“Still and Yet”


Stage 5 Stage 6 Two words that can cause some confusion for English learners are the words ‘still’ and ‘yet’. Here is a basic explanation of when we use each word: Download Exercise   – We use ‘still’ to communicate that something is in progress. It could refer to something that was in progress in …

“The Future Perfect Tense”


Stage 5 Stage 6 This month’s blog is about the future perfect tense. This particular tense is one that a lot of language learners seem to struggle with. To form the future perfect tense we use ‘will have‘ and a past participle. For example, “I will have been“, “he will have done“, “they will have …

“Easily Confused Words (Third Part)”


Stage 5 Stage 6 This week we’ll be looking at easily misused words; meaning, words that students (and even native speakers!) can easily make mistakes with. Either because there are other words that sound similar, or just because they are naturally difficult, here are some easily misused words.   Download Exercise Desert and Dessert The …

“The use of the present simple”


Stage 5 Stage 6 Stage 7 Stage 8 The present simple is most commonly used for regular actions – habits; things we do often. For example: ~ I drink coffee every day. ~ Mark plays football at weekends. ~ We study English on Mondays and Wednesdays. It isn’t necessary to state the frequency of the …

“The Past Simple and The Past Continuous”


Stage 5 Stage 6 When we are speaking about the past, it is quite often that we are able to use both the past continuous and the past simple in the same sentence. This is usually when there was one action happening when a different action interrupted it or crossed over it. For example – …

“The Emphatic Do”


Stage 6 Stage 7 This week’s blog is about the “emphatic do”. The emphatic do is when we use the auxiliary verb ‘do’ in order to be emphatic. In general we use the auxiliary verb ‘do’ in questions and in negative sentences but not generally in positive sentences. For example we say “do you play …

“Punctuation”


Stage4 Stage 5 Stage 6 An often overlooked part of English and language in general is punctuation. Not only is punctuation important for making your writing look nice and neat, it can also dramatically change the meaning of a sentence if it is used incorrectly. So, let’s have a look at making your writing look …

“The Difference Between Two, To and Too”


Stage 4 Stage 5 Stage 6 For many students, one of the most difficult parts of learning English is the pronunciation. It is not a phonetic language, which means we can’t simply look at a word we’ve never seen before and know how to pronounce it. This becomes especially complicated when it comes to homophones, …

“Primary Auxiliaries And Modal Auxiliaries Verbs”


Stage 6 Stage 7 This week’s blog is based on auxiliary verbs. In English there are two types of auxiliary verb, primary auxiliaries and modal auxiliaries. The three primary auxiliary verbs are ‘be’, ‘have’ and ‘do’. There are ten common modal auxiliary verbs and they are ‘can’, ‘could’, ‘will’, ‘would’, ‘shall’, ‘should’, ‘may’, ‘might’, ‘must’ …

“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 …