Latest Articles from ELB
Identifying the bare infinitive – exercise
Understanding what the bare infinitive is, how we use and when we use it is a very important building block for effective English grammar skills. My article on the bare infinitive (from The English Tenses Practical Grammar Guide) should give a solid understanding of...
6 Christmas Songs for practising English listening skills
Just a few Christmas-themed posts from me this year – we’ve had the big fat vocabulary list, now it’s time for some listening practice. At Christmas time, the English speaking world is drowned in the sounds of numerous Christmas carols and pop songs trying to reach...
When to use the Past Simple or Present Perfect (with exercise)
The past simple and the present perfect can both be used to show actions or events that were completed in the past. In many cases, they can demonstrate the same event – so how do we choose which tense to use? This article explains, very briefly, the fundamental...
Christmas Vocabulary – a list of words to bring you joy
It’s fast approaching what the English speaking world sometimes call the most wonderful time of the year (as in a classic Andy Williams Christmas song). We are already in advent, the 24 days leading up to Christmas itself – so it’s time to brush up on some Christmas...
The complete guide to present continuous uses
As the present simple has complex uses, often relating to timeless facts, the present continuous is the main tense we use for talking about what is happening now. It can describe temporary actions that are happening (ongoing) now, processes of change, habits, and,...
7 quick tips to effectively learn and retain English language skills
Following neatly from my tips for mastering English, this article gives more specific tips on retaining what you learn. There are many ways to learn a language, and you have to find the method that is best for you. However, there are general points that can affect the...
How the present simple can show repeated activities
Though the present simple is mostly used to show timeless actions or events, it does have different, less general uses. It can, for instance, show temporary states or be used in storytelling. As such, it is sometimes misunderstood to say it describes the time...
5 tips for mastering the English language
Mastering a language is not just about memorising details and repeating words you have studied. How you learn is also very important – and what you do with the information you learn can make all the difference in mastering English and forgetting everything! Here are 5...
How to use the Future Simple for Planned and Unplanned Events
With the many different forms for making the future simple (will, going to, present simple and present continuous), specific uses of the tense may help demonstrate which form is best to use. One area that the different forms can have an impact on meaning is when...