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 […]
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
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
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.
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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,
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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.
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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 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
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.
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
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.
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
