Collocations are two or more words that go together in an expression, such as fast food, pay attention, or happily married. Collocations make our vocabulary richer. They make it easier …
Common American English Collocations–Word That Go Together Read More »
Thinking in English will help your language skills to grow. It is possible to teach yourself to think in a second language. In this posting I talk about 8 ways …
Thinking in English– 8 Ways of Developing Fluency without Translating Read More »
Numbers mean the same thing in every language. How we talk about numbers varies, however, from language to language. It even varies among countries that speak the same language. For …
Numbers in American English–How to Express Quantity Read More »
Punctuation marks are marks to make your written meaning clear. You may have learned something about British punctuation. Some of the rules for American punctuation are a little bit different. …
Punctuation in American English–Marks to Make Your Meaning Clear Read More »
There are 4 ways of expressing the future tense in English: will, be going to, the present continuous, and the simple present. In this posting I talk about each of …
Expressing the Future Tense in English in 4 Ways–Which to Use? Read More »
There are 6 ways of talking about the past in English. With each way, the meaning changes. In this posting I talk about each of the 6 ways. There will …
Talking About the Past in English–6 Ways to Do This Read More »
English has many tenses, including the simple, continuous, and perfect tenses. These tenses exist in the present, past, and future. In this posting I talk about how to use all …
Simple, Continuous, and Perfect Tenses in English Read More »
Synonyms and antonyms are important to understand as you learn English. Knowledge of synonyms and antonyms will help your English vocabulary to grow. In this posting I talk about 10 …
Synonyms and Antonyms in English–Growing Your Vocabulary Read More »
There are many commonly misused words in English. Some of these words may have similar spellings, and some may have similar pronunciations. These words, however, have different meanings. In this …
15 Commonly Misused Words in English–Similar Word; Different Meaning Read More »
There are 4 sentence types in English: simple, compound, complex, and compound-complex. We use some of these sentence types frequently in conversation. We use others more frequently in writing. In …
Sentence Types in English–Simple, Compound, Complex, and More Read More »
The present perfect continuous tense in English is used to connect the present with the past. It suggests that something was started in the past but is unfinished. In this …
The Present Perfect Continuous in English–Past/Present Connections Read More »
We form infinitives by combining to with the base form of the verb (to work). In this posting I talk about 6 ways to use infinitives. There will be many …
Infinitives in English–6 Ways to Use These Important Words Read More »
It is easy to confuse have and get in English. Sometimes they mean almost the same thing. Often, however, they have different meanings. In this posting I talk about the …
Have and Get in English-How Are They Similar, yet Different? Read More »
Perfect modal in English work in similar ways to perfect verb tenses. We form them with the verb have and the past participle of the main verb. When we change …
Perfect Modals in English – Expressing Possibilities, or Regret Read More »
Phrasal modal verbs in English are modal verbs with two or more words. Just as some verbs with two words are phrasal verbs (clean up, give away), some modals also …
Phrasal Modal Verbs in English–Modals with Two or More Words Read More »
Plural Nouns – Regular and Irregular Plurals in English. All nouns are singular or plural. Singular nouns mean just one, while plural nouns mean more than one. In this post …
Plural Nouns – Regular and Irregular Plurals in English Read More »
The English language has many borrowed words. English is basically a Germanic language by structure. English vocabulary, however, comes from everywhere. In this posting I talk briefly about the history …
Borrowed Words–How English Borrows from Other Languages Read More »
Conjunctions are words we use to link other words or ideas together. In this posting I talk about 3 types of conjunctions and how they work. You will see many …
English Conjunctions: Joining Words, Phrases, Clauses, and Ideas Together in English Read More »
Noun clauses are clauses that function as nouns. A clause is a group of words containing a subject and a verb. A noun is the name of a person, place, …
Noun Clauses in English: When a Clause Is Used as a Noun in English Read More »
As you may know, an adverb modifies or describes a verb, and adjective, or another adverb. A clause is a group of words containing a subject and a verb. Some …
English Adverb Clauses: English Clauses That Give us More Information about Verbs Read More »
Relative pronouns are pronouns that give us more information about a noun in a sentence. They also help us combine two sentences into one. We know that a pronoun takes …
Relative Pronouns in English: Who, Whom, Whose, That, and Which Read More »
Adjective clauses help our speech and our writing to be more interesting. We know that an adjective describes or modifies a noun or pronoun ( a large dog). We know …
English Adjective Clauses: Using a Clause to Describe a Noun in English Read More »
Many English words can function as two or more parts of speech. Sometimes even words with similar meanings can function as different parts of speech. In this posting I talk …
Parts of Speech in English: Same English Word; Different Jobs Read More »
Many English words have multiple meanings. This means that the same word, with the same spelling and pronunciation may have more than one meaning. Sometimes the meanings may be very …
Words with Multiple Meanings in English: Same Word but a Different English Meaning Read More »
Homophones are two or more words with the same pronunciation but different spellings and meanings. English has many homophones. This can sometimes be confusing to people learning English. It can …
English Homophones: Same Pronunciation, Different Spellings, and Different Meanings Read More »
