“Confusing Words: Uses of ‘Get'”


Today I am going to talk about the verb ‘get’ and explain some of its meanings and give you some examples of each, thus making it easier for you to understand. The general meanings of the verb ‘get’ are ‘become’ and ‘obtain’. However, it has several other meanings too. When we follow ‘get’ with by …

“The Passive Voice” (Part Two)


For example, if the active voice sentence is “I broke the window” then the passive voice would become “The window was broken by me” and as you can see I changes to me in the passive voice. Other times you might need to change She to Her or He to Him. So, let’s try another …

“Thinking of example sentences in English”


The average student’s most common example will involve using the present simple. For example, imagine the teacher asks you for an example of ‘give back.’ Many examples will look something like this: ~I give back the phone to my friend. ~He gives my pen back to me. There are multiple problems in the first example. …

“Food and Cooking Idioms”


If you want to say that you are finding your English studies difficult, you can say that learning English ‘drives you bananas’. To ‘go bananas’ means to go crazy; it’s similar to the expression ‘round the bend’, which some of our students will already have learned. Of course, learning a foreign language is never ‘a …

“Direct and Indirect Speech”


The most important thing to know about direct and indirect speech is that we use them to report what somebody has said. You can report what you said or what another person said. We usually do this when we haven´t heard what a person has said. For example if somebody is speaking in a group …

“Easily Confused Words” (Part Two)


Assume and Presume – The difference here is that Assume means to accept something as true before you have proof, whereas to Presume means to suppose that something is true or take something for granted. These are very similar words but are used slightly differently. For Example, – I assumed that the shop would be …

‘Bring’ vs. ‘Take’


The verb ‘bring’ means ‘carry here.’ For example, you can tell someone: ‘bring me the book, please.’ If, at the time of speaking, you’re at work, you can say: ‘I forgot to bring my lunch to the office today!’ Again, the important thing to note is that when you said the above sentence, you were …

“Time Expressions”


Punctuality – being ‘on time’ – is, of course, very important in all areas of life. We should be on time for work, appointments, meetings with friends, and so on. The expression ‘on time’ means to not be late: to reach a place (or do something) at the right moment. For example, students should always …

‘So’ and its many uses


Look at this sentence: “It was raining, so I took my umbrella and wore a raincoat”. In this sentence the word so means “therefore” or “consequently”. Rather than using the words therefore or consequently, we can use the word so. Another example of this is in the sentence “I failed my exam, so I have …

“Homophones (Part Two)”


Here are some common words that are often mistaken for each other when either spoken or written.   STATIONARY and STATIONERY We use stationary for something that is not moving and we use stationery for writing materials.   YOKE and YOLK We use yoke for a wooden crosspiece to harness a pair of oxen together …