Reading Practice: Shirley Jackson, a biography
Most years I try and do a few Halloween themed posts around October, and this time I’ve got a bit of reading practise focusing on one of my favourite writers, Shirley Jackson. I’ve written a little biography to share, including some of my thoughts on what we can learn...
Tips for Success in English Writing Exams
I’m often asked about tips for writing essays, particularly for exams. There is a section on this in my book, Advanced Writing Skills, but it’s such a universal topic I thought it would be good to share the general advice here. Planning to Succeed Writing for exams...
Compound subjects with ‘and’ – singular or plural?
A while ago I was asked about exceptions to a simple grammar rule: “compound subjects joined by and should always be plural”. For example, Jack and Jill go up the hill. Or Eggs and butter are great together. But what about the saying Slow and steady wins the race.? As...
Ongoing or Complete? A Past Simple or Continous Exercise
Taking a break between my examples of different tenses in use, this is a good time to share another English tenses exercise. You may know I’m developing an entire book of exercises to accompany The English Tenses Practical Grammar Guide; it’s taken a long...
Combing Different Tenses 2: Past Perfect and Past Perfect Continuous
Continuing my series demonstrating how each tense can combined with the other tenses, here I’m looking at the past perfect and past perfect continuous. The aim is to provide examples sentences that show how a single tense connects to the other 12 aspects; past,...
Combining Different Tenses: Past Simple and Past Continuous
I was recently asked for some basic rules regarding how we can combine two different tenses in one sentence – for example which tenses can or cannot be used together. I’m not aware a comparison of the tenses being readily available in this way; my instinct is that...
Singular and Plural Verbs with “Either…or” and “Neither…nor”
Subject/verb agreement can be confusing when we use either…oror neither…nor couplets. As we’re presenting a noun phrase withmultiple objects, it seems natural to use a plural verb, but the verb may often be used in the singular. This depends on the nouns included; the...
ELB 10k – Book Giveaway
ELB recently passed 10,000 books sold, which is cause to celebrate. It’s incredible how far the books have reached, so, this week I’m running a flash giveaway, open from now until Feb 19th, of 15 EBOOKS – five of each of our currently available...
What does it mean to “be of help”?
The phrase “to be of help” is a construction roughly synonymous with “helpful”. “Of help” is particularly common in formal settings, and has a subtly different meaning and application to the adjective “helpful”. I briefly touched on such “noun of noun” constructions...Want to Master English?
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