Millions of native English speakers are testament to this fact. If you are not a native English speaker and do not have regular contact with good English speakers it is difficult to get a good model for communication using English. In this case it is extremely important to get as much contact as possible with the English language through internet, TV, radio, podcasts, books, newspapers, magazines etc.

In addition to this daily contact with “real English” if we want to speak English well , understand English well, write English well it is necessary to find out how to understand English grammar. How we use English verb forms (tenses) is essential to developing good communication in English. Effective use of the English language is the key to good communication.

We are preparing a series of master classes about how we use English grammar correctly. I am not going to talk about how we construct the verb form but I want to give the basic concepts of how these grammatical forms are used by native English speakers.

Sometimes people try and complicate English grammar. English grammar has evolved over many hundreds of years to become a simplified version of what went before. The basic rules of verb forms (tenses) are very simple, they are perhaps different from your own language but they are not difficult.

After learning and using correctly the basic verb forms then English becomes more complicated because it is difficult to find rules to follow. It is at this stage that it is essential to have regular, daily, contact with the language.

Go to Grammar section: here

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• – verb forms
• – difference between different verb forms
• – etc etc

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Basics of good English Language learning ….

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Function of adverbs/ adverbial phrases

Function of adverbs
1. Adverbs can describe an action:

• – He drives aggressively

This tells us HOW an action is done. These are Adverbs of manner.

There are also these types:

· Adverbs of manner
· Adverbs of frequency
· Adverbs of time
· Adverbs of degree
· Comment adverbs

2. Adverbs can modify adjectives:

• That car is extremely expensive

Or other adverbs:

• He runs very fast

3. It can be an adverb of one word:

• – often, sometimes, quickly

We often visit our parents at the weekend.

or an adverbial phrase :

• all day tomorrow, a bit

The students are going to be doing exams all day tomorrow.

· Adverbs of manner
· Adverbs of frequency
· Adverbs of time
· Adverbs of degree
· Comment adverbs

Exercise to practise word order with adverbs

We have more grammar lessons in the index

Go to grammar EXERCISE for used to + infinitive here

Used to is a form of English Grammar that we use to talk about an habitual action in the past that we don’t do now. The structure uses the past of the verb “to use”so questions and negatives are formed using “did”

 

• 1-I used to live in London (now I don’t live in London)
• 2-John used to play rugby every weekend (now he doesn’t play because he has serious knee problems)
• 3-Mary didn’t use to speak French (but now she speaks French very well because she has lived in Toulouse for 5 years)
• 4-Did you use to have a lot of homework when you went to Primary school?

The form of this construction is very simple

Affirmative: subject + used to+ verb in the infinitive … see example (1and 2) above

Negative: subject + didn’t +use to+ verb in the infinitive … see example (3) above

Question: did+ subject + use to + verb in the infinitive … see example (4) above

Compare with other uses of “use” in the English language:

use be used to and gerund correctly

Difference between use, used to, be used to

Go to English grammar lessons

So here are two very easy easy things to remember

1) Compare:

• A) The place where I went to school is a wonderful town. and …
  B) Edinburgh, where I went to university, is a beautiful city.

In A you can’t say “The place is a wonderful town” … why? Because we don’t know which place it is. This means that it is essential to put the complete defining clause because “The place where I went to school” is the SUBJECT of “is” in “is a wonderful town” (grammatically this is called a Defining Relative Clause …. so we DO NOT USE COMMAS)

In B it IS possible to say “Edinburgh is a beautiful city” and “where I went to university” is extra information that grammatically is not necessary. Both parts are grammatically complete sentences (grammatically this type of Relative Clause is called a non-defining Relative Clause, because it does NOT define the subject, it only adds information, this type IS written with COMMAS at the beginning and end)

Compare:

• My brother, who lives in New York, is a doctor.
• (I only have one brother and he is a doctor. “lives in NY” is additional information)
• My brother who lives in London is an architect.
• (I have more than one brother: the one who lives in London is an architect “my other brother is a teacher“

2) Connecting two phrases into one at the end:

A) “Mary ate 4 big cakes, which made her feel sick“.

Here it is not the cakes that made her feel sick, it was the fact that she ATE 4 cakes that made her feel sick ..

So we USE COMMAS
B) Ian pushed Cristina into the swimming-pool, which Mariona thought was very funny

In this case “which” = Ian pushed Cristina into the swimming-pool …

Again we use COMMAS (it’s the same as 2A)
C) John works for a company which makes computers. ….

Here there is NO comma because the relative clause is a DEFINING relative clause; if you just put “John works for a company” it would look a bit stupid
//
Do you understand when I talk about: defining and non-defining?

Defining = it defines, explains WHICH person, brother, house, place etc we are referring to.
non-defining = it doesn’t explain or define; we KNOW which one it is from other information.

Defining = no comma or commas
non-defining = comma or commas

For more English language and grammar lessons check here

If you REALLY want to:

Speak English well

Read English well

Understand English well

Write English well

Learn English well

//

You have to remember to do some English every day, if you want to run a marathon you need to train regularly, to learn English or any language it is the same. Children do hours and hours every day to learn their mother tongue, you have to do the same.

Use the Rule of 5 to improve your English effectively

No top musician, footballer, golfer, athlete, swimmer etc has got to the top and stayed there without daily dedication.This is of course very obvious if we think about it realistically.

The same can be said about language learning. If you say:

“I’d really love to speak English well”

“I’d love to understand English films and TV series” or similar,

then you have to ask yourself:

How much contact do I have every week with the English language? If your answer is less than 5 hours a week this probably means that you are NOT going to learn English very quickly. Be realistic!

