"What did she say?"-- How to "Catch" Song Lyrics

Listening to old songs is a pleasant way to learn some new words. Some songs can also help you learn correct rhythm. "Amado Mio" is a lovely song I heard a few weeks ago on the radio. I couldn't understand all of the words, but I wanted to learn this song. Have you ever had this problem?

Here is one way to find the unknown words in a song (= lyrics) and also the name of the song:

1) Find a short phrase (10 words or less) where the words are very clear. In this song, "Love me forever, And let forever begin tonight" is very clear. The last five words are very special.

2) Type the short phrase into Google. Be sure to put quotation marks before and after the phrase. Then add the word lyrics.

English Grammar -- Give money. Sister hungry.

What is grammar? Grammar has two important parts: 

1] Where we put words and 

2] How words change shape (they look or sound different)

Every language has two kinds of words: 實字Content words (N, VB, ADJ, ADV) and 虛字Function words (Preposition, determiners, helping verbs etc.). Content words show most of the meaning. Look at these two sentences. A robber is talking:

This is a holdup! (from
http://www.flickr.com/photos/gcfairch/4189169360/sizes/m/in/photostream/)

Here is a beautiful Filipina "robber" (from www.flickr.com/photos/sinabsolution/3509205210/in/photostream). She wants money. Are you afraid?

That's my uncle Benjamin's picture. Really! If you have one of these pictures, you should give it to me. All of this money is mine! ;-) Just kidding! (from http://www.flickr.com/photos/amagill/3366720659/sizes/m/in/photostream/)

The Oxford Bookworms Syllabus explains how these excellent graded readers work.

http://www.oup-bookworms.com/downloads/pdf/oxford_bookworms/syllabus.pdf

There are 7 levels: Starter Level (mostly pictures) and Levels 1-6.