Prepositions are often confusing for English learners, especially when one preposition can have more than one meaning. Today we look at the prepositions for, of and to and three of their possible meanings.
For usually tells us about the use of something, a reason or purpose.
We need new batteries for the remote control.
These drinks are for after work.
We use it for cutting grass.
This, that, these and those are called demonstratives. We use a demonstrative when we want to talk about whether something is near or far from us and if the subject is singular or plural.
This car is nice (singular, near)
That car is nice (singular, distant)
These cars are nice (plural, near)
Those cars are nice (plural, distant)
Apart from some irregular verbs (drink > drank > drunk), the past tense of regular verbs is made by adding -d or -ed to the base form of the verb. The past simple tense is also often the past participle form (play > played > played).
"He was talking."
A singular noun refers to one of something (a chair, a hat, a dog); a plural noun means more than one (chairs, hats, dogs).
In most cases we make a plural noun by adding s to a singular noun (car > cars).
Words that end in -ch, x, s or s-like sounds take -es for the plural (kiss > kisses).
When a noun ends in y we replace it with –ies to make the plural (city > cities).
A verb is a word that shows an action. It is important to choose the verb that fits with the subject and object in a sentence otherwise your English will not sound natural or you may not be able to make yourself understood.
For example it would be very strange for someone to say, "we is" instead of "we are", or "I need to make a break", instead of, "I need to take a break".
We can also change the form of verbs to show when an action happens.
Today we're going to look at phrasal verbs with the word 'make'. Read these definitions and examples, and then try to complete the sentences below with the correct phrasal verb.
Note: You will have to change the tense!
1. Make something out - to see/recognise something in the distance
Today we're going to look at phrasal verbs with the word 'call'. Read these definitions and examples, and then try to complete the activity below.
Call someone back: Return a phonecall to someone who tried to phone you.
Using 'since' and 'because' can be confusing, so here's the main difference between the two.
'Since' refers to time and 'because' refers to causation.
e.g. Since I quit drinking, I'm feeling much healthier.
e.g. Because I quit drinking I no longer suffer from headaches in the morning.
Fill in the blanks by using either 'since' or 'because'.
Yesterday I _1_ the strangest dream; I dreamt that I could fly. It felt so real _2_ high above the streets, up with the birds and clouds. Even stranger was none of my friends _3_ interested when I showed them I could suddenly fly. They didn't care or pay me any attention.
'What is your job?', is grammatically correct but not usually the way we ask someone's occupation. Instead we ask, 'What do you do?' or the longer form, 'What do you do for a living?'
Some common ways to answer are: