Latest Articles from ELB
Using ‘this’ or ‘next’ to describe a coming day of the week
There is sometimes disagreement among English speakers when labelling days in a sequence with this and next, and you may hear people say either this or next to refer to the coming day. If you study sequences of time more carefully, it can help you to understand why...
Forming Subject Questions without Auxiliary Verbs
Questions in English are usually formed by either inverting the verb and subject, or by adding an auxiliary verb before the subject (and putting the main verb in bare infinitive form). This form is normally followed whether we use question words or not. However,...
Teach English at a football academy in Sierra Leone
The Craig Bellamy Foundation is looking for volunteer English teachers to take part in its professional development program for a minimum of three months from either May or September 2014. The Foundation is a sports' charity which trains and educates young footballers...
Recognising Contractions in Spoken English – ‘s and ‘d
Understanding and using contractions in spoken English may seem simple in theory, but when listening to native English speakers you can encounter contractions unexpectedly. It can be difficult to understand what contractions mean when there is more than one...
Past tenses exercise: past simple vs past perfect
Want to test your understanding of when to use the past simple or the past perfect? These two exercises test your understanding of which tense to choose in individual sentences. Complete the following sentences choosing between the past simple and past perfect tenses,...
Writing an article: a step-by-step guide
Articles can vary in length, and topic, but tend to follow a logical structure. Though they may take many forms, the purpose is usually to inform or to entertain (often both), and this means following a similar pattern. Whether you’re writing an essay arguing two...
The bare infinitive in the present simple – with exercise
In the affirmative present simple, the forms for he/she/it use different conjugation to the bare infinitive (the “third person S” rule, for regular verbs). Otherwise you may not notice a difference, for example: I like cheese (present simple form of to like) vs I do...
Contractions Exercise: saying mixed contractions
Complete the following exercise by forming contractions when appropriate. There are many options for creating contractions; the most common relate to the words am, is, will, would, has, have and had, for example I am – I’m, that is – that’s, he will – he’ll, I would –...
Time Clauses: an explanation, rules and exercise
Time clauses are used in English to demonstrate a period of time based on an action or event, similar to dependent clauses in conditional sentences. For example, I will cook dinner when I get home. ‘When I get home’ is a clause demonstrating a point in time, based on...