Degrees of Comparison: Revise and Check!

Dear students,

these are some sites where you can read about the use of the comparison in English:

1. Degrees of Comparison: summary + test

2. Equal, Unequal, Double Comparatives... etc. + test


After several years learning English, you must have a good grasp of the use of comparison, but I recommend you pay attention to the numbered comparatives, since they might be new for some of you.

Numbered Comparatives

Numbered comparatives can include such words or phrases as: half, twice, three times, four times, etc.

The phrase as much as is used for non-countable nouns and as many as is used for countable nouns.

The phrase more than is NOT used with numbered comparatives. It is incorrect to say four times more than, etc.

EXAMPLES:

• This rock weighs twice as much as that one.
• Ronald has four times as much money as Paul.
• The cat had half as many kittens as before.

Narrative Tenses: Past Perfect Continuous

Dear students,

I know sometimes the use of the continuous tenses in English might be a bit confusing for a Spanish student. But this is just a matter of practice. Once you get familiar with the grammar, you can put it into practice without much effort. So, if you feel there was something tricky about the tenses we studied today in class, just try with the explanations and activities provided below. I hope you find them useful.

1. Present Perfect Continuous and related activities
2. Past Perfect Continuous and related activities

Travel, Trip or Journey?

Dear students,
if you need an extra explanation concerning thebasic differences between travel, trip and journey, read this entry. There are some exercises available too.Please, let me know if you have any problem with the use of these words.

See you soon,
reme

Present Perfect // Present Perfect Continuous

Some extra exercises and quizzes to learn to use these two tenses in a correct way:

1. Present Perfect Continuous // Fill in the gaps (with answers)

2. Present Perfect or Present Perfect Continuous? -a Grammar lesson and exercises

3. Have a look at this presentation if you still have doubts:

Present perfect versus present perfect continuous 

4. And, finally, some humour:

 

Follow-up Questions in Conversation

1. How do you mean exactly?
2. What does that involve?
3. How come?
4. What for?
5. What's it like?
6. What sort of thing?

Which of these follow-up questions would you choose in these situations:

A.  I'm going to Finland next week.
     Really? _________________?

B.  I bought a new outfit for the wedding yesterday.
    Oh, yeah? _______________?

C. Our sports club organizes lots of social events.
    That's nice. ______________?

D. My sister's got a new job working for a charity.
    Sounds interesting. ________________?

E. Maria ended up in Scotland.
    Eh? _______________?

F. What's your domestic situation?
   Er, _________________?

Grammar Activities: "So do I", "Neither do I", "So I am", etc.

Dear students,

in case you want to continue dipping into today's grammar lesson at home, here you are some links:

Brief explanation in Spanish and a Quiz
A longer explanation in English (with charts!)
ONLINE QUIZ: "So do I", "Neither do I" (and others)