Another extraordinary poem by John Keats that reminds us of the best things of autumn. Or fall, if you prefer your fall in American English. This poem has lots of hard words in it and some grammar difficulties, so you can learn a heap of English from this. Underneath I’ll try to explain everything line… Continue reading Poetry Line-to-Line Reading: To Autumn by John Keats
Last time we discussed evolve and involve. Now about devolve. devolve (verb) – to give to someone else (of a task or responsibility, or inheritance) devolvement (noun) – the giving of a task to someone else Here are some examples of how you can use devolve: The manager devolved the problem with the servers to a… Continue reading Word to the Wise: devolve
Two words that are often confused: involve (verb) – to include or get inside evolve (verb) – develop or change gradually Involvement and evolvement are the nouns. Here are some examples of how you can use involve and evolve: Involve I opened my neighbour’s letter and now I’m afraid to get involved in a fight when she… Continue reading Word to the Wise: involve and evolve
Have you had this? There are times you want to crawl under the ground when you’ve discovered a typo in an important email. (Typo is a spelling mistake because of bad typing.) It’s so easy to make spelling mistakes in your CV, isn’t it? Or in an article that you’re sending out to be published,… Continue reading Tips for Painless Proofreading
You might know some examples where you asked yourself: “Do I need to use make or do?” At the end of this article I’m adding links to some quizzes about make or do. But now we’ll talk about make or take. This week I heard someone make a mistake with make and take. Instead of take… Continue reading Expressions with Make or Take
This one really works (on people with guns):
pitch (noun) – how high or low a tone is (in music or acoustics) pitch-perfect (adjective) – (sound) exactly right Note: Pitch can have a number of other meanings. Here are some examples of how you can use pitch: An alto sings in a low pitch, whilst a soprano sings in a low pitch. The pitch… Continue reading Word to the Wise: pitch
Contraction means shortening. It also means the muscle contractions that a pregnant woman feels before she gives birth. Or it can mean muscle contractions (shortening), like when you’re exercising. I think you can already know that we’re not going to talk about pregnancy or bodybuilding. I’m not sorry about that. This is about the shortening… Continue reading Contractions (I’ve, he’s, I’m, don’t etc.)
Make a mountain out of a ______________– Make a big thing out of a little thing. Choose the right answer: A pimple B molehill C minor nuisance D mouse scroll down for the answer scroll some more The right answer is: Tom Page molehill. (a mole… Continue reading Instant Idiom: Make a mountain out of a __________
Well, I don’t know. I’m not a fortune teller. But I hope you will be very happy, as much as possible, and that you’ll have fantastic English. This article is about the various ways that you can say something in the future in English. As you know, English has different tenses for past, present and… Continue reading What Will Be in Your Future?
English with a Smile 