EFL Interactive Grammar Quizzes Printable & PPT Games - Click Here! If you are the type of person who prefers to have games on powerpoint or as printable handouts, we have been thinking of you. We offer board games, powerpoint games and more for the classroom and one to one teaching. They have made my lessons fun and I have no doubt yours will be fun too. Added to the good news are the templates we offer that you can use to create customized games for your classroom and teaching. It is total fun and highly engaging fun lessons with these resources. Read the full story Classroom Tools - Click Here! Get some cool tools for use in your classroom.
Does grammar matter? - Andreea S. Calude Spoken language has been neglected and marginalized for much of our history on account of its perceived inferiority in comparison to written language. Written language was historically regarded as the language of the ‘learned,’ given that few people could read or write. It also had permanence (written records can be preserved for hundreds of years, and it is only recently that speech recordings became an achievable technology for most of us), and it was thought to be of a higher standard and quality (often summed up as having “better” or more “correct” grammar). You can read more about this biased view of written language over spoken language in the online book “The Written Language Bias” by Peter Linell. We all know that languages differ with respect to their grammar – we have all tried to learn another language only to be baffled not just by new vocabulary but also by the order and other quirks of how that language organizes its vocabulary – but what can and what does actually vary?
BATTLESHIP: IRREGULAR VERBS Much to learn, you still have. – Joda. Despite the evidence that the number of irregular verbs is declining in the English language, there is no danger they will disappear, and the struggle will continue. There are many attempts to find a shortcut in learning irregular verbs, yet with all the options and “magic tricks” available, learning these verbs requires much memorization, drilling and practice. Today I will show how I use the Battleship game to drill and practise irregular verbs in a fun way. Before the game: Each player will need two 10×10 grids – one with irregular verbs in each square, and one blank grid. Click the Grids to download them. The players then mark where they want to place their ships by circling rows, horizontally or vertically. Each player’s fleet consists of the following ships: 1 aircraft carrier – 5 squares 1 battleship – 4 squares 1 cruiser – 3 squares 2 destroyers – 2 squares each 2 submarines – 1 square each How to play: some more games with irregular verbs from Engames.
1, 2, 3, GMAT—count nouns on Sentence Correction. | Kaplan Test Prep Consider the following two statements: “I ate some cake at the birthday party” “I ate some cakes at the birthday party” If one of those two sentences sounds fishy, you have a good ear—but I assure you both sentences are grammatically correct. The key concept behind those sentences is the grammatical notion of countability, a set of idiomatic rules frequently tested in GMAT sentence correction problems. If you’ve done many Sentence Correction problems, you’ve probably seen the most common version of this error: the words “many,” “number,” and “few” apply only to count nouns such as “dollar” and “catamaran,” while uncountable things like “money” and “sand” must be described with “much,” “amount,” and “little.” And finally, some words—like cake, in our opening example—have different meanings depending on whether they are treated as a plural noun or as an uncountable one. Problem: (A) at less than 68,000 people and fewer (B) at fewer than 68,000 people and fewer Solution:
Adele's ESL Corner - Your free online English language website Phrasal Verbs List | English Club 200 common phrasal verbs, with - meaning - example sentence ask somebody out invite on a date Brian asked Judy out to dinner and a movie. ask around ask many people the same question I asked around but nobody has seen my wallet. add up to something equal Your purchases add up to $205.32. back something up reverse You'll have to back up your car so that I can get out. back somebody up support My wife backed me up over my decision to quit my job. blow up explode The racing car blew up after it crashed into the fence. blow something up add air We have to blow 50 balloons up for the party. break down stop functioning (vehicle, machine) Our car broke down at the side of the highway in the snowstorm. break down get upset The woman broke down when the police told her that her son had died. break something down divide into smaller parts Our teacher broke the final project down into three separate parts. break in force entry to a building Somebody broke in last night and stole our stereo.
Gerund The gerund looks exactly the same as a present participle, but it is useful to understand the difference between the two. The gerund always has the same function as a noun (although it looks like a verb). Some uses of the gerund are covered on this page. A separate page deals with verbs that are followed by the gerund. The gerund as the subject of the sentence Examples Eating people is wrong. The gerund as the complement of the verb 'to be' One of his duties is attending meetings. The gerund after prepositions The gerund must be used when a verb comes after a preposition. Can you sneeze without opening your mouth? The gerund after phrasal verbs Phrasal verbs are composed of a verb + preposition or adverb. When will you give up smoking? There are some phrasal verbs that include the word "to" as a preposition for example to look forward to, to take to, to be accustomed to, to get around to, & to be used to. I look forward to hearing from you soon. The gerund in compound nouns
Mass noun In linguistics, a mass noun, uncountable noun, or non-count noun is a noun with the syntactic property that any quantity of it is treated as an undifferentiated unit, rather than as something with discrete subsets. Non-count nouns are distinguished from count nouns. Some mass nouns can be used in English in the plural to mean "more than one instance (or example) of a certain sort of entity"—for example, "Many cleaning agents today are technically not soaps, but detergents." In such cases they no longer play the role of mass nouns, but (syntactically) they are treated as count nouns. Some nouns have both a mass sense and a count sense (for example, paper). Relating grammatical number to physical discreteness In English (and in many other languages), there is a tendency for nouns referring to liquids (water, juice), powders (sugar, sand), or substances (metal, wood) to be used in mass syntax, and for nouns referring to objects or people to be count nouns. Cumulativity and mass nouns