I home educated my son from the age of 13 until he went to college at 19. It’s a tough challenge, but sometimes you have to do what you know…
Read More
This is me, in my office. And this is the view that my students have during lessons. A little over two years ago, just before we were all told to…
Have you heard of iambic pentameter? Students often tell me they know it’s important but they are not quite sure what it is. In this post, I aim to clear…
There are six adverbs we can learn quite easily that help to make Shakespeare’s language a lot simpler. They are all about direction. Why is this important? Well, the words…
Language can be precise, specific and to the point, or it can me imprecise, vague and even confusing. There are times when we want to be precise but there are…
In the past three Exploring English posts we have looked at modal verbs. Today we explore the final main category: Modal verbs of ability. Here, ability covers both the sense…
Have you heard the term ‘register‘ in relation to language? It’s an important aspect of how we use language but, if we are not careful, we may not pay…
When I was little, my mother used to recite these lines: Where the bee sucks, there suck I; In a cowslip’s bell I lie; There I couch when owls…
Last week, we explored modal verbs of certainty and uncertainty. Today we move on to obligation and permission. Obligation means that we have to do something. We don’t have…
This week I’ve been looking at false friends. These are words that look familiar, but are being used in a different way and so have a different meaning. Or, in…
O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo? This is one of Shakespeare’s best known lines. It is also one of the most commonly misunderstood. These words are spoken by Juliet…
Last week we looked at modal verbs, what they are and how they work. This week we go a little deeper and explore modal verbs dealing with degrees of certainty….