The future real conditional describes what the speaker will do in a specific situation in the future. Although we do not know what will happen in the future the future real conditional is called 'real' because it refers to a possible action that could occur.
Lesson by Tristan, teacher at EC Malta English school
Verbs that take a gerund or an infinitive with different meanings:
When 'begin' is used in non-continuous tenses, you can use a gerund or an infinitive: She began singing. She began to sing.
When 'begin' is used in continuous tenses, an infinitive is used:
She is beginning to sing.
There are two kinds of conditional sentences: real and unreal. Real Conditional describes real-life situations. Unreal Conditional describes unreal, imaginary situations. Although the various conditional forms might seem quite abstract at first, they are actually some of the most useful structures in English and are commonly included in daily conversations.
Lesson by Tristan, teacher at EC Malta English school
Movember is a moustache growing event held during each November that raises funds and awareness for men's _1_, you'll probably start to notice more and more men sporting moustaches as the month goes on.
The words ‘being’ and ‘been’ are sometimes confused. As a rule the word ‘been’ is always used after ‘have’ whereas ‘being’ is never used after ‘have’. It is used after ‘be’.
'Been' is the past participle of the verb 'be' and is usually used with the perfect aspect with ‘have’ in all its forms i.e. had and has
I have been busy. NOT I have being busy.
There are slight differences between 'amount of', 'quantity of' and 'number of'
Amount of is used for things you can’t measure. It is usually in front of a singular word.
I have a reasonable amount of work this week. Work – singular non-count word
He has a certain amount of respect for the sales team. Respect – singular non-count word
There is often confusion over the verbs to lay and to lie.
To lay means to put something in a horizontal position.
The staff lay the tables for dinner at 8 o'clock.
The rebels were urged to lay down their arms and surrender.
His chickens have stopped laying eggs.
When we are writing it is very easy to get confused by 'it's' or 'its'. Here is an explanation that may help avoid confusion:
'It's' is short for 'it is' or 'it has' and this is the rule. If you can't expand 'it's' to 'it is' or 'it has' then you're using 'its' when you shouldn't and that is wrong.
It's been raining all week and now it's starting to snow. (it has – it is)
It's been a very difficult year for me. (It has)
Adjectives are words which give us more information about people, places and things.
A phrasal verb is a combination of two or more words, usually a verb and preposition, which acts as one word.
The meaning of the phrasal verb is different to the meaning of the words when separated. For example, to "get away" means to go on holiday, which is different from the meaning of the word "get"on its own.
Phrasal verbs are common in both spoken and written English, so we should practise them as often as possible.
