Verb collocations
Learn common combinations as complete phrases, such as make a decision, take a break, and pay attention. Do not choose a verb only because it has a similar meaning in your first language.
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Veteran: meaning in service, work, and sports
A veteran is a person who has served in the armed forces, or a person with a lot of experience in a job, activity, or sport.
Vocabulary exercises: notice, choose, and reuse useful words
When you meet a new word, read the whole sentence first. Check its job in the sentence, notice a common word partner, and reuse it in a different but believable situation.
Wanna and gonna: informal spoken English
Use wanna only as an informal way to say want to, and use gonna only as an informal way to say going to for a future plan. They show relaxed speech, not standard spelling. Write the full forms when the situation needs standard English.
What a semicolon does in English writing
Use a semicolon between two complete sentences that have a close connection, or between detailed list items that already contain commas. Do not use it to join a complete sentence to a fragment.
What is a determiner in English?
A determiner comes before a noun to make its meaning more specific. It can show which noun you mean, whose it is, or its amount.
When or if: choosing the condition word
Use when when you expect the event to happen. Use if when you mean "only in the case that" or when the event is uncertain.
Whether vs if: questions, choices, and conditions
Use whether or if for many indirect yes-or-no questions. Use whether before or not, after a preposition, and before to plus a verb. Use if when you mean a condition and a possible result.
Which or who: choose the correct word for people and things
Use who for people. Use which for things and for a choice among options.
Who, which, or that: relative pronouns in English
Use who for people. Use which for things, especially when the clause is extra information between commas. Use that in many defining clauses about people or things, but never after a comma.
Why some country names use the
Use no article with most country names, such as Italy, Mexico, and South Korea. Use the with plural names and names containing words such as states, kingdom, republic, or emirates: the Bahamas, the United States, the United Kingdom, the Czech Republic, and the United Arab Emirates.
Will or going to: decisions, plans, and predictions
Use will for a decision made now: The doorbell is ringing. I'll get it. Use be going to for a prior plan: I'm going to visit my cousin this weekend. For predictions, will often states what you think, while be going to often points to present evidence.