? I think it is very good, especially for the first cycle of ESO because it does not have many verbs.

Practising English with Apps.

Practising English with Apps 3: ML Phrasal Verbs

ML Phrasal Verbs

This is the third of the series of Apps I am presenting you, you can have a look at the other two here. I think this is a great app to have in your mobile device and use it every now and then. As you know, I hate lists as a way of learning vocabulary, but I do think repetition is a good way to learn new words if there is some kind of reelaboration and this app is great for that.

In the main menu, we have two different parts:

• Reference.
• Phrasal Verbs Games.

In the Reference part, there is a list of up to 1,063 phrasal verbs with their meaning in English, an example and the translation to Spanish. There is a star next to each phrasal verb so that you can make your own list of phrasal verbs (just in case you need to revise some for an exam, for example), it is difficult to click on the star, though.

In the Phrasal Verbs Games part, we find three different types of games:

1. Verb by Meaning: you have the phrasal verb and an example and you have to choose a synonym phrase or word in English.
2. Meaning by Verb: you have the synonym phrase or word and you have to choose the phrasal verb (no examples in this one).
3. Anagram: This is my favourite!! There are disordered letters on screen that you have to put in the correct order to form 2 or 3-word phrasal verbs. If you press the word CUE, you get a synonym word or phrase. I like this one because I think it gets our brains to think which word can it be with the letters you see and I think that mechanism in the brain makes it easier to remember the phrasal verbs.

This is a very goog way of learning phrasal verbs and it is totally free, (you get ads, but they do not interfere with the game), so I strongly reccommend it. You can download it through the link under the picture and have fun!!!

Practising English with Apps 2: Johny Grammar's Quiz

British Council

As I told you, I am going to show you another app . It is called Johny Grammar's Quiz. This is a very fun and entertaining app also designed by British Council. In this app, you can practice things we see in class in a very easy way. You have a menu subdivided into three:

1. Spelling quiz
2. Grammar quiz, and
3. Vocab quiz

In the spelling quiz, there are two stages: in the first one you say which word is correct; and in the second one, you have to point out the one that is wrong and rewrite it again correcting it. The grammar and vocabulary quizzes are divided into three different levels: easy, medium and hard. The grammar quiz has got four different cattegories depending on the level you choose, for instance modals or conjunctions (on the hardest level), infinitives or gerunds (medium level) and irregular verbs (easiest level). The vocabulary quiz has got ten different categories including phrasal verbs, idioms, food, small talk and so on.

You can practice for hours with this free app for Android. You can also enjoy yourself at the same time. Try it and tell us!! Please, those of you who downloaded the Wordshake app and are literally hooked on it, leave your comments so that your mates know it is true!!

Remember, if you like the blog or this post and think others will like it too, they will find it easier if you push the g+ bottom below or on top right. Thanks!!!

Practising English with Apps 1: Wordshake.

British Council

In a few days (just 5!!!), we will have much more free time. That is the reason why I am presenting  you this new serie of posts: Practising English with Apps.  In this serie, I am going to show you apps that I have come across and that I think are very good to practise English in a fun and entertaining way and/or apps that treat a specific issue, such as vocabulary, grammar...

I am starting today  with Wordshake, this is a free app that you can find at Google Play and it consists of building words of more than three letters with 6 or 9 random letters in a given time (1 or 3 minutes) depending on the level you choose. You get more points the longer the words are. This is a fun way to learn new vocabulary because when you finish, the app makes a list of the words you built but also of all the possibilities that you had, so you see many new words or revise many that you already know but did not have the time to see.

It is quite fun and takes so few time that you can play with it almost everywhere!!

Do download it!! Then, tell me, how many points did you get?

If you liked this post and/or the blog, please remember to g+ at the top right of the page so that more people get here!!! Thanks!!!