How to learn English on your own: 10 useful games and exercises

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

If you have neither the time nor the desire to work with tutors, a selection of simulators from Lifehacker and the Puzzle English service will help.

When a strict teacher does not stand over your soul, it is almost impossible to force yourself to sit down at textbooks. But a playful approach can work - instead of mechanically memorizing new words and rules, you master them through exciting exercises and training. It turns out both interesting and useful: you are unlikely to read a textbook on the way to work, but completing a couple of tasks in a mobile application is easy.

The service for self-study of English Puzzle English works according to this principle. Here are collected simulators and exercises that help to improve knowledge of a foreign language in several directions at once: develop the ability to understand English, increase vocabulary and understand grammatical subtleties. Now with the help of Puzzle English, six million people are learning English.

Before starting classes, you will take a small test - it will determine the current level of knowledge and help you understand which areas you need to work harder. Perhaps your grammar or listening comprehension is lame, which means that, first of all, you need exercises that will help to improve these skills.

Puzzle English also has a vocabulary test. Here is a list of English words, you see a familiar one - mark it with a tick. There is a temptation to put a checkmark everywhere, but Puzzle English cannot be fooled: from time to time a window appears where you need to mark the correct translation of the selected word.

As a result, you get a "Personal Plan" - a training program that takes into account your weak points. Notifications will be sent to the mail every day, so you cannot forget about the lesson.

You can do it anywhere - even at home, even on the road. In such a case, the service has a mobile application with a full set of workouts.

Training to improve listening comprehension

Video puzzles

Watch a short video clip, and then make up phrases from individual words that were found in it. The videos are provided with subtitles in Russian and English, but if you want to increase the complexity, turn them off and rely solely on hearing. The exercise helps to solve two problems at once: you learn new words and learn to perceive speech, regardless of its speed and the speaker's accent.

Choose a clip of your favorite band, an excerpt from a familiar movie or a plot from the news program, watch and collect phrases. If it doesn't work the first time, review the fragment until you understand what they are talking about.

Audio puzzles

The principle is the same as in the video puzzles, only there are no tips with subtitles. You listen to the speaker say a short phrase, and then collect it from the proposed fragments or enter it on the keyboard.

To make it more interesting, compete with other users. Whoever collects the most phrases correctly is a fine fellow.

Baggage of words

The announcers say different words, and you type what they said on the keyboard. Everything seems to be simple, but no. First, the announcers speak with a British, American, or Australian accent. Secondly, you still need to remember how to spell the spoken word correctly.

Podcasts

Puzzle English has an impressive collection of podcasts to help you understand the intricacies of pronunciation and improve your English language understanding. You can choose episodes recorded by speakers with different accents, and if it is difficult, download the text - it is available in both English and Russian.

After all, podcasts are fun. You will learn why there is a crisis of seven years of marriage and how the electoral system works in the UK, learn to understand English idioms and learn new expressions that can be used in speech. New podcasts come out every day, so the question of what to do on your commute is a matter of course.

Songs

An exercise specially for music lovers: listen to your favorite songs, and at the same time read the text and its translation into Russian. By clicking on a word, you will hear how it is pronounced and you can add it to the dictionary.

For many songs, several translation options are available at once. When you master English, you can create your own version and add it to the general database.

Exercises to increase vocabulary

Danetka

Not the easiest, but addictive game for attentiveness and quick reaction. You are shown an English word and its translation into Russian. If everything is correct, press the green button, if not, press the red button.

You only have a minute to translate as many words as possible. For correct answers, you get points and bonus seconds. You can find out the meaning of the words with the translation of which you made a mistake at the end of the game.

Word sets

Puzzle English has a section where words and phrases are collected, united by topic or use situation. For example, during a work meeting, a visit to the doctor, or checking into a hotel.

Listen to how these expressions are pronounced, remember how they are spelled, add them to the dictionary, and then try to correctly assemble them from individual words.

If your main problem with English is lack of confidence in communication, sets of ready-made phrases will help overcome the language barrier. This is a kind of safety net for those who are afraid to improvise.

Grammar assignments

Lessons

This section contains more than 700 videos devoted to various grammatical subtleties: from the structure of the sentence and the correct use of articles to popular mistakes. For example, the differences between tell, say, speak and talk.

Each video is accompanied by exercises: you have learned the theory - consolidate it in practice in order to remember it better.

If after the lesson you still have questions, write about it in the comments - the experts of Puzzle English will come to the rescue.

Grammar Trainer

Remember how Perfect Continuous is different from Past Perfect Continuous? Most likely, from this question you have a frost on your skin since school. The “Grammar Trainer” will help you to master the correct construction of phrases.

He will teach you how to make interrogative and negative sentences, tell you how to determine the correct form of the verb and the necessary prepositions. The simulator selects tasks based on your previous results, gradually complicating them.

Translates

With this exercise, you will learn how to translate text from Russian into English without mistakes, training your grammar skills and expanding your vocabulary. The texts are divided into thematic categories: conditional sentences, indirect speech, modal verbs, tense concordance and fixed expressions.

It sounds scary, but in reality there is nothing complicated: here you can choose the appropriate difficulty of the exercise, and you will translate individual sentences in order, and not the entire text.

Learning English is not as difficult, time-consuming and expensive as it seems. Access to all the features of Puzzle English for an unlimited time costs 9,990 rubles, you can fully customize the "Personal Plan" for 1,990 rubles per year, and games without restrictions during the year cost only 490 rubles. A bonus for Lifehacker readers - a discount of 700 rubles.