A mouthful of English

In English, we often use an apostrophe followed by an s to express possession : instead of the baby of Rosemary , we say Rosemary’s baby . That means Rosemary has a baby. We normally use this structure with people and animals, to indicate that they have something – the baby’s name, the girl’s name, the cat’s name . However, we say ‘ the name of the girl who had the baby ’ – because ‘ the girl who had the baby’ is a long phrase. Sometimes we find one ’s after another: The baby’s mother’s name is Rosemary .     ( → Here the baby has a mother, and the mother has a name.) We must be careful with the spelling. When a noun is plural and ends with an -s , we only write an apostrophe: my parents’ house . So I can talk about my friend’s house (if the house belongs to one friend), or my friends’ house (if it belongs to more than one friend). When a noun is plural but doesn’t end with an –s , we write the apostrophe followed by an s : the children’...

That is one of the most frequent words in English. In fact, we can say it is several words. It’s a pronoun in ‘ that’s my cat ’, a determiner in ‘ that cat is mine ’, and an adverb in ‘ English isn’t that difficult .’ It can also be used as a conjunction to join sentences, as in ‘ I think that English is very easy .’ When that is a conjunction, it is often left out in informal speech – mostly after verbs like say , know , or think : I think (that) English is easy . She said (that) she was happy . You know (that) I’m right . In ‘ This is the music that I love ,’ that is a relative pronoun – and it can be omitted too:     This is the music I love . We can’t omit it in ‘ She’s the girl that works here ,’ because it’s the subject of ‘works’ (‘that’ = ‘the girl’ → the girl works here.) But we often leave relative pronouns out when they are the objects of verbs: The house (that) I like is very expensive .     (‘that’ = ‘the house’ → I...

Verbs are often followed by complements – for example, I’m learning English , I have a cat , and I play baroque music . But depending on their meaning, they require different types of complements – some starting with a preposition, and some without it. As a result, we hear music but we listen to music ; we see things but we look at them . Prepositional verbs are followed by a preposition that depends on the verb: you agree with someone , you wait for a bus , and you laugh at a joke . However, these prepositions don’t occur when there is no object: ‘ Please wait, ’ ‘ Don’t laugh ,’ ‘ Do you agree? ’ She’s waiting for the bus. Not all verbs take prepositions: in English, you enter a building , you phone friends , and you discuss problems . On the other hand, some verbs can be used in more than one way: we may ask a question , but we ask for help ; we pay tax , we pay the rent , and we pay ten euros , but we pay for a coffee . What all this means is that, w...

A phrasal verb , like make up or give away , is an idiomatic phrase consisting of a verb and a particle. The words in such phrases usually have different meanings in other contexts, but when they form a phrasal verb they mean something together. If you make up a story, you invent it; if you give a secret away , you reveal it. Children often take after their parents. There are lots of phrasal verbs in English. Every day we wake up and get up . We put on and take off coats, shoes or glasses. We switch on lights, the TV, and our mobile phones – and then we switch them off . The two parts of some phrasal verbs may appear together or separated in a sentence: Please turn off your mobile phone. Please turn your mobile phone off . But sometimes they have to be separated – when the object of the verb is a pronoun: You can’t use your mobile phone here. Please turn it off . Like many other words, some phrasal verbs have more than one meaning. If you pick up a l...

In English we often use adjectives like bored and interested to say how we feel. A story, a situation, or another person can make us feel intrigued , embarrassed, or disappointed . We are often tired or stressed after a working week, and relaxed at the weekend. Surprised, depressed, amused, annoyed, and puzzled are other examples of –ed adjectives that express how people feel. They all come from verbs, and each of them has a relative – another adjective ending in – ing. The words in pairs like shocked/shocking and bored/boring look so similar because they come from the same verbs – shock and bore . Both confused and confusing come from confuse , although they have different meanings – which is confusing for some people. In such pairs, the –ing adjective describes what makes you feel in a certain way, while the –ed adjective describes how you feel. So, when something is interesting (it interests you), you are interested (you feel interested).

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 pas...