How do you learn English well and effectively? If you want to learn English effectively you need to put in the hours.

Try using the Rule of Five:

– Read 5 pages of English every day

– Use 5 new English words everyday from your vocabulary lists

– Listen to 5 English songs every day.

– Speak English with at least 5 people every day, in the street, on the phone, on Messenger or Facebook.

– or speak English to yourself in the mirror if it’s impossible to find a willing partner.

– Listen (or hear) small sections (10 -20 minutes) of dialogues 5 times a day

——————————————————————————————–

To speak English well

to understand English well

to write English well

to learn English well

You have to remember to do some English every day, if you want to run a marathon you need to train regularly, to learn English or any language it is the same. Children do hours and hours every day to learn their mother tongue, you have to do the same

Look for ideas in the top 10 articles from 2014

Articles

A, an and the are all articles. Articles help us to identify or qualify a noun

A, and an are both indefinite articles and mean “one”:

• I have a blue car means that I have one (1) blue car

It is an indefinite article because it does not define exactly which car I am talking about. If I see five blue cars in the street I will not know which car is yours.

The is a definite article, this means that it defines which one:

• The blue car that is parked in front of the bread shop is mine. So now we know which blue car is mine.

Beware we cannot say:

• I like the apples if we are talking about apples in general …. but we can say:
• I like the apples from the tree in my friend’s garden. In this case we know which apples I like.

After you finish here try these English language grammar exercises >>

What is the difference between a and an?

Both “a” and “an” mean the same ……. they mean one (1) The only difference being that “a” is used in front of nouns, or adjectives in front of nouns, that have a consonant sound at the beginning of the word:

• a pen, a holiday, a girl, a handsome man, a table, a pretty dress

“an” is used in front of nouns that begin with a vowel sound;

• an orange, an umbrella, an ugly duckling

But notice that we say

• a university, a union but we say an onion, an engineer

Why? Onion and engineer are pronounced with a vowel sound at the beginning of the word. Please note that I say a vowel sound and not just a vowel letter (a,e,i,o,u).

But university and union begin with a “u” that is not pronounced as a vowel. We pronounce the letter “u” in university and union in the same we pronounce the word “you” and that is NOT a vowel sound.

Some words such as “hotel” are said with “an” before it and sometimes with “a”. This happens because some people drop their “hs”. The standard pronunciation of the “h” in hotel is the same as the “h” in hello. In this case we would say “we are staying in a hotel in London”. But people who pronounce the first syllable of hotel like the word “oh” would say “we are staying in an hotel in London”

The above rules must also be applied to adjectives that come before the noun.

• She has an orange car

These English grammar lessons might give you extra help

When can we use the correctly?

Form:

We use the verb form of “be” to indicate the Tense (time) of the situation + used to + infinitive

• Present: I am used to getting up very early every day
• Past: At school I was used to doing two hours of homework everyday
• Future: After one month living in Germany I will be used to hearing people speaking German all the time.

This form is used in situations when things change and now we are accustomed to the new situation

Last month I started work at 9 o’clock, now I start at 6.00am. It was hard to change my habits but now “I am used to leaving home at 5.30am”. My body clock has changed and I don’t have problems waking up early.

“Sarah isn’t used to calling” her teacher by her first name in Spain. In England “she was used to calling” her teachers by their surnames

In 1991 I moved from England to Germany. In England they drive on the left-hand side of the road and in Germany on the right. At first it was difficult but soon “I was used to driving on the right-hand side of the road”

Next month John is going to start teaching in a secondary school, I am sure that “he will be used to remembering all his students’ names after a few weeks”

To see how we use “to use” in its general sense look at: Correct usage of \”to use\”

To see how we use “used to + infinitive” look at: Correct usage of \”used to + infinitive\”

Go to English grammar lessons

If we want to speak English well, understand English well, write English well it is necessary to find out how to understand English grammar.

How we use English verb forms (tenses) is essential to developing good communication in English.

This is part of a series of master classes about how we use English grammar correctly. I am not going to talk about how we construct the verb form but I want to give the basic concepts of how these grammatical forms are used by native English speakers. If you want to see my advice and tips of how to construct English verb forms see here:

The basics:

All continuous verb forms (sometimes called progressive or durative)

• Present Continuous 
• Past Continuous
• Present Perfect Continuous
• Past Perfect Continuous
• Future Continuous
• Future Perfect Continuous

and their Passive forms:

• Present Continuous Passive
• Past Continuous Passive
• Present Perfect Continuous Passive
• Past Perfect Continuous Passive
• Future Continuous Passive
• Future Perfect Continuous Passive

are usually concerned with an action that is taking place at a certain moment in time. We put more emphasis on the action itself rather than if it is completed or not.

 The Present Continuous

for example tells us about something that is temporary at a certain moment that includes now.

(Note: it is also used to talk about an arrangement for the future)

1. I am writing this article about Continuous verb forms at the moment
2. It is raining a little but the sun is shining.
3. The people outside are talking about yesterday’s football match

Compare:

1. Leonard is an architect, he works in a big office in London
2. This month he is working in Paris, he is supervising a new construction.

Both of the sentences above (1 and 2) are correct at the same time. In (1) we use the Present Simple to explain Leonard’s normal, habitual situation. In (2) we use the Present Continuous to explain a temporary situation. He is in Paris but his permanent office is in London

more examples and information Continuous verb forms