Learned words whose spelling hides the way they are said
Ten educated words, most of them from Greek and French, that kept spellings the ordinary rules cannot read, each with a plain respelling.
Reference
British place names that are not said the way they are written
Ten British place names whose spelling is centuries out of date, with the local pronunciation and the three patterns that explain most of them.
Three-part verbs that never split, and where each sits on the register scale
Ten three-word verbs that never separate, with a register note on where a single-word verb reads better.
Why you cannot hear where one word ends and the next begins
How fluent speech runs words together, and the patterns that let you hear the joins.
Everyday expressions where one word is fixed and cannot be swapped
Common fixed expressions in which one word is welded in place and cannot be swapped for a synonym.
When two near-synonyms describe the same behaviour and only one is a compliment
Pairs of near-synonyms that describe the same behaviour, where one praises and the other criticises.
Expressions you can half-guess: the body, the weather and money
Expressions built from the body, the weather and money, half guessable from their ordinary words.
Five written vowels, roughly twenty spoken ones: why spelling misleads
Five written vowels stand for roughly twenty spoken sounds; this chart shows which letter gives which.
Point, surface, container: one scale for both time and place
Point, surface and container: one scale that chooses the preposition for both time and place.
Which word goes in front of the noun, and when nothing does
The indefinite article, the definite article and no article at all, with the meaning each choice carries.
What each paper of the A2 Key exam asks you to do
The three papers of the A2 Key exam, what each one asks you to do and how the marks are shared.
Choosing the right line for each move in a work email
A work email is a sequence of moves; here is a ready-made line for each move at three levels of formality.
Which syllable carries the beat, and what makes it move
Which syllable carries the beat in longer words, and the endings that make the beat move.
The set expressions you will hear first in everyday English
The set expressions you will meet first in everyday English, each paired with its plain meaning.
Words for what you eat: which take a plural and which never do
Food words sorted into the ones that take a plural and the ones that never do, with the quantity words each accepts.
Naming the people you are related to, by blood and by marriage
Family words in three layers: the household, the wider family, and relatives by marriage.
Openings and farewells, from the most formal to the most relaxed
Greetings and goodbyes arranged from the most formal to the most relaxed, with the situation each one suits.
Writing the numbers from 1 to 100 in words, with the usual spelling traps
Every number from 1 to 100 written out, with the spelling traps in the teens, the tens and the hyphenated forms.
The letters that are spelled but never spoken
The letters that are written but never spoken, grouped into the small number of patterns they follow.
Two-part verbs and their single-word formal twins
Two-part verbs paired with the single Latin-origin word that replaces each one in formal writing.
Shortening a clause down to its verb form
How a full clause shortens to its verb form, what the shortened clause can and cannot do, and the classic error.
Turning actions into nouns to lift the register
Turning verbs into nouns to lift the register of an essay, with the endings that build each noun.
Which strong adverb goes with which adjective
Strong adverbs keep a small circle of regular adjective partners; this table lists the pairs worth learning.
Set expressions for saying something was easy or hard
Ready-made expressions for saying that something was effortless or a struggle, sorted by tone.
The three present forms of the most important verb
The three present forms of the most frequent verb in English, and which subject takes which.
The busiest verb and its two-part combinations
The busiest verb in English combined with its small words, one meaning per combination.
Plural forms that refuse to follow the rule
The nouns that change inside the word to form a plural, and the few that do not change at all.
Same sound, different word: traps even native writers fall into
Word sets that sound the same but are spelled differently, the slips fluent writers make at speed.
What comes after the verb: the two patterns
Which verbs are followed by the -ing form and which by the to-form, learned pair by pair.
Connectors that hold an essay together
The connectors that make an essay's logic visible, grouped by the relationship each one signals.
Ready-made lines for opening and closing an email
Opening and closing lines for workplace email, sorted by how formal the relationship is.
The small words that follow common adjectives
Common adjectives with the fixed small word that follows each one.
The irregular past forms you cannot avoid
The ten irregular past forms you will meet every single day, with both past forms side by side.