Posts

The subtle difference between 'will' and 'would'

-
Image
For too many times, ‘will’ is used when ‘would’ is the right choice. Is that a problem? Yes, since misplacing ‘would’ and ‘will’ can change the meaning of a sentence drastically. For that reason these two words deserve a little more attention. What do I mean by using ‘will’ instead of ‘would’? Let’s consider the following examples. Here is a context. Two girls are having lunch at a restaurant while taking about their boy friends. The first girl mentioned that her boyfriend eats a lot of meat. The second girl got surprised hearing that and asked a question. “ Why would he want to eat so much meat?” asked the second girl “ I don’t know . But it would be fun to see him in a slaughter house.” said the first girl.   Let’s consider the 2nd one first. The 2nd sentence could be like the following:         It will be fun to see him to a slaughter house. But ‘will’ does not server the sentence well. Although to some, it may seem like they are talking abou
Post a Comment
Read more

9 rules to the make sense of the uses of the articles of English

-
Image
So what does ‘the’ mean? It means something SPECIFIC (both to the mind of the speaker and listener). When the listener knows which one the speaker is taking about, then it becomes specific. It also means something UNIQUE or overly FAMILIAR to us. No wonder people call ‘the’ Definite article. Let’s see an example of when ‘the’ means something specific:           The stained glass windows of the church we saw is ethereal. In the above sentence, ‘the’ refers to some ‘SPECIFIC’ windows of a Church of the millions of windows we currently have in this world. By using ‘the’, the speaker makes sure which one he is describing. If we didn’t use ‘the’, would it be impossible to understand what the sentence means? The answer is no. So why do we have to use ‘the’ then? The answer lies in the next question.    Why do we have articles in English? Well English is a meticulous language. Since humans have a tendency to identify things by their character, languages (being a human cr
Post a Comment
Read more

I wish I could master the grammar of ‘I wish’

-
Image
Many, especially form a non-English background, find it difficult to use the structure ‘I    wish’ confidently. The unfamiliarity with the grammar, necessary to use this    structure,create uncertainty among us, which is the source of the discomfort commonly felt    by many while using this structure.   But the good news is the structures of ‘I wish’ is easy to master. It requires the basic sense    of the tenses and a careful reading of this article for ten minutes or so. Let's jump into it and learn how to express wishes in English once and for all. There are three types of expressions that could be expressed with the phrase ‘I wish’. You    can express wish from three perspective—present, Past, and future. Most of our wishes    revolve around the future. So why not start with the future wishes. The future wishes or I wish + would/could In order to wish for the future time the words ‘ would’ and ‘could’ are essential. They add    a  sense of futurity in t
Post a Comment
Read more