Noun quantifiers give us a quantity. They tell us how much of something there is. Most of the time, noun quantifiers are not specific numbers. Instead, most quantifiers give us …
Noun Quantifiers in English: Giving an Amount to an English Noun Read More »
Embedded questions are questions inside a statement or another question. They are not direct questions. They can be confusing because the word order is different than in direct questions. …
Embedded Questions in English: Questions inside of Statements or Questions Read More »
Future time clauses talk about when a future event will happen. For this future event to happen, something else has to happen first or at the same time. In this …
Future Time Clauses in English–Taking About When a Future Event Will Happen Read More »
Reported speech is not speech that you hear directly. It is speech that someone else tells you about. For example, if you have conversation with Bob, you hear everything that …
Reported Speech in English: Talking About What Someone Else Said Read More »
Expressing Past Habits in English: Past habits are actions of states of being that we did over and over in the past. We are no longer doing them. They are …
Expressing Past Habits in English with Used to, Would, or the Simple Past Read More »
Conditionals are sentences with the word if. They talk about what will happen, what could happen, or what could never happen. One part of the sentence contains a condition. It …
English Conditional Verbs: What Will, Could, or Could Never Happen Read More »
The passive voice focuses on the object of a sentence rather than the subject. We use it frequently in English. In this posting I talk about when we use the …
The Passive Voice in English–Different Tenses, Different Forms Read More »
Past modal verbs talk about things that could have happened in the past. We know that modals are verbs that express ability, probability, advice, obligation, deduction, expectation, and preference. In …
Past Modal Verbs in English–Things in the Past That Could Have Been Read More »
Modal verbs are special verbs in the English language. You may already know that they can express ability, permission, possibility, obligation, or give advice. In this posting I talk about …
English Modal Verbs: Verbs of Deduction, Expectation, and Preference in English Read More »
Adverbs are words that give us more information. They modify or give us more information about verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs. In this posting I talk about 5 kinds of …
Adverbs in English–Words That Modify or Describe Verbs, Adjectives or Other Adverbs Read More »
Adjectives are words that describe or modify nouns or pronouns. In English they are placed in front of the noun they modify. They can also be placed in back of …
Adjectives in English: Words That Modify or Describe Nouns and Pronouns Read More »
The past perfect tense talks about an action in the past that happened before another action in the past. When we use the past perfect, we can tell in …
The Past Perfect Tense in English–Talking About Earlier and Later Past Actions Read More »
The past continuous tense (or past progressive tense) shows an action that started in the past and continued over a period of time in the past. It is no longer …
The Past Continuous Tense in English–A Continuing Action in the Past Read More »
Reflexive pronouns and reciprocal pronouns are related to each other. Think of a mirror. Who do you see when you look in the mirror? You see yourself, of course. …
Reflexive and Reciprocal Pronouns in English–I Can Do It Myself! Read More »
Demonstrative pronouns point out or demonstrate something specific in a sentence. They can point out a thing or a time. We know that a pronoun takes the place of …
Demonstrative Pronouns in English–This, That, These, and Those Read More »
Interrogative pronouns are pronouns that ask questions. A pronoun takes the place of a noun. An interrogative pronoun takes the place of the unknown information the question asks about. …
Interrogative Pronouns in English–Pronouns that Ask Questions Read More »
Indefinite pronouns take the place of a noun, just like other pronouns. However, they do not refer to any specific thing. For example, we can say,”Miguel works in a …
Indefinite Pronouns in English–Someone, Everybody, Nobody Read More »
Either and neither are common English words. We use them to show choice, equality and agreement. We frequently use either in negative sentences to express agreement, and neither in affirmative …
Either and Neither– English Words to Show Choice, Equality, or Agreement Read More »
Here and there are adverbs that show place. We use here to refer to something close by. There shows us that something is at a distance. We also use there …
Here and There– English Adverbs and Expressions of Place Read More »
The imperative is the form of the verb we use to give directions, instructions, suggestions, or advice. We also use it to give direct orders. The imperative is easy to …
The Imperative in English – Giving Directions, Suggestions, and Advice in English Read More »
Gerunds and infinitives look like verbs, but they are used in sentences as nouns. A gerund is the “ing” form of the verb. An infinitive is the word “to” plus …
Gerunds and Infinitives in English–Nouns That Look Like Verbs Read More »
Tag questions are mini-questions that follow a short, simple statement. They turn the statement into a question. We use tag questions when we think we already know the answer. We …
Tag Questions in English–Mini-Questions at the End of a Statement Read More »
Prefixes and suffixes are not words. They are groups of letters added to words. They change the meanings of words. We add prefixes to the beginning of a word to …
Prefixes and Suffixes in English– How to Change the Meanings of Words Read More »
Contractions are shortcuts. When we use them in English we are joining two words together. Then, they become one word. This is not the same as a compound word. In …
Contractions in English–How to Join Two Words to Become One Read More »
Sometimes we need to compare people, places, or things. When we compare two people, places, or things, we use the comparative. When we compare three or more, we use the …
