Confusing Words

How would you answer this question?

"How long have you been learning English?"

"I have been learning English for ___."
"I have been learning English since ___."

For and since can be used when talking about time in present perfect sentences (for can be used with all tenses).

With the present perfect tense we can use both been and gone.

Been is the past participle of be.

Gone is the past participle of go.

This lesson tests both your vocabulary and your spelling. All the stems (the starts of words) below can have '-able' or '-ible' added to them. Can you decide whether they need able or ible? Once you have decided, try to match the word to the correct sentence. Good luck and let us know how you get on.

Today we're going to play a little game called Call my Bluff.

In this activity we have chosen ten unusual words. Each word has two descriptions of the word; only one of which is true. You must then guess the true definition.

Here is a useful rule for you to remember. Many verbs that end in ate can be changed to nouns by taking away the ate and adding ation. For example, associate becomes association.

To get you familiar with this pattern, try the following quiz. In each sentence, do you need the verb or noun form of the word? Good luck and let us know how you get on.

When talking about the future, we can use will..., going to...or the Present Continuous.

Use will to talk facts or things that we believe are true.
"I'm sure you will love learning English in Malta. It's a great place."

Going to is used with predictions.

Do you remember the difference between countable and uncountable nouns? One of the things you need to remember is whether you need to use much or many
when talking about quantities. Much and many mean a lot of. For example:

"We don’t have many apples" is the same as:

"We don’t have a lot of apples".

Let: The word "let" means the same as "allow" or "give permission." e.g. "My mother won't let me get my ears pierced until I'm 15."

Make: The word "make" means the same as “"force" or "cause to happen / cause to feel something." e.g. "My boss made me stay late every day this week!"

The superlative is the greatest form of an adjective and is used when you are comparing more than one thing.

The word like can be confusing for students since it has many different meanings in English. Here are five of its common uses:

Five ways to use 'like'

Like = enjoy
I like coffee

To be + like = describe personality/characteristics
What is he like?