Commenting on developments in the English language
by Liz Walter
If you are a learner of English and you are confused about the words there, their and they’re, let me reassure you: many, many people with English as their first language share your problem! You only have to take a look at the ‘comments’ sections on the website of, for example, a popular newspaper, to see plentiful examples of errors with these words. This post is a brief guide to using them correctly. Continue reading “There, their and they’re – which one should you use?”
by Liz Walter
Several readers have asked for more help with prepositions, so this post concentrates on prepositions you need to use with verbs. These often cause problems for learners, particularly because verbs with similar meanings may use different prepositions or may not need prepositions at all. For instance, we arrive at or in a place, get to a place, but simply reach a place – no wonder people get confused! (see In London but at the station: prepositions for talking about travel for a fuller discussion of prepositions connected with travel.)
Continue reading “Agree with and wait for: common mistakes with verbs and their prepositions”
by Liz Walter
It often seems that small, common words cause the most mistakes, and I certainly hear my students making errors with words like since, for and ago. This post therefore looks at some common errors connected with talking about periods of time and explains how to avoid them.
First, let’s look at the difference between since and for. They are both used to say how long something has been happening, but while since is followed by a precise time or a date, for is followed by a length of time: Continue reading “Since, for and ago: talking about periods of time”
Be bright, be ready
