Yes, I mean 'determiners' by 'articles'. A/an is called 'indefinite article', while 'the' is called 'definite article'.
Articles can be so tricky to use, though. Sometimes you need to put an indefinite article before a noun or noun group, while sometimes you should use a definite article instead, or don't use anything, which is callled 'zero article'.
You say 'the Great Wall', 'the BBC', 'the University of London' but 'Hyde Park', 'CNN', 'Beijing University'. 'In prison' and 'in a prison' don't
This is what I found in my e-mail box this morning, sent by my cousin Anthony from Canada:
Here is a display of the charms of Mathematics
1 x 8 + 1 = 9
12 x 8 + 2 = 98
123 x 8 + 3 = 987
1234 x 8 + 4 = 9876
12345 x 8 + 5 = 98765
123456 x 8 + 6 = 987654
1234567 x 8 + 7 = 9876543
Most learners want their writings to be corrected by a Teacher of English, an English Native Speaker, or at least a member who's fluent in English. But you may see this rarely happen here. Have you ever thought why? Hey, who doesn’t want to be taught English freely?? Your writing may be understandable enough. Maybe it's about the language, not always the grammar. I think it would be a hard work to correct all the writings by the non-English Native Speakers. :)
You’re very enthusiastic in learning
My dear friends! I decided to join my “star husband”, Danny Clark, and to teach you some English, too. As I have been teaching English grammar and training for TOEFL for many years, you will be getting mostly grammar-based tasks from me. So, let’s start!
To begin with, here are 10 sentences. There is at least one grammar mistake in each of them. So, your task is to find the mistakes, to correct them, to explain them (if you can) and to give your examples.
For example:
The given sentence:
He left b
Dear members, you could use the next phrases to diversify your English.
For example:
Let’s go out for a dinner tonight. – Yeah, sure! I feel like a pizza.
It means that your soul wants chocolate (It is my daily phrase :) )
For example:
I am craving a big juicy steak!
For example:
I’m dying for a cup of strong black coffee.
It is more polite tha "I want"
Would you like some
My dear friends! One of our EC members, the Way to the Moon (hope, she is still on the Earth with us! Smile!), has just given me a great idea and I am about to implement it right away! Sure, when you hear or read English, you should catch the general sense and all my previous blogs were about understanding English idioms. But it is another matter when you start speaking or writing yourselves. You should be 100% sure how to use this or that idiom or not use it at all if you don't want to sound f
During our China visit, we stayed most of the time in Tianjin. It is a port city. Our seminar was about economical development for Bangladesh. So, we visited its free trade zone, special economic zone, scientific park etc. But, of course we got chances to do shopping, eating outside and to roam around in some important places of this city.
In the very beginning most of the tress were barren. But after some days we enjoyed blossoms. Though not sure about their names. Some flowers were deep pink,
My dear firiends! Here I am again with five other expressions for you to guess. Again, you should replace a phrasal verb with a single word (that is neither a phrasal verb nor an idiom) without googling or looking up your dictionaries. I think it will be my last blog about idioms and next time I will think up something different for you. I will be glad to hear your ideas about kind of tasks you would like to get. All your wishes will be taken into account.
And now, here are five other sentences.
I've noticed that some members here may be tired of the blogs about learning or teaching English. They think we should try to pay more attention to those blogs which are not directly related to English learning or teaching.
Yes, MyEC is more than just a great place for learning or teaching English.
First, it's a social network. We can mingle with other people from around the world. You can communicate with others by writing blogs, uploading photos, chatting, or joining in a discussion. Sure, you
Hi, my friends! Here I am, your boring and strict teacher who wants to give you one more assignment. It will be as tricky as the rest but now, you all are supposed to be much more experienced in answering my tricky questions and using your logic and common sense. So, your task is the same as in the previous blog: you should find a single word that may be a synonym of the given idiom or a phrasal verb, OK?
Let's start! Ready? Here are five more idioms. Just try to find synonyms using your common
It was raining heavily and she was in a hurry to go to college. She fell down near the college and got wet from head to toe. She came back home angrily and didn't attend her class that day.
You may have noticed that there are so many native English speakers here on MyEC and most of them may actually be native English teachers.
I really enjoy reading their blogs and comments - I do appreciate all their great work here. I'm glad so many of them are trying to teach us English - I take my hat off to them!
Don't you think they are of great help? Do you think it's one of the attractions of MyEC, or can you think of a MyEC without native English speakers? And, which native speaker(s) here
My dear friends and fatnastic students! As I see you like such a blog more than others, I decided to hold it over and to complicate your task. This time, you should find the right synonym, that is a single word.
For those who are new here, all the rules and conditions are here:
http://www.myenglishclub.com/profiles/blogs/english-idioms-looking-for-synonyms
So, here are five other sentences. And remember, please, you should replace the idioms with the only one word.
1. My lawyer promised not to let m
My dear friends and my genious students! Today I am proposing you a little bit different challenge. I am posting the sentences containing idioms, phrasal verbs, etc. and I propose you to rewrite these sentences using the synonyms. The synonyms shouldn't be idioms. In the examples the idioms are in bold. So, I will show you what I mean.
The given sentence:
At last he found what he had been looking for.
The reply:
He finally found what he had been looking for.
I believe, I've made myself clear about
I have been selling lottery tickets in a bus stand in my home town for many years. This evening a man came and handed me a cheque and said 'I bought a ticket from you last month and I won thirty million, and this is your share!'
He lay awake all night thinking about his neighbor. "If only I were rich, famous and handsome like him," he thought. In the morning he heard that his neighbor had committed suicide the previous night.
Hi, my friends! Here is a new challenge for you!
1. to throw someone a curve.
When I ran into the married man I knew stepping out with a young girl, I threw him a curve by asking about his wife.
2. to throw the book at.
After a car crash one of the drivers was thrown the book at by a judge.
3. to pull one's weight.
Let's get rid of that salesman. He doesn't pull his weight around here.
4. to wade through.
I have a lot of unanswered correspondence that I have to wade through.
5. to be the in-thing.
Unfort
"Stop watching TV and pay attention to what I am saying," my mother shouted at me angrily. I quickly turned off the TV and listened to her.
"I have some work to do today. You go and pay the bills and come," she handed that month's bills to me.
I was in no mood to go out that day, but I went out and started my scooter anyway. I knew my mother would get angry if I refused and would make me pay for it later.
"Good morning, Shoba! You look very nice in that T'shirt," my neighbor called out to me.
Aun
Long time ago, there was a village boy who living with his parent and brother. He need to attend his primary school at another village. One day he saw a girl he felt in love with, much younger than him, had round face and two fish tails haired. She was a villager like him, neither pretty nor ugly, he didn’t know what was attracted him but when he saw her eyes at the day they shake hands and exchanged their names, he knew he had found true love long time before their meeting.
They were just kids a
When I entered the class I took a back by what I saw. Some kids were in tears some were close to tears. I asked them what had happened. One of them while fighting back her tears told me that they got informed that next year I was not going to be their teacher.
Oh my God! I couldn’t believe what I had heard. Now I was about to burst into tears but I tried not to. I told them a story of my childhood and how much I loved my first teacher, it was so hard for me not to see her again every day in the m
