December 2012

Thursday, December 20, 2012

Answer to the exercises of the worksheet about gerunds and infinitives:

1. eating

2. to go

3. having

4. getting up

5. to cook

6. going

7. to buy

8. to buy

9. not doing

10. being

11. being

12. living

13. to buy

14. to do / doing

15. going

16. to work / working

17. to smoke

18. to play

19. to study

20. to learn

21. going

22. living

23. to go

24. visiting

25. to go

26. Smoking

27. to rain/raining

28. having

29. learning

30. to study

31. having

32. worrying

33. being

34. going

35. to send

36. going

37. to have

38. smoking

39. studying

40. being dyed – to go

41. talking

42. to post

43. to make

44. failing

45. going

46. to go

47. Reading

Tuesday, December 11, 2012

One of the best ways to improve your WRITING is to do much READING.

Obviously, you should have some good vocabulary and some basic understanding of the grammar rules, but the next step is to READ.

It's priceless. You get to see vocabulary and grammar in action. You also see the typical collocations.

Now, collocations are very important. A collocation is a combination of words that is used together frequently. It's actually a common phrase.

For example:

"Commit a crime" is a typical combination of words in English. You could say "make a crime," and it wouldn't be incorrect, but many people tend to use these words together. So "commit a crime" is a collocation.

Here are some more examples of collocations:

Fully aware ("We are fully aware of the problem.")

Do homework ("I will do my homework later.")

Give a speech ("He gave a very good speech at the conference.")

There are many many collocations in English. And the better you use them, the more natural your English becomes.

So how can you know the collocations of English? How can you write naturally and clearly?

READ. Eventually you will get the hang of it (= know how to do it right). You will be familiar with more vocabulary, and see more grammar in action (how it is actually used).

That will make a world of a difference to your writing :)