Timelines and Grammar

Prepositions: IN vs. AT vs. ON

Prepositions of Time: at, in, on

We use:

• at for a PRECISE TIME
• in for MONTHS, YEARS, CENTURIES and LONG PERIODS
• on for DAYS and DATES

at PRECISE TIME	in MONTHS, YEARS, CENTURIES and LONG PERIODS	on DAYS and DATES
at 3 o'clock	in May	on Sunday
at 10.30am	in summer	on Tuesdays
at noon	in the summer	on 6 March
at dinnertime	in 1990	on 25 Dec. 2010
at bedtime	in the 1990s	on Christmas Day
at sunrise	in the next century	on Independence Day
at sunset	in the Ice Age	on my birthday
at the moment	in the past/future	on New Year's Eve

Look at these examples:

• I have a meeting at 9am.
• The shop closes at midnight.
• Jane went home at lunchtime.
• In England, it often snows in December.
• Do you think we will go to Jupiter in the future?
• There should be a lot of progress in the next century.
• Do you work on Mondays?
• Her birthday is on 20 November.
• Where will you be on New Year's Day?

Notice the use of the preposition of time at in the following standard expressions:

Expression	Example
at night	The stars shine at night.
at the weekend*	I don't usually work at the weekend.
at Christmas*/Easter	I stay with my family at Christmas.
at the same time	We finished the test at the same time.
at present	He's not home at present. Try later.

*Note that in some varieties of English people say "on the weekend" and "on Christmas".

Notice the use of the prepositions of time in and on in these common expressions:

in	on
in the morning	on Tuesday morning
in the mornings	on Saturday mornings
in the afternoon(s)	on Sunday afternoon(s)
in the evening(s)	on Monday evening(s)

When we say last, next, every, this we do not also use at, in, on.

• I went to London last June. (not in last June)
• He's coming back next Tuesday. (not on next Tuesday)
• I go home every Easter. (not at every Easter)
• We'll call you this evening. (not in this evening)

Here you can practise prepositions of time

Prepositions of Place: at, in, on

In general, we use:

• at for a POINT
• in for an ENCLOSED SPACE
• on for a SURFACE

at POINT	in ENCLOSED SPACE	on SURFACE
at the corner	in the garden	on the wall
at the bus stop	in London	on the ceiling
at the door	in France	on the door
at the top of the page	in a box	on the cover
at the end of the road	in my pocket	on the floor
at the entrance	in my wallet	on the carpet
at the crossroads	in a building	on the menu
at the front desk	in a car	on a page

Look at these examples:

• Jane is waiting for you at the bus stop.
• The shop is at the end of the street.
• My plane stopped at Dubai and Hanoi and arrived in Bangkok two hours late.
• When will you arrive at the office?
• Do you work in an office?
• I have a meeting in New York.
• Do you live in Japan?
• Jupiter is in the Solar System.
• The author's name is on the cover of the book.
• There are no prices on this menu.
• You are standing on my foot.
• There was a "no smoking" sign on the wall.
• I live on the 7th floor at 21 Oxford Street in London.

Notice the use of the prepositions of place at, in and on in these standard expressions:

at	in	on
at home	in a car	on a bus
at work	in a taxi	on a train
at school	in a helicopter	on a plane
at university	in a boat	on a ship
at college	in a lift (elevator)	on a bicycle, on a motorbike
at the top	in the newspaper	on a horse, on an elephant
at the bottom	in the sky	on the radio, on television
at the side	in a row	on the left, on the right
at reception	in Oxford Street	on the way

Here you can practise prepositions of place

Should, Must, Need and their Negatives

To help you practice some more the modal verbs we learned in class today, there are a few exercises below. Remember:

MUST - OBLIGATION

NEED - NECESSITY

SHOULD - SUGGESTION


Should, Shouldn't and Mustn't

Must vs. Mustn't

Should vs. Shouldn't

Extreme Adjectives

There are many extreme adjectives that we can use to help use describe things and avoid using "very" all the time.  Below are a few links to websites with different extreme adjectives.  If you don't know the meaning of one of the words just look it up!

Regular Adjective	Extreme Adjective
angry	furious
bad	awful, terrible, horrible
big	huge, gigantic, giant, enormous
clean	spotless
cold	freezing
crowded	packed
dirty	filthy
funny	hilarious
good	wonderful, fantastic, excellent
hot	boiling
hungry	starving
interesting	fascinating
old	ancient
pretty	gorgeous
scary	terrifying
small	tiny
surprising	astounding, astonishing
tired	exhausted
ugly	hideous

Extra Practice

Present Perfect Practice

As we have been working on the present perfect here are a few rules about it and some exercise to help you master it.

Present perfect tense.  We use the present perfect to say that an action happened at an unspecified time before now. The exact time is not important. You CANNOT use the present perfect with specific time expressions such as: yesterday, one year ago, last week, when I was a child, when I lived in Japan, at that moment, that day, one day, etc. We CAN use the present perfect with unspecific expressions such as: ever, never, once, many times, several times, before, so far, already, yet, just, etc.

Check this site to know more and do the exercises. It's good practice for the english exam

Practice your present perfect for recent actions using already, just, and yet:
Link 1
Link 2
Link 3
Link 4
Website with lots of practice!
The present perfect tense explained and extra practice here!

Finally, practice the present perfect and past simple tenses in this fun wheel GAME!

Past Simple, Past Continuous and While

This week we are working on the past simple and present progressive sentence structures. What happens when an action is interrupted in the past? Read the description below and try the exercises for more practice.  Good luck!

Remember- the simple past talks about something that happened before. It happened and it finished. Some words are regular and just have -ed added at the end like walked, helped, and played. Others are irregular and have many variations like ate (to eat), began (to begin), and slept (to sleep).

