Category: English Learning

1. Count vs. Non-Count Nouns:
Homer Simpson once asked the question, “I have 3 kids and no money. How come I can’t have no kids and 3 money?”
The grammatical reason is because kids are a count noun, and money is a non-count noun.
Non-count nouns can only be singular, they cannot be counted by themselves. This is why the following sentences are incorrect:
Ashley will buy 9 gasolines.
My father gave me 3 advices.
I have 27 sands in my shoe.
Count nouns are nouns that can be singular or plural. Non-count nouns can only be measured in terms of count nouns:
Ashley will buy 9 gallons of gasoline.
My father gave me 3 pieces of advice.
I have 27 grains of sand in my shoe.

The grammatical reason is because kids are a count noun, and money is a non-count noun.
Non-count nouns can only be singular, they cannot be counted by themselves. This is why the following sentences are incorrect:
Ashley will buy 9 gasolines.
My father gave me 3 advices.
I have 27 sands in my shoe.
Count nouns are nouns that can be singular or plural. Non-count nouns can only be measured in terms of count nouns:
Ashley will buy 9 gallons of gasoline.
My father gave me 3 pieces of advice.
I have 27 grains of sand in my shoe.

2. Transitive vs. Intransitive Verbs:
Let’s look at two sentences:
John walks.
John likes.
Both have a subject and a verb, so why is one sentence correct and the other not?
The difference is that the second sentence requires a direct object. It is necessary to state what John likes in order for the sentence to make sense. The difference is that the second sentence uses a transitive verb.
A transitive verb requires a direct object, an intransitive verb does not. Native speakers can easily tell that the following sentences are missing something:
Today I will fix.
We named.
She repairs.
Intransitive verbs do not take direct objects, and must be followed by prepositions. That’s why the following sentences don’t make sense:
I sleep the bed.
Mary falls the floor.
They voted the election.
Some verbs can be transitive or intransitive.
I eat food.
I eat at the table.
Michael reads.
Michael reads it.
Others have slightly different meanings in the transitive or intransitive
We run the school.
We run to the school.

3. Phrasal Verbs:
A student once told me, “I had a fight with my friend yesterday, and then we made out.”
Why is this sentence incorrect? Or is this just the way European conflicts are resolved?
The problem with this sentence is the misuse of a phrasal verb. A phrasal verb is a verb + preposition that changes the meaning of the verb. It is the reason that the following sentences all have slightly different meanings:
I made my friend.
I made up my friend.
I made up with my friend.
I made out with my friend.
I made over my friend.
Some phrasal verbs have very subtle differences. Consider the difference between make and make up, or the difference between carry off and carry away, or between fill in and fill out. Other phrasal verbs have drastically different meanings, such as make up and make out, or take off and take over, or do over and do away with.
Phrasal verbs can be transitive or intransitive, or sometimes both.

4. “Born” is an adjective, not a verb:
Beginning English learners often write sentences like:
I borned in 1985.
I was borned in 1985.
This is because many languages, such as Spanish, have a verb that means “to be born.” In English the verb used is “to bear,” meaning “to give birth to.”
“Bear” is conjugated the same as the verbs “tear” or “swear.”
I tore the paper yesterday.
The paper was torn by me yesterday.
The paper was torn yesterday.
My mother bore me in 1985.
I was born by my mother in 1985.
I was born in 1985.
The verb “bear” is rarely used in the present tense. Sentences like “She bears children” or “She is bearing a child” are correct but not often used. The verb is sometimes used in the past tense as in “My mother bore three children.” It’s also used occasionally in the gerund tense, as in “I am in my child-bearing years.” But the verb “to bear” is usually used in the past participle tense, making it into the adjective “born.”

5. Comparative and Superlative Adjectives:
Why is it correct to say “happier” but not “joyfuller”? Why do we say “the most intelligent” but not “the most smart”?
These are comparative and superlative adjectives. Comparative adjectives are used to compare two people or things. Superlative adjectives are used to compare a person or thing to more than one person or thing.
The rules for creating these adjectives depend on their syllables and final letter.

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When you start learning English, you will learn some basic grammar right on the first lesson. This is very much necessary for you to understand the structure of English. But sometimes you would ask yourself some strange questions like.

Why do I need to learn English Grammar?How can I use English Grammar to learn English?

To answer your questions if we should or should not pay attention to grammar at all, we will discuss it here.

WHAT ARE BENEFITS OF GRAMMAR:

You know grammar, that means, you know how to put words together in a sensible order and add the right endings. Whether or not you’ve ever opened a grammar book, you know how to produce combinations of sounds and letters that others can understand. After all, English was used for a thousand years before the first grammar books ever appeared.

But how much do you know about grammar? And, really, What benefits you will have from learning Grammar?

