Learning English

The following essay is an example of the so-called profile essays (about a person in this case). In order to respect the person's privacy I have altered the name and used some generic reference instead of originally specific reference for places (e.g. her home town instead of the town's name, also a big city instead of the specific name). You can find out more about these essays on this website . Some additional examples of profiles: http://www.lsu.edu/faculty/jpullia/1001profex4.htm http://www.lsu.edu/faculty/jpullia/1001profex9.htm http://www.lsu.edu/faculty/jpullia/1001profex7.htm                                                          Born to be happy Some people simply make us believe that the saying “change your thoughts to change your life” is not just one more cliché we reach for when things do no...

                                                                  What is Englishness? According to StefanCollini , Professor of English Literature and Intellectual History at Cambridge and one of the academics who have been thoroughly exploring the issues of national identity and history, it is useful to consider how national identity is constructed to understand the elusiveness of this notion. Collini argues that the members of a nation build a collective identity by sharing some common features which are not characteristic of other nations, in other words, that two components are necessary: commonality and distinctiveness. He also  believes in “English Pasts” and that just one entity cannot be called “the English Mind.” If one focuses on the elusiveness of this notion, one realises that the elusiveness i...

This post is going to be slightly different from my previous posts. In case you have grown tired of grammar, you may find this post refreshing and, perhaps, inspirational. It is a story written from a viewpoint of Cinderella's half-sister Drizella. I wrote it as a part of an assignment at university so it is of a rather limited length.                                                  Princess Drizella    I sit here for at least half an hour and observe the crowd in front of my castle. The same people every fortnight, their ridiculous painted faces and hair full of powder. They all are trying to get the best place in the hall, as near as possible to the Prince. There was a time when I was enchanted by these dances....

In this post I have explained some basic notions for which I believe to be central to understanding of verbs, especially full verbs. MAIN MORPHOLOGICAL FORMS Regular verbs have four morphological forms; irregular verbs can have more or less than four: - base form (plan, sing, cut, etc.) - -s form (plans, sings, cuts, etc.) - -ing form (planning,  singing, cutting, etc.) - -ed form (planned, sang, cut, etc.) –this form is the same for both the past participle and the passive participle * verb CUT has only three distinct morphological forms ( base form : cut; -s form : cuts; -ing form : cutting; -ed form = base form) * verb SPEAK has five morphological forms ( base form : speak; -s form : speaks; -ing form : speaking; the past form : spoke; the -ed participle : spoken) Since the –s form and –ing form are always predictable for both regular and irregular verbs (e.g. plans/cuts; planning/cutting/speaking), the only forms that are listed for...

Adverbs of frequency are frequent themselves so it is good to know a thing or two about them. According to Thomson-Martinet grammar there are three main rules in terms of their distribution, then some exceptions to those rules - which is a must in English! :) - and a few additional rules concerning some of these adverbs. Three main rules 1) These adverbs are placed AFTER the simple tenses of the verb TO BE - There are always a lot of exceptions to grammar rules. - We are constantly on the lookout for new ideas. 2) They are placed BEFORE the simple tenses of ALL OTHER VERBS - The children always seem to be hungry. - We occasionally meet for a drink after work. 3) They are placed AFTER  the first auxiliary in the compound tenses (or in the interrogative after the auxiliary and the subject) - This type of allergy can very occasionally be fatal. - Pat has always loved gardening. - Have you ever been to Rome? Exceptions to the third rule A.  They ...

  1) FRONT and END POSITION There are certain adverbs of time which are normally placed at the very beginning or at the very end of the sentence: afterwards , eventually , lately , now , recently , soon , then , today , tomorrow and so on, as well as some adverb phrases such as at once , since then , till 8 a.m.  (or similar), etc. These positions are also known as front or end position. End position is usual with imperatives and phrases with till . Examples: *afterwards : - Afterwards she was sorry for what she'd said. (front position) - Let's go out now and eat afterwards. (end position) *eventually: - Eventually we will own the house. - I'll get round to mending it eventually. *lately: - Lately, she has been worrying about her son. - Have you seen her lately? *now: - "So that's the truth," I told her. "Now you know." - It's too late now. *recently : - Recently, I've been feeling a bit depressed. - I have...

                                                   What does it really mean to know a word? Many people believe they know a word if they can translate it in their own language. However, there is much more to any word then just translating its meaning. We are reminded of this every time we come across a word we thought we knew well in a completely unexpected context. According to Penny Ur , a renowned English Language Teaching expert, to learn a word we need to know: 1. Form: pronunciation and spelling 2. Grammar 3. Collocation 4. Aspects of meaning (1): denotation, connotation, appropriateness 5. Aspects of meaning (2): meaning relationships 6. Word formation Let us now consider every of these features a...