A Gerund is a verbal noun - it is a verb acting as a noun. Gerunds are made by adding -ing to the base verb e.g. watch / watching.
Gerunds can either be the subject or object of a verb:
Gerund as a subject: "Skiing is great."
Gerund as an object: "I love skiing."
Gerunds are often used after state verbs e.g.
A few useful introductory phrases for Beginner/Elementary students
In informal English people often greet each other saying: "what’s up?" This is not appropriate in all conversations. Below is a dialogue between two students, Andreas and Belinda on their first day at their English school. They are using language that is appropriate for everyday use. Can you guess the missing words?
Read the text about Cape Town and try to put the correct nouns in the spaces.
activities / cultures / countries / pubs / time / awareness / tourists / fun / systems / policemen / restaurants / attention / peace / things / beaches / people / crime / resources / cameras / focus
There are certain verbs that always go with certain nouns. We call this a collocation. Read 3 diary entries of a few students and choose the correct verbs from the box below to fill in on the blank space. Each verb can be used more than once.
Direct speech and reported speech are the two ways we can say what someone has said.
Directed speech: "I am your neighbour," said James.
Reported speech: James said that he was my neighbour.
Many prepositions we use are single words like in, on and at. These are called simple prepositions.
There are also prepositions which are made up of two or three words. These complex prepositions act in the same way as single-word prepositions.
How many of these two-word prepositions are you familiar with?
Let me know if you have any questions about the meanings of any of these sentences.
Today's task is a reminder to use online English news sites like the BBC to improve your reading and vocabulary skills.
The following news item is taken from BBC News. You can read the whole story on their webiste: British Airways lines up 1,000 volunteer crew
Snakes are dangerous if they bite.
They is a pronoun. Snakes is an antecedent. The antecedent is the word that the pronoun is about.
A pronoun must always agree with its antecedent:
An airline passenger _A_ a scratch-off lottery ticket aboard a Ryanair plane. After scratching off the ticket he _B_ that he had winning numbers. The ticket he scratched off was said to be _C_ about €10,000.
