The English Centre, Igualada

Do you enjoy brain teasers? Test your problem solving skills as well as your English - try solving these English language riddles!

https://www.tomedes.com/translator-hub/lovely-language-riddles.php?utm_content=buffer87609&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer

Lovely language riddles Professional human translation agency Tomedes shares these delightful language riddles to puzzle and entertain all those with a love of language

Busy with Cambridge exams. These are some of the candidates from Escola Joviat in Manresa.

English studied in the classroom can be very different to English spoken by native speakers! For example, there are over 30 varieties of spoken English in Britain alone! Here are some examples.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FyyT2jmVPAk

One Woman, 17 British Accents - Anglophenia Ep 5 Siobhan Thompson performs a tour of the accents of the British Isles - and the celebrities who speak with them! Five lessons to help you do a better British ...

There are 1.5 billion people in the world who are learning English as a foreign language! And can you guess how many countries have English as an official language? Take a look at this article!

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/the-worlds-languages-in-seven-maps-and-charts-a6791871.html

The world’s languages, in 7 maps and charts These seven maps and charts, visualized by The Washington Post, will help you understand how diverse other parts of the world are in terms of languages.

Have you ever wondered why the English language has so many words which mean the same thing? For example, "buy" and "purchase", or "understand" and "comprehend"? Find out why by watching this video!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HbVOTJHA21k

The Double Vocabulary of English Why does English have so many words that have twins? Here's how we got to have two vocabularies, one based in Germanic roots, and one based in Latin. Produce...

How well do you know your English idioms? Find out by taking this quiz!

http://www.playbuzz.com/billross10/do-you-know-which-word-completes-both-idioms?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=swp&utm_campaign=Grammarly&sf21620607=1

Do You Know Which Word Completes Both Idioms? Put your English skills to the test by finding the word that matches both idioms.

Happy Saint Patrick's Day! Ireland is just one of the many countries where English could take you. Here are some facts about its world-famous patron saint's day celebration:

http://www.irishcentral.com/roots/top-ten-facts-you-never-knew-about-st-patricks-day-140846663-237432581.html

Top ten facts you never knew about St. Patrick’s Day St. Patrick’s Day is the one day a year where everyone is a little bit Irish but how much do you know about Ireland's patron saint?

Did you know that the Oxford English Dictionary contains over 600,000 entries, or that English is an official language in 79 countries and territories? Here are some more facts about English!

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/paul-anthony-jones/66-facts-you-may-not-have_b_5508623.html

66 Facts You Probably Didn't Know About The English Language The English language is, quite literally, the greatest language in the world. Great in terms of size - the current edition of the

Should you need to revise modal verbs, this may be useful!

English spelling is notoriously inconsistent - think about "cough", "through", "though", "enough", "bough"! This video will help you understand why it can be so difficult to spell in English even for native speakers!

http://mentalfloss.com/article/62995/why-english-spelling-so-weird

Why Is English Spelling So Weird? English spelling might seem crazy and unfair, but there are reasons for how it got to be that way.

Some of these could definitely come in useful!

http://www.techinsider.io/11-olde-english-words-we-need-to-start-using-again-2015-11

11 olde English words we need to start using again Don't let a rawgabbit tell you otherwise.

English speakers love playing with language! Can you make sense of any of these?

http://www.tickld.com/x/sp/15-grammatically-correct-sentences-that-most-people-find-impossible-hah

15 Grammatically Correct Sentences That Most People Find Impossible. Good Luck. The old man the boats.

A reminder to our students that the deadline is fast approaching for enrolling in the Cambridge Exams for March.
- FCE enrolment deadline: 22nd January.
- CAE enrolment deadline: 5th February.

Happy New Year from the English Centre! Let's get back into the mood for learning with this interesting summary of William Shakespeare's contributions to the English language. Do any of these ring a bell?

Collective nouns in the English language can be rather unusual - a "clowder of cats", a "parliament of owls", and a "kindle of kittens", to name but a few! How many of these do you know?

http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/sep/19/ten-best-collective-nouns?CMP=fb_gu&utm_content=buffer78106&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer

Ten of the best collective nouns From a murder of crows to a misbelief of painters, Chloe Rhodes investigates the intriguing origins of her favourite collective nouns

Good luck to our students taking their First Certificate or Advanced exams on Saturday 12th December. As we say in English, "break a leg"!

"After trying the verses, a Frenchman said he’d prefer six months of hard labour to reading six lines aloud."

That's quite a statement! Can you do any better? Test your English pronunciation by reading the poem in this link out loud.

http://www.thepoke.co.uk/2011/12/23/english-pronunciation/

English Pronunciation If you can pronounce correctly every word in this poem, you will be speaking English better than 90% of the native English speakers in the world. After trying the verses, a Frenchman said he’d prefer six months of hard labour to reading six lines aloud. Dearest creature in creation, Study English pr…

The English Centre would like to wish good luck to our students who are sitting their Cambridge PET exams in Igualada/Vilafranca this Friday. Time to do some last minute revision!

Enrolments for all Cambridge Exams are open . See our webpage for dates and
details.

Easter has come and gone. Our course for teenagers near Dublin, Ireland is filling up fast! Dates are June 28th to July 17th 2015. Flights and group leader included. Fantastic location!

We have a new First Certificate exam session on July 26. If interested, you need to enrol THIS week. We are also running a special preparation course for this.

Only 3 weeks to go before the end of term! Intensive courses start after Sant Joan. This year we are offering an intensive course for the First Certificate exam with the exam at the end of July. Other courses for children and adults are available.