These are the possessive pronouns. They replace a noun and another word. We never put an apostrophe on a possessive pronoun.
These pronouns are used to start questions:
Who did you invite to your party?
Whose pen is this?
Whom did you speak to?
What are they doing in the garden?
Which of these do you like?
Lesson by Tristan, English teacher at EC Malta English school
Choose one of the interrogative pronouns for the following:
There are different ways that the plurals of nouns are formed in English.
Add 's' (pronounced /s/ as in 'so')
shop - shops
cat – cats
book – books
Add 's' (pronounced /z/ as in zoo)
girl – girls
boy – boys
door – doors
Add 'es' (pronounced /iz/)
race – races
box – boxes
dish – dishes
It is important to distinguish between a short or long vowel with regard to doubling a consonant.
Short vowels – He wanted to stop driving for a break.
Long vowels – He hoped the weather would be good.
When we add -ed or -ing to a word, we double the consonant if a short vowel comes before it. We do not double a consonant if a long vowel comes before it.
Defining relative clauses give information about people, things, possessions, places and times. We use relative pronouns with defining relative clauses.
People – who, that
He's a person who is always punctual.
An anchor man is a person that reads the news.
Things – that, which
A calculator is a device that is hardly used anymore.
The mobile is a piece of technology which we can't do without.
A lot of, lots of, much and many are used in relation to count and non-count nouns so it is useful to remember which nouns are ‘count’ (countable) and ‘non-count’ (uncountable) first:
Countable nouns or ‘count’ nouns are those nouns that can be counted:
An apple, two apples etc.
Uncountable nouns or ‘non-count’ nouns are those nouns that cannot be counted: water, bread etc. Uncountable nouns take a singular verb and are not used with a/an.
Every and each are used with singular (countable) ‘count’ nouns. It is useful to remember which nouns are ‘count’ (countable) and ‘non-count’ (uncountable) first:
Countable nouns or ‘count’ nouns are those nouns that can be counted:
An apple, two apples etc.
This is the first of a series of lessons on adverbials. In this lesson we look at why we use adverbials, how they are formed and where they go in a sentence.
Lesson by Tristan, English teacher at EC Malta
Adverbials are used to give more information about a verb. Adverbs can be placed in different groups according to their ‘function’.
Noun phrases start with determiners which are placed at the beginning of these phrases. Determiners are specific or general.
Lesson by Tristan, English teacher at EC Malta English school
There are many ways of making requests and asking for permission in English. Consider these situations:
