Spanish words of the week: paso or pasa?

It’s that time of the week when we step into the world of potentially confusable Spanish nouns and separate out how a particular pair is used. Today it’s the turn of paso (masculine) and pasa (feminine). 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

Love language: the vocabulary of romantic comedies

Love is in the air! With Valentine’s Day upon us and a brand-new Bridget Jones film set to grace our screens, it’s the perfect time of year to settle in with candles, your favourite food, and a classic romantic comedy. Romantic comedies, typically shortened to the much snappier romcoms,… Read More

Spanish words of the week: rueda or ruedo?

Time to separate out another pair of potentially confusable Spanish nouns… Join us as we set the ball rolling with ruedo (masculine) and rueda (feminine). Starting with the feminine rueda, you can listen to its pronunciation here: You’ll usually find four ruedas on a car, two… Read More