GRAMMAR IMPROVES YOUR LISTENING AND SPEAKING SKILLS:

Knowing Grammar helps us to easier in communicating. For example, imagine you have a job interview, you need to talk about your past job experience. We apply the rules for Present Perfect tense. Because you talk about experience.

When you meet a new person, you talk with them about yourself, you apply the present simple tense to talk about facts and regular habits. It is clearly that the verbal clauses and adjective clauses help us enrich our sentences and add more information. Meanwhile, grammar rules help you to make your communication to appear coherent and more logic.

English speakers tend to speak very fast with a lot of short forms and silent sounds. Knowing grammar helps you to catch these short forms and silent sounds by guessing the idea what the speak want to say.

GRAMMAR IMPROVES YOUR READING AND WRITING SKILLS:

Knowing basic grammar is important in order to be able to analyze and improve your language performance. Understanding the use of noun, verbs, adverb, adjective, phrase or clause helps you to write English better. For example, to write a letter, you need to know the rule of sentence structure, the rule of words order like OPSHACOM. Further more, writing requires a lot of mental effort. Most English learners do their writing tend to make mistake and misuse of grammar rules, which are very easy to recognize.

Knowing basic grammar is an important tool for readers to understand what they are reading. It is considered to be a handle of literature. News, stories or poems have a lot of long sentence. Using grammar to defined which one is subject, verb, object, phrase or adverbial clause. By analyzing the grammar of sentences and paragraphs, the readers can understand what they read better.

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An adjective describes how something ‘is.’ For this reason, we often use the verb ‘to be’ when using adjectives. Adjectives are used to describe nouns. There are two types of sentences we use with adjectives, which are detailed below:

Subject + To be + Adjective

Example:

Tom is shy.
Alice is happy.

Subject + Verb + Adjective + Noun

Example:

That is a big building!
Peter has a fast car.

The adjective is always invariable.

Example: beautiful trees, they are happy

Take note of these important rules to follow when using this sentence pattern.

• Adjectives don’t have a singular and plural form OR a masculine, feminine and neutral form.
• Adjectives are always the same! Never add a final –s to an adjective.
• Adjectives can also be placed at the end of a sentence if they describe the subject of a sentence.

​​Example: My doctor is excellent, as opposed to difficult books, which is incorrect

Adjectives Are Placed Before Noun

Example: a wonderful book; very interesting people

Note: Don’t place an adjective after the noun

Example: an apple red.

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Higher education institutions in the United States recognize the economic and educational benefits of international students. Although non-native English speakers (NNES) submit evidence of English language proficiency for admission purposes, many struggle with the demands of English. This study draws on qualitative and quantitative data to provide insights into the international student experience from the perspectives of students and faculty.

It examines how English language proficiency affects academic and social adjustment, identifies useful types of support, and considers the effects of English proficiency on intercultural learning. Students are generally satisfied with their proficiency, appreciate English as a Second Language courses, and feel their English is improved through course work and social interaction.

Professors feel students’ skills are adequate but could be improved, and report adjusting their teaching approaches to accommodate NNES. Intercultural interaction aids English development and intercultural growth, but students may tend to remain within their own linguistic groups.

International student enrollments in institutions of higher education in the United States declined from 2003 to 2006. The most significant decreases were 2.4% in 2003 to 2004 and 1.3% in 2004 to 2005 (Institute of International Education, 2007).

Although enrollment trends are currently more positive, they have yet to compensate for previous years of declining or flat enrollments. One benefit of the recent enrollment decreases, however, has been greater awareness that the United States must consider the strength of its position in the “global competition for talent”

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Preposition Rules

Did you know there are hundreds of prepositions in the English language? A fun way to remember prepositions is that they are words that tell you everywhere a bunny can run; for example, a bunny can run:

• up
• down
• near
• far
• by
• at
• around
• close
• always

With some of these popular prepositions in mind, let’s look at six important rules for prepositions.

1. Pair Them Properly

Determining which preposition to use can be a tricky proposition. It’s especially difficult when dealing with idioms – expressions in the English language that don’t necessarily make sense when taken literally.

Idiomatic expressions are expressions you just have to memorize, and when errors are made, they’re almost always prepositional errors. Here are some examples of idioms, along with the correct prepositions:

• George would love to attend the party.
• You’re capable of anything you set your mind to.
• Shelly’s been preoccupied with work lately.
• The teacher is concerned by Janette’s consistent tardiness.
• Employees are prohibited from smoking on company property.

Each of the prepositions in bold are the only acceptable prepositions to follow the verbs that precede them. For example, it wouldn’t be grammatically correct to say “love with” or “capable to.”

For more, enjoy Idioms That Begin with Prepositions.

