English4.today - Learn English Online: Recent Episodes
Anthony Hughes
Christmas vocabulary: what’s behind the holiday? Yes, it’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas! And if you are in a country where Christianity is the dominant religion you will certainly see signs of it everywhere you go! Now, I don’t want to take the fun out of what is a really good holiday but […]
Neologisms: inventing new words and terms This is a question from Sandy in South Africa: The Question Hello, English4Today, I’ve been struggling with a grammar issue for which I don’t seem to be able to find much information . Would you be able to assist me in this: If one were to create a word […]
Donuts! You might be wondering what that has to do with New Year or the English language – well read on and you’ll find out why Homer Simpson’s love of donuts may be his personal ‘lucky charm‘. First, Happy New Year to all of our listeners, readers, members of English4Today and English4Today students. When you’ve […]
Question from English4.today member Anna in Germany: “Why is a medical ‘patient‘ called a ‘patient‘ and what does it have to do with the adjective ‘patient‘ ?” Hi, Anna. That’s a really interesting question! What I love about questions from our members is that they often bring up English language topics that, as a native […]
Onomatopoeia Question from English4.today member Enrique in Spain: What does the word ‘onomatopoeia’ mean… I’ve seen it and it is one of those weird english words that I find hard to understand”. Here is the answer, Enrique! Boom! Yes, that was an onomatopoeia. Not the sound itself but the word I used to describe it. […]
Question from Sahra in Brazil: What’s the difference between these sentences: I’m married for 3 years. I’ve been married for 3 years Answer Hi Sahra. This is a very quick one to answer as we have answered a lot of other questions about this subject and have sections of the English4Today Grammar on it as […]
Forming the Simple Past, sometimes called the Preterite tense, is really pretty easy… at least for regular verbs. You take the subject, follow it with the verb ending in –ed and there you have it. Example: Subject + verb + –ed I + play + ed I played And, to make it easier, the Simple Past form is […]
Question from Jadie in the USA How would the word hunter be spelled in the following sentence?The sentence might go something like, “The hunter’s steel trap secured my foot to the forest floor.”Would the correct spelling be hunters, hunter’s, or hunters’?Thank you for your time,Jadie Hi Jadie, your question is asking how we form the […]
Question from Mural Mahtab in Iran: What are the differences between these adjectives: very, rather, quite, fairly, extremely, terribly? Which one is the strongest? Thanks a million Answer: Hi Mural, thanks for the question. Your question focuses on another rather (or should I say, ‘fairly‘ or ‘quite‘) difficult area of English. Firstly, although these words […]
Question from Heather in the USA Which one is correct – theatre or theater? Hi Heather – well it all depends on where you live! Have a look at the article in the English4Today Online English Grammar called ‘Which English?’ to give you more details. The spelling of words such as ‘theatre‘ and ‘centre‘ differ […]
Question Just in Time: Just + Present Perfect Question from Henrik in Croatia: I just called or I’ve just called? What’s right?Stevie Wonder says: I just called to say I love you. Shouldn’t it be Present Perfect instead of Simple Past? Answer Hi Henrik, A couple of weeks ago I answered a similar question about […]
Question from Christy in the Philippines When do we have to use the past participle of the verb when the tense of your statement is in the present tense. This is because I get confused when someone asks me about this. Like for ex. I think your headset is broken. I know this sentence is […]
Question from Khadija in Morocco: What is the difference between ‘hear’ and ‘listen’? Answer: Hi, Khadija. Thank’s for your question, I’m sure that the difference between ‘listen‘ and ‘hear‘ is not clear for a lot of English language learners.Let’s have a look at them: Listen is used to talk about or describe sounds that […]
Question from English4.today member Mahesh in India: What is the difference between ‘would’ and ‘could’? Hi Mahesh. This is a very common question and there seems to be a lot of confusion about what the difference is exactly between ‘would’ and ‘could’. Answer Let’s take a look at ‘would’ first: ‘Would’ for Unreal, Impossible or […]
Question from English4Today member, Irene in Canada: Using the services of my company ENSURES the task is completed correctly, on time & on budget! OR 2) Using the services of my company INSURES the task is completed correctly, on time & on budget! Also please explain how I can make this determination on my own […]
