Learning English

Months and Dates

In order to talk confidently about your plans in English, it’s useful to know some essential phrases that relate to months and dates. The months of the year in English are: January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December. Read More

Formation of past and present tense of English verbs

The present tense of a regular verb is the same as the base form of the verb, except that an -s is added to the verb when it has a noun or he, she, or it as a subject. This form is called the 3rd person singular form. I live in the country. He likes his job. The window looks… Read More

Simple tenses

Simple tenses show moments in time, timeless states, and habitual or repetitive actions. The simple tenses consist of a single word.  There is a present simple tense: I like I live you like you live he likes he lives  I like my steak rare. It tastes good. Julie keeps a diary. Rob usually walks to school. There is also a past simple tense: I liked I lived you liked you lived he liked he lived  He liked to walk to the… Read More

Mass Nouns

Mass nouns are nouns that refer to a substance that can be divided or measured but not counted, e.g. sugar, water. They do not usually have an indefinite article in front. Meat is usually more expensive than cheese. Sugar is quite cheap. Mass nouns only take a plural in special cases, for example, when they refer… Read More

How to use ‘Used to’

The verb used to is a ‘marginal’ modal verb. Unlike the other modal verbs, it is only found in the past tense. Therefore, when it is used with do to make negatives and questions, the form of the auxiliary verb is always did.  Used to is used as follows:  to describe an activity or a state that… Read More

Use of Shall and Will

The normal way to express simple future time in English is using the modal verb will followed by the base form of a main verb. The modal verb shall can be used with the pronouns I and we, especially in questions, but is not used very much in modern English. Shall I bring you some tea?… Read More

Each/Every/Either/Neither

The words each, every, either, and neither are distributives. Distributives are determiners that are used to talk about how something is shared out or divided. Each, every, either, and neither are used with a singular noun. Each child was given a balloon. I remember every detail of our conversation. Either child could win the prize. Neither plan was successful. Each and every Each and every are not used… Read More

Active and passive forms in English

Active We use an active sentence when the subject of the verb is doing the action. The active is used in most English speech and writing, because we usually want to inform our listener or our reader who or what carried out the action of the verb. In the following… Read More

Using the passive in English

We use the passive to direct our listener’s attention to the important part of our message. The passive can be used when we do not know who carries out the action expressed by the verb, or when it is not important that we should know. It is sometimes much more… Read More