2. Watch What Follows Them

Prepositions must always be followed by a noun or pronoun. That noun is called the object of the preposition. Note that a verb can’t be the object of a preposition. Let’s look at two examples:

• The bone was for the dog.
  This is correct. The preposition for is followed by the noun “dog.”
• The bone was for walked.
  This is not correct. The preposition for is followed by a verb “walked.” A verb can never be the object of a preposition.

This rule may seem confusing at first; you may have seen words that look like verbs following the preposition to. For example:

• I like to ski.
• These boots are for skiing.

However, in these examples, “ski” and “skiing” are not acting as verbs.

In the first example, to ski is part of the infinitive. An infinitive occurs when a verb is used as a noun, adjective, or adverb. Here, to ski is a thing that the person likes doing, not an action they are performing.

In the second example, skiing is a gerund. Although a gerund is created out of a verb, it’s actually a noun. Here, skiing is a thing that the boots are for. No one in this sentence is performing the act of skiing.

3. Avoid Using Them at the End of Sentences

Because prepositions must be followed by a noun and have an object, they should rarely be placed at the end of a sentence. For example, it’s generally not correct to say:

• The table is where I put my books on.

However, there are certain circumstances where it is acceptable to end a sentence with a preposition. These exceptions exist where the preposition isn’t extraneous. In other words, the preposition needs to be there, and if it wasn’t, the meaning of the sentence would change.

In the above example, the use of the preposition “on” isn’t necessary. We could remove “on” and the meaning would be the same. Therefore, the preposition was extraneous or unnecessary. That said, here’s an example where it’s perfectly acceptable to use a preposition at the end of a sentence:

• I turned the TV on.

If you removed “on” from the end of this sentence, it would change the meaning. Instead of switching on the set, you would be saying that you turned the TV itself. Alternatively, this could be written as, “I turned on the TV.”

4. Never Substitute “Have” for “Of”

Teachers, writers, and grammarians would cringe at this construct:

• I should of come over.

Eek. Although it sounds like we say this all the time; we don’t really. We might say, “I should’ve come over,” but that’s about it. Here’s what the above sentence should look like:

• I should have come over.

“Have” is an important helping verb. The preposition “of” does nothing here to link or join ideas together, as every preposition should.

5. Don’t Confuse “In” and “Into”

When you want to express motion toward something, use “into” rather than “in.” Reserve “in” for moments when you want to indicate a location. Here are some examples:

• I swam in the lake. (Indicating location)
• I walked into the pub. (Expressing motion)
• Look in the cupboard. (Indicating location)
• She drove into the city. (Expressing motion)

6. Try Not to Interchange “Than” and “From”

We’ll close with more of a suggestion than a hard and fast rule. It deals with the word “different.” Try to avoid this:

• You look different than your mother.

Instead, opt for:

• You look different from your mother.

While the first example isn’t wrong, per se, a bonafide grammarian would scoff at the pairing. Why not go for the surefire win over the potentially eyebrow-raising format?

Peaceful Prepositions

Sometimes, it seems like prepositions are the peacemakers of the English language. They join it all together with cohesion and clarity. They maintain a thought’s fluidity. For more on these peacemakers, check out these preposition games and preposition worksheets.

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Present Uses

1: First, we use the present continuous for things that are happening at the moment of speaking. These things usually last for quite a short time and they are not finished when we are talking about them.

• I’m working at the moment.
• Please call back as we are eating dinner now.
• Julie is sleeping.

2: We can also use this tense for other kinds of temporary situations, even if the action isn’t happening at this moment.

• John’s working in a bar until he finds a job in his field. (He might not be working now.)
• I’m reading a really great book.
• She’s staying with her friend for a week.

Compare this with the present simple, which is used for permanent situations that we feel will continue for a long time.

• I work in a school. (I think this is a permanent situation.)
• I’m working in a school. (I think this is a temporary situation.)

3: We can use the present continuous for temporary or new habits (for normal habits that continue for a long time, we use the present simple). We often use this with expressions like ‘these days’ or ‘at the moment’.

• He’s eating a lot these days.
• She’s swimming every morning (she didn’t use to do this).
• You’re smoking too much.

4: Another present continuous use is for habits that are not regular, but that happen very often. In this case we usually use an adverb like ‘always’, ‘forever’ or ‘constantly’. Often, we use the present continuous in this way to talk about an annoying habit.

• You’re forever losing your keys!
• She’s constantly missing the train.
• Lucy’s always smiling!

Future Uses

5: The next use is for definite future arrangements (with a future time word). In this case we have already made a plan and we are pretty sure that the event will happen in the future.

• I’m meeting my father tomorrow.
• We’re going to the beach at the weekend.
• I’m leaving at three.

We can’t use this tense (or any other continuous tense) with stative verbs.

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