Grammar

As the famous Sri Lankan expression goes, ‘Today is lazy day’. So in keeping with this spirit, I have decided to be completely slothic for today’s blog post and entertain you instead with a list of wonderfully awful translations that I found while surfing the net over my morning coffee. In a Tokyo Hotel: Is…

I love something about indefinite pronouns. I found this short text today in my little folder of long forgotten things that I have written about. I can’t recall when I wrote it, but I know why I did. It had something to do with the overuse of indefinite pronouns. Using too many indefinite pronouns is…

All languages have silly little irregularities, but English specialises in making pronunciation irregularities a challenge for ESL learners. Try to get your tongue around these tongue twister examples of English pronunciation. 1. The bandage was wound around the wound. 2. The farm was used to produce produce. 3. The dump was so full it had…

When can you use plural adjectives? So the general rule in English grammar is that we should never use plural adjectives. To make it clear, this is not to be confused with the possessive adjective, which is a totally different kettle of grammatical fish. Therefore, a driver’s licence is not what I am going to…

I love being an English teacher. For those readers who may not know, I actually do something other than ramble on about things that annoy me and scribble out books and poetry. In fact, my principal activity is as an English teacher. Not your Shakespeare and Keats English Lit teacher, but an English teacher of ESOL. That…

Can you improve your writing by avoiding silly grammar mistakes? As social networking is predominately text driven, it really is a good idea to make sure your writing is up to an acceptable and readable standard. There’s nothing worse than reading a tweet, Facebook entry, or blog post that is full of grammar mistakes or spelling errors. It really…