by Martin Burke | Feb 7, 2021 | Everyday grammar
I recently tested positive for Covid-19 but, don’t worry, I had no symptoms whatsoever, and have now come to the end of my period of self-isolation. When I mentioned this news to one of my students, she sent me a message saying, ‘I wish everything will be okay for you...
by Martin Burke | Jan 30, 2021 | Everyday grammar
One of the most challenging parts of English grammar for non-native speakers is understanding when to use ‘some’ and when to use ‘any’. It would be easy to explain the difference as ‘some’ being used in positive sentences, and ‘any’ being used in negative sentences....
by Martin Burke | Dec 1, 2020 | Everyday grammar
I was asked recently by one of my students of English if I could tell him what is the most common meaning of the English word ‘would’, since it has more than one translation. Here I have detailed six uses for this sometimes-troublesome little word… 1 – It is...
by Martin Burke | Oct 30, 2020 | Everyday grammar
Many of my blogs are written in response to mistakes made by my students of English, and this one is no exception. Sometimes I make a note of these mistakes, correct my student at the time and then that’s the end of the issue. However, sometimes when I hear the same...
by Martin Burke | Oct 15, 2020 | Everyday grammar
One of my English language learners recently said to me that she was ‘waiting for’ the return of homeworking (French – télétravail) due to the current health crisis. Her use of the expression ‘waiting for’ gave me the impression that in some way she had decided to...
by Martin Burke | Oct 6, 2020 | Everyday grammar
Students of English will already be familiar with the modal verbs. They will already know that, for example, they have no infinitive form but that they belong to other verbs, in the case of ‘may’ and ‘might’, the verb ‘to be able’, and that they express not a simple...
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