Friday, February 7, 2014

Present Perfect

The present perfect is NOT perfect. It can be difficult and complicated, but is a VERY important verb form in both spoken and written English.

Grammar books (and teachers) often disagree on how to best teach this form; however, I think the best way to learn it is to study these three rules and gets LOTS of practice

Click here to view my RULES document with examples and explanations

And now, to get some basic practice with FORM for the present perfect, try these web sites:

Practice 1
Practice 2
Practice 3
Practice 4

Now, you can try these web sites to practice with the present perfect and past simple together (these are a bit harder but great practice!)

These first few exercises are fairly easy, but a great place to start for review:
Practice 5
Practice 6
Practice 7
These exercises are a bit more challenging!
Practice 8
Practice 9
Practice 10
Practice 11
Practice 12
Practice 13
Practice 14
Practice 15

Do you like music? Have you heard any songs lately that use the present perfect? We use it a lot!  Here are links to a few that I like:

Rod Stewart: Have I Told You Lately? (live)
Click here to view the lyrics to this song.

Rod Stewart (again!): Have You Ever Seen the Rain?
Click here to view the lyrics.

U2: I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For. (Live in Italy!) (Oh, I like this one a lot!)
Click here to view the lyrics.

Wednesday, February 5, 2014

Prepositions

Prepositions, those tricky little words like "in," "on," and "at," that give all English learners some trouble, are among the most challenging aspects of our language to master.


How well do you know your prepositions?

Start be CLICKING HERE for an easy "usingenglish.com" quiz!

Next, CLICK HERE to view a list of English prepositions and some rules.


For more good practice quizzes, click the links below:

Quiz 1

Quiz 2


For more information about the rules, (how many did you already know? how many are new for you?) click below:

Comprehensive preposition rules

Rules for ON, IN, AT


The sites below include a number of other good practice activities:

Better English.com practice

Practice site 2


Finally, prepositions are made even more complicated by the fact that they are an essential part of phrasal verbs and many idioms and collocations.  Click the links below to learn more and practice with these:

Prepositions and phrasal verbs practice


Time prepositions, in idioms, etc.


Prepositions in expressions


Best OF luck TO you WITH your preposition practice!