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English learning tips, guides, and news from WELE
Learning Tips
How Native Speakers Actually Tell Time in English
Two ways to tell time in English, a full trip around the clock with past and to, how to use a.m. and p.m., time markers throughout the day, and how to tell fifteen apart from fifty when listening.
English Numbers: The Complete Chart, How to Say Money and Zero
A number chart from 0 to the billions with phonetic transcriptions, how to read zero, decimals, money, and phone numbers, plus a listening drill to tell thirteen and thirty apart by dictation.
How to Write Dates in English: British vs. American Style
The two date orders used in British and American English, how to write dates in formal emails, the ordinal numbers that go with dates, how to say dates and years out loud, plus three spots Vietnamese ears tend to miss.
Ordinal Numbers in English: The 1st to 100th Chart and Common Mistakes
The full ordinal number chart from 1st to 31st plus the round-ten landmarks up to 100th, with pronunciation, six common spelling mistakes, how to use them in dates, building floors, and fractions, and how to train your ear to catch the -th ending.
Days of the Week in English: The Full Table, Abbreviations, and How to Say Them Right
The seven days of the week in English: a full table of IPA and abbreviations, four words people commonly mispronounce, the difference between on Monday and on Mondays, and how to train your ear to tell Tuesday and Thursday apart.
Months in English: The 12-Month Table, Abbreviations, Pronunciation, and In vs On
The 12-month table with abbreviations and pronunciation, where each name comes from, the rule for in vs on, and why November and December keep getting mixed up.
Standard English Pronunciation: The IPA Chart and Sounds Vietnamese Speakers Get Wrong
A compact IPA chart for quick reference, the sounds and stress patterns Vietnamese speakers commonly mispronounce, and why you have to hear the difference before you can say it right.
Wound Is the Past Tense of Wind, Not an Injury
The simple past and past participle of wind are both wound, pronounced /waʊnd/, rhyming with found. This whole page is about four different words that share two spellings.
English Vocabulary: How Many Words to Learn, and How to Make Them Stick
Before you download another vocabulary list, find out how many words you actually need, which ones to learn first, and why you still forget them after memorizing.
The Past Tense of Mow Is Mowed — Mown Only Fits in One Spot
The simple past of mow is only mowed; the participle can be mowed or mown. The trap: mowed sounds exactly like mode, and mown sounds exactly like moan.
Fled: The Past Tense of Flee (and Why Your Ear Keeps Hearing "Flew")
The simple past and past participle of flee are both fled. The trap isn't the rule — it's that fly is always lurking to take its place, and flee only lives in fast news-anchor speech.
Bet in the Past Tense: Still "Bet" — So Where Does the Tense Actually Go?
The simple past and past participle of bet are both bet. Since the verb never changes form, the sentence's tense lives entirely in the small words around it.
The Past Tense of Awake: Awoke, Awakened, or Woke Up — Untangled Once and For All
The simple past of awake is awoke, the participle is awoken. But awake is also an adjective, and alongside it sit awaken and woke up — three paths tangled together.
The Past Tense of Withdraw Is Withdrew: Catching the Swallowed First Syllable
The simple past of withdraw is withdrew; the past participle is withdrawn. The hard part is that the first syllable gets swallowed so badly that all you hear is drew.
Weave's Past Tense: Wove or Weaved — Why the Answer Is Both
The simple past of weave is wove, the past participle is woven — but in the sense of weaving through traffic, both forms become weaved. This is the part most verb conjugation tables skip.
Shrank or Shrunk? The Past Tense of Shrink — and the Takeover Already Underway
The simple past of shrink is shrank; the past participle is shrunk. The catch: shrunk is encroaching on shrank's territory in spoken English, and the three forms differ by just one vowel.
Melt's Past Tense Is Melted — Here's Where Molten Still Survives
The simple past and past participle of melt are both melted. The trap is that the -ed ending becomes its own full syllable, and molten is still alive but isn't the participle.
The Past Tense of Leap: Leaped or Leapt, and Why Leapt Rhymes With Slept
The past tense of leap is leaped or leapt — both forms are correct. The trap is that leapt shortens the vowel to /lept/, and in fast speech it sounds almost identical to left.
Past Tense of Lean: Leaned or Leant — and Why Leant Sounds Just Like Lent
The past tense of lean is leaned or leant, both correct. The trap: leant shortens the vowel to /lent/ and sounds exactly like lent, the past tense of lend.
Nursing English: Shift Vocabulary and a Three-Stage Study Path
Real shift-based nursing vocabulary, the SBAR handoff framework, a three-stage study path for working professionals, and medical listening resources with audio files and answer keys.