Category: Self-Help

Future perfect simple: “Will” Usage The future perfect tense is used to describe an event that will be completed before another point in time. As a result, we often use time expressions (such as “by tomorrow,” “by midday,” or “by then”) or another activity (expressed in a different future tense) to help make the timeline Read More

What are indirect questions? Indirect questions are statements or questions that reframe a direct question by relaying it in reported speech. To make this clearer, let’s look at some direct questions: “Is this your bag?” “Do you know the time?” “Have you seen Emma lately?” To form questions in English, we either change the word Read More

What are modal verbs? We use modal verbs in order to express modality, such as permission, ability, suggestion, possibility, attitude, likelihood, order, or obligation. Here are the various modal verbs that we commonly use: may would might must can shall could should will ought to An important note is that modal verbs are always paired Read More

What is reported speech? Reported speech is how we relay something that has already been said or written, either by ourselves or by someone else. For example, imagine that your friend said, “I am going to the dentist tomorrow.” Now, if we want to share what they said with someone else, we need to use Read More

What are imperatives? In English, the imperative is one of three verbal moods. These are the indicative, the subjunctive, and the imperative. We use imperatives to give commands, issue warnings, or provide emphatic instructions. And if we add “please” before an imperative phrase, it can also form a request. In the examples below, note that Read More

What is a relative clause? A relative clause (also called an “adjective clause” because it gives us more information about a particular noun) is a type of dependent clause. Every relative clause has a subject and a verb, but these clauses can’t stand by themselves as complete sentences. How to identify a relative clause A Read More

Transitive and Intransitive Verbs In English, verbs can be followed by two different kinds of objects, depending on the type of verb we are using. These are either direct objects or indirect objects. Transitive verbs are able to take a direct object, whereas intransitive verbs cannot. Here are some examples of both (the direct objects Read More

We use time clauses in English to express that an action or event is based on a certain period of time. Most often, these clauses are introduced by conjunctions such as “before,” “after,” “until,” “while,” “when,” or “whenever.” We can also use phrases such as “the minute,” “the moment,” or “as soon as” to serve Read More

Adjectives are used to add description to our language. This can cause a bit of confusion for English learners when it comes to choosing the correct one to use in a sentence and deciding where to actually place it. Luckily, the rules for adjectives are rather easy to learn and remember. To help you along, Read More