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THEN or THAN?

Many people confuse the words then and than. They’re separated by just one little letter, and lots of people even pronounce them nearly the same way.  Then or Than!?!?!

Then (rhymes with Jen) is a word that’s used to mark time, or show a sequence of events. For example:

First, preheat the oven to 325. Then, grease a baking sheet.

Back then, I didn’t know what I was doing.

If you want to go to the ball,” Cinderella’s stepmother sneered, “then you’ll need to find something suitable to wear.”

Than (rhymes with Jan) is used to make comparisons and only to make comparisons. Anytime you use than, you should be able to substitute the words “compared with” or “in comparison to.” If it doesn’t work, you probably meant to say “then.”

I’m shorter than everyone in my family.

Organic produce is more expensive than regular produce.

Cinderella wanted to go to the ball more than anything!

It is much more common to substitute then for than than vice versa. Be sure to check yourself carefully!

http://www.dailywritingtips.com

QUIZ TIME!

Choose whether then or than is correct > http://esl.about.com/library/quiz/bl_than.htm

Then or Than? > http://www.grammarbook.com/grammar_quiz/than_vs_then_1.asp

LINDA’S PROFILE

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Laughing and Learning : An intro to Puns

Should I write to, two, or too? Well, that depends on whether the word you want is a preposition, a number, or a synonym of also.

How do I pronounce the word tear? It rhymes with ear if you are talking about crying and air if you are talking about ripping.

What did he mean when he said fine? Depending on the context, he could mean that everything is good or that someone had to pay some money.

Did someone just say tense or tents? It’s tense if they want to say they aren’t relaxed and tents if they just got back from a camping trip.

As you can see, English isn’t always easy to learn. It contains many homophones (words that are pronounced the same but spelled differently and have different meanings), homographs (words that are spelled the same but have a different pronunciation and meaning), and homonyms (words that are spelled and pronounced the same but have different meanings). While this makes learning more difficult, it also gives us the opportunity to have some fun with the language.

How does it do that? With puns! Put simply, a pun is a joke that plays with words and their meanings to be funny. And English is full of them. There are other types of puns, but the simplest ones involve homophones, homographs, and homonyms. So let’s focus on these first.

Here’s a quick example:
Why did the spider go to the computer?
To check his website.

Since you are reading this online, I think you know what a website is. However, web and site have their own definitions. A web is something that a spider makes to catch insects. And site is another word for location. So is the spider checking his homepage or the location of his web? The double meaning and confusion is what makes it funny.

HOMONYM PUNS

Let’s take a closer look at some homonyms and then go over some puns that use them. These words have the same spelling and pronunciation, but multiple meanings:

saw – the past tense of see
saw – a tool used for cutting
The blind man picked up a hammer and saw.
Did he begin to see after picking up the magical hammer? Or did he pick up two tools?

sentence – in grammar, a set of words that express a complete idea
sentence – the punishment given to a criminal for breaking the law
A prisoner’s favorite punctuation mark is the period. It marks the end of his sentence.
Does the period mean that he will be released from prison, or does he just like periods in grammar?

interest – caring about something
interest – the extra money you have to pay back when you borrow money
I used to be a banker, but I lost interest.
Was he a bad banker and lost money for the bank? Or does he just not find the job interesting anymore?

HOMOPHONE PUNS

And here are a few homophones. The two words are pronounced the same and can be used in the following puns:

profit – the money that a person or company earns
prophet – a person who delivers messages from God
Atheism is a non-prophet organization.
Atheists don’t believe in God, so they also don’t believe in prophets. But atheism also doesn’t earn any money, so there aren’t any profits.

whine – to cry
wine – an alcoholic beverage made from grapes
What did the grape say when it got stepped on? Nothing, but it let out a little whine.
Was the grape crying? Or did crushing it produce a delicious beverage for us to enjoy?

steak – a piece of meat
stake – a wooden post with a point on one end
You kill vegetarian vampires with a steak to the heart.
Vegetarians don’t like to eat meat, and one way to kill a vampire is to nail a wooden stake into his heart.

ADDITIONAL LEARNING OPPORTUNITIES

So now that you know a little bit about puns, how can you use them to improve your English? Here are a few ways:

Read some more puns (along with explanations) here:
http://www.englishwithnick.de/en/humor/basic-puns-with-explanations/

Or, you can increase your vocabulary by reading through these lists of homophones and homographs. To test your new knowledge, write a single sentence that includes both meanings of the. For example:
Fall (to drop to the ground) / Fall (Autumn) – The leaves will fall off the trees in the fall.
Homophone List – https://www.englishclub.com/pronunciation/homophones-list.htm
Homograph List –
http://examples.yourdictionary.com/examples-of-homographs.html

Once you’ve got a bit more experience reading and understanding puns, try to write your own! Take a word with multiple meanings and see if you can construct a situation where both meanings make sense. Normally we try to make our sentences as clear as possible, but when writing jokes, the humor comes from the ambiguity.

