Modal Verbs: Can, Could, Should, Must — The Complete Guide
💬 From the classroom: A student once wrote "You must to go now." The to after modal verbs is one of the most common errors at A2–B1. You can fix it in one rule.
Tag: A2
Present Simple vs Present Continuous — The Key Difference
💬 A student once told me: "I am loving this city!" She'd arrived in Sydney two hours earlier. The feeling made perfect sense — but English grammar didn't agree. Let me show you why.
Prepositions of Time: At, On, In — Get Them Right
'I arrived in 2005.' 'I work on Sundays.' 'The restaurant opens at noon.' These three prepositions — at, on, in — govern time expressions in English. Bengali doesn't use prepositions the same way. French is…
Conjunctions: Connect Your Ideas Clearly
My daughter is 18 months old. She already knows 'no' — but she doesn't yet know 'however'. That one word, 'however', is the difference between a child's logic and an adult's argument. Conjunctions are the…
Adverbs of Frequency: How Often Do You Do Things?
When a French customer at the Ivy asked me how often I worked nights, I said 'I work night always.' The look on her face told me something was wrong. The correct order is: subject…
Colours in English: More Than Just Red and Blue
Colours are some of the first words we learn — and some of the most useful. But English has lots more than just 'red' and 'blue'. Let's explore!
Vowel Sounds: The Secret to Clear Pronunciation
English has about 20 vowel sounds but only 5 vowel letters. When I arrived in Sydney, I couldn't hear the difference between ship and sheep, or pull and pool. These are not the same words.…
The ‘th’ Sound: Nobody Warned Me About This
When I first started speaking English seriously, the /θ/ sound — 'th' as in think — was physically strange to me. Bengali doesn't have it. French doesn't have it. You have to put your tongue…
Word Stress: Stress the Right Syllable
My first week in Sydney, I said reCORD when I meant the noun. My colleague said REcord and I thought he was pronouncing the same word. He was. In English, stress changes meaning — and…
Describing Places: The Language of Home and Belonging
I have called four places home: Chittagong, Sydney, Plessis-Trévise near Paris, and Réunion. Each one needed its own vocabulary. Réunion is not just 'nice' — it is lush, volcanic, remote, tropical, and for me, something…