Question tags: the tune decides whether you are asking or checking
The same question tag can check or genuinely ask, and only the tune of the voice tells the listener which.
Lessons
Understatement in senior meetings: how small words carry a large no
In a British meeting the softer the wording, the firmer the objection; this lesson teaches you to hear a polite sentence at full strength.
The beat of the sentence: which words carry it and which almost vanish
Content words carry the rhythm of spoken English; the grammar words between them shrink to fit.
The consonant at the end of a word carries the grammar
Plural, past and third person all live in the final consonant, so dropping it drops the grammar.
Punctual, or early enough? Two expressions that are not interchangeable
One small word separates arriving punctually from arriving with time to spare.
The sound that decides which form goes in front
The article in front of a noun is chosen by the first sound you hear, never by the first letter.
The four parts of a strong interview answer, and what weakens it
A good interview answer is a tiny story in four fixed parts, and most weak answers skip one of them.
Two sounds from one spelling, and the wrong ones learners reach for
One pair of letters spells two different consonants, and every substitute learners reach for is already a real word.
The small second word that decides what a verb means
The two-part verbs a beginner meets in the very first week, and why the small word that follows the verb is never decoration.
Why a friendly opening sounds wrong in a formal setting
Every greeting also announces how close you think you are to the other person, which is why a warm one can misfire.
Idioms you must learn whole
Fixed expressions behave like single vocabulary items: their verb bends into any tense, while every other word is locked and no synonym may be substituted.
Reporting a claim without owning it
How formal written English lets you pass on what people are claiming while quietly making clear that you are not the one claiming it.
The opening phrase that describes the wrong person
A phrase at the start of a sentence quietly borrows its subject from the main clause, which is how confident writers end up attributing an action to whatever happens to follow the comma.
Granting your opponent a point, then taking it back
A set of frozen openings that let you concede the other side's point in the first half of the sentence so that your own argument lands with full weight in the second.
Saying that something exists
How English announces that something exists, and how the noun that follows chooses between the two openers.
Where the little word goes in two-part verbs
Where the object goes in two-part verbs - and the one position a pronoun is never allowed to take.
How the verb steps back when you pass on someone's words
What happens to tenses, pronouns and time expressions when you pass on yesterday's words today.
The small letter that changes the verb when someone else acts
Why the verb gains one small letter when the subject is a single other person or thing - and nowhere else.
Asking for things politely in work emails
Why direct commands fail in work emails, and which softening frames native writers use instead.
The regular way to talk about finished actions
One ending turns a regular verb into the past - when to use it, and how the spelling shifts along the way.
Rewriting the question in your own words
How to reword an essay prompt so the examiner sees your language, not the question's.
When the stress moves, the meaning changes
How moving the stress from one syllable to the other turns a thing into an action in dozens of common word pairs.
Starting with a negative for dramatic effect
The formal word-order swap that follows a fronted negative phrase, and why it makes writing sound emphatic.
Two everyday verbs learners constantly mix up
Two everyday verbs share the work that a single verb does in most other languages - here is how English splits it.
Real future possibilities and their results
How English links a real future possibility to its result, and why one half of the sentence stays in the present.
Three different sounds for one written ending
One written past ending, three spoken sounds - and the simple rule your mouth already wants to follow.
Present perfect continuous
An action that started in the past and is still going on now.