A new year means the chance to start fresh! It’s the perfect excuse to make goals and envision where you want to be a year from now. In English we call these goals for the new year your NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTIONS 🙂

So what is a resolution? It is something you resolve to do.

Maybe one of your resolutions for 2015 is to improve your English! In this case, try writing your New Year’s resolutions in English. My New Year’s resolutions always involve a lot of brainstorming about the different aspects of my life: career/school, health, friends, family, love, money etc. I usually try to think of 2-3 things in each category I want to resolve to do better in the new year. For example, some of my resolutions from last year that I accomplished were to:

• Run a half marathon.
• Keep in touch with friends across distances.
• Travel as much as possible!

Some resolutions I didn’t quite accomplish were to:

• Take the GRE.
• Become fluent in 2 languages other than English.
• Make time to read books for fun.

Well, there’s always 2015…

Do you notice the grammatical pattern for writing your resolutions in English? New Year’s resolutions are usually in a list, but imagine that there’s a start of the sentence that says “In 2015, I resolve to…”

• VERB IN INFINITIVE (the “to” is already in the imaginary start of your sentence) + Direct object… 

Try writing out your own list using this model. Once you’re nice and proud of your resolutions for the year, share them with your friends. The more people you tell, the more you will be reminded to stick to and accomplish your goals!

Here are some other useful and more commonly used phrases for talking about your New Year’s Resolutions from Espresso English:

• I’m going to… (exercise everyday).
• I’m not going to… (spend all my money on shopping for clothes)
• I’m planning to… (eat vegetables)
• I hope to… (see my family once a month)
• I’d like to… (get good grades in all my courses)

Each resolution can be as detailed or as simple as you wish. However, don’t overwhelm yourself with too many complicated resolutions! Stick with a few strong resolutions that you can really focus on and accomplish over the year. Wishing you a great start to your 2015!

Happy Writing!