Menu
BooksThe platformHow it worksAuthorsQuestions
Authors

Hugo Kent

Language expert. Learned English as a foreign language, starting at fourteen, and speaks it at C2 level. Lives in Valencia.

Hugo KentHugo Kent

A box of English paperbacks

At fourteen, I bought a box of English paperbacks at a second-hand stall in Valencia for the price of a cinema ticket. I couldn’t read a page.

I picked up one of the books, a dictionary, and a pencil. Later came song lyrics I copied out by hand and shows I watched twice, first with subtitles and then without them.

I said “I have twenty years” and “people is”, thought “actually” meant “currently”, and kept forgetting the “do” in questions. I wrote every mistake down, and that is how I learned to spot the habits that slip into an English sentence.

I live in Valencia. I ride my bike along the beach in winter, and I still write new words on the backs of receipts.

Understand before you memorize

  • Explain what a form is for before introducing the rule and table.
  • Use Spanish explanations for readers in Spain and Latin America.
  • Mark misleading Spanish habits in “Trampa para hispanohablantes” boxes.
  • Use American English as the base, with notes on British usage.
  • Pair Alina’s lesson dialogues with practice and an answer key.

Books by Hugo Kent