The past progressive (past continuous) talks about something that was happening before, but for a period of time. It uses was or were + verb-ing like was eating or were playing. It gives a background for something that was happening while a different event happened.

Example: While I was eating, the telephone rang.

Warm-up

A variety of activities

A bit more difficult

Quiz Time!

Present Simple vs Present Continuous

We use Present Simple for routines and Present Continuous for actions that are happening at the moment. Here you can learn more and practise these tenses.

Simple Present vs Present Progressive
Present simple and present continuous exercises

The Apostrophe with its vs. it's

Its or It's?

Many people--both native speakers of English and learnersof the language--are confused by it's and its. These twoshort words sound exactly the same, but their meanings and uses are quite different. It's means either it is or it has. To know whether the "-'s" means is or has, look at the words which follow.

Its is the possessive pronoun; it modifies a noun.

It's is a contraction of it is or it has.

Incorrect: The cat carried it's kitten in it's mouth. (Possessive pronoun, no apostrophe) 

          Incorrect: Its 9:00 in the morning, so school is starting. (Needs to be a contraction of it is)

Correct: The cat carried its kitten in its mouth. (Possessive pronoun)

Correct: I think it's going to rain today. (Contraction of it is)

Correct: It's been a very long time. (Contraction of it has)

It's

 

It's going to rain, I think. ( 's = is )

It's time to leave. Hurry up! ( 's = is )

It's cold in here! ( 's =is )

It's my turn to wash the dishes, isn't it? ( 's = is )

It's quite difficult to get a high TOEFL score. ( 's = is )

It's easy to lose track of the time. ( 's = is )

This isn't my book. It's Fernando's. ( 's = is )

When's his birthday? It's November 1st, isn't it? ( 's = is )

It's 10:15. We have a meeting soon. ( 's = is )

It's felt by many that English spelling is crazy. ( 's = is )

It's been a long day! ( 's = has )

It's taken Bill a long time to fix his car. ( 's = has )

It's gotten cooler in the last hour. ( 's = has )

It's been raining most of the day. ( 's = has )

Oh, no! Look at my bicycle! It's got a flat tire! ( 's = has )

______________________________________________

Its

 

We're reading a story by Shakespeare. Its title is
Romeo and Juliet.

I really like the way that car looks, but its price is
more than I want to pay.

Have you tried the new restaurant on Elm Street?

Its name is "Marco's" and it serves Italian food. 

Passive Voice

This unit focus' on active and passive voices.  To help you better understand them, we have included some extra practice in this blog post.  Try the exercises, and while you're working, don't forget to have fun!

Active or Passive?
Rewrite the sentences using Passive voice
Using "by" (2 objects in a passive sentence)
Forming questions using the passive voice
Passive voice in the simple past
Passive Exam

1st Conditional

If you check this link... You will know more about the 1st conditional tense ;-)
Don´t forget to do the exercises!

HAVE TO

We are learning the use of "have to" in English. It has a similar meaning to "need to". Learn more and practise it in this link:

HAVE TO

Once you finish the quiz, post your scores in a comment.  Don't forget to write your name!

For and Since (Present Perfect)

Here are some different practices for for and since..

Practice 1

Practice 2

Practice 3

We also need to review the present perfect for this unit. Remember to be careful with irregular verbs and the past participle form.

Present Perfect
Practice 1

Practice 2

Present Perfect Practice

 We use the Present Perfect to say that an action happened at an unspecified time before now. The exact time is not important. You CANNOT use the Present Perfect with specific time expressions such as: yesterday, one year ago, last week, when I was a child, when I lived in Japan, at that moment, that day, one day, etc. We CAN use the Present Perfect with unspecific expressions such as: ever, never, once, many times, several times, before, so far, already, yet, etc.

Check this site to know more and do the exercises. It´s a good practice for the english exam
The link is here!!

The Future

In English we have been learning vocabulary about fêtes and grammar about the future tense. We can use:
1. to be + going to
2. will + infinitive
But do you know when to use going to and when to use will?
Check out this game to practice your skills!

Modal verbs of deduction

Since there is an English TEST  on Friday, here is some grammar practice:
In this unit, we have learned about "modal verbs"--must, might, may, could, can't.
This is a very easy exercise. Did you get 100%? Here is another quiz.
Extra: Do you remember what the word "disappointed" means? It's part of this lesson!

English Comparatives, Superlatives, and MORE

 This week, you have an English test and you'll need to know all about comparative and superlative adjectives. Check out this website to review how you form these adjectives and do some exercises to make sure you understand! Did you get every question correct? Here you can find more to practice. Review when we use the present simple and when we use the present continuous. Make sure you understand the difference (Jorge is wearing trousers vs. Jorge wears glasses) by doing this practice.

The second conditional

In these links you can find information about the second conditional. You can also learn to distinguish the different conditional types. Practice with the exercises for the exam we have the next week.

Second conditional

Second conditional II

Conditionals and Will

Here we have the links to practice the First Conditional sentences, and also to practice using Will for the future:

Conditional sentences I

Conditional sentences II

Will - Affirmative

Will - Negative

Will - Questions

Will - more exercises

Practice hard, exercise is good for you!

Will vs going to

These are two ways to talk about the future. Check this link to know when to use each one, and practise with the exercises.

Will vs going to

Present perfect

We use the Present Perfect to say that an action happened at an unspecified time before now. The exact time is not important. You CANNOT use the Present Perfect with specific time expressions such as: yesterday, one year ago, last week, when I was a child, when I lived in Japan, at that moment, that day, one day, etc. We CAN use the Present Perfect with unspecific expressions such as: ever, never, once, many times, several times, before, so far, already, yet, etc.

Check this site to know more and do the exercises. It´s a good practice for the english exam

Present perfect