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Grammar

How to use the 'Present Perfect'

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'I have been to Boston.'

Have/has + past participle makes the present perfect.

She has lost her bag.

They have taken a taxi

I have been to Australia

Prepositions of Time

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Independence Day

'Americans celebrate Independence Day on July 4'

Here are the basics for using in, on, at, for and since in time expressions:

Using 'in' 

In - is used with parts of the day, months, seasons and  years.

How to use 'contractions'

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How to sue contractions

'I've got a new TV. You've seen it, haven't you?'

In spoken English and casual written English, contractions are very common. In these words the apostrophe    ( ) tells us that letters are missing.

How to use 'the Passive'

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Pyramids

'The Pyramids were built a long time ago.'

 

What is a passive sentence?

Most of spoken English uses active speech. In active sentences the subject is the focus of the sentence. For example:

Using 'used to' for past habits

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I used to snowboard

'I used to ski, but now I snowboard.'

Past Continuous

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waiting

'He was waiting for me when I got home.'

Why do we use the past continuous?

The past continuous (also known as the past progressive) is used to describe what we were doing a specific point in the past.

compare these two sentences:

Irregular Verb List

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 wrestling

'Fight / fought / fought'

Most  English verbs take -ed for the past tense or past participle. The problem is that many verbs do not follow this rule. Here is a good list of irregular verbs for you to refer to.

Add this page to your favourites so you can quickly find out those tricky verbs as and when you need to!

Past Simple Tense

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'Sandra picked an apple.'

The past simple tense is, of course, used to talk about things which have happened in the past. Here are a few points for you to review and rememeber

Past Simple is used to describe events which happened in the past.

Present Simple and Present Continuous

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I surf

'I surf / I am surfing.'

What's the difference between the Present Simple / Present Continuous and how to use them.

How to use ‘if’ in conditional sentences

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If i won the lottery, I would...

In English we have four ways to make conditional (if) sentences. Here is how to make them...

0 Conditional – is used for scientific facts or general truths. ‘If’ can be substituted for ‘when’.

 ‘If you boil water to 100°C, it boils.’