Silent letters in English

• Silent A - Artistically, logically, musically, stoically
• Silent E - When added to the end of a word, it changes the pronunciation of the word, but is in itself, silent.
• Silent F - halfpenny
• Silent I- business
• Silent P- corps, coup, pneumonia, pseudo, psychology, ptomaine, receipt
• Silent R - butter, finger, garden, here
• Silent S - aisle, apropos, bourgeois, debris, fracas, island, isle, viscount

Thanks to: https://www.eslbuzz.com/

Future forms

Future continuous (will be + ‘ing’ form)

We use the future continuous to talk about something that will be in progress at or around a time in the future.

• This time tomorrow we’ll be sitting on the beach. I am so excited!
• Tomorrow at eight we will be flying home.
  
  The following sentences are not about the future but we can use the future continuous to talk about what we assume is happening at the moment:


• Don’t phone her now, she’ll be having dinner.
• The kids are very quiet. They’ll be doing something wrong, I know it!

Future Perfect (will have + past participle)

We use the future perfect to say that something will be finished by a particular time in the future.

• Do you think you will have finished it by next Thursday?
• In 5 years time I’ll have finished university and I’ll be able to earn some money at last.

We often use the future perfect with ‘by’ or ‘in’

• I think astronauts will have landed on Mars by the year 2020.
• I’ll have finished in an hour and then you can use the computer.

‘By’ means ‘not later than a particular time’ and ‘in’ means 'within a period of time’. We don’t know exactly when something will finish.

• I promise I’ll have done all the work by next Saturday.

We don’t know exactly when he will finish the work – maybe Thursday, maybe Friday – but definitely before Saturday.

Future Perfect Continuous (will have been + past participle) 

We use it to express the duration of a future situations and also to express certainty about the cause of some future situation. 

 

We use this tense to express situations that will last for a specified period of time at a definite moment in the future. It is important that we expect these situations to last longer.

• Before they come, we will have been cleaning the house for 5 hours.
• By the next year, Ben and his wife will have been living together for 50 years. 

English speakers also use this tense when they want to express certainty about the cause of some future situation.

• By this time, he will have been working for 12 hours, so he will be very tired.
• We will be making a rest stop in half an hour, because you will have been driving the car for 6 hours by then. 

Learn more at:
 http://www.englishtenses.com/future_tenses

 

Most common prefixes in English

Many of today's English words contain prefixes from Greek or Latin. Understanding the meanings of the most common prefixes can help us deduce the meanings of new words that we run across in our reading.

Still, we do need to be careful: the same prefix may be spelled in more than one way (pre- and pro-, for instance), and some prefixes (such as in-) have more than one meaning (in this case, "not" and "into"). Even so, being able to recognize prefixes can help us build our vocabularies.

Prefix	Meaning	Examples
a-, an-	without, lack of, not	amoral, acellular, abyss, achromatic, anhydrous
ante-	before, earlier, in front of	antecedent, antedate, antemeridian, anterior
anti-	against, opposite of	anticlimax. antiaircraft, antiseptic, antibody
auto-	self, same	autopilot, autobiography, automobile, autofocus
circum-	around, about	circumvent, circumnavigate, circumscribe
co-	with, together	copilot, coworker, coexist, coauthor
com-, con-	together, with	companion, commingle, contact, concentrate
contra-, contro-	against, opposite	contradict, contrast, contrary, controversy
de-	down, off, away from	devalue, deactivate, debug, degrade, deduce
dis-	not, apart, away	disappear, disagreeable, disbar, dissect
en-	put into, cover with	enclose, entangle, enslave, encase
ex-	out of, from, former	extract, exhale, excavate, ex-president
extra-	beyond, outside, more than	extracurricular, extramarital, extravagant
hetero-	different, other	heterosexual, heterodox, heterogeneous
homo-, homeo-	same, alike	homonym, homophone, homeostasis, homosexual
hyper-	over, more, beyond	hyperactive, hypersensitive, hypercritical
il-, im-, in-, ir-	not, without	illegal, immoral, inconsiderate, irresponsible
in-	in, into	insert, inspection, infiltrate
inter-	between, among	intersect, interstellar, intervene, interpenetrate
intra-, intro-	within, inside	intravenous, intragalactic, introvert
macro-	large, prominent	macroeconomics, macrostructure, macrocosm
micro-	very small	microscope, microcosm, microbe
mono-	one, single, alone	monocle, monologue, monogamy, monotony
non-	not, without	nonentity, nonaggressive, nonessential,nonfiction
omni-	all, every	omniscient, omnivorous, omniscient, omnidirectional
post-	after, behind	postmortem, posterior, postscript, postoperative
pre-, pro-	before, forward	precede, predict, project, prologue
sub-	under, lower	submarine, subsidiary, substandard
sym-, syn-	same time, together	symmetry, symposium, synchronize, synapse
trans-	across, beyond, through	transmit, transaction, translation, transfer
tri-	three, every third	tricycle, trimester, triangle, triathlon
un-	not, lacking, opposite of	unfinished, unskilled, ungraceful, unfriendly
uni-	one, single	unicorn, unicellular, unicycle, unilateral
		https://www.thoughtco.com/common-prefixes-in-english-1692724

Use, used to, be used to, get used to, would

Habitual Activity

Be

Get used to get accustomed to

+ noun / V gerund

The new employee of ours is getting used to using / is getting accustomed to using the new system.
(He / She is not fully ready but learning the new system)

The new employee of ours is used to using / is accustomed to using the new system.
(He / She already knows / has no problem with the new system)

Used To vs Would

"Used to" can be used with action and stative verbs but "would" can only be used with action verbs.

