The difficulty of English

Both, Neither, Either

Use:

1) Both
Both means two of two things.
I have two cats. I like both of them.

2) Neither
Neither means not one or the other of two things.
Neither of my cats is grey.
Remember to use a singular verb after neither.
Neither of the dogs are dangerous. => Neither of the dogs is dangerous.

3) Either
Either means one or the other.
There are two cakes. Please have one. You can have either one.

Much, many, a lot of

Much, many, a lot:

"Much", "many", and "a lot of" indicate a large quantity of something, for example "I have a lot of friends " means I have a large quantity of friends.
Much, many, and a lot are quantifiers.

Study the examples below:

How much money have you got?	I haven't got much money.
	I have got a lot.
	I have got a lot of money.
How many students are in the classroom?	There aren't many.
	There are a lot.
	There are a lot of/lots of students.

Present perfect simple or continuous?

Often there is very little difference between the present perfect simple and the present perfect continuous. In many cases, both are equally acceptable.

They've been working here for a long time but Andy has worked here for even longer.

I've lived here for 10 years and she has been living here for 12 years.

To emphasize the action, we use the continuous form.

We've been working really hard for a couple of months.

She's been having a hard time.

To emphasize the result of the action, we use the simple form.

I've made fifteen phone calls this morning.

He's written a very good report.

'For' and 'Since' with Present Perfect

We use Present Perfect tense to talk about action which started in the past and continues up to the present.

I have had this computer for about a year. 

How long have you been at this school? 

I haven't seen Julia since September.

We use 'for' with a period of time, for example: a few days, half an hour, two years.

I've been at school since 8.30 a.m.

We use 'since' with the time when the action started, for example: last year, June 8, I met you.

I've been at school for 5 hours.

Many links to possible exercises

Just, Still, Already and Yet

These words are often used with the present perfect tense although yet, still and already can all be used with other tenses.

‘Just’ is usually used only with the present perfect tense and it means ‘a short time ago’.

I’ve just seen Susan coming out of the cinema.

Mike’s just called. Can you ring him back please?

Have you just taken my pen? Where has it gone?

Past Tenses

 Past Simple
Normal narrative past form (sequentially occurring actions).  Example:

When I came home last Monday, I had a message on my answering machine.

It said, “Meet me in the park.”

I didn’t know who the message was from, but I was curious.

I put on my jacket, took my bag and went to the park.

And there he was: Luke, an old friend from school.

I was glad to see him and he looked relieved. 

Subject or object questions?

Most of the questions we know are called 'object' questions because the information they are asking about would be the object of the affirmative sentece.

Where do you live?

What are you doing?

These questions use the general structure we use for interrogative sentences ( [Wh-]+Aux+S+V+[O]?).

Subject and object pronouns

We use pronouns as substitutes for noun phrases. The pronoun and the noun phrase that it refers to mean the same thing.

We use subject pronouns as subjects of sentences and object pronouns as objects.

Adjective Comparison: comparatives and superlatives

Here you have some more information about the comparison of adjectives. At the bottom of the entry you'll find a link to the source web with some practice about it.

A - Comparison with -er/-est

clean - cleaner - (the) cleanest

We use -er/-est with the following adjectives:

1) Adjectives with one syllable

positive	comparative	superlative
clean	cleaner	cleanest
new	newer	newest
cheap	cheaper	cheapest

'Have got' or 'have'?

Here you have some explanation about the differences between using the 'have got' expression or just 'have'.

At the end, there are some liks from the source web, in case you need to practice!

Affirmative sentences

>have<	>have got<
I have a brother.	I have got a brother. I've got a brother.
You have a sister.	You have got a sister. You've got a sister.
He has a cat.	He has got a cat. He's got a cat.
She has a dog.	She has got a dog. She's got a dog.
It has Bluetooth.	It has got Bluetooth. It's got Bluetooth.
We have books.	We have got books. We've got books.
You have a nice room.	You have got a nice room. You've got a nice room.
They have pets.	They have got pets. They've got pets.

have got is often used in its contracted form even in written language.

Verb TO BE (Revision)

For those in need of revising the present form of the verb TO BE, here you go a web in which you can see the conjugation and have some practice

Enjoy!

A Phonemic Chart to practice and get familiar with the symbols...

Click here!

ENGLISH BASIC SENTENCE STRUCTURE

Las oraciones AFIRMATIVAS (+) más básicas tienen la siguiente estructura:  

Sujeto (S) + Verbo (V) + [Objeto (O)]

You eat apples

aunque en el objeto, al igual que ocurre en castellano,  no siempre aparecerá (por eso, lo ponemos entre corchetes   `[ ]´, al igual que otros elementos que pueden aparecer o no en la oración).
Como en una oración pueden aparecer varios objetos, se trabajará en otra entrada posterior la organización de estos objetos.

Este esquema se emplea en el 90% de las ocasiones, a excepción de las oraciones imperativas (órdenes), en las que generalmente se omite el sujeto ( Close the door!, Come here!)