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Grammar tips

14 articles
Help your students learn phrasal verbs effectively
3 min read 3 min

For many people, one of the most challenging aspects of learning English is the use of phrasal verbs...

4-part holiday season lesson plan: speaking and grammar
5 min read 5 min

Get your class feeling the holiday cheer with this lesson combining a couple of Christmas themed act...

Grammar recap: Intro to gerunds and infinitives
7 min read 7 min

As students become more proficient in English, they inevitably begin focusing on some of the trickie...

This is how advanced grammar changes language skills
5 min read 5 min

While it’s clear that language becomes more nuanced and complex as higher levels, it’s not always cl...

Grammar lesson plan: Modals of possibility, for levels C1+
5 min read 5 min

Modal verbs are are the bread and butter of every grammar class. Students encounter them at all leve...

How to teach mixed conditionals
5 min read 5 min

Mixed conditionals are one of the more difficult and confusing grammar points to teach. Those of us ...

Ever had trouble teaching ’lend’ and ’borrow’? Try this technique
3 min read 3 min

Sometimes the easiest way to teach confusing words is to take the grammar and the boardwork totally ...

What are anaphoric and cataphoric references? (And how to teach them)
4 min read 4 min

What a mouthful! In short, anaphoric and cataphoric references are emphatic styles of sentence struc...

Grammar lesson plan: Reported speech, for levels C1+
4 min read 4 min

Though a fastidious grammar point, accurate use of reported speech is essential to daily life. C1 st...

Grammar lesson plan: 3 activities to teach the passive voice
5 min read 5 min

There are tons of uses for the passive voice. But rather than reading 30 pages on the matter or list...

Grammar lesson plan: Prepositions
4 min read 4 min

This may seem like an easy topic. But don’t let the title fool you. Prepositions are a complex part ...

Grammar lesson plan: Narrative tenses
5 min read 5 min

We all tell stories. But non-native speakers can feel inhibited by the fear of making grammatical mi...