Why does the letter Y sound completely different in "yes," "gym," "happy," and "my"? This episode unravels the mystery behind Y's four pronunciations in British English: the consonant /j/, the short vowel /ɪ/, the long vowel /iː/, and the diphthong /aɪ/. Discover the patterns (and exceptions) that govern when Y makes each sound, and learn about common pronunciation pitfalls for learners from French, German, Romance, Slavic, and Chinese language backgrounds. From over-articulating "yes" to flattening diphthongs in "fly," understand why these errors happen and what they reveal about the quirks of English pronunciation. Essential listening before the hands-on practice episode!


British Pronunciation Tips 

The Mysterious Case of the Letter Y: Four Sounds, One Letter

El verbo despedirse es el que usamos cuando estamos en un lugar con más personas y queremos irnos. El problema es que no es tan fácil y rápido como piensas... XD

Curiosidades sobre el español y su cultura

Despedirse en España

Being able to talk on a wide variety of topics is really helpful for getting a higher mark on the IELTS test. 

In this podcast I will help you to form opinions and ideas for Speaking Part 3 and Writing Part 2.

You can also book a private lesson with me on my profile. Hope to see you in a lesson soon!

IELTS with Nick - World Knowledge 

Are traditional festivals still important in today's society? 

In this episode, we explore the subtle but important difference between the Italian verbs "parlare" and "dire". While both verbs can be translated as "to speak" or "to say", they have distinct meanings and usage.

Italiano Chiaro Grammatica

Difference between Parlare and Dire

Это второй эпизод, где я продолжаю читать книгу об эмоциях. 

Not Prickly Russian

Эмоциональная гибкость. Немного о эмоциях

(We have more English speaking than usual)
My frined, Renata and I both work as tour guides before Covid 19.
Now she's trying new tour, so I interviewed about it.

Akari Talks Japan

Talk about new tour possibility with Renata

Today we're discussing how to talk about your employment history and the problem with talking about "work experience". I hope you find it useful!

DAILY Business English VOCABULARY builder

Tell me about your work experience

Tea and the Industrial RevolutionA Cambridge professor says that a change in drinking habits was the reason for the Industrial Revolution in Britain. Anjana Abuja reports

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Alan Macfarlane, professor of anthropological science at King’s College, Cambridge has, like other historians, spent decades wrestling with the enigma of the Industrial Revolution. Why did this particular Big Bang – the world-changing birth of industry-happen in Britain? And why did it strike at the end of the 18th century?

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Macfarlane compares the puzzle to a combination lock. ‘There are about 20 different factors and all of them need to be present before the revolution can happen,’ he says. For industry to take off, there needs to be the technology and power to drive factories, large urban populations to provide cheap labour, easy transport to move goods around, an affluent middle-class willing to buy mass-produced objects, a market-driven economy and a political system that allows this to happen. While this was the case for England, other nations, such as Japan, the Netherlands and France also met some of these criteria but were not industrialising. All these factors must have been necessary. But not sufficient to cause the revolution, says Macfarlane. ‘After all, Holland had everything except coal while China also had many of these factors. Most historians are convinced there are one or two missing factors that you need to open the lock.’

C and D parts will be added below.

The Habits of Professionals Growing Into Strong, Confident English Communicators

IELTS READING & LISTENING & COMPREHENSION. Tea and the Industrial Revolution

The number of couples getting married in South Korea increased by almost 15% between 2023 and 2024.

That's the biggest percentage increase in marriages since the government began collecting this data in 1970.

More than 222,000 couples got married in South Korea in 2024. That's good news for a country with one of the world's lowest birth rates.

The government has been trying to encourage people to get married and have children to help boost the country's shrinking population.

It may just have worked. However, not all young people are convinced that marriage is the right thing for them.

According to The South China Morning Post, many young people in the country are still choosing an "unmarried lifestyle" for personal and financial reasons.

Some said that getting married and doing things like buying a home and having children are too expensive.

Others felt they would be more likely to find happiness on their own.

The government data also showed that the number of marriages between South Koreans and foreign nationals has increased for the third year in a row.

There were almost 21,000 of these marriages last year. That's an increase of more than 1,000 from 2023, although still not quite as high as it was before the coronavirus pandemic.

Almost three out of 10 foreign husbands were from the US. And about a third of foreign wives were from Vietnam, while many others were from China and Thailand.

The number of divorces among couples of different nationalities also decreased last year, according to Yonhap News Agency.