NICK’S PROFILE

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Daily Grammar

Like fruits and vegetables, grammar is part of a healthy balanced life.  Well, maybe not for everyone, but if you are learning a language, daily grammar activities should be part of your routine.

Many people don’t have time to eat the proper nutrients during the day, so they take vitamins and get their daily dose of  whatever they are missing.  (ex- I take a vitamin every morning to make sure I get my daily dose of Vitamin C.)  “I don’t have time for that”, a commonly heard excuse for not doing something.  Exercise, cooking properly, improving a skill such as a language…  I’d say we are all guilty of  procrastination at some point or another.

I tell my students that they need to exercise their brain daily and fit some English language activity in everyday.  Activity being the key word there.  Listening and reading are great, but those fall into the category of passive learning.  This is easier because you do not have ‘to act’.  Active learning is when you have to produce something, like an answer in a quiz or a spoken response to someone else.

Fitting grammar in every day does not mean that boring heavy text-books have to be a part of your daily life.  It can be a simple little quiz (Active learning FTW!) or a quick review of something you think you know pretty well already.  The key is to make it part of your routine.  Perhaps everyday while you are eating breakfast with your lap-top open (you know you do this!) you can open up a grammar quiz page and do one.

I’m going to start using #EngGrammar on twitter to tag grammar activities.  So make some time and get your daily dose of grammar! 

dose (noun) a quantity of a medicine or drug taken or recommended to be taken at a particular time
procrastination (noun) the action of delaying or postponing something
fit (something) in (phrasal verb) to give a place or time to
FTW (slang) “For The Win” An enthusiastic emphasis to the end of a comment, message or post
*practice using these words in the comments section and I will check them and give you feedback*
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Do Does Did

Complete the following sentences using the correct form of do.

Hints

Use does when the subject is a singular noun or a third person singular pronoun (e.g. he, she, it).

Use do when the subject is a plural noun or a plural pronoun. (e.g. they, we). The first person singular pronoun I also takes do.

Use did in the past tense. It is easy to decide whether a sentence is in the past tense. You just need to look for past time adverbs. For example, if you find words/phrases like yesterday or last year, it is safe to assume that the given sentence is in the past tense.

Read more at http://www.englishpractice.com/quiz/grammar-exercise-8/#PsyhIs1EA69d57jf.99

 

Keep going!  Do Does Did! Practice makes perfect, so here are some more!

http://www.englishexercises.org/makeagame/viewgame.asp?id=5523

http://www.englisch-hilfen.de/en/exercises/tenses/do3.htm 

http://www.tolearnenglish.com/exercises/exercise-english-2/exercise-english-49467.php

http://a4esl.org/q/h/lb/dodoesdid.html

Need more help?  Here is a very detailed explanation of ‘Do – Does – Did – Done’ from Woodward English
http://www.grammar.cl/english/do-does-did-done.htm

Most common idiomatic expressions in English

The English language is full of idiomatic expressions. While it is nearly impossible to learn all of these expressions, you should be familiar with the most important ones. Here is a list of the most widely used idiomatic expressions in English.

A penny for your thoughts

This expression is another way of asking what somebody is thinking.

Add insult to injury

To add insult to injury is to make a bad situation worse.

A hot potato

A hot potato is a topic or an issue that is widely discussed.

Once in a blue moon

If something happens once in a blue moon it happens very rarely.

Caught between two stools

When you are caught between two stools, you have difficulty choosing between two alternatives.

See eye to eye

When two people see eye to eye, they agree on something.

Hear it on the grapevine

To hear it on the grapevine is to hear a rumor.

Miss the boat

To miss the boat is to miss your chance at something.

Kill two birds with one stone

To kill two birds with one stone is to do two profitable things at the same time.

On the ball

When you are on the ball, you understand the situation very well.

Cut corners

To cut corners is to do something badly to save money.

Costs and arm and a leg

If something costs and arm and a leg, it is very expensive.

Sit on the fence

When you sit on the fence, you don’t make a decision.

