ESL

Verb conjugations follow distinct patterns in English whether the conjugation occurs in the present, past or future. Learning these verb conjugation patterns can help understand the logical of tenses in English. Another helpful way of learning tense conjugation in English is to use visual tense charts. You can find resources for each of the major tenses in English to find detailed explanations, as well as quizzes and lesson plans focusing on the specific tense.

Here on the site there are a wide variety of resources for major grammar points including explanations, exercise sheets, quizzes, and lessons. To help use these resources, there are a number of guides to grammar that provide basic grammar explanations, as well as pointing to appropriate worksheets, quizzes and lessons to further study the resources.

Guide to Present Tenses
Guide to Past Simple and Past Continuous
Guide to Past Perfect and Past Perfect Continuous
Guide to Future with Will and Going To
Guide to Comparative and Superlative
Guide to Reported Speech
Guide to Conditional Forms

Double comparatives, like double negatives, are generally considered incorrect English. For example, the phrase

He is more taller than John.

contains a double comparative "more" and "taller". However, many grammar books and English teachers teach a different type of double comparative which is perfectly good English. These double comparatives show cause and result as in these phrases:

The more time you spend on your studies, the better your scores will be.
The more interesting the topic is, the more effort students will make.

This guide to double comparatives helps clear up issues around when to use double comparatives - which are good and which are bad.

The list of great new business English videos here on the site continues to grow. Here are the latest:

Tips for Writing a Business E-mail
Tips for Writing a Business Report
Tips for Writing a Business Memo

There are also new general English videos available: Advanced Tips for Studying Effectively, and Beginner's Guide to Comparatives.

I've just had the pleasure of spending some time reviewing Lingle, an online software tool that helps teachers create lesson materials quickly and effectively. If you are a teacher of English for Specific Purposes, or looking for timely authentic materials for your classroom, I think you'll like what you see.

The basic rules for using a, an or the are as follows: Use a/an when something is mentioned for the first time and the listener(s) don't know which. Use 'the' when referring to something specific that the listener(s) know. Of course, there is a lot more to learning the correct use of a, an or the. Once you've studied the rules, make sure to take the a, an or the quiz to test your understanding.

Here are two new lesson plans that you can use with your students to review important concepts in English. The first is perfect for building an understanding of the parts of speech through exploratory reading. Students use a short reading text provided with the lesson to find parts of speech, synonyms and antonyms.

The second activity uses grammar sheets placed about the room which students fill out as they circulate around the room. Review takes place through interaction with other students, as well as through feedback with the teacher.

While old-fashioned, I still find what I call "Grammar Banging" (intensive grammar review sheets) useful at the for review purposes. Each question focuses on a specific grammar point which can serve as the springboard to more review if necessary.
For Teachers: beginner, intermediate and upper intermediate
For Students: beginner, intermediate and upper intermediate

What? That makes me hungry! It's not really something you can eat. The hamburger essay refers to a style of writing that is common on essays written in English. Use this guide on how to write a hamburger essay to improve both your paragraphs and essays.

The guide will also help you understand how to create a map of your essay which will help make writing easier, and much more organized. This writing workshop takes the hamburger essay to another level focusing on four different exercises that can be used in class to help students improve their essay writing skills.

Relative pronouns such as who, which and that introduce relative clauses. Relative clauses are often used to connect to two simple sentences into one more complex statement. Relative clauses are especially useful at work when explaining and defining things related to goods and services, or speaking about people you work with. This guide to relative clauses goes into great detail about defining and non-defining relative clauses.