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Grammar

Should Have

Average: 3.9 (60 votes)

When we talk about mistakes we made in the past, we use 'should have' with a past participle.

Should Have

Use should have to talk about past events that did not happen.

Subject + should have + past participle

I should have worn a suit to the party.

You should have taken John with you.

We should have done more research.

Should Not Have

Use should not of to talk about regretting past actions.

World Children's Day

Average: 4.4 (23 votes)

Do you know that since 1954, 20 November is recognised as as Universal Children's Day.

The aim of children's day is firstly to promote mutual exchange and understanding among children and secondly to initiate action to benefit and promote the welfare of the world's children.

Quantifiers for uncountable nouns

Average: 3.4 (48 votes)

Take a look at these two questions:

How much milk do you drink?

How many cartons of milk do buy a week?

Why do we use much in the first qustion and many in the second?

Milk is an uncountable (non-countable) noun like water, snow and rice.

Cartons of milk are countable so we use many. Other countable nouns include people, houses and pens.

Understanding Questions

Average: 3.8 (34 votes)

Hello, how are you today? Do you want to improve your English?

Let's practise giving the correct responses to the questions we are asked. To do that we must understand the question. 

For example, if Spain is the answer, what is the question?:

1) Where are you from?
2) Which are you from?
3) What are you from?

The correct answer is:

Where are you from?
(I'm from) Spain

Had Better

Average: 3.8 (83 votes)

Had Better for specific advice

Had better is used to give advice about specific things (use should for general advice). It is followed by the infinitive without to.

We'd better take something to eat or we will be hungry later.
It's getting late. You'd better leave now or you will miss your bus.
I'd better go to bed, I have to be up early tomorrow.

'Will be doing' future continuous

Average: 3.7 (44 votes)

Use 'will be -ing' to talk about something that will be happening at a particular time in the future. Will be + 'ing' is the future continuous tense.

This time tomorrow, we'll be flying to Australia.

Don't phone me after 11pm because I'll be sleeping.

We'll be painting our new apartment all weekend.

She'll be leaving straight after breakfast.

This time next year, I will be rich!

Now try this future continuous quiz:

Adverbs of Degree

Average: 3.7 (77 votes)

Adverbs of degree are used to modify verbs, adverbs and adjectives. They tell us the degree or extent to which something happens. There are a lot of adverbs of degree, here we introduce you to some common ones you should know.

Take a look at this sentence:

She swims slowly.

To give us more information about how she swims we can use adverbs of degree:

All about Adjectives

Average: 4 (39 votes)

Adjectives are used to give us more information about nouns.

Blue cars
Young children
Difficult questions

Adjective Order

When using more than one adjective, you should use this order: size/shape + age + color + origin + material.

A small wooden box
An old Russian painting

Prefixes

To make many opposite adjectives we use the prefixes un, in, or dis at the start of the word.

Differences between British and American English

Average: 4.3 (26 votes)

-re / er

Words that end in -re in British English usually end -er in American English:

British: centre
American: center

-our / -or

Words that end in -our in British English often end in -or in American English:

British: colour
American: color

-ise / -ize

-ise verbs are always spelled with -ize in American English:

Your and You're

Average: 4 (58 votes)

Your and you're sound similar and are sometimes confused even by native speakers.

Your

Your is the possessive form of you. It shows ownership or relationship to the person you are talking to.

Examples:

Can I borrow your bike?

Your daughter is in the garden.

You're

You're is the contraction of you are.

Examples:

You're cheerful.