Knowing if a verb is transitive or intransitive helps learners to use words correctly and improves grammar accuracy. To understand what … [Read more...]
The rule for using ‘a’ or ‘an’
March 10, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Ask about the rule for using 'a' or 'an' before a word and you'll probably hear: 'a' before words beginning with a consonant ('b', 'c', 'd', … [Read more...]
Two million dollars? Or millions?
February 19, 2012 By Leave a Comment
I received emails from two people last week asking about the word million. Both people asked the same question: ''What is the plural of million? Is … [Read more...]
Common mistakes learners make when forming conditional sentences
February 6, 2012 By Leave a Comment
English has four conditional structures: the zero, first, second and third. In this post we look at some common problems that students of English have … [Read more...]
Which should we use: ‘have’ or ‘have got’?
January 9, 2012 By 2 Comments
Learners often want to know if have and have got are the same. They want to know which of the two they should use and if they are … [Read more...]
When an adjective—not an adverb—should follow a verb
January 5, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Elementary students learn 'action verbs' first. They also learn that if we want to say how we do something we should use an adverb (quickly, badly, … [Read more...]
The top 3 mistakes made by native English speakers
November 18, 2011 By 13 Comments
In this post I would like to look at some common mistakes made by native English speakers. Instead of making a long list, I've chosen three errors … [Read more...]
How to get the future right
October 7, 2011 By 2 Comments
Some of my students recently asked me for a revision lesson on future tenses in English. In particular, they wanted to revise the ways we express the … [Read more...]
