2023-11-16 ‘Happy Thanksgiving’
Americans will soon celebrate Thanksgiving. The holiday involves family, friends and food. A common expression Americans say to each other at this time of year is “Happy Thanksgiving.” In the…
2023-11-09 Grammar and Pessimism
In a recent lesson, we explored a point of connection between grammar and optimism – a good or hopeful opinion of the world and future events. In today’s lesson, we…
2023-11-02 Grammar and Optimism
How do we talk about events or actions that make us happy or hopeful about the present and future? In other words, how do we talk about optimism? In today’s…
2023-10-26 Grammar and Halloween
An interesting holiday in the United States is coming up soon. Halloween happens on the last day of October. If you have lived in the U.S., you have probably noticed…
2023-10-19 Grammar and Disagreements
Consider almost any social or political issue. It could be local or international. Some people have one idea about the issue, and other people have other ideas about the issue.…
2023-10-12 The Language of International Conflicts
The war between Israel and Hamas has drawn a lot of international attention this week. News reports, videos, and social media posts have informed people about the latest events in…
2023-10-05 Grammar and Uncertainty
Consider an unusual time in your life. Perhaps your country was having a financial crisis or a political crisis. Perhaps one of your family members became sick. In other words,…
2023-09-28 Discussing Alien Life
Over the last several months, there have been many news reports about possible alien life and strange objects in the skies, sometimes called UFOs. The stories have led to public…
2023-09-21 Offering Coffee and Tea
Consider a time you asked someone to drink tea, coffee, or soda. What kinds of terms and structures did you use? In this week’s Everyday Grammar, we will explore a…
2023-09-14 Three Phrasal Verbs with ‘Along’
Sometimes, the Learning English program Ask A Teacher receives questions from learners that we are not able to answer on that program. The question might be more advanced, and the…
2023-09-07 Discussing Artificial Intelligence
Artificial intelligence (AI) has been the subject of many news reports this year. It has also been part of many everyday discussions. It will likely continue to be a popular…
2023-08-31 More Tenses in ‘We Didn’t Start the Fire’
In today’s Everyday Grammar, we finish our discussion of Fallout Boy’s remake of the song We Didn’t Start the Fire, which was written and performed by Billy Joel. The new…
2023-08-24 Grammar and Cleaning, Part 2
Cleaning is one of those activities that we have to do. But what kinds of words and structures do we use to talk about this common activity? In today’s Everyday…
2023-08-17 Present Tense in ‘We Didn’t Start the Fire’
The band Fallout Boy recently released a version of the song, We Didn’t Start the Fire. The song was first released in 1989 by the singer/songwriter Billy Joel. Joel’s song…
2023-08-10 Grammar and Cleaning
Whether you enjoy it or not, cleaning is an activity that all of us have to do from time to time. As a result, we should explore how to talk…