This and other helpful information can be found on http://www.englishgrammar.org/category/writing/ 

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Articles

Everything you need to know about ARTICLES —>

  • There are only three articles: the, a and an. They are very small words which cause very large problems if used incorrectly. If, for example, you wanted someone to hand you the book, but you accidentally said a book, the other person might take some time to go shopping for a book they thought you’d like. While one can never have too many books, work doesn’t get done if we go book shopping every time we need to look up a word in the dictionary. Use of an article can also change the meaning of the noun:

dinner = the evening meal
a dinner = an evening meal held for some kind of event
the dinner = a specific evening meal which was held for some kind of event

Read more from Grammarly > http://www.grammarly.com/handbook/grammar/articles/

  • The 3 articles in English are a, an and the. The learner has to decide noun-by-noun which one of the articles to use*. In fact, there are 4 choices to make, because sometimes no article is necessary. Native-speakers, of course, use the articles correctly without thinking in everyday spoken langauge. English learners, on the other hand, need to have some guidelines for making the right choice – particularly those learners whose own language does not have articles, such as Japanese or Korean. The guidelines that follow here should help ESL students to a basic understanding of English article use.

The most important first step in choosing the correct article is to categorize the noun as count or uncount in its context**

Read more from teh Frankfurt International School > http://esl.fis.edu/grammar/rules/article.htm

 

 

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Pretty Amazing Prepositions of Place: In, On, At, and More!

The cat is in the tree.

Do you have problems working out your in from your on; your at from your from; or your up from your down? If so, this fun exercise can help you to figure out which is the correct preposition to use and how to remember them.

First things first: what exactly is a preposition of place? Simply put, a preposition of place is a preposition which tells us where something or someone is located. There are actually only three prepositions of place — at, on and in — but they can be used to describe almost any number of places. These are:

  • At –is used to describe a certain point or place
  • In–helps us to describe an enclosed space
  • On–means we are talking about a surface

Let’s look at a few examples of how we use prepositions of place.

  • Janice is waiting for you at the bus stop.
  • The no-smoking sign is on the wall.
  • I live in New York City.

However, in conjunction with these three prepositions, we can also use prepositions of direction which help clarify exactly where something is located. There are many more of these which are used to confirm when, where and under what conditions something is located. For example, let’s take a further look at our first preposition of place: at.

Janice is waiting for you at the bus stop, by the library.

In this example, we already knew that Janice was waiting for us at the bus stop. But, by using the preposition of direction by, it tells us exactly which bus stop Janice is waiting at. So, by using the two prepositions (place and direction) we are given clearer instructions and information. Let’s move on to our next example.

The no-smoking sign is on the wall between the entrance and the foyer.

Here we are told exactly where the no-smoking sign is located, so we can expect to see it as we walk into the building.

I live in New York City, close to Times Square.

New York is a large city, but the additional information gives us a more precise location. Before we get to the fun exercise, here is a list of just some of the prepositions of direction which we can use in conjunction with prepositions of place:

  •  Above — The picture hangs above the fireplace.
  • Against — The fly flew against the window.
  • Among — I sat among a group of people.
  • Behind — The ball is behind the garage.
  • Between — The playing field is between the two buildings.
  • By — I stopped by the light house.
  • Close to — I wanted a table that was close to the window.
  • In front of — There was a man in front of me in the queue.
  • Inside — Let’s get inside before it starts to rain again.
  • Near — I live near the tube station.
  • Next to — The pharmacy is next to the doctors office.
  • Onto — The pigeon flew onto the roof of my car.
  • Opposite — The restaurant is opposite the car park.
  • Towards — The crowd is heading towards the concert stage.
  • Under — The bag is under the table.

Now, let’s get physical!

To help my students learn and remember these prepositions, I actually ask them to physically place objects in the places which use the prepositions they are trying to remember. So, get yourself something memorable that you can place somewhere in your house or garden:

  • Put a teddy bear on your bed.
  • Plant a pumpkin in your garden by the wall.
  • Put your mobile phone in your purse near the door.
  • Move your neighbour’s pet tortoise into your bathtub.

This physical representation will be much more memorable than any flashcard or list of words. It will stay clearly in your mind when you put your Grandmother’s teapot among the flowers in the garden, or put the cat under the piano stool next to the bookshelf, or even when the pink cushion lands behind the dog on the sofa.

So, practice, choose your object, choose your preposition of place, make it funny if possible, and then you’ll remember it.

Participation and creativity is the key, even if you use really ridiculous places such as in my earor on my head and so on. You could even do this with a friend. Take some silly photos and post them on Facebook! Why not?

I can guarantee you won’t forget your prepositions of place after that! For more information on prepositions, visit me on Facebook where you will find daily bites of fun English. You can also find me on italki most days either teaching or gladly helping out with any English language queries you may have.

