An Utterance is the spoken equivalent to a sentence. As a sentence is bounded by a capital letter and a period or full stop (or other punctuation) so an utterance is often (though not always) bounded by silence or a breath or pause. Having said this, there is no precise […]
Continue ReadingTypographical Conventions
This page describes the typographical conventions we use in the Grammar Guide and generally on the IWeb TEFL site. Examples Examples are shown thus: This is a grammar example. Following common convention, ungrammatical sentences are marked with an asterisk: * This is grammatical not. Note that In some grammars (although […]
Continue ReadingThe Passive Voice in English Grammar
English sentences are mostly built using a simple pattern known as SVO which stands for Subject + Verb + Object: {subject} + {verb} + {object} Madeleine + broke + the wine glass. The most important information in a sentence usually comes at the beginning and in the examples above we’re […]
Continue ReadingTeaching Grammar
The subject of Teaching Grammar is often discussed and there are many different views and approaches. New teachers often feel that to properly teach a language they must teach grammar. However this is not the case. Background In the past it was thought that students must be given explicit grammatical […]
Continue ReadingTag Mix
Tag Mix is a straightforward way to practice question tags with your class. It is all about having students identify the two parts of the sentence (the statement and the tag) and then mixing and matching them. As an activity it works best with intermediate and above students; the level […]
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