BOX SET: English In A Minute 15 – TEN English lessons in 10 minutes!

'there' and 'they're'. They are all pronounced  the same but have different spellings and are  

used differently. 'Their' is used to show plural  possession: It is Phil's and Ellie's laptop - it  

is their laptop. It is Georgina's and Roy's  dog - it is their dog. 'There' is used to  

identify something for the first time and is  often followed by the verb 'to be'. There is a  

cafe near our office but it's so expensive. There  is a bookshop nearby and it has some nice books.  

'They're' has the same meaning as 'they are' and  is often followed by an adjective. Where are Sam  

and Dan? They're late - they're never on time.  Bye for now. 'Fall' can be a verb and a noun and  

has many meanings - let's look at the most common  together now. As a verb, 'fall' can mean to come  

down from a high position. In the Autumn,  or the fall in American English, the leaves  

start to fall. A similar but slightly different  meaning is to suddenly go down towards the ground,  

probably by accident. The noun form describes this  act when learning to walk. Toddlers fall a lot but  

they're usually not bad falls. 'Fall' also means  'to become lower in size, amount or strength'. The  

noun form describes this change, and is often  followed by the preposition 'in'. There has  

been a fall in house prices recently but no one  knows why they have fallen. And one more useful  

meaning of the verb 'fall' is to change condition  - people can fall asleep, fall ill, fall silent.  

Hi, I'm Sian from BBC Learning English. What's the  difference between 'stop to do' and 'stop doing  

something'? Well, stop what you're doing right now  because that's what I'm going to tell you. When we  

use 'stop' plus -ing, the activity in the -ing  form stops. So, I have stopped drinking coffee -  

I'm not drinking coffee anymore, I'm only  drinking water. But when 'stop' is followed  

by the infinitive, it means we stop doing another  action to do the action in the infinitive. So,  

I stopped to buy a tea this morning. I  stopped walking in order to buy a tea. Right,  

I'm gonna stop talking now - write me a comment  and tell me something that you've stopped doing.  

Hi, everybody welcome back to English In A Minute.  I'm James, and today we're going to look at the  

verb 'try'. It can be a little bit tricky to use  this verb because it changes its meaning depending  

on whether you use an -ing verb, or a verb with  'to'. So, let's take a look at some examples:  

I tried baking a cake. I tried to bake a cake.  These two sentences are almost exactly the same  

but their meaning is a little bit different. I  tried baking a cake. When we use 'try' with an  

-ing, all we're saying is that we attempted to  do something - it could be a new experience,  

something that you haven't done before. I tried  to bake a cake. When we used 'try' with a verb and  

'to', we're saying that a task is quite difficult  to complete or that we've failed. If you'd like  

to try learning more English, why not go to our  Facebook page or to the website. Bye, everyone.  

Hi, I'm Tim from BBC Learning English, and today  I'm going to tell you about three useful words:  

'because', 'as' and 'since'. These are all used  to give reasons. 'Because' is more common than  

'as' or 'since' and we use it when we want to  focus on the reason. I'm tired because I didn't  

sleep very well. When we want to give extra focus  to the reason, we can put the because clause at  

the beginning of the sentence. Because my bed  is uncomfortable, I'm getting a bad back. 'As'  

and 'since' are more formal than 'because' and  we use them to focus on the result rather than  

the reason. I hope Tom's brought that comic as I  wanted to borrow it from him. Noodles are popular  

since they're easy to cook. We often use 'as' and  'since' clauses at the beginning of the sentence -  

just remember to add a comma. So, as our minute  is up, I'll finish recording this video. Hello,  

everyone. I'm Sam from BBC Learning English,  and today we're looking at five ways to use  

the word 'hard'. As an adjective describing  a thing, it can mean the opposite of 'soft',  

for example: Wood is hard. The opposite of 'easy',  for example: The exam was hard, and it can mean  

something that involves effort: Running a marathon  is hard. As an adverb describing an action,  

it can mean to 'do something with energy',  such as: She works hard, or 'to use force',  

for example: He hit the ball hard. Just  be careful not to confuse it with hardly,  

because that has a different meaning. So, not too  hard, is it? Let's learn some common uses of the  

word 'contact'. Firstly, 'contact' can be used  as a verb to mean 'speak or write to someone',  

often when someone wants to give or receive  information. The doctor contacted me this  

morning to tell me the results of my tests.  'Contact' can also be used as a noun to talk  

about speaking or writing to someone. As a noun,  it's often used with other words such as 'in',  

'lose' or 'make'. 'In contact with' means 'speak  or meet regularly', 'make contact' means 'try to  

speak or write to someone after finding where  someone is', while 'lose contact' means 'no  

longer communicate'. Stay in contact when you  go away. 'Contact' can also be used to refer  

to a person who can help or give you information  in work or socially. My contacts told me there's  

a job opening at the business. 'Contact' as a  noun refers to people whose names numbers and  

or email addresses you have stored on your mobile  phone. I'll add you as a new contact on my phone.  

Hi, I'm Georgina from BBC Learning English. Have  you ever wondered about the difference between  

'as if' and 'as though'. We use 'as if' and 'as  though' to make comparisons about an imaginary  

situation or a possible situation that might  be true. To make comparisons about an imaginary  

situation we use the past tense for the verb  following 'as if' or 'as though'. He acted as  

if he didn't hear anything but he did they feel as  though they weren't appreciated, but they were. To  

make comparisons about a possible situation that  might be true, we use the present tense for the  

verb following 'as if' or 'as though'. He speaks  as if he knows a lot about cooking - he must love  

it. Let's ask her for directions - she looks as  though she lives here. My stomach is rumbling  

as if I didn't have any breakfast, but I did.  Bye. Let's talk about appearance - what's the  

difference between 'look' and 'look like'? So, we  use 'look' with an adjective to say how something  

or someone appears. We don't know for certain, but  we're making a statement based on what we can see  

with our eyes. You look really tired today. When  did you go to bed? Now, remember we can also use  

'look' for things: These grapes look delicious.  We use 'look like' to compare the appearance of  

something or someone to something else, so, 'look  like' is followed by a noun or a noun phrase. I  

look like my mother. We have the same eyes.  You can also use these rules with these verbs  

'sound', 'smell', 'taste' and 'feel'. This  smoothie smells disgusting but it tastes good.  

I'm Sam from BBC Learning English and today we  are going to look at the three ways in which  

we use 'if only'. We use this to say that  we would like something to be different,  

but careful: it has different forms. For the  past, we use 'if only' plus 'past perfect'.  

If only I hadn't left my keys at home. For the  present we use 'if only' plus 'past simple',  

for example: 'If only I understood maths', or 'if  only I were better at maths' - where we use 'were'  

instead of 'was'. And to talk about the future,  we use 'if only' plus 'would' plus 'a verb',  

for example: If only he would call.  If only English were easier, hey?