Read these first
Short explainers, none of them longer than two minutes, each covering something students get wrong repeatedly.
Almost every student who walks into Klick has the same shape of problem: years of English in school, a decent vocabulary, and a mouth that will not move. That is not a knowledge gap, it is a production gap. Reading and listening are input. Speaking is output, and output is a separate skill that only grows when you use it.
You can prove it to yourself in one minute. Read an English sentence and you understand it. Now close your eyes and say three sentences about what you did yesterday, out loud, without stopping. The second task is far harder, and it is the one that gets you a job.
What fixes it is not more grammar. It is talking every day, being wrong out loud, and being corrected by someone who knows. That is what the Say it drill here is for, and it is the whole design of a Klick class: you speak from the first session.
Amharic gives syllables roughly even weight. English does not. Every English word of two syllables or more has one stressed syllable, and the others get squashed. Put the stress in the wrong place and a listener can miss the word completely, even when every sound was right.
PRE-sent = a gift · pre-SENT = to show somethingRE-cord = a saved thing · re-CORD = to save something
The pattern is usually predictable: two-syllable nouns take stress on the first syllable, two-syllable verbs on the second. Beyond that, listen for it. In the Listen & type drill, play the word twice and tap along with the loud part before you type.
English textbooks list twelve tenses. In daily speech, three carry most of the weight, and a student who owns those three sounds fluent long before they finish the ladder.
Present simple — I work at a bank. She lives in Addis.Past simple — I worked yesterday. She went home.
going to — I am going to call him tomorrow.
Learn those cold, then add the present continuous (I am working) and the present perfect (I have worked here for two years). The rest can wait until level 4 or 5, and they will make more sense once these are automatic.
Amharic has a rich sound system, but a handful of English sounds are not in it, and they are the ones that cause repeated misunderstanding. These are worth deliberate practice rather than hoping they arrive on their own.
/v/ — very, seven. Not /b/. Top teeth on bottom lip./θ/ and /ð/ — think, this. Tongue tip between the teeth.
short i vs long ee — ship / sheep, fit / feet.
/p/ vs /b/ — pay / bay. /p/ has a puff of air.
Hold a sheet of paper in front of your mouth and say pay. The paper should move. Say bay and it should not. That puff is the whole difference, and the Say it drill will mark you down until it is there.
Start practising
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Your progress is saved in this browser only. Nothing is sent to us. · The four courses
Practice is not a substitute for a class
The drills on this page cannot hear that you said ship when you meant sheep and explain why it matters, cannot correct the sentence you invented, and cannot answer the question you did not know how to ask. A teacher can. Use these between classes.
Every level at Klick is one month — three sessions a week, two hours each, ETB 5,000 — and you decide each month whether to take the next one. Beginners are taught in Amharic, and every level ends with a filmed 60-second showcase of you speaking.