The Many Uses of the Word ‘Mind’


Stage 7 Stage 8 The word ‘mind,’ like the word ‘settle,’ has many different meanings. Therefore it’s a good word to be comfortable with, as there are many different situations in which you can use it.  The first is as a noun, and it refers to the element of a person that allows them to …

«Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it’s an adverb!»


When readers analyse a new text, they sometimes try to determine which lexical category particular words correctly belong to. Adverbs are usually considered as a last resort in this endeavour; only once the more glamorous categories of nouns, verbs and adjectives have been eliminated do lowly adverbs get their fifteen minutes of fame. This may …

«The Present Simple and The Present Continuous» (Part Two)


This week’s blog is dealing with one of the most common mistakes that English learners make: the difference between the present simple and the present continuous. These tenses are often confused and used in place of each other.   I suppose the reason the two are mistaken for each other is that they are similar …

«English Collocations»


Collocations are not quite the same as idioms.Whereas idioms are understood to represent a more standard meaning (e.g. ‘round the bend’ = mad; ‘fed up’ = depressed; ‘touch and go’ = uncertain; etc.), collocations are words that have been paired (or grouped) together through continued use. These words have become friends, if you like, and …

«Adjectives Made From Nouns By Adding A Suffix»


This week we are going to look at making adjectives from nouns. There are many ways that we can form adjectives and one of these ways is by adding a suffix to a word. Or in other words, putting some extra letters on the end of an existing word. So let’s have a look at …

«Auxiliary Verbs»


There are two basic classifications of auxiliary verb, Primary and Modal. There are three Primary auxiliaries and ten Modals. But before we get started, what’s an auxiliary verb? In a sentence, we always have a main verb. For example, if we can only find one verb in a sentence, then we know it’s the main …

«Rhetorical Question»


What is a rhetorical question? It is a figure of speech that native speakers often use in conversations or presentations. The purpose of a rhetorical question is not to obtain a response, but to implicitly assert or deny a particular point that one is making. In other words, a rhetorical question ‘is asked to make …

«Similes and Metaphors»


This month’s blog is about similes and metaphors. A simile is a figure of speech that makes a comparison between two things using words such as «like» or «as». Metaphors resemble similes, but they suggest a comparison between two things without using connecting words such as «like» or «as». We use similes and metaphors a …

«Animal Idioms: Pets»


This week we are going to look at family pets and how they have infiltrated our daily lives. The first thing we should look at is that every animal, whether it be a pet or a wild animal, has a different name for their young. For example, a baby dog is called a puppy. A …

“There, They’re and Their”


As we saw in this week’s Tip of the Week, we’re discussing the word “there” and how it sounds like other words with different meanings. What part of speech is “there”? How do we pronounce it and use it in a sentence? Well, the difficulty comes from the fact that the word “there” is a …