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1) I was told that the house would be empty when I arrived today, or at least that is how it had been described when it was sold to us. It was supposed to be vacant possession on this date. It was the first time I had been here since we exchanged contracts some weeks ago. As I opened the front door, I realized that there had been a lot of furniture left here by the previous owner.

Simple present Usage

Examples Usage :

Permanent or long-lasting situations

Where do you work?
The store opens at 9 o'clock.
She lives in New York.

Regular habits and daily routines

I usually get up at 7 o'clock.
She doesn't often go to the cinema.
When do they usually have lunch?

Facts

The Earth revolves around the Sun.
What does 'strange' mean?
Water doesn't boil at 20°.

Feelings

I love walking around late at night during the summer.
She hates flying!
What do you like? I don't want to live in Texas.

Opinions and states of mind

He doesn't agree with you.
I think he is a wonderful student.
What do you consider your best accomplishment?

Timetables and schedules

The plane leaves at 4 p.m.
When do courses begin this semester?
The train doesn't arrive until 10.35.

Common present time expressions include: usually, always, often, sometimes, on Saturdays, at weekends (on weekends US English), rarely, on occasion, never, seldom

Spelling English Words Problems Part II

The following letters are silent when pronounced.

D - sandwich, Wednesday
G - sign, foreign
GH - daughter, light, right
H - why, honest, hour
K - know, knight, knob
L - should, walk, half
P - cupboard, psychology
S - island
T - whistle, listen, fasten
U - guess, guitar
W - who, write, wrong

Unusual Letter Combinations

GH = 'F'

cough, laugh, enough, rough

CH = 'K'

chemistry, headache, Christmas, stomach

EA = 'EH'

breakfast, head, bread, instead

EA = 'EI'

steak, break

EA = 'EE'

weak, streak

OU = 'UH' country, double, enough

Spelling English Words Part I

Spelling words in English is challenging work. As a matter of fact, many native speakers of English have problems with spelling correctly. One of the main reasons for this is that many, English words are NOT spelled as they are spoken. This difference between pronunciation and spelling causes a lot of confusion. The combination "ough" provides an excellent example:

Tough - pronounced - tuf (the 'u' sounding as in 'cup')
Through - pronounced - throo
Dough - pronounced - doe (long 'o')
Bought - pronounced - bawt

It's enough to make anyone crazy!!

This feature provides a guide to the most common problems when spelling words in English.

Swallowed Syllables - Three Syllables Pronounced as Two Syllables

Aspirin - pronounced - asprin
Different - pronounced - diffrent
Every - pronounced - evry

Swallowed Syllables - Four Syllables Pronounced as Three Syllables

Comfortable - pronounced - comftable
Temperature - pronounced - temprature
Vegetable - pronounced - vegtable


Homophones - Words That Sound the Same

two, to, too - pronounced - too
knew, new - pronounced - niew
through, threw - pronounced - throo
not, knot, naught - pronounced - not

Same Sounds - Different Spellings

'Eh' as in 'Let'

let
bread
said


'Ai' as in 'I'

I
sigh
buy
either

When to Double Final Consonants

The final consonant of a word is often doubled when adding -ed, -ing, -er, -est in the following cases:

•Double final "b, d, g, l, m, n, p, r and t" at the end of words:
rob - robbing
sad - sadder
big - bigger
travel - traveller
skim - skimming
win - winner
pop - popping
prefer - preferred
hit - hitting

•Double these final letters there is the following pattern "consonant - vowel - consonant" at the end of a word. For example: travel - 'vel' v - consonant - e - vowel l - consonant.

•Words of more than one syllable have their consonants doubled only when the final syllable is stressed.

begin - beginn ing BUT open - opening
defer - deferr ing BUT offer - offering

•When words have more than one syllable and end in 'l' British English always doubles the 'l', even in the case of unstressed syllables. American English, on the other hand, the 'l' is not doubled when the syllable is unstressed.

British English - travelled
American English - traveled

Capital Letters

Use Capital (T, S, B, etc.) letters for the following types of words:

•Days, Months and Public Holidays
Monday, January, Christmas

•Proper names of People and Places
Jack, Maria, New York, Germany

•Titles for People
Ms, Dr, General

•Nationalities and Regions (both nouns and adjectives)
Dutch, Swedish, Basque

•Titles of Works of Art (content words only)
The Last Day of Summmer, American Journal of Medicine