Question from Kayoko The past tense of ‘overcome’ is ‘overcame’. But I hardly hear people use ‘overcame’. Instead, I hear “I have overcome the problems”. Is this correct? Hello Kayoko. Well this is just a confusion about tenses. You are quite right that the past tense of ‘overcome’ is ‘overcame’, by the way it […]
Question from English4Today member Gireesh in the United Arab Emirates: Which one of the following sentences is correct having the meaning like “cannot accept…” ? 1) We regret to accept your letter…..2) We regret not to accept your letter…… Hi Gireesh, I’m afraid neither one of your examples is correct. The verb ‘regret‘ is […]
Some of the most frequently asked questions that we get are about adverbs, often with a request for a complete list of adverbs. Now that is a pretty big request as there are hundreds and hundreds of adverbs in English! However, what I think we will do is, from time to time, post common adverbs […]
Question: from Inês in Portugal I´m Portuguese and in my language the word – it (he/she/it) doesn’t exist. it’s hard to understand how to use this word: Examples 1)The Olympic Games take place every four years. Why take and not takes? 2)The River Amazon flows into the Atlantic Ocean. Why flows and not flow? I even understand the […]
We get a lot of requests from our students asking for tips about writing good, clear English. So from time to time we are going to post an article here about an aspect of writing that will be of interest to our members and students, especially those students studying the English4Today Online Writing Courses. Today, […]
Punctuation, especially in emails, seems to be an area that is virtually ignored. I’ve never been too fussy or pedantic about how English is written or spoken as I’m one of those who believe that as long as we are communicating and getting our meaning across then the main job is being done. But it’s […]
Question from Rima in the USA: This sentence is driving us crazy! I realize it could be called compound, complex, compound-complex, or just crazy, but I have to ask: Is this sentence technically written wrongly? “In Canada, the Smith family of Toronto, who wanted to replace their old automobile with a new fuel-efficient vehicle that […]
Question from Randall in the USA: In quoting a line from a book, is it correct to use the word “wrote” or “writes” as in; In his book, Good English, Joe Smith writes, “English is good.” or In his book, Good English, Joe Smith wrote, “English is good.”? Answer: Hi Randall and thanks for your […]
Question from Cathy in Canada: Can we say I arrive to work at 9 o’clock or do we need to use “at”? Also can we say I was late to class or do we need to use “in”? Thank you. Answer: Hi Cathy, thanks for your question. The worst thing about prepositions is that there […]
Question from Salim in Lebanon: Recently I stopped on the word vocabulary to find that it can be countable..so can you offer me the way we can use vocabularies in a sentence..in what sense can it be correct..thanks Answer: Hi Salim, this is a quick question to answer for you. The word ‘vocabulary‘ can of […]
Question from Dawood in Pakistan What’s the difference between ‘read’ and ’study’? Answer Hello Dawood. There may sometimes be a confusion between ‘read’ and ’study’, especially when the context is academic, but really these two verbs have quite different meanings. Let’s look at ‘study‘ first. I think that the first thing to say is […]
Possessive Apostrophe One of the most asked questions that we get at english4today.com is about the placement of the apostrophe for possessives. This is an answer for Pedro, who has asked about the possessive apostrophe, and for Trish Upham from Australia who writes: I am a Virtual Assistant working with lawyers and regularly come across […]
Question from English4Today member Ellen in China: Apart from the “cue” word, ‘fall’, which comes before asleep, can you kindly tell me when to use asleep and when to use sleep? Hello Ellen. Thanks for your question. Well, the most important difference between ‘sleep’ and ‘asleep’ grammatically is that ‘sleep’ is either a verb or […]
Question from Rick in the USA Why do we say “I did not meet him” rather than “I did not met him”, since this is the past tense? Answer Hi Rick. I’m going to answer this one although the answer is explained in the English4Today Online Grammar under the section dealing with forming the […]
Question from Teddy in the USA: What is the difference between “may” or “might”? e.g., I might have made a mistake or I may have made a mistake. Thanks. Answer Hi Teddy and thanks for the question! Using ‘may’ or ‘might’ can be a little confusing for an English learner – especially if you look […]
It’s not that unusual in fiction for dramatic events in an author’s life to enter into the work of fiction that they are creating. It’s perhaps a lot less common when that real life drama is happening at the same time that the work is being written and that the tragic outcome for the author, […]