When I was young, I would go fishing every Sunday. (used to go / went)

When I was young I used to like milk. (would like, liked)

When my little sister was a kid, she used to be very annoying. (was)

When we were kids, my mother would wake us up every morning. (she was used to waking us up)

I used to like Madonna. (would like)

Negative / Question form of "used to"

Did you use to go to there? 

No, I didn't use to go there.
I used to not go there.

WOULD

Typical Behavior

It would start raining just whenever we went to picnic.
He would smile every time I mentioned her name.
We would have breakfast on the roof.

Past of "will"

Mary said that she would call me ASAP (as soon as possible).
I don't know what happened, she said she would be here.
I told you the bus would arrive on time.

Unreal Situations

You would look better with short hair.
I would buy a lottery ticket if I were you.
It would be great if we had money but unfortunately we don't.

Exercise: http://www.grammarbank.com/used-to-vs-would-worksheet.html

More explanations in Spanish:
http://petersblogingles.blogspot.com.es/2009/10/used-used-to-be-used-to-get-used-to.html

The use of "THE"

Articles are confusing because it’s not always necessary to use an article in English. Sometimes it’s easier to remember when NOT to use something instead of trying to memorize when to use something... so let´s start with those situations in which you don’t need to use "the":

1. Things in general

Cats are great pets!(You’re not talking about one specific cat or one specific pet. You’re talking about all cats and all pets in general.)

I love reading books.

Houses are expensive in that neighbourhood.

Americans drive big cars.

Use non-count nouns: I love listening to music. (You enjoy music in general, not any specific song or kind of music.)

She’s afraid of heights, so we couldn’t go to the top of the Eiffel Tower.

I love chocolate!

Have you eaten lunch yet?

She’s a vegetarian. She doesn’t eat meat.

LEARN MORE: When to use “a” and “the” to talk about one of something

2. Names

Names of holidays, countries, companies, languages, etc. are all proper nouns. 

a. Holidays

I got a beautiful new dress for Christmas.

I got my mom a necklace for Mother’s Day.

b. Geography

I live in Canada.

I’m going to Europe next month on vacation.

c. Companies

I use Twitter and Facebook every day.

Bill Gates founded Microsoft.

d. Universities

Her son graduated from Harvard.

She goes to Oxford.

e. Languages

I am studying Russian.

I speak French.

3. Places, locations, streets

I left my book at home.

I have to go to work early tomorrow.

NOTE: You don’t need an article for subjects you study at school: Maths, Geography, History, Science.

 
Places where you DO need to use an article:

I need to go to the bank.

Let’s go to the movies.

My dad is in the hospital.

She works at the post office.

What time do you have to be at the airport?

Please drop me off at the bus stop.

She doesn’t like to go to the doctor or the dentist.

4. Sports and other physical activities :

I love to go skiing in the winter.

I play football every day after school.

LEARN MORE:
Play, do, or go? Verbs used to talk about sports
Gerunds used for sports

5. Noun + number

The train to Paris leaves from platform 2.

My English class is in room 6 on the first floor.
 

6. Acronyms

An acronym is an abbreviation (a short form) of a name. It uses the first letter of each word to form a new word.

a. If the acronym is pronounced as a word, don’t use the.

NATO ambassadors met to discuss the situation..

UNESCO is the acronym used for the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. (UNESCO is pronounced as one word, /ju’nɛskoʊ/.)

You need to use the before acronyms when the letters arepronounced individually, not as a word.

The UN was created after the Second World War.

Other acronyms that need the: The EU, The US, The CIA, The FBI

b. The is not used before university acronyms:

John Smith got his MBA at UCLA.

She has a Ph.D. from MIT.

Make or Do????

We use 'make' when we create or construct something. For example:

• She made a cake.
• I've made us some coffee.
• Did you really make those trousers?

We use 'do' for general activities. It is often used with 'something', 'nothing', 'anything' or 'everything':

• What did you do at the weekend?
• I didn't do anything yesterday.
• She's fed up with doing everything herself. She needs some help.
• Are you doing anything interesting during the holidays?

NOTE: 'What do you do?' means 'what's your job?' 

There are many, many fixed expressions with 'make' and 'do'. Unfortunately, they don't really follow any useful rules, so you have to learn them. 

Click to see the list     Click to download      Exercises

The do or make rap is here!!!

Useful expressions for your essays

General explaining:

1. In order to

Usage: “In order to” can be used to introduce an explanation for the purpose of an argument.

Example: “In order to understand X, we need first to understand Y.”

2. In other words

Usage: Use “in other words” when you want to express something in a different way (more simply), to make it easier to understand, or to emphasise or expand on a point.

Example: “Frogs are amphibians. In other words, they live on the land and in the water.”

3. To put it another way

Usage: This phrase is another way of saying “in other words”, and can be used in particularly complex points, when you feel that an alternative way of wording a problem may help the reader achieve a better understanding of its significance.

Example: “Plants rely on photosynthesis. To put it another way, they will die without the sun.”

4. That is to say

Usage: “That is” and “that is to say” can be used to add further detail to your explanation, or to be more precise.

Example: “Whales are mammals. That is to say, they must breathe air.”

5. To that end

Usage: Use “to that end” or “to this end” in a similar way to “in order to” or “so”.

Example: “Zoologists have long sought to understand how animals communicate with each other. To that end, a new study has been launched that looks at elephant sounds and their possible meanings.”