This story is about Michelle, a student learning to swim. We'll look at the words breath and breathe and how to give instructions and praise. Why does Michelle need swimming lessons?

She nearly drowned when she was little so she doesn't like the water. She told the story using the past continuous tense, which combines 'was' with the –ing form of the verb. She said 'while my dad was chatting', 'I was just hanging around' and 'I was being naughty.' Listen:

The past continuous is useful when telling stories because you can talk about more than one thing that happened at the same time.

Now listen to the way the instructor talks to her.

You wouldn't talk like this if you were asking someone you didn't know to do something. You would be more polite and say “please turn around”. But when giving instructions it's best to ask directly:

She said 'you don't want to hold your breath'. To hold your breath is to not breathe. Notice that the verb is breathe – spelled with an 'e' on the end and the noun is spelled without the final 'e' and pronounced with an 'eh' sound – a breath.

What does Michelle say about her lessons?

Having a professional instructor helps her relax and shows her the best way to do the right things.

She doesn't have to 'figure out' or think about what to do. Now listen to her teacher:

She doesn't just give instructions, she uses praise and encouragement. Listen again:

You use words like 'wonderful' and 'congratulations' to encourage and praise. And what's the result of this encouragement?

So we've seen that giving instructions involves directly telling people what to do and using encouraging words such as beautiful, fantastic and wonderful. The verb is breathe, spelled with a final 'e' and the noun is breath, spelled without the 'e'. We'll finish with Michelle talking about her achievement: