Teacher Discussion Forums

By the way, according to Michael Swan's book, a term that replaces the participle clause "Having been first used..." would be "As it was first used..." It's not as strong as "since"; I think it's a better choice.

I guess "my two friends" sounds unduly awkward, and unless you're talking about all your (two) friends, you should avoid it. However, I know "my one friend" can be used to specify this person as different from other options, similar to "one of my friends." For example, if you are arguing about a top...

Hi. 1) You can say "My two friends" or "My one friend"-it's acceptable, unlike "my a friend"- but it's more natural to say "One of my friends," or "Two of my friends", which specifies individuals drawn from your group of friends. 2) "Ago" is fine with past perfect. 3) None of these replacements quit...

fluff, thank you for the response. To my defense, this was not asked by a student in class. It was actually asked by a Japanese doctor who has been studying English for more than 30 years (and is convinced that he knows English even better than he does- I guess a certain amount of confidence can be ...

Andrew, on second thought, I'm a little confused about your explanation. I agree that phrasal verbs are generally not as formal in situations where they can be replaced with, for example, bigger words, but in this case, "Call for an ambulance" definitely sounds like the result of deliberation, perha...

Andrew, thanks for the concise clarification. It definitely appears to be true. Maybe informal, but in most situations, I doubt saying "Call an ambulance!" would be best described as "laid back". But I would like the chance to be called an ambulance, just once.

Hi, I was asked an interesting question today. A native Japanese speaker and very advanced student of English asked me if it's better to say "Call an ambulance" or "Call for an ambulance". My immediate reply (I was away from my desk at the time) was some sort of disorganized rant about how either ph...