Rock Your English! newsletter

Yes, my dear, I’m talking to you. And about you, and how awesome you are! How’s your 2014 going so far? Hope it’s splendid and stupendous!  Did you know there are zillions (approximately, I haven’t counted them all) of different ways to say the word “good”? Checkwww.thesaurus.com – it’s a synonym dictionary and a wonderful way to improve your vocabulary and make it sparkle and shine! Type in a word you probably use too much, like ‘good’, ‘big’, or ‘nice’, and see what happens!

WHAT’S UP IN BUFFILAND

I’m back teaching at the Rockacademie in Tilburg and Albeda in Rotterdam, and it feels great to see my lovely students again – we are gearing up for exams and that’s always a tough time for them, but I try to make grammar fun and so far they’re still laughing at all my lame jokes! God bless them. I’ve also been prepping for the Eurosonic/Noorderslag festival in Groningen this week – I have about 248 meetings and there’s about 957 bands I just HAVE to see. Wish me luck!

HART VAN NEDERLAND

I was on Hart van Nederland last week talking about common language mistakes…and..um…other stuff. Check it out here!

SAVE YOUR ASS IN A MINUTE AND A HALF!

Here’s my latest video, tackling a very common mistake in English – this time we cover the difference between “I have lived there” and “I lived there” – hope it saves your ass!

YOUR QUESTIONS – ANSWERED!

‘Buffi what’s the difference between ‘remind’ and ‘remember’? I always get them confused!’ – from L, a student (he rocks!).

Those words are really easy to get confused, I know! Let me try to straighten them out for you – ‘remind’ is used to ask someone to remember something. You can remind someone to take out the garbage, to call you back, to do his or her English homework (right, L?). ‘Remind’ also has another meaning – if someone says “you remind me of someone” this means that you are similarto someone they are thinking of. ‘Remember’ is used differently – if you remember to take out the garbage, this means you won’t forget. If you remember to do your English homework, I will be happy! And if you remember doing your homework or taking out the garbage, this means that you have actually already done it. Hope that helps!

HATE TO LOVE YOU AND LEAVE YOU

But I have columns to feed and children to write and..oh, wait. Busy times! Sending you a dozen roses brought to you by a very happy unicorn who then takes you to a magical land full of gin and tonic waterfalls and excellent grammar….in my head. Thank you for letting me slip into your inbox today, and looking forward to coming back next week again!

Wit lof from buffi x