PhraseMix Articles

How do you improve your English reading?

If you're able to read this article, it must mean that you're already pretty good at reading English. But there's always room for improvement. If you want to get better at reading and writing English, read ahead!

1. To become a better reader, you have to read.

That probably...

How to describe different kinds of websites in English

The Internet is huge, and there are a lot of different kinds of websites out there. If you spend time on the Internet, it's helpful to be able to talk about the different kinds of websites you use in English. Here's an overview of some of the different kinds of sites you might come...

A new look for PhraseMix.com!

If you're a regular PhraseMix reader, you've probably already noticed that things look a little different.

This is a redesign that we've been working on for many months now. The main goals of the redesign were:

1. Make the site easier to read and navigate

We made the page wider, made...

How to describe someone's facial hair in English

Ever see a man with hair on his face and wonder how to describe it in English? Here's how!

Facial hair actions

First, you should know that we usually say "___ has a ___." For example,

My dad has a beard.

When someone's facial hair isn't complete yet, you can say that they...

What's the difference between "lay" and "lie"?

In my lessons, I sometimes write something like this:

Your son usually sleeps in the afternoon after lunch. You want him to lay down and start to fall asleep.

When I do, I get questions like this one:

"You want him to lay down" or "You want him to lie down"? I am confused.

So how should...

Moving from "I" to "we"

Third person and first person

When you write something in English, you have to choose which "person" you're going to write in. You can choose to write in "third person", which means that you talk about things as "he", "she", "it", "they", "that", and so on. Here's how I might write about...

How are Canadian English and American English different?

By Emily Hitz, PhraseMix.com contributor

English is spoken around the world, but it sounds very different in different countries! British English and American English have a lot of differences — native speakers can hear a British or American accent in just a few words (can you?). But what...

The first-ever PhraseMix book is coming out soon!

I'm proud to announce that the first-ever printed book from PhraseMix will be released on September 15th, 2015. It's being sold in Japan, with the title "英語はもっとフレーズで話そう" ("Let's learn English more phrasally!"). It was translated into Japanese by Misako Yoke and is being published by GOKEN...

Phrases for talking about commonly discussed political issues

By Emily Hitz, PhraseMix.com contributor

If you’re interested in politics, you may want to try talking about them in English. However, it’s a difficult topic in any language, so the more accurate your vocabulary is, the better. Here are some words and phrases to get you started.

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How to talk about T.V. shows in English

By Emily Hitz, PhraseMix.com contributor

How much did you watch? 

An episode is a single segment of a tv show. An episode will usually last 30 minutes or an hour. Most tv shows put out one new episode each week, with occasional breaks in between.

Some weeks there isn’t a new episode,...