«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 …

«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 …

«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, …

«How to use Who and Whom»


As referenced in this week’s edition of Tip of the Week, we’ve started our overview of a subject that leaves even some native English speakers confused: who vs. whom. Here’s a quick recap before we move on: There’s no questioning that ‘who’ is the more commonly used of the two, especially in questions. For example: …

«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on your quest to learn them, remember that not all of these will be frequent in day to day use, and many will be hugely outdated – just the same as vocabulary.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 …

«Adverbs»


First, we’ll look at adverbs of frequency. Some common examples are: sometimes, often, usually, never, always, occasionally…the list goes on and on! These adverbs normally go after the first auxiliary verb (if there is one in the sentence). For example: ~He can always hit that note when he sings. ~She has never been to Moscow. …

«Writing a letter in English»


When writing a letter, the sender’s address always goes in the top right-hand corner of the page. For an email this is not necessary. Underneath our address, we put the date in full form. This means we don’t write ‘3/05/2015’, but ‘3rd May 2015’. On the other side of the page, we put the recipient’s …

Idioms and Colour


Black sheep – if you’re the black sheep of the family, you’re a member of the family who is in disgrace, or is felt to be worthless. Nowadays, it can also mean that you’re very different to the rest of your family, but that isn’t used as much as its other meaning. ‘After spending all …