Teacher Discussion Forums

It seems to me that the no in no + adjective and no + noun have two distinctly separate functions/meanings: He's no superman = he's really weak. He's no angel = he's badly behaved. He's no funnier than Tom = he is as funny as Tom, perhaps less funny He's no taller than Tom = he is as tall as Tom, pe...

I have an eager-beaver student who just watched Finding Nemo, and wants to know about the following grammar construction: "The clownfish is no happier than any other fish."

"Why "no" and not "not?" he queried querulously. "What is this called? When can I use it?"

Sigh.

Ideas?

I find metal's tone and aggressive manner so toxic and unkind, I rarely post anything. I appreciate that he prods discussion with his original postings, but his snide and sarcastic and condescending reactions to those who respond are not worth wading through. Thank you, revel, for having the courage...

I find the collocations that my student need to master the most are verb+preposition, or adjective+preposition. As prepositions in English are particularly difficult because of their fluidity in meaning, and their lack of a direct counterpart in other languages (direct in both sentence position and ...

I can't get the guest leaving: in some teenage dialects, this means, I don't understand why the guest left.

I didn't learn the names of the parts of speech in my Canadian elementary school; in fact, apart from a British import English teacher I had in high school, I was taught very little grammar. I remember learning about action words and helping words, but not much else. I learned the bulk of my basic E...

I can think of many examples, although your examples are a lot less clumsy and a lot more natural than mine. This construction also works with "want": I want you drinking lots of water . But what do I call it? Causative plus infinitive plus progressive??? or plus gerund??? What key words do I type i...

Here is a sentence from the textbook I use in my teacher training course: "The activities are designed to get the students using the language." I have a high-level Korean couple who are planning on opening a private language school in the future, and they are very particular about learning every nua...

I agree with Jotham: I wish I went on holiday more often also sounds better to my ear than I wish I went on holiday . And I concur - "vacation" would please my ear most! If I change the example to I wish I ate apple , I feel the same strange twinge of incorrectness; I need it to be I wish I ate appl...

I wish I were going on holiday - The "were" and "I" indicates the hypothetical future - as in, I am not going on a specific holiday in the future, but I wish the situation were otherwise. I wish I went on holiday - this sounds wrong wrong wrong to my ear! If the speaker is talking about a specific ...

Both are right. It depends on what dialect you speak.

Interestingly, I use "changing room" at a clothing store, but "change room" at the gym.

"Fitting room" sounds a bit formal/British to my ear.

Perhaps the author wished to convey that the book was ostensibly written after 2034, creating a Sci-Fi world in which the future future is looking back on the past future.

Possible contexts for: 4. A: Do you know Tom well? B: Yes, I ________ live next door to him. (a) must (b) ought to (c) would (d) used to b) "Yes, I ought to live next door to him!" (said jovially, as in, "I know him so well, I might as well live next door to him!") c) "Yes, I would live next door to...

Sounds like a corporate take-over, as in, "All my stocks were bought up by Microsoft. I was bought up in Washington."

I have a hard time believing anybody, other than someone with a severe speech impediment, would say this in any other context.

1. Create activities that force the students to communicate, i.e information gaps and role-plays. 2. Make the students responsible for creating conversation questions for the class to use - this will encourage them to choose topics that motivate them to talk, and you can have them create questions t...