TO IMPROVE YOUR ENGLISH

There are many ways to improve your level of English:

READ IT

Read as many English books, newspapers and magazines as you can find.
We also recommend the English version of the monthly magazine READERS DIGEST. It has short stories and articles. We are offering copies in our competition on the visitor page.

LISTEN TO IT

Try some of the radio stations we recommend on the Worldwide Radio schedules page BBC Overseas Service. They have a very good website designed to help English learners and teachers.

LOOK AT OTHER LEARNING MATERIAL ON THE WEB

VOLTERRE in France has a valuable list of sites for learners and teachers of English and French.Both these sites are highly recommended

TALK IT

Talk to friends who are also learning English. Make a rule that perhaps for an hour, or when you go out together, you will only speak English to each other! Find native English-speaking people who will give you conversation practice.

MORE ABOUT LEARNING ENGLISH
English is an easy language to start learning because:

* it has no genders. Apart from people, all objects are 'neuter', not 'masculine' or 'feminine'. So you say 'it' for such things, and do not need to learn any genders.

* it usually has easy verb endings. Apart from a few 'irregular' verbs, verb endings are easy, and hardly change.

* adjectives remain the same for all words - there are no different endings to learn.

* the singular and plural pronoun 'you' is the same. There is no need to decide whether to use a polite form, or an intimate form, when speaking to someone as in French or German. (English used to have the singular form 'thou', which was often used in the intimate way like 'tu' or 'du'. In fact, in dialects in parts of England, this is still sometimes used. And in the Republic of Ireland, they have a very sensible plural form of 'you', when speaking to several people: 'yous'.)

The difficult parts of English are:

* the spelling of a word may not show what the pronunciation (way of saying) the word is.
This is because English words came from many different sources. It is not a 'pure' language.

* because English came from two main sources - old French, and old Anglo-Saxon, there is a very large vocabulary of words. Words with similar meanings may have come from both sources. For example, START (from Anglo-Saxon) and COMMENCE (from old French). The meaning is similar, but not precisely the same.

* native English speakers use a lot of idioms, that is - words used in a way which is not their obvious meaning. An English speaker may say,

"I do not think much of apples."

This does not mean he doesn't often think about apples. It means that he does not like apples very much!

Yet he might say,

"I think nothing of going for a swim before breakfast."

What this really means is that he actually likes doing this, and that it is no problem to him!

But don't worry. You will find that you can understand and communicate even when you have not been learning English for long!

To assess how easily you will learn, go through our Self-Test on Learning English. This was produced for us by a leading English language school.

Verbs - An Overview

Verbs are a class of words used to show the performance of an action (do, throw, run), existence (be), possession (have), or state (know, love) of a subject. To put it simply a verb shows what something or someone does.

Most statements in speech and writing have a main verb. These verbs are expressed in tenses which place everything in a point in time.

Verbs are conjugated (inflected) to reflect how they are used. There are two general areas in which conjugation occurs; for person and for tense .

Conjugation for tense is carried out on all verbs. All conjugations start with the infinitive form of the verb. The infinitive is simply the to form of the verb For example, to begin. The present participle form (the -ing form), is formed by adding ing to the bare infinitive. For example, the present participle of the verb to begin is beginning. There are two other forms that the verb can take, depending on the tense type and time, the simple past form (began) and the past participle (begun). See here for a list of irregular verbs.

Conjugation for person occurs when the verb changes form, depending on whether it is governed by a first, second, or third person subject. This gives three conjugations for any verb depending on who is acting as the subject of the verb. For example, we have: to begin, you begin , and he begins. Note that only the third conjunction really shows a difference.

While most English verbs simply do not show extensive conjugation forms for person, an exception is the verb to be.

Action Verbs

Action verbs are verbs that show the performance of an action. They are dynamic verbs that show something happening.

For example:

• To walk is a regular action verb
  
• To run is an irregular action verb

Auxiliary Verbs

Auxiliary verbs are used together with a main verb to give grammatical information and therefore add extra meaning to a sentence, which is not given by the main verb.

They are used to form the passive voice.

They are used to form the continuous tense.

They are used to form the perfect tense.

Be, Do and Have are auxiliary verbs, they are irregular verbs and can be used as main verbs. The verbs 'to be' and 'to have' are the most commonly used auxiliary verbs and work alongside the main verbs in any statement.

Modal verbs are also auxiliary verbs, but will be treated separately, these are can, could, may, might, must, shall, should, will, and would, they differ from the others in that they can never function as a main verb.

To be

Be is the most common verb in the English language. It can be used as an auxiliary and a main verb. It is used a lot in its other forms.

Base form = be

Present form = am/is/are

Past form = was/were

Present Participle / Gerund = being

Past Participle = been

To do

The verb do is one of the most common verbs in English. It can be used as an auxiliary and a main verb. It is often used in questions.

Base form = do

Present form = do/does

Past form = did

Present Participle / Gerund = doing

Past Participle = done

!Note

The auxiliary verb 'do' is always followed by the base form (infinitive).

To have

Have is one of the most common verbs in the English language.

Base form = have

Present form = have / has

Past form = had

Present Participle / Gerund = having

Past Participle = had

Verbs - Finite / Non Finite

Finite Verbs

A finite verb (sometimes called main verbs) is a verb that has a subject, this means that it can be the main verb in a sentence. It shows tense (past / present etc) or number (singular / plural).

For example:-

I lived in Germay. (I is the subject - lived describes what the subject did - lived is a finite verb).

Non-Finite Verbs

A non-finite verb has no subject, tense or number. The only non-finite verb forms are the infinitive (indicated by to), the gerund or the participle.

For example:-

I lived in Germany to improve my German. (To improve is in the infinitive form - improve is non-finite).

The Main Verb

Sometimes there is more than one kind of verb in a sentence. There are auxiliary verbs , modal verbs. and main verbs (sometimes called full or non-auxiliary verbs).

The main verb expresses the main action or state of being of the subject in the sentence and changes form according to the subject (singular, plural, 1st person, 2nd person, 3rd person).

Most statements in speech and writing have a main verb.

The main verb changes its form according to the verb form (perfect tense, past tense, simple tense etc).

For example:

* Dogs usually chase cats.
* But m y cat chases my dog.
* My cat is chasing my dog.
* My dog has sometimes chased my cat.
* But, only because my cat ate my dog's dinner.
* My cat has been eating my dog's dinner a lot.

Irregular Verbs

Irregular verbs have no rules for conjugation. These can only be learnt in context - sorry!

They all have a base form. e.g. to run

A gerund (ing) form where ing is added to the end of the verb. e.g. running

An -s form where s is added to the end of the verb. e.g. runs

A past tense form which must be learnt. e.g. ran

A past participle form which must be learnt. e.g. run