2015-08-22 We Suggest That You Learn the Subjunctive
For VOA Learning English, this is Everyday Grammar. Today, we’re going to talk about using the subjunctive. English speakers use the subjunctive to express a wide variety of unreal or…
2015-08-15 The Sounds of Grammar with Betty Azar
For VOA Learning English, this is Everyday Grammar. Today we have a special guest host. Betty Azar is the most successful writer of grammar textbooks in the world. Generations of…
2015-08-08 Are Causatives Making You Crazy?
This week’s Everyday Grammar looks at the grammatical forms called causatives. Basically, causatives express how one actor causes another actor to do something. You know the meaning of make as…
2015-08-01 May, Might, Must – Modals of Certainty and Hope
For VOA Learning English, this is Everyday Grammar. This week’s Everyday Grammar looks at how to use the modals may, must, and might. Modal verbs (called modals for short) are…
2015-07-25 Can I, Could I, May I?
For VOA Learning English, this is Everyday Grammar. This week we will give you some tips on how to use modals to make requests and give permission. Some common modals…
2015-07-18 You Had Better Learn Modals!
For VOA Learning English, this is Everyday Grammar. This week we are going to show you how to give advice using modal verbs. Modal verbs (called modals for short) are…
2015-07-11 Mastering Reported Speech
We often need to tell others what someone else said. There are two ways to do this. One is to say the same words and use quotation marks. That is…
2015-07-04 Beating Problems with Adverbs
For VOA Learning English, this is Everyday Grammar. This week, we’re going to talk about some common problems with adverbs. Basically, adverbs are words that describe verbs, adjectives, and other…
2015-06-27 Words Come and Go in English
For VOA Learning English, this is Everyday Grammar. This week’s Everyday Grammar is by a guest author, David Sullivan. He is Assistant Managing Editor at The Philadelphia Inquirer, and Vice…
2015-06-20 When Passive Is Better than Active
This Everyday Grammar is all about the passive voice. The passive is a verb form in which the subject receives the action of the verb. For example, “I was born…
2015-06-13 Using the Right Article
What word appears most often in English? It’s “the,” also known as the definite article. Its partner, the indefinite article “a”,is also among the top 10 most frequent words in…
2015-06-06 Advanced Conditionals
This week, we are going to talk about the past unreal conditional. Past unreal conditionals are often used to express wishes about the past. They often show regret, or sad…
2015-05-30 Relative Pronouns
In this week’s episode of Everyday Grammar, we are going to discuss the relative pronouns who, that and which. A relative pronoun relates to the noun it is describing. Relative…
2015-05-23 Introducing Conditionals
In this week’s episode of Everyday Grammar, we are going to talk about conditionals. We use conditionals to show that something is true only when something else is true. Conditionals…
2015-05-16 Problems with Pronouns and Gender
When I was on the train yesterday, I heard someone say this: “Someone left their bag on the train.” Can you find anything wrong with the sentence? If you looked…