Think and Speak
Clay Lane

Think and Speak

inspired by the pre-sixties textbooks of NL Clay

This section takes its name from NL Clay’s first book, Think and Speak, published in 1929. The exercises you will find here are similar to those Clay gave in this book and in later publications. They are intended to build self-confidence, free the imagination, and spark an interest in the power of words.

“Please come to this lesson bursting with impatience. Has nothing happened to make you smile? If you travel by train, bus or tram, if you visit the baths, if you walk through the streets, you should have abundant material. There can be little excuse for not having observed one thing.”

NL Clay, Think and Speak (1929)

Exercises

Exercises are based on textbooks given to pupils in English schools from the 1920s to the 1960s.

Composition Grammar Vocabulary

Word Games

A selection of games with words and their letters, including Crosswords, Polywords and the Honeycomb Game.

Add Vowels Honeycomb Polywords

Fragments Find in Think and Speak

Say whether these short utterances make whole sentences or not; and if they don’t, add whatever is necessary.

1. If he doesn’t get here soon.

2. Though he was still a young man.

3. Whose face he recognised.