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Are you familiar with the personal pronoun it? I hope so. Then, don't confuse it's with its.
Yes, it's is a shortened form of 'it is' or 'it has' (a contraction), while its is the possesive of it.
It may not be that easy to use them correctly, though - it's said that even native speakers confuse them.
The possessive form of a noun has apostrope s ('s) added to it, e.g. Expector's, today's, but the possessive form of it is its (no apostrope).
Let's try to write a short paragraph or build a few se
Yes, I mean 'top members', not 'star members'. Just as you know, it's hard to choose the monthly star members, especially when we're trying to choose someone who's never been chosen as a star member.
The thing is some of the star members may not have been aware they were star members because they didn't visit MyEC much - they were't really active members and other members didn't think they deserved it. That's to say, some of the star members are controversial.
Thankfully, the admin of MyEC has
My friends! Today I will tell you when and how to use the gerund correctly. The gerund is a part of speech combining the features of a noun and a verb. In the direct sense of the word, it is a noun from the front and a verb from behind. It means that we may use some prepositions and possessive pronouns before a gerund, while we use the complements and adverbs before it. A gerund defines a progreesive action. However, it is "more a noun than a verb", if I can say so. A gerund is mostly used as a
Yes, the 2016 Rio Olympics are over. The United States and the United Kingdom, both of which speak English, have won the most gold medals.
The US is almost always at the top of the Olympic medal counts - the Rio Olympics is no exception. To my surprise, the UK is number two on the list, not China or Russia or Germany.
So, English wins - maybe because both of them speak English. Next time when you answer the question 'Why do you need to learn English?', you could say you want to excel at sport:))
This is on the motivation of Tanya's writing challenge.
This is also in response to Expector's writing challenge, because it pertains the reported as well as direct narration.
LONESOME:
The twilight was in the offing, (it had already started getting dark), when I started driving to the beach. I moved towards the rock where I was used to sitting. No, I do not get scared if the darkness even prevail the atmosphere, I rather feel close to the Nature. That day I was in gloom, (without any reason, a
Hi, my dear friends! I was out for some time, but I am back and would like to propose you one more easy challenge for you to warm up a little. In this challenge, you should write a short story (very short as I am still very busy) using both or any of the given pairs.
BE/GET + adjective/past participle.
BE/START + present participle/ gerund.
You don't have to use all the words, only those you need to explain your mind.
I will explain using the examples.
He is sick (means he is not feeling good now).
My friend Anju and I were standing in line to book tickets for a movie. It was getting longer than we expected and Anju was getting annoyed.
She told me that she would go to the inquiry desk and ask why they hadn't opened the office yet.
She came back after a while and reported that they told her they would open the office only at 11 o'clock.
"11 o'clock? That means we have to stand here for another hour!" I said, exasperated.
Just then, a group of rough looking men came and cut in front of the
Yes, when you want to quote someone's words or thoughts, you can do it in two ways: 'direct speech' (quoting the exact words that were said) or 'reported speech' or 'indirect speech' (without quoting the exact words).
In reported speech, the tenses, pronouns and other words may be different from those in the original sentence, for example:
She said (to me), 'I love you.'
She said that she loved me.
Right, it can be so challenging for a learner to use a report structure correctly, but the good news
Do you have someone in your life whom you are truly thankful for? Someone who blends warmth and love like a blanket for your soul? Sadly sometimes those people we love most do not hear enough of our gratitude. Well today I have decided to just blurt out some of those nice gooey facts about this person and openly make a declaration of why I am thankful for my hubby!
#1 Laughter...his zany sense of humor makes the good times so great and the bad times so much lighter.
#2 Support... We all hav
Reading Mary and Onee-chan's blogs about MyEC members makes me wondering what had happened to a few older members of MyEC. Once upon a time, their presence coloured MyEC with their blogs, forums and even chat room. Now, hardly any members remember them. They are no longer the flavour of the month. How flitting their presence in this virtual world it seems.
I wonder, does anyone really know anyone in this parallel universe which we call virtual world? When, and not if, we leave MyEC, does anyone m
Good morning, all MyEC friends...
How are you doing? Wish you all pretty well. ^_^
OK, I will shorten my prelude greetings. :D After reading MARY'S awesome blog, here I just want to add some more questionnaires. I put these questionnaires as I can describe several special characteristics of some EC members. There're lots of active members which I cannot describe all. The rule is ...... please read MARY's blog. :D :D Please guess MyEC members with these clues. No winner, since this is just to know
Aloha lovely EC people! ^_^
How cool is to find lately lot of EC people suggesting interesting games for us? I come to EC and feel like playing board games with family (the only difference is that here is not my granny trying to cheat in every game hahaha)
Okay, I’m gonna jump on the bandwagon suggesting a very special 'quiz'. It’s a quiz about you!! Yes, you!! An active EC member who is reading this! :)
Do you like to know about your neighbors? How much do you know about other EC members? We’ll se
There were so many friends, who came and went in my life without being noticed, but Ahmed left long lasting impression on me. He used to sit beside me at the same desk during the class. He always encouraged me whenever I hesitated to do anything new. When I performed bad, all the classmates laughed at me except him. Besides this, he always told me very confidential matters without fear of being betrayed.
I used to make fun of him whenever he talked to me about his fiancee. Hearing the name of h
Yes, you're quite right, the two words (besides and except) are often confused - 'besides' means 'in addition to' or 'as well as', while 'except' means 'not including'.
Be careful, don't confuse 'besides' with 'beside' - the latter means 'next to' or 'at the side of'.
Right, I should have mentioned 'apart from', which can be used with either meaning (including or excluding). I'd add 'other than', which means 'not including' or 'without' (= 'except').
Sometimes you use 'except for' instead of 'exc
Once upon a time, there was an unjust Arab king. He had a hunchback. He did not want anyone to call him a hunchbacked man, if anyone dared, he would be headed. His people did not dare to call him so. One man said that he would call him a hunchback man. The people told him to be wise and not to do so. The king would kill him. He told them to watch and listen to him. The next day, he went up to the king. He greeted the king and said, "you are our king. We will always honor you and respect you. If
Let's keep striking while the iron is hot! Due to the connection problem of MyEC these days, I will try to write more.... I hope you, too, friends. Don't let MyEC go down because of our absence. :))) :D
Once ever had my great friend said that there were three things that made a friendship would last long. They were Gratitude, Apology, and Compliment. I remember this a lot until now and as I observed in my opinion it is true. Not only a friendship, but also all kinds of relationship, such as famil
It can be so frustrating if you can't use MyEC - for some members, no day is complete without visiting MyEC.
Sometimes MyEC does encounter technical problems or you're having some other connection problems, which will make it so hard for you to read or write blogs or comments on MyEC.
What if that's the case? Apart from reporting the problem to MyEC tech team, What would you do?
I'd visit other websites instead while hoping MyEC is accessible again. I'd even try to watch a TV drama in English. O
"When life gives you lemons, make lemonade" is a popular American saying. This proverbial phrase is used to encourage people to be optimistic when they are faced with adversities in life.
In other words, when things turn sour like lemons, without getting discouraged, we should work hard to conquer the difficulties.
I agree that it is easier said than done. Some life challenges can knock us down completely, and leave us in a hopeless state. However, I strongly feel that patience, persistence and p
