Making predictions with the future tense
One of the many uses of the future tenses in English is to make predictions – to suggest, or guess, something is likely to happen in the future. We usually make predictions with the future simple forms of will (It will be a good day.) or going to (Our team are going...Nasty nouns for Halloween
As the end of October approaches, and all things creepy are upon us, it’s time to brush up on some more Halloween vocabulary. Having set the scene with our abysmal adjectives for Halloween, now it’s time to meet the cast of objects and creatures that populate the...Choosing between the future continuous and future simple
As my series of articles about state has shown, with certain verbs there are some tricky areas in choosing between the simple and continuous forms in the past and present. Things are a little more flexible in the future (though flexibility does not necessarily make...Identifying State Verbs – Simple or Continuous Exercise
The following exercise is designed to test your understanding of my series of articles about the simple tenses and state verbs. Remember, verbs that refer to conditions, emotions, possession and senses usually have simple tense uses, not continuous uses. Simple...The Present Tenses and State Verbs
Following from my tips on the past simple and state verbs, and its comparison with the past continuous (based on extracts from The English Tenses Practical Grammar Guide), this article will explain how the present tense works with states. As demonstrating states can...Halloween vocabulary – abysmal adjectives
To get in the mood for Halloween, a favourite holiday in the UK and America, here’s a list of some useful adjectives to describe creepy scenarios! Perfect for building a scary scene and setting some devilish ambience – these are all adjectives with descriptions and...Choosing between the past simple and continuous for states
Following from my tips for my article explaining that the past simple is used for state verbs, here’s a brief comparison to show how the past simple and past continuous can be compared for states. With verbs showing conditions, possession, emotion and senses, this is...
Mixed tenses practice – a quick quiz!
Here’s a very short quiz to practice specific understanding of all the tenses. In many situations, different tenses can be chosen to show different meaning (for instance, I went to the park, I am going to the park, I had been going to the park…)....Simple Tenses and States – The Past Simple
States, which may be used as a general description for different states of mind, senses conditions and possession, usually use simple tenses instead of continuous tenses, even when the action or event is temporary or is interrupted. This creates a trick area of...Want to Master English?
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