A mouthful of English

Many –ing adjectives are used to describe something – or someone – that makes us feel in a particular way. Bad weather, for example, can be depressing – if it depresses us. And work might sometimes be fascinating , but it’s often tiring as well. Different types of words can have the –ing ending in English: Learning to drive is exciting , but I’m spending all my savings on driving lessons. Adjectives are easy to recognise, because they often appear in front of nouns – an embarrassing situation, annoying habits – or after verbs like be or look : The book looked boring , but it was actually very amusing . As an adjective always describes something, it’s important to know what it refers to. In the following example, confusing and disappointing describe the object of the verb: I found his explanation confusing and disappointing . Finally, adjectives can often be modified by words like very , really , or too – which may also help identify them: He’s an amaz

When we speak, we tend to omit things we’ve already mentioned because old information is considered unnecessary. In English we often use auxiliary verbs to avoid repetition: The wine was great, but the food wasn’t (great). She’s going to Scotland, and I am (going to Scotland) too . A common structure to do this is so + auxiliary verb + subject : She’s going to Scotland, and so am I . ‘So am I’ here means ‘I’m going to Scotland too .’ The auxiliary verb ( am ) is the verb in the sentence we don’t want to repeat – I ’m going to Scotland . A few more examples: She’s hungry, and so am I .             (= I am hungry too.) ‘I can swim.’ ‘ So can I !’                 (= I can swim too!) Everyone has finished, and so have I .         (= I have finished too.) Remember that we use do in the simple present and did in the simple past as auxiliary verbs: You speak English, and so do I . They went on holiday, and so did I . In more informal speech we can s