Category: English
Immersive language learning online and offline
Guest Blogger: Nick Eley is the Co-Founder of English Like A Native and has become fluent in Spanish and Thai while travelling. What is immersive language learning? Immersive language learning is the process of surrounding yourself with a language and culture. At its best, you take away all of the options to engage with the…
Double negatives in English – a big no no
Picture it: you are sitting in an English class and a teacher says “don’t use double negatives”. Double negative? What is a double negative? How can anything be negative twice? What is a double negative? A double negative in the content of language is when a sentence has multiple negative words. A negative word can…
Future in the past – What were you going to do?
In English, there exists a concept called “future in the past”. This is when you talk about how the future was going to be at some point in the past (whether it actually happened or not). Before you continue this article, if you are unfamiliar with either the future tense or the past tense, please…
Reported Speech – He said, she said
Sometimes when you are telling a story or relaying information someone told you, you don’t necessarily want to say absolutely everything in exactly the same way as it was told to you (i.e. direct speech). Sometimes you simply can’t remember and other times exactly what was said was important. So what do you do instead?…
Past habits – Over and over again
In this article we will cover: You can describe past habits (or actions that happened repeatedly in the past) in three different ways in English: used to, would and the past simple tense. Used to If you have learnt about modal and semi-modal verbs before, you may be familiar with used to. In fact, this…
Should vs ought to vs had better
Before reading this post, you should be familiar with should, ought to and had better. You will need this information to understand Should vs ought to vs had better. Which to use? Should? Ought to? Had better? What are these three modal verbs? Why are there three ways to talk about recommendations or suggestions? Are…
Modal verbs – Can vs May
Before reading this article, make sure you are familiar with the uses of can and may. You will need that information to understand can vs may. You may have heard someone say “Can I go to the bathroom.” You might have also heard “May I go to the bathroom”. Can we use both “can” and…
Austria has no more fucks to give – Fucking (Upper Austria) name change
It is not often that I write about current event, especially in a setting such as this website. While linguistics and language are often in the news, it is not often for a sad reason. As you may have seen in the news, the town of Fucking in Upper Austria decided on 27 November 2020…
Semi-modal verbs – used to
The last semi-modal on our list is “used to”, which you will probably be very familiar with. You have probably used “used to” to talk about habits: As a child I used to play near the stream every day. This was an action that happened many times in the past but no longer. You can…
Semi-modal verbs – ought to
For many of you, reading this post will be one of the few times (if not the first time) you have seen the word “ought to”. This word is the next semi-modal verb on our list. What is it and why are we including it on our list? What does it even mean? It is…
Semi-modal verbs – had better
Probably one of the more unusual semi-modal verbs is “had better”. While it follows the rules of normal modal verbs, this one is the only one that comprises a verb in the past tense (which stays the same for all tenses) and an adverb. You can use it for a variety of things, such as…
Semi-modal verb – need
The next semi-modal verb on our list is the verb “to need”, which means “to require something”. Usually it follows the rules for normal verbs, such as in the following example: I need to go. A non-modal use of the verb “need” Did you know that there is a way to use it as a…
Semi-modal verb – dare
The next semi-modal verb on our list is the verb “to dare”, which means “to have the courage to do something” or “defy/challenge someone to do something”. But wait, Jamie, you might say: I have seen this verb used normally, such as in the sentence below. How is this a semi-modal verb? Does he dare…
Showing obligation: “must” vs “have to”
So we have looked at the modal verb “must” and the semi-modal verb “have to” and have seen that they serve very similar roles. They both talk about an obligation – something that is needed to be done. Naturally the question arises: are they the same thing? What is the difference between must vs have…
Semi-modal verbs – have to
The verb “to have” is very versatile. It forms the perfect tenses and also has its own meaning which shows possession. For example: As a semi-modal verb When the verb “have” is in the form “have to”, it functions like must, showing obligation and is a semi-modal verb. But why is it a semi-modal verb…
