Confusing Words

A while ago we looked at how to use look, see and watch; today we at two other verbs connected to our senses: hear and listen.

Hear

We use hear for sounds that come to us when we are not expecting to hear them, i.e. we are not trying to hear something. We hear something without trying to.

Are you interested in learning more about adjectives but are scared of the prepositions and infintives that go with them? Don't be ashamed of it! If you are bad at prepostions, hopefully we can give you somehing to be exicted about. The prepostions we use with adjectives are similar to many other areas of English - the more you study the easier it becomes!

Adjectives are often followed by infinitives or prepositions when we talk about feelings or how we react to people/things.

Using an and a does not depend on the spelling of the word it comes before, it depends on the pronunciation of the word. In most cases though, an is used before words that begin with vowels (a, e, i, o u.):

an apple
an elephant
an igloo
an oven
an umbrella

If a word starts with a consonant sound, use a.

a ball
a car
a doll

When we want to form a past tense verb we usually add d or ed to the end.

We add d to verbs that end in a vowel:

Like becomes liked.

we add ed to verbs that end in a consonant:

Walk becomes walked.

Simple isn't it? Well, it should be but it isn't because English has many irregular verbs which refuse to follow this rule!

Generally, we use at, in and on when we talk about the location of things.

What do the prepostions in these three things tell us about the locations?

"Meet Simon at the end of the road."
"You left your glasses in the bathroom."
"Is that a spider on the wall?"

See, look and watch are all verbs that relate to our eyes, but what's the difference between them? Let's take a look at these words in context:

Look at that bird!

Did you see that bird?

This morning, I watched a bird eating the food I left in my garden.

It might be because the words are pronounced similarly that then and than are often confused by English learners. Let's take a look at the difference.

Then

Then is used either as a time expression, as a consequence or with a sequence of events.

Then Examples:

As a time expression - Sorry I missed your call last night, I was already sleeping then.

English learners get confused about when to use bring and take. It is important to know that they do NOT have the same meaning.

To show you how confusing it can be, take a look at these two sentences, both of them are correct:

"My father taught me how to sail a boat."

"There's a great sale on in the department store."

Sail and sale have the same pronunciation although they are spelled in different ways – and have different meanings.