“Homophones (Part Two)”


Stage 9 Stage 10 Stage 11 Here are some common words that are often mistaken for each other when either spoken or written.   STATIONARY and STATIONERY We use stationary for something that is not moving and we use stationery for writing materials.   YOKE and YOLK We use yoke for a wooden crosspiece to …

“Words And Phrases For Money”


Stage 8 Stage 9 Stage 10 Let’s start with some vocabulary. In the UK, a pound is called a ‘quid’. ‘Have you got a quid?’ means ‘Have you got a pound?’ Note that we don’t pluralise this noun when talking about an amount of money, i.e. we say ’50 quid’ and not ’50 quids’. However …

“Verb + Gerund or Infinitive?”


Let’s try some verbs followed by gerunds. 1. AVOID We should avoid eating fatty foods. You had to avoid hitting the car with his bike.   2. DISLIKE I dislike watching boring movies. A boxer dislikes losing a fight. Download Exercise   3. MENTION The teacher mentioned seeing me on the weekend   4. POSTPONE …

“How To Do Compositions”


When you are doing a composition you should plan it beforehand and then take your time when writing it. One of the biggest mistakes you can make is to rush through it and not pay enough attention to what you are writing. Remember that you are learning a new language and it is quite different …

“The many uses of get in phrasal verbs”


Take “get in” for example. We can use this as an imperative, such as a mother telling her child to get in out of the rain. Or maybe to tell someone to “get in” to a car. But it can also be used as a ‘prepositional’ verb meaning to gather in or to bring in …

“Dealing With Common Mistakes”


Stage 9 Stage 10 Stage 11 This week´s blog is about common mistakes. When we are learning a new language we are bound to make a lot of mistakes, but this will happen less frequently as we progress in our studies. One of the biggest mistakes that people make is using false friends in a …

“Weather Idioms”


  Think of the expression ‘snowed under’, for example. We don’t literally mean that someone is completely covered by snow, as if an avalanche has coated them. But the figurative meaning is easy to understand from this visualization. ‘Snowed under’, often used in a workplace, means that one has so much work to do and …

“The Verbs Lie, Lie and Lay”


The regular verb ‘lie’ The regular verb ‘to lie’ means ‘to not tell the truth’, and as it’s regular, the paradigm is simple – ‘lie, lied, lied’. This is the verb which is the least easy to confuse, naturally, as it’s regular and is totally different in meaning to the other two spookily similar verbs, …

“Idioms”


It is estimated there are about 25,000 idioms in the English language. Before you decide to give up on your quest to learn them, remember that not all of these will be frequent in day to day use, and many will be hugely outdated – just the same as vocabulary. The average person on the …

“Easily Confused Words”


ACCEPT/EXCEPT Accept = to agree to do, to agree to receive Except = not including This is one of the pairs where in writing the mistake rarely happens – but when speaking, it may sound like a native speaker might be saying something like ‘Everyone accept me went for a drink after work.’ Sometimes, they …