WRONG: We moved to a new premise. Can you spot the error? Premises are land and buildings together considered as a property. If you are referring to property, it needs to come with a “s”, regardless whether it is singular/plural. CORRECT: We moved to the new premises. If you used “premise” without the “s”, it[…]
I remember my first day of secondary school. My principal was addressing us and asked us if we knew which school we have enrolled in. Several students went up to the microphone and said “Chinese High” and the principal said they were wrong, much to the bewilderment of the adolescents. “You are not in Chinese[…]
“Shall” is often used to make suggestions, make an offer or ask for advice. EXAMPLES: Shall we go for a movie tonight? Shall I get you more rice? “Should” is often used to talk about obligation and duty. EXAMPLES: You son is sick. You should stay home and look after him. You should not be[…]
“Imprisoned for 38 years, supporters believe activist leader was framed for murder by police in tumultuous early ’70s.” Oh dear. How would you interpret this headline? It seems to imply the supporters were imprisoned for 38 years! Adjectives that end with -ing and -ed are called participles. When you use such participles with no proper[…]
It’s fine if you “talked about” something or “spoke about” something. Correct: We talked about this performance. Correct: We spoke about his experience. However, you shouldn’t “mention about” something. WRONG: We mentioned about his mistakes to the teacher. RIGHT: We mentioned his mistakes to the teacher.
When do you use the word “like”? 1) The obvious mistake Youngsters these days enjoy using “like” as a filler to replace “uh”, “erm”. Examples: I was, like, so angry. My boyfriend is ,like, the best ever. This is a simple correction. Just remove the word “like”. Correct: I was so angry. My boyfriend is[…]
English tip: Sometimes, when we have a piece of good news to share, we get excited and we may start by saying “Guess what”. Now- the question is– do we add a question mark or a period after “guess what”? In this scenario, “guess what” is an imperative (a command/request) so it is conventionally punctuated[…]
English tip: When you use “For example”, you already refer to a partial list. There’s no need to put “etc” at the end of the sentence if you have used “for example”; it’s redundant. For instance: Bring fruits to the party; for example, grapes and bananas. (correct) Bring fruits to the party; for example, grapes,[…]
English tip: When to use past perfect tense: 1. Something occurred before another action in the past/Something happened before a specific time in the past. For example: I had never known what love is until I met my beautiful wife. 2. Something started in the past and continued up until another action in the past.[…]
English tip: When do we use the present perfect tense? 1) When the accompanying adverb refers to a period gone by, we would use the simple past. For example: I partied all night last Saturday. 2) With the time period starts from the past and continues to the present, we would use the present perfect.[…]