Grammar focus: less or fewer Deciding whether to use less or fewer can be difficult. The confusion happens because you often see mistakes in public signs, for example like this one here: The sign is wrong! ‘Less’ is used with things that you don’t usually count, so this sentence is correct: A small car uses … Read more
Grammar focus: have yet to The phrase ‘have yet to’ can be confusing! The present perfect tense in English can be difficult at the best of times, and this phrase is another challenge for English learners. A student came to see me the other day with a letter that he couldn’t understand. He had applied … Read more
I have been marking some practice exams recently and I’ve been giving feedback to students about how to improve their writing. There are lots of things that I could say, but in this post I’m going to mention just one: CHECK YOUR SUBJECT – VERB AGREEMENT! When your teacher reads mistakes like these ones in … Read more
I’ve been reading a lot of student work recently and I’ve seen a lot of sentences like this: Price of oil has risen steadily since last year. Quantitative easing stimulates economy but might cause inflation. Banker in the City of London earn far too much money. Can you spot the grammar mistake in each sentence? … Read more