Confusing Words

Take a look at the 3 phrasal verbs in these sentences. Do you know what they mean? You can write your guesses in the comments box below:

"The music was so loud that I couldn't make out what he was saying."
"The hotel takes on extra staff during the summer season."
"We've been putting away a little money every month to buy a laptop."

How much do you remember about when to use the articles, 'the, an, a'?

Read this letter from me and try and decide which article you need in each gap.

Some of the gaps don't need an article at all; can you work out which ones these are?

Lesson by Caroline

My Many Jobs!

I've had lots of different jobs and careers in my life and I'd like to tell you about some of them.

I got my first job when I was thirteen, as _1_ dog walker.

Quantifiers are used to express quantity i.e. the amount of something; how many/much.

With countable nouns like apples, for example, we can ask and answer:

How many apples do you want?
I want four apples.

Notice we use many with countable nouns.

Quantifiers with non-countable nouns

Now let's take a look at a non-countable noun: wine.

Countable

Countable nouns have plurals and can be used with a/an.

Potato is a countable noun. You can have a potato and potatoes.

Uncountable

Uncountable nouns have no plurals, and cannot normally be used with a/an.

Sugar is an uncountable noun. You cannot have a sugar or sugars.

The use of some and any is easily confused.

Some means a certain (not large) number of something and is used in positive sentences, and questions when we expect the answer to be yes, such as in requests and offers.

Any is used instead of some in negative sentences, and most questions.

For example:

This is a lesson that focuses on pairs of words that can often be confused.

Sometimes we confuse them because they sound the same, or sometimes we confuse them because they have similar meanings.

In each sentence try and choose which word is correct.

Say the sentences out loud as you read them, this may help you to choose the correct word.

Good luck!

Lesson by Caroline

Quick review of adjectives ending -ing and -ed.

Compare these two sentences:

"English grammar is confusing."
"I was confused by what I read."

-ing for descriptions

We use -ing adjectives to describe things. "It is boring."

How much can you remember about personal pronouns?

Which ones do we use for the object in the sentence, and which do we use for the subject? When do we use them and why?

In the following sentences, can you replace the words in quotation marks ("") with the correct personal pronoun?

I've given you the list of personal pronouns to help you remember.

When you're finished, see if you can post the answers to the questions above.
Lesson by Caroline Devane

Homophones are words that sound the same, but have different spellings and meanings.

For example:

pear and pair

Pear - a sweet and juicy type of fruit.

Pair - a couple: two items of the same kind. A set of two similar things considered as a unit

Check your understanding of irregular past participle verbs.

Example: Do

Present Simple: do - "Where do you live?"
Past Simple: did - "Where did you go yesterday?"
Past Participle: done - "Has he done all his homework?"