Step by Step Proficiency ESL Ottawa

We wish all our students and friends a happy, healthy and prosperous New Year!!! 🙂🍸😉

As the year 2024 comes to an end, we feel incredibly proud and honoured to announce that for the 5th year in a row, we have won the 2024 Consumer Choice Award for the best English Language School in Ottawa. What an amazing journey this has been! Winning 5 years in a row feels like we have won 5 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️! Here’s a photo of Greg, standing on the Hill, Canada’s Parliament Hill, with the award!

Teaching has always been our passion. It began with one desk and two students, which quickly multiplied step by step and Step by Step Proficiency was born! Along the journey, we have gotten to meet some of the coolest people from across the globe: our students 🌎. We couldn’t have achieved this without our international Step by Step Proficiency family from more than 80 countries! 😊

I am such a happy English teacher and I am so grateful! Thank you guys! ☺️

Happy New Year 2025 to everyone! 🎉🌟🍾😊

-Greg

12 nouns in English ending in 'f' or 'fe' form their plural into 'ves’

These are the following nouns:

calf, half knife, leaf, life loaf, self, sheaf, shelf, thief, wife, wolf

For example:

I saw one wolf.

They saw many wolves.

Some nouns ending in 'f' can either take 's' or 'ves'

For example:

'I have one scarf.'

'She has two scarfs' or 'She has two scarves.'

Many nouns ending in 'f' or 'fe' form their plural in the regular way:

For example:

a handkerchief - handkerchiefs

Good luck practicing guys!

If you would like to learn more about English grammar, please join our English school in Ottawa!

Four verbs in English, which can be followed by either Gerund (doing) or Infinitive (to do), (not followed by object) without any change in meaning include: 'begin, start, continue and cease' when you use Present Simple and other Simple Tenses. ( Past Simple, Present Perfect Simple, Past Perfect Simple, Future Simple and Future Perfect Simple)

You can say:

'I always begin studying before my exams' or 'I always begin to study before my exams', it means the same. (Present Simple)

'I started swimming in July' or 'I started to swim in July', it means the same. (Past Simple)

'She has continued to travel in Europe" or 'She has continued traveling in Europe " it means the same. (Present Perfect Simple)

The verb to 'cease' is often (not always) more formal. You can say:

'Without proper funding the university will cease to exist' or 'Without proper funding the university will cease existing' it means the same (Future Simple)

EXCEPTIONS:

However, if you use Present Continuous, Past Continuous or Future Continuous with 'begin', start’ only Infinite can be used:

'I'm beginning to understand " (Present Continuous)

'I was starting to believe' (Past Continuous)

(You cannot say; 'I'm beginning understanding' or 'I was starting believing'. It is incorrect)

LAST EXCEPTION:

The verb: 'to cease" is not used with Continuous Tenses.

That's it. Hope this helps! 🙂

If you would like to learn more about English grammar, please join our English school in Ottawa.

Greg

Silent letter 't' in English can be tricky for ESL students!

Letter 't' is silent in many English words such as: 'listen, whistle. hustle, castle etc. Most students already know that.

Letter 't' is also silent in many words of French origin pronounced with the diphthong /eɪ/ at the end as in "day".

( /e/+/i/)

Words like that include: 'buffet, gourmet, ballet, valet etc..

Did you also know that letter 't' is silent in 'fasten'?

And that there is the /eɪ/ sound at the end of 'resume' as in: 'Here is my resume.'

You have probably heard the phrase: 'Ladies and Gentlemen please fasten your seat belts" many times but did not notice that letter 't' was silent.

Maybe because you were more focused on fastening your seat belt! :)

Good luck practicing guys! :)

Want to learn more about English pronunciation, please join our English/ESL school in Ottawa!

We are always happy to help! :)

Our students often say that learning English pronunciation is very difficult.
Here is my reply:

I know and I understand that it’s very, very, very hard …. BUT YOU CAN DO IT!!!😊👍👍😊😊

Greg

English spelling or orthography (or to be more precise letters) often does not reflect English pronunciation in the same way as it does in many other languages. One example is the word: ‘April’.

It is pronounced /ˈeɪprəl/.

The letter ‘a’ is pronounced /ei/ and is louder than other sounds, then it is followed by 3 consonant sounds pronounced one after another without any vowel sounds pronounced in between.

3 or more consonant sounds pronounced one after another in English linguistics is referred to as
‘a constant cluster’.
There are many words with constant sound clusters in English.

What’s more, the three constant sounds are also pronounced in a different way than in most languages:

/p/ is voiceless (we just use the air, no voice), the sound is followed by a puff of air similar to the English /h/ sound (or the microphone sound, lol)
In most languages /p/ is voiced.

/r/ is totally different than in most languages.
(we roll our tongue without touching the gum ridge)

This sound can be the biggest challenge in this word, which is the main reason why many students hear /o/ sound from their language, which is incorrect.

