Hot verbs, empty verbs - Exercises with do, give, have, make, take

A look at some common uses of the verbs

do, give, have, make, take

with lots of exercises for advanced students

Time clauses

The term Time Clause is usually used for adverbial subordinate clauses which link an event in that clause to another event in the main clause in a time relationship. They answer the question when? Time clauses cannot stand alone except as an answer to a question.

• Mary made lunch after she had done the shopping.
• When did Mary make lunch?
• After she had done the shopping.

Time clauses start with a conjunction -

when, whenever, while, once, before, after, as, (ever) since, until, as soon as, now (that), the moment (that)

The time clause can come before or after the main clause. When it comes before, it is usually followed by a comma. But if the main course comes first, no comma is used.

• After she had done the shopping, Mary made lunch.
• Mary made lunch after she had done the shopping.

Mainly through the use of exercises, this post deals with:

• Time clauses - which conjunction to use
• The use of tenses in time clauses
• Reducing time clauses
• Other clauses that express a time relationship

Video lesson - Stonehenge

Stonehenge is one of the oldest structures in Europe and one of the best known prehistoric sites in the world. Watch a History Channel video and do the accompanying exercises. Then to get a good introduction to the whole subject, you can go to the page at Britain Express linked to below.

Photo by thegarethwiscombe at Flickr - some rights reserved

Shiitake mushrooms comedy sketch

Photo by frankenstoen, at Wikimedia

Shiitake (/ʃɪtɑ:kɪ/ or /ʃɪ:tɑ:kɪ/) are edible mushroom native to East Asia, which are cultivated and consumed in many Asian countries, as well as being dried and exported to many countries around the world. They are a feature of many Asian cuisines including Chinese, Vietnamese, Japanese, Korean and Thai. In the East, the shiitake mushroom has long been considered a delicacy as well as a medicinal mushroom. (Wikipedia)

They were also the subject of a short sketch in the popular British comedy series, The Catherine Tate Show, featuring Yorkshire couple 'Janice and Ray'.

Gradable or ungradable? List of adjectives

Gradable Adjectives

Some people find this site by googling "Is xyz gradable?". Some others are looking for lists of gradable and ungradable adjectives. So I thought I'd try and make a table. This is not meant to be a complete list, but as people ask about other adjectives I'll try and add them to the list.