Contact Rachel today!  http://www.italki.com/teacher/1394345 

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Around the World ‘Round Table’ Discussion

Round Table : a number of people gathered together for conference, discussion of some subject, etc., and often seated at a round table.

Round Table discussions are an excellent way for you to get a chance to practice speaking English with someone from another country and at the same time, learn a bit about their culture and everyday life!  You will be exposed to other accents and participate in a ‘real-life’ conversation with someone you have never met before in a comfortable, friendly environment.  The general topics are endless and if possible, we can even arrange for you to speak with someone who also works in your industry.

Sessions

I will serve as the ‘host’ making sure that the conversation keeps flowing and that everyone gets a chance to speak.

Generally we will speak in an order assigned at the beginning of the session. Person 1 gives their answer, 2, then 3 and then it is open for discussion as I see fit.  I will help keep the order by speaking directly to the student when they are to answer.  During the open discussion, participants must be courteous and not interrupt or speak over other people.  At any time, I reserve the right to remove someone from the call.

I will keep running notes of vocabulary, grammar issues and sentence structure in the Skype chat.

Scheduling

This options is only available to SkypEnglish4U clients (join today!) that are ‘pre-approved’ and have the appropriate level of English required to partake in one of these group exercises.

Each SE4U student will get one free 30min AWRT credit and will schedule it with me.  If a student wants to participate in more, they will pay a % out of their existing sessions based on the people participating in the call– If there are 2 students, for 30min, they each will spend 15min of their existing packages.  The maximum amount of students per call is 3.

You will see specific times labeled as ‘Round Table’ on my google calendar and you can select them just as you regularly schedule.  I will be very flexible with these sessions… if you want to do one at a certain time, please let me know and I will try to find another student.

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When to double a consonant before adding -ed or -ing to a verb

When add -ing to a verb to form its present participle, and -ed to regular verbs to form the past simple. When doing this, we sometimes double the last letter of the verb, as in these examples:

  • stop ⇒ stopped, stopping
    stoped
    stoping
  • refer ⇒ referred, referring
    refered
    refering

Sometimes, however, we don’t double the last letter, as with the verb visit:

  • visit ⇒ visited, visiting
    visitted
    visitting

To understand this spelling rule, it’s first necessary to know the meaning of vowel andconsonant:

vowels = a  e  i  o  u
consonants are all other letters (b  c  d  f  g, etc).

Here’s the rule:

When to double a consonant before adding –ed and –ing to a verb
We double the final letter when a one-syllable verb ends in consonant + vowel + consonant.* stop, rob, sit stopping, stopped, robbing, robbed, sitting
We double the final letter when a word has more than one syllable, and when the final syllable is stressed in speech. beGIN, preFER beginning, preferring, preferred
If the final syllable is not stressed, we donot double the final letter. LISten, HAPpen listening, listened, happening, happened

In British English, travel and cancel are exceptions to this rule:

travel, travelling, travelled; cancel, cancelling, cancelled.

* We do not double the final letter when a word ends in two consonants (-rt, -rn, etc.):
start – starting, started; burn – burn, burned.

* We do not double the final letter when two vowels come directly before it:
remain – remaining, remained.

* We do not double w or y at the end of words:
play – playing, played; snow – snowing, snowed.

 

This and other helpful Spelling Tips can be found here > http://speakspeak.com/resources/english-grammar-rules/english-spelling-rules

LINDA’S PROFILE

 

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Farther vs. Further

Do you use farther and further interchangeably? You’re not alone. These two terms have very similar meanings and English speakers have been using them interchangeably for centuries. However, there are subtle differences between the terms, and the prevailing distinction that informs good usage is fairly straightforward. Let’s take a look.

The widely accepted rule is to use farther to discuss physical distances, as in He went farther down the road.

Further should be used for figurative distance or to discuss degree or extent, as in I wanted to discuss it further, but we didn’t have time. Additionally, you canfurther, or advance, a project, but you cannot farthera project because farther does not have a verb sense. Further also has an adverbial sense of “moreover; additionally,” so you can say Further, you hurt my feelings, but not Farther, you hurt my feelings.

While the above is a general guide to good usage, the physical vs. figurative distance distinction is not always adhered to in popular usage, a fact that you will find reflected in our definitions for these two terms. However, knowing the difference between good usage and popular usage will set you apart in formal settings and in the company of style-guide devotees.

We hope this explanation has furthered your understanding of these two terms!

article found on http://blog.dictionary.com/