People is the plural form of person. We say: One person , but two, three, four people. It is true that persons is sometimes used as a plural of person in official language. There is also a singular noun people (plural peoples) meaning "nation" , "religion" or "race", and in those cases, it is used as a singular noun and can be used in a … [Read more...]
“It’s” isn’t “Its”
Stupid though it may seem, many students mix up "It's" and "Its". Remember that the first one is short for "It is" or "it has", whereas the second one is the possessive adjective. If we do so, we will avoid making mistakes such as: " It's tail is brown" ,when in fact, what we want to say is: "Its tail is brown" . The rule to apply is that IT'S … [Read more...]
Ask me!
"Ask” is one of the most common verbs in English, but there are a number of details to remember when you use it in a sentence. Here are different ways to use this verb correctly. Ask (someone) for + object Use “ask for” with the object you want to receive: I asked my mum for some money. I asked him for a new book. My … [Read more...]
LESS or FEWER?
There are people who do not distinguish between less and fewer, they use them indistinctly, or they use less on all occasions. Well, there is a difference between them. Less is the comparative form of little, used before uncountable nouns. However, fewer is the comparative of few, used before plural nouns. “I earn less money than a … [Read more...]
Consist OF or Consist IN?
Distinguishing between them is not always easy. Let’s see: CONSIST OF: to be made up of , comprise This novel consists of three parts. Genes consist of a specific sequence of DNA. CONSIST IN: Be essentially, be inherent or lie in His social success consists in making people believe he is interested in what they say. The secret … [Read more...]
CAE Speaking Exam
Who is not nervous when taking an exam? Needless to say things get worse when we think of an oral exam. That is why, this year, I decided to collect and summarise some advice Cambridge University offers to those people taking CAE speaking test. I hope you'll find it useful... SPEAKING PART 1 PART 1 QUESTIONS SPEAKING PART 2 SPEAKING … [Read more...]
Prepositions Of Time (At, In, On)
I hope you'll find it useful ..... Prepositions of Time EXERCISE - TIME … [Read more...]
If I had time…..
Conditional Clauses are also called If Clauses. We use them to speculate or think about what could happen, what might have happened, and what we wish would happen. I prepared this document for beginners. I hope you'll find it helpful. CONDITIONALS … [Read more...]
Gerunds and Infinitives
I've written this document thinking of my pupils, because some of them didn't remember these slight differences between using -ing or -to. I hope it is helpful, but this is only the tip of the iceberg. I'll try to focus on those peculiar verbs I have included and I'll explain them in detail in future posts. GERUND AND INFINITIVES … [Read more...]
You cannot “EXPLAIN ME” anything
The other day, someone said to me:"I'll explain you later". I instantly thought she was not using the verb EXPLAIN correctly. We can "explain something", that is, we can make something clear or understandable maybe by describing or giving information about it ,or we can give the cause or reason for something. However, we can also say "explain … [Read more...]