Highlights from Jennifer's Patreon Member-only Playlist - JOIN today!

Hi everyone. I'm Jennifer from English with  Jennifer. This is a short but fun video about  

laughter how often do you laugh? They say that  people who laugh a lot from the heart live happier  

lives. Laughter is a form of stress relief. Of  course, cruel laughter isn't good for anyone,  

so surround yourself with healthy forms of humor.

A joke that's a little funny, but not  terribly funny might make me chuckle.

That's a low, quiet laugh  often with our mouth closed.

If I'm feeling silly, I might giggle.

Giggling is quick and high pitched. It's a  series of laughs. People of all ages might  

giggle when they feel nervous, so it's  not always a positive form of laughter.

Hi everyone. I'm Jennifer from English with  Jennifer. In this lesson, we're going to talk  

about inversion. Do you know what it means  to invert something? I'll give you a hint.  

What did I do with the hourglass? I inverted it.

When you invert the hourglass, the  sand pours down into the bottom part.

How about this photo? Can you see it properly?  

Probably not. Let me invert it. I'll rotate it  and put it right side up. Now can you see it?

In grammar, if we invert two parts of a  sentence, we reverse their positions. You  

already know how to do this. We invert the  subject and verb when we form questions.  

Have you ever seen such clear blue water?

Yes, I have. I've seen  beautiful water in the Bahamas.

We can also invert the subject and verb  in sentences that use negative adverbs.  

We do this when the negative  adverb is in the initial position.  

That means it starts the sentence. We  don't usually do this in spoken English.  

It's more typical of written English because it's  a more formal structure, so you can expect to see  

inversion with negative adverbs more in  academic writing and literary writing.

Let's practice together. Look at this  sentence. First, identify the negative adverb.

Never. Right? We'll move it to the beginning of  the sentence. Next, we'll switch...we'll invert  

the subject and verb. Only the first part of  the verb. We'll use the helping verb first.

So, what's the new sentence? Never have  I seen such clear, beautiful water.

Hi everyone. I'm Jennifer  from English with Jennifer.  

How comfortable are you  saying long words in English?  

Well, in this video, I'll help you say and  use at least one of those words: comfortable.

In everyday American English, we  say this word with three syllables:  

comfortable. Stress is on the first: comfortable.  It sounds like I'm saying "kumf ter bull."  

Let's say it again. We'll say it  slowly and then fast. Comfortable.

Comfortable.

You may hear some American English  speakers say this word with four syllables:  

comfortable. Comfortable. But I think  this variation is a little less common.

Hi everyone. I'm Jennifer from English with  Jennifer. You may know that I've played a  

lot of card games in my life. I grew up playing  popular games like Blackjack, Slapjack, Go Fish,  

and some less common games like Steal the Pile and  500. I hope that card games don't die out because  

of video games and entertainment apps. There  are a lot of idioms related to playing cards,  

and they sure make a lot more sense  if you've actually played these games.  

In this lesson, I'll share four expressions.

"To play your cards right" means to do  things in the best way possible in order  

to be successful and get what you want or  get something of value. We often use this  

in an IF-clause. If you play your cards right,  you might get a promotion in one or two years.

He's a good athlete, and he could get a  scholarship if he plays his cards right.

Hi everyone. It's Jennifer from English with  Jennifer, and I'm outside in front of my home.  

I live in the suburbs, and this is pretty typical  for a suburban home. We have a mailbox at the end  

of our driveway. This is where we get and  send our mail. If I want to mail a letter,  

I put it in the mailbox and I put up this flag to  signal the mail carrier to stop. She usually stops  

anyways because we get a few letters every day.  If I want to send a bigger envelope or a package,  

I have to go to the post office. Now some  people like to decorate their mailboxes  

for the different seasons or a special holiday.  I decorate the mailbox just for Christmas.

Hi everyone. I'm Jennifer from English  with Jennifer. It won't surprise you  

to know that I believe everyone should  know at least a little bit of grammar.  

Grammar is all about patterns, and following the  usual patterns helps us have clear communication.

What's the difference between a word and a phrase?  

A word is a single piece of language: cat,  girl, sing, singing, beautiful, beautifully,  

to, from, here. A phrase is a group of  two or more words: a beautiful girl,

sing beautifully, for me.

Phrases aren't complete ideas. They  don't have both a subject and a verb.  

Sometimes we speak in phrases if the rest is  understood. What do you see? A pretty cat.

A clause is a group of words with a subject  and a verb. Clauses can be short or long.

The girl sang.

Songs entertain us. Birds are common  pets in many countries around the world.

Inside a clause, you may find a number of phrases.

Some clauses can stand alone. We  call them independent clauses. An  

independent clause is a simple sentence.  Other clauses are dependent clauses.  

We have to join these dependent clauses with an  independent clause to form a complete sentence.

If you don't know what to do  with this, I can show you.

Hi everyone. I'm Jennifer  from English with Jennifer.  

Try saying "toy boat" five times fast: toy  boat, toy boat, toy boat...It's not easy, is it?  

But if I slow down, I can do it. Toy boat,  toy boat, toy boat, toy boat, toy boat. Tongue  

twisters can be short or long, but they're  all designed to twist our tongue. We can  

untwist it and speak clearly if we slow down just  enough to stay in control of our pronunciation.

Follow me on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.