«The Past Perfect»


–We use the Past Perfect when there are two actions in the past, with one happening before the other. Keeping this definition in mind, it’s important to note that it’s very common to use the Past Perfect together with the Past Simple (two actions in one sentence, two different verb tenses). Let’s take a look …

«Pronouns»


Stage 6 Stage 7 Stage 8 Pronouns are little words that serve a very important function. A pronoun is a word that can stand in place of a noun. For example, in the sentence, ‘When I met Jane, she was working at a café in Covent Garden’, the word ‘she’ stands for the proper noun …

«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 …

«Present Perfect Continuous and Its Uses»


SUBJECT + HAVE/HAS + PRESENT PARTICIPLE (ING) So an example sentence would look like this: Lola has been working at this company for 6 years. Lola started working at the company 6 years ago, and is still working there now. However, we can also use the construction of the present perfect and say ‘Lola has …

«Modal Verbs»


  I remember my first exposure to modal verbs: at primary school, whenever I asked the teacher ‘Can I go to the bathroom?’ the teacher would invariably reply ‘I don’t know. Can you?’ This was done to demonstrate that the polite way of making a request like this is to use the modal ‘may’, instead …

«Present Simple and Present Continuous Tenses»


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. If I had €1 for every time I hear these two tenses being confused or for every time I have to correct this mistake in class, I would be …

«The Importance of Prepositions»


Many English learners have trouble with prepositions. Using the incorrect preposition can completely change the context of a sentence and cause the speaker problems. So the correct use of prepositions is vitally important in English. For example, the difference between “to” and “at” in the context of throwing a ball could save your life. If …

«Emphasising Pronouns and Reflexive Pronouns»


Before I go into detail I should give you the full list. The words ‘myself’, ‘yourself’, himself’, ‘herself’, itself’, ‘oneself’, ‘ourselves’, ‘yourselves’ and ‘themselves’ are both emphasising pronouns and reflexive pronouns. Although we use the same words for both sets of pronouns, they are used in very different ways. Let us first talk about reflexive …

‘For’ vs. ‘Since’


As mentioned in this week’s Tip of the Week, we’ll be going over a couple words that can cause confusion for English learners- ‘for’ and ‘since.’ Let’s start with a basic difference by defining each word: ~We use ‘for’ to talk about a period of time. So when you think of time phrases like “ten …