How to use this site

This site has been set up by an ESL teacher for students interested in improving their English.

First, make sure you look down and to the RIGHT. The words on the right (READING) are menus. Click on them and each topic will have websites for practice.
Look down for grammar concepts. A video is included with each topic, then there are two or three links provided for practice. 

Thanks for coming by, I hope this proves to be helpful, and hey, at least it's FREE!

I used to vs. I’m used to

Sam: I'm not used to speaking in English.

Joe: I used to be the same, but now I speak English so much, I'm forgetting my own language.

What's the difference in usage? The first statement is related to the present and what you are accustomed to doing. The second statement is to compare the past with the present.

For a video explaining the whole thing, go here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ulezklvGaQk

For practice, here's some sites to go to:

http://www.myenglishpages.com/site_php_files/grammar-lesson-used-to.php

http://www.grammar-quizzes.com/usedto.html

http://www.englishexercises.org/makeagame/viewgame.asp?id=2448#a

Question Formation

Question formation in English can be a little tricky. Questions use auxiliary verbs; do, does, did, will, have or has for yes/no questions. Then there are the WH- questions; who, what, where, when, why, which, whose, how much/many. 

Here is a very good video explaining question formation:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qbZWKY7pW8g  

For practice, click here:

http://www.englishgrammarsecrets.com/questions1/menu.php

http://a4esl.org/q/h/vm/questform.html

http://www.englisch-hilfen.de/en/exercises/questions/form3.htm

Tag Questions

Tag questions are used to start conversations, as in: "Beautiful day today, isn't it?" or to soften our language, example: "Honey, you're going to take the garbage out, aren't you?"  They are tricky, switching from positive to negative, and knowing what the tag is.

For a YouTube Video, go here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9utjaOaywRQ 

For practice, try these sites:

http://englishgrammarsecrets.com/questionstags/menu.php 

http://a4esl.org/q/f/z/zz13mlc.htm

http://www.english-zone.com/grammar/tags01.html

Helping (Modal) Verbs 

So, do you say, "I can say...? or "Can I say...? Do you say, "May I help you?" or "Can I help you?"

To watch a good video that explains how to use modal verbs, click here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=anjFtHbZabs

To practice can, click on this link:
http://englishgrammarsecrets.com/can/menu.php

For practice with "May or Might", click here:

http://englishgrammarsecrets.com/maymight/menu.php

For practice using "should", click:

http://englishgrammarsecrets.com/should/menu.php  

For more modals:

http://www.englishpage.com/modals/modalforms.html