Fronting exercises (with a bit of subject-verb inversion)

These ten exercises are intended to give students some pretty intensive practice in fronting. They cover the more common forms of fronting, and include basic instructions on how it is done. For more detail on how they are formed and why we use fronting you could have a look at my post on 'Exploring Inversion and fronting' (link at the bottom).

Place names - the or zero article?

Whether to use the definite article the before place names or not can be a little confusing. Try these three quizzes first, and then read about some of the general principles involved.

Indefinite articles - a or an?

A quick quiz to test your understanding of when to use a and when to use an as the indefinite article. Do the quiz before you read the notes which follow it.

Verbs with two objects

Some verbs can take two objects. The first one is usually a person or group of people, and the second one a thing or things. Learn all about them with these exercises.

At the end of the post there's also a table of the different patterns that can be found with these verbs.

Inversion in Conditionals

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There's not an awful lot on the Internet or in grammar books on the inversion of conditionals, so I thought I'd take quite a detailed look at it, with plenty of exercises.

This post consists of:

• Four introductory exercises
• The basic principles
• First conditional - exercise
• Second conditional - exercise
• Third conditional - exercise
• Inverting negatives
• Mixed conditionals
• If it wasn't/weren't/hadn't been for ... - exercise
• Bringing it all together - exercise
• Should - advanced point - aspect
• How do we know when we can invert in real tense conditionals?
• Exceptions - should, have and were to have done

Should you find the introductory exercises too difficult, or would prefer to go straight the explanation, you can skip (miss out) the first section.

Used to, will and would

A look at how we use used to in its various forms and when we can use would instead of used to.

Phrasal verbs based on give

Word image made with Wordle

There are relatively few phrasal verbs based on the verb give, but some of them have more than one meaning. Test your knowledge with these exercises. If you get stuck, you can check their meanings at the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary linked to below (scroll down to Phrasal verbs).

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

Phrasal verbs based on take

We use phrasal verbs based on the verb take quite often. Test your knowledge with these exercises. Have a look at the table and try working out their meanings and doing the exercises without looking them up first. But if you get stuck, you can quickly check their meanings at the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary or one of the other websites linked to below.

Phrasal verbs based on take can have a physical sense - take something back somewhere implying that you physically move something or accompany somebody somewhere. They can also have a more metaphorical sense, but still implying this movement - This music takes me back to my childhood, or a completely non-literal sense - She has taken up jogging.

Non-defining relative clauses, sentential relative clauses and connective relative clauses

This post looks at non-defining relative clauses, also known as non-restrictive relative clauses, and a couple of very similar structures: sentential relative clauses and connective or coordinate relative clauses.

As these are very similar in construction, they are usually all treated as non-defining relative clauses in EFL/ESL. So for most foreign learners it won't be necessary to learn or remember the terms sentential and connective. But judging by comments in ESL forums, there are some students who are taught these terms, so hopefully this post will be able to clarify things a bit.

This post mainly consists of exercises, and we'll start by looking at the differences between defining and non-defining relative clauses.

When to use do after who in questions (and when not to).

Recently I read on a language website about how a student was confused about when to use do after who in questions, as someone had told him we can't use do/does/did after who. I don't know who that 'someone' was, but they had obviously got a bit confused themselves. Yes, there are times when we don't use do/does/did after who (and some other question words), but it is really the exception rather than the rule.

Read about using auxiliary do/does/did in questions, and do a couple of exercises.

The vocabulary of fraud, business crime, and scams

This post is about fraud of one type or another. Through several exercises we look first at the vocabulary of business crime, also known as white-collar or financial crime, and then at the world of scams.

Reported speech - lesson and exercises

Constructing reported speech involves using a mixture of some basic rules and your common sense. When using the first doesn't sound natural, use the second. The main idea is that it should make sense to the listener.

This is a fairly detailed but not exhaustive look at reported speech. I hope to follow it up with some more advanced vocabulary and exercises fairly soon.

Confusing verbs - come, go, bring, take and get

Polish has two basic verbs for go: iść and jechać. Which you use depends whether you are on foot or on a horse. Or rather whether you would have made the journey on foot or on a horse in the days before mechanised transport.

In English, it is not the method that is so important, but the direction relative to the speaker or the person they are talking to. And it's the same if we are carrying something or are with someone.

I don't think many advanced students really have problems with come and go, but when it comes to bring and take, it seems to be a different matter. Practise using these verbs in their basic sense with these exercises:

Confusing words - matching exercises based on two top ten lists

Among the growing number of 'Top 10 lists' at Merriam-Webster online dictionary are two sets on confusing words. Here are a couple of exercises based on them.

Pronouns and determiners - some, any, no, none, somebody, anybody, nobody etc

Practise using some, any, somebody, anybody etc, with these gapfull exercises. And also check out some related idioms and expressions.

Confusing words - Relations, relatives and relationships

These three nouns often have very similar meanings, but are sometimes used in slightly different ways. Judging by the number of questions asked about them on forums, learners can find them quite confusing. In fact I think it's even difficult for a native speaker to explain the difference; we just trust our instincts. So let's try to work them out.