Archive for 'English Grammar'
Some tricky English prepositions Posted by Gabriele on Jan 20, 2015
Learning to use prepositions correctly in a new language is not easy! Anyone who says differently is wrong, at least if you ask me. Part of what makes prepositions so tricky is that by themselves prepositions are rather meaningless and almost impossible to define. Prepositions only get their meaning by describing the relationship between other…
English Modal Verbs: How and why to use them. Posted by Gabriele on Jan 13, 2015
Modal verbs are a unique category of verbs in English, they have their own rules, which are not the same as other verbs. This post offers an overview (or review) of how modal verbs are different from other verbs, and how/why we use them in English. To start off, here is a list of common…
The silent letter ‘e’ in English: Why is it there? Posted by Gabriele on Dec 9, 2014
You may have noticed that a number of English words end in the letter ‘e,’ but this letter ‘e’ is almost never pronounced – it is silent. So, why is it there? Does it serve a function, if so, what? Today, if you read on, you are going to find out why this silent ‘e’…
American National Parks Wrap-Up Posted by sasha on Oct 20, 2014
Over the past few months, we’ve been exploring some of America’s most famous national parks here on the English blog. I hope you’ve had fun reading the posts and watching the videos, because I’ve sure had a good time making them. Visiting some of the national parks should be high atop anyone’s list if traveling…
A good old English grammar review. Posted by Gabriele on Sep 12, 2014
It is time to do a review of the parts of speech in English! This post will be a review for many people, but for some it may be introductory. For everyone there is a practice exercise at the end of this post for you to see how well you know your parts of speech…
Let me introduce the ‘zero conditional’ in English. Posted by Gabriele on Sep 4, 2014
Some of you may already be familiar with this grammatical construction, but for those who are not, I want to introduce to you, the zero conditional. A zero conditional grammatical construction is used in sentences, when the time is now (or always) and the situation is real (or possible). Zero conditional sentences are used to…
Rocky Mountain National Park Video Tour Posted by sasha on Aug 5, 2014
Take a short video tour of the amazing Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado, including a few trails, some viewpoints, and a couple of beautiful lakes. The written post from last month can be found here for more information about the Rockies. “Rocky Mountain national park is located in Colorado. Our trip begins at the…