In an earlier post I talked a little about how an understanding of English grammar can take you a long way to being a better communicator and a better learner. In this post I want to take a quick look at some ideas that push the way we use language, or perhaps language uses us, […]
Question from English4Today member Vin in the USA: What is it called when letters are substituted for words, e.g., ‘LOL ‘stands for ‘Laugh out loud’. Answer Hi Vin, they are everywhere and they are called ‘acronyms‘! An acronym was originally a pronounceable word made from the initial letters of other words. For example, NATO for the […]
Question What is the correct form: He is a student, but he (isn’t going, doesn’t go) to school right now because it’s the summer holiday? Answer Hi Alshoala, your question is really about the use of the Simple Present and the Present Continuous. I’d suggest that you have a look at the English4Today Grammar sections […]
Question from George in the Romania: How does ‘once’ change when it is with ‘just‘ or ‘only‘? Answer Hi George. Thanks for your question. As you know ‘once‘ means an action that is performed one time only. So if we say ‘Count the chickens once‘ we are saying ‘count the chickens one time only and […]
Question from English4Today member Khadija in Morocco When can we use “how about” and when can we use “what about”? Hi Khadija. This is another one of those situations, and we’ve discussed quite a few of them here, where you can use the two phrases interchangeably: Both can be used to make suggestions. How about […]
Question from George in the USA Is it correct to say: And now, a wide variety of ENERGY STAR appliances qualify for Hawaiian Electric Rebates.’ Or is it more correct to say: ‘And now, a wide variety of ENERGY STAR appliances qualifies for Hawaiian Electric Rebates.’ Answer Hello George. The noun phrase in your example […]
Question from English4Today student, Vincent in Spain: I hear a lot of English people talking about the Saxon Genitive – what is it? Answer: Thanks for this question, Vincent. From time to time I’m amazed by the questions asked by our students. In this case, I know Vincent personally. He is one of our advanced […]
In previous posts I’ve talked about how English is a living, changing and very flexible language. Contributing to this is the way that writers often change, stretch and bend the framework of language – grammar, vocabulary and syntax – to make a better fit with their vision.If you are learning English as a second language […]
‘Scrooge‘ – not a word in everyday use, unless we have a very mean relative or friend, and a word that is perhaps drifting to the sidelines of the language a little. But at this time of the year you see the word a lot more. Firstly, it is the name of the main character […]
Being positive is not always easy in a world that gives us plenty of reasons not to be! Mainly to change the pace a little from the daily dose of grammar points that I send you, I thought I might give you a list of words that you can be positive about. This is not […]
Question from Suresh Prabhu, India: What is the difference between biography and autobiography? Hello Suresh and thanks for your question. Well, this is a very quick and easy one to answer: Biography: Biography is the story of a person’s life written or told by a person or persons other than the person who is the […]
English pronunciation can be a minefield for students learning English as a second language. Not only is it not a very phonetic language in terms of pronunciation (that is, we don’t say the words as they are spelt) but there are also, as the quoted lines below show, many words in English that are spelt […]
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! And we send this to all of our readers, no matter whether you celebrate Christmas in your culture or not – may you all have a wonderful and happy holiday season. Christmas is almost on us again. For many thousands of people this Christmas is not going to […]
I’m not a huge fan of the immensely successful Stephen King, all that blood and creepy creatures from beyond the grave give me too many sleepless nights, but I stumbled upon some Stephen King quotes the other day that show that he is a writer with a good sense of self-deprecating humour and one firmly […]
What is an adjective? Adjectives are words that describe or modify, or add meaning to, other words. They are usually placed before the noun or pronoun that they modify. Adjectives can… Describe feelings or qualities: Examples He is a sad man They are happy people Give nationality or origin: Examples Pierre is French This clock is German Our house is Victorian Tell more about a thing’s characteristics: Examples […]
Question for Mattie in Guyana: “What is the difference between direct and indirect speech?” Hi Mattie. Thanks for your question. We have quite an extensive explanation about direct and indirect speech in the English4Today online grammar and I’ve put links through to that in the blog posting and in the grammar FAQ. Let’s just have […]