/l/ at the end of words is pronounced longer in English than the beginning or middle /l/

Please think about the way you say: ‘like’ and ‘small’, maybe there is a reason why there is double letter ‘l’ at the end of ‘small’ but surprisingly there is no double letter’l’ at the end of the word ‘April’!

Another great example of a word with actually 4 consecutive consonant sounds is the word:

‘comfortable’

pronounced: /ˈkʌmftəbəl/ ,

please think it’s like:

/ˈkamftbl/ in your language, it’s just that letter ‘o’ is pronounced like a short and rhythmic letter’a’ in your language.

Hope this helps and you like my explanation guys!
I was trying to make it as easy to understand as possible! 🙂
Good luck practicing! 😊
Greg 

Hi there guys! 🙂

Did you know that nouns in English can also be adjectives?

A strawberry is a very healthy fruit, it’s also a noun and it can also be an adjective in English!

If you say ‘a strawberry field’ it’s a compound noun which means a field planted with strawberries.

If you say ‘orange juice’, it means juice which tastes like an orange.

If you say ‘a carrot smoothie’, it means a smoothie which consists of carrots!😊
etc..

The first element in compound nouns is often like an adjective because it describes the second noun.
From the linguistic standpoint, the first element describes the second element.
The accent in compound nouns is always on the first element. (strawberry, orange and carrot are pronounced louder)

There are many compound nouns in English!

Here is another example which shows the importance of accent in compound nouns:

‘The White House’ refers to the official residence of the president of the United States. In this case ‘white’ is louder.

‘A white house’ refers to a house which was painted white. In this case ‘house’ is louder.

Good luck 👍 and hope this helps guys! 😊

‘Strawberry fields forever…’

If you listen carefully to the famous Beatles’ song, you can close your eyes, enjoy the beautiful music and at the same time hear that ‘strawberry’ is pronounced louder than ‘fields’ while recognizing how the accent and intonation (the melody of the language) smoothly change. Enjoy practicing guys! 😊🌼👍

One of the most difficult tenses to understand in English grammar is Present Perfect Simple. It always indicates a very strong connection between the past time and the present time.

Here are some easy examples to help you understand better guys.

If you say:

‘I have always wanted to be a singer’ it means since I was born until now and I still want to be a singer.

‘I have never been to Australia’ it means since I was born until now. (We express experience)

Similarly with questions, we can ask about someone’s experience: ‘Have you ever been to Australia?’ It means since you were born until now.

There are also many past-present time result sentences:

‘I haven’t I cleaned up my room today’ it means since the morning started until now, it’s maybe evening and my room is still dirty,lol

‘Have you finished yet?’ It means since you started doing something until now and are you ready now?

My favourite Present Perfect + since+ Past Simple sentence which I recommend that you guys remember is:

‘I have met many nice people since I came to Canada’ 🙂
(It means since I came to Canada until now, past and present time are connected and it also means experience)

Hope this helps. 🙂
Greg 

Some North American words are very hard to pronounce for students. One example is a common name: ‘Carter’.
It consists of many sounds characteristic of just North American English. Here is the breakdown:

/k/ is voiceless and followed by a puff of air. (It’s the same in British English)
In most languages, the sound /k/ is voiced without a puff of air.

/a/ is deeper and longer in North American English than in most languages but not as long as in British English.

/r/ is always pronounced strongly in North American English, it’s a very loud sound nonexistent in most languages.
(In British English it’s weaker but not pronounced in the middle of the name Carter.)

/t/ is pronounced almost like /d/ in most languages but it just slightly touches the gum ridge, not as strongly as the /d/ in most languages.
It’s called the North American flap sound. /t̬/
The phonetic symbol is like a letter ‘t’ with a line below.
This sound does not exist in British English.

/ə/ this sound follows /r/. It’s called the ‘schwa’.
When you pronounce nothing between the two consonant sounds, this sound will be perfect.
Please do not pronounce /e/ from your language when you say Carter.

/r/ is always pronounced strongly again in final position in North American English. 
(it’s usually not pronounced in British English)

Here is the phonetic transcription of Carter:

/ˈkɑːr.t̬ər/ - Canada/US pronunciation

/ˈkɑː.tə/ - UK,
(In British English final letter ‘r’ is pronounced if the next word starts with a vowel sound in connected speech, as in ‘Carter and’ pronounced fast)


Thanks Carter and good luck practicing guys! 😊👍

If you should need more help improving your English pronunciation, please contact our school! 😊

Happy Easter to our wonderful students and friends! 😊Hope you're surrounded by sunshine, flowers and family on this happy day!!! 😊🐇💐🌸😉

Any luck finding Easter eggs guys? 😊

We won the best English school in Ottawa award in 2023! 🙂 Four times in a row! Thank you!!! 🙏🙂💖