In this blog post, I talk about gay marriage being allowed in California. I use quite a few IF clauses to give you some more examples. One thing I want you to remember is that after IF, you need a subject and a present verb, usually simple present, but sometimes it can be present progressive [...]
This is one of the most confusing parts of English grammar. Normally, you should not use THE before a name. But sometimes THE is part of the name. For example, THE United States of America! Or the U.S. You can also say the U.S.A., though it’s very rare, except in military culture, to say the [...]
One of my regular visitors sent me an essay about an experience he had in Niagara Falls. I told you to use sensory details in your writing. Below, I’ve posted most of his essay. You can read it first or after my comments. If you read it first, try to figure out if the highlighted [...]
This is my next lesson on articles. I was in my kitchen, preparing for a party, so I took out a bunch of food and used it to explain articles. When you watch, please notice how I pause. Sometimes I say “Um.” Sometimes I say something wrong and correct myself. It’s not the perfect way [...]
Here’s an explanation of a basic part of English grammar: using the + a place. If you take time to practice each rule for using the, a and an, you’ll master articles! (to master something = to become an expert at something, to be very good at something) (articles = a, an, the) After you [...]
People ask you about what you did in the past all the time, so it’s important to know how to explain all the details of what happened in the past. Someone might ask you what you did yesterday or what you did last week. Do you know how to answer? Here’s a video lesson on [...]
Are you too pretty or too intelligent? You’d better hope you are NOT too pretty or too intelligent. It’s much better to be so intelligent or very pretty. In this video lesson, I explain the difference between too + an adjective and so/very + an adjective. See the transcript below if you can’t understand. Hello, [...]
Sometimes you really need a caffeine fix (a caffeine fix = caffeine to help your brain work). If you do, you don’t want to be stressed out about (to be stressed out about s.t. = to be worried about s.t.) how to order your java (java = coffee). This is a simple explanation to help [...]
Hi everyone, You might think that you speak English too well to worry about the most basic verb tense, the simple present. However, I have students who are intermediate level speakers and still make mistakes with the simple present. Hope you like the video lesson! To review, let’s put “run” into the simple present: I [...]