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Two weeks ago, I wrote an email to our subscribers about speaking up at work even if you think you have poor grammar.

Did you miss it? Read it here.

We received so many replies from that email. So today, I’m writing about grammar again.

But this is not a lesson about grammar. This is a post to help change your mindset around it.

Grammar is important when you’re writing professional emails, letters to clients or copy for marketing materials such as websites and leaflets.

But when it comes to everyday speaking situations, it’s okay to have imperfect grammar.

Continue reading “Let’s talk about grammar again…”

Today’s post is a short one. I want to talk about one common struggle among our students. Grammar.

We hear it many times.

“My problem is grammar.”
“I have bad grammar.”
“I’m afraid people will laugh at me because I have poor grammar.”

And I went to tell you it’s completely normal to not have perfect grammar. Even people whose first language is English struggle with this.

Continue reading “Are you afraid of speaking because you have bad grammar? This is for you.”

How do we say sorry and sound like we mean it? We want the other person to know that we genuinely regret the mistake. This shows honesty and integrity.

Besides creating content for My English Matters, I also have a part-time job translating and subtitling for a broadcasting company.

The other day, I made a mistake. I was supposed to submit a task last Saturday, but I thought the deadline was Sunday!

My supervisor emailed me about this. She’s a great supervisor, she didn’t sound angry in the email (I think) but I felt terrible about making the mistake. So I replied the email with an apology.

If you’re like any normal person, it’s likely you’ve made mistakes in the past and will do so in the future.

Continue reading “How to say “sorry” to your boss”

Today I want to talk about saying the three words a lot of us are ashamed of saying at work, which is: “I don’t know.”

I remember back in my corporate days, I was a young, enthusiastic management trainee, wanting to impress and prove myself.

One day, the boss asked me a difficult question. I didn’t want to say that I didn’t know because I was afraid of coming across as incompetent or stupid.

Continue reading “How to say “I don’t know” to your boss”

I’ve recently changed to a new mobile phone (after several months of using a phone that wasn’t functioning too well). The phone displays the total time I’m looking at my screen every day. So far I’m averaging one hour and 50 minutes of screen time per day! Continue reading “No time to learn English?”

Today, we’re going to talk about the difference between “compliment” and “complement”. Both are pronounced the same, but they’re spelled differently (one is spelled with an “i”, the other with an “e”) and have different meanings.

Continue reading “Compliment vs Complement. What’s the difference?”

Continue reading “Two ways to pronounce “read””