📙 Grace’s disposition to make the best of everything, and to wink at deficiencies in Winterborne’s menage, was so uniform and persistent that he suspected her of seeing even more deficiencies than he was aware of … ‘… It reminds me so pleasantly that everything here in dear old Hintock is just as it used […]
Lesson #240 (Part 2): How to fix the most common punctuation mistake in English Read More »
As a proofreader and a tutor, the most common mistake I see on a daily basis is the misappropriation (placing in the wrong places) of apostrophes (‘) in English. Even native English speakers make this mistake from time to time! If you have been reading my Lessons for a while, you may remember that I
Lesson #240 (Part 1): How to fix the most common punctuation mistake in English Read More »
📙 “And one day, I remember, I met Miss Matty in the lane that leads to Combehurst; she was walking on the footpath, which, you know, is raised a good way above the road, and a gentleman rode beside her, and was talking to her, and she was looking down at some primroses she had
Lesson #190: Understanding the Difference between ‘Beside’ vs ‘Besides’ Read More »
I thought it would be nice for a change to take a short text from a classic and analyse it in today’s lesson. So I have the pleasure of re-introducing one of my top favourite novels, North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell (1810-1865), having been inspired today by this biscuit tin which I bought last year when I
Lesson #144: Five Small But Important ‘Fruits’ Gathered From Gaskell’s ‘North And South’ Read More »
Is it ‘its’ or ‘it’s’? If you have ever asked yourself that question, you are in the right place! Even if you are uncertain of the answer, know that by asking that question, you show more awareness of the possibility of making a mistake here than many people do – native English speakers included –
Part 2 of our lesson looking at the differences between ‘to lend’ and ‘to borrow’. ✍️ ‘to borrow‘: This verb means to take something from another person with their permission and consent, usually for a short period only. For example, we borrow books from the library – we don’t own them, neither does the library
As mentioned in our Mini-Lesson Monday this week, I would like to address some common mistakes that I sometimes see English language students making. One mistake I encountered in a few places was a tendency to mix up the verbs ‘lend’ and ‘borrow’. I met even advanced English speakers who tripped up on these two words. There are
As mentioned in the first part of this Mini-Lesson (see previous post), ‘must’ is a modal verb expression commonly observed in written English. We looked earlier at usages of ‘must’ in sentences where the action is taking place in the present or future tense – ‘must’ followed by an infinitive such as ‘must yield’ or
English language learners are susceptible to certain common mistakes, even when they have reached an advanced level. To be honest, native English speakers also occasionally make these same errors. I hope to address some of these common issues this week. Beginning today with our Mini-Lesson Monday, consisting of two lesson posts, we will explore the