. We’re halfway through November. The autumn leaves have fallen, and winter is fast approaching. The year 2015 is almost over, and we just have a month or so before the new year begins. Do you have anything that you want to accomplish by the end of the year? Are you working on a task… Read more »
The Simple Present and the Present Progressive/Continuous are the first two tenses that you learn when you first start studying English. Because of this, many students who have been studying English for a long time don’t want to practice them anymore because they think these tenses are too easy. Unfortunately, even advanced students can have a… Read more »
If you haven’t checked out our lessons on the present perfect or the present perfect progressive, as well as the past perfect or the past perfect progressive, go there first to BRUSH UP (review) on these tenses. For this lesson, we’re going to CONTRAST (show the differences between) the present and past perfect tenses to clarify them even… Read more »
Like the present perfect, the present perfect progressive connects the past with the present. However, the progressive tense focuses more on the action or activity of the main verb, while the present perfect presents the sentence more as a fact. In addition, the present perfect progressive is almost always used with for (to convey duration),… Read more »
The present perfect has a couple of uses, and if you understand the ways it is used, remember them, and practice, you’re on your way to mastering this tense. First, you should know the structure. The present perfect uses “have” or “has” as an auxiliary verb and the past participle as a main… Read more »
First, be sure to review our small lesson on the past perfect. Once you understand how to use the past perfect, the past perfect progressive shouldn’t be too difficult. Like the past perfect, the past perfect progressive occurs before the past tense. The progressive or “ing” form means that we’re focusing on an activity that was… Read more »
The past perfect can be challenging for some English learners. It can be tough to figure out exactly when or how to use it. But it’s really not very difficult. Basically, the past perfect tense occurs before the past tense and is usually used when you tell a story that happened in the past. When… Read more »
Even though and although, like despite, in spite of, and albeit, convey contrasting ideas or situations. To use even though and although correctly, we need to add a clause immediately following. A clause always has a subject and a verb. like this: 1. Even though he was tired, he did the dishes. 2. Although… Read more »
Here are some examples of how to use DESPITE and IN SPITE OF. . 1. They continued to work despite their exhaustion. 2. He supported the President’s policy in spite of strong opposition. 3. Despite being told not to take a taxi, he did. 4. In spite of the constant rattling of the trains outside… Read more »
In this fifth and final post of this GrammarReminder series on reported speech, we’ll look at a conversation between two people and see how both of them report what the other said. For a quick review on how to shift tenses, check out part 1 of this series. . the conversation: Tom: Hi Sue. How’s your new job going? Sue: It’s going really well. There’s a lot to… Read more »
