Permission We use may or can when we ask for or give permission. We use may not or can’t to refuse permission. May is more formal. A: May / Can we leave? B: No, you may not / can’t. We use be allowed to to talk about rules made by someone else. The teacher... Continue Reading →
Modal Verbs
Can / can’t and could / couldn’t for factual (im)possibility We use can / can’t to say what is generally possible / impossible in fact. It can get very hot at this time of year. Plants can’t survive without sunlight. We use could / couldn’t to say what was / wasn’t generally possible in fact... Continue Reading →
The Passive: Complex Passive Forms
Reporting with the passive We often use It and a passive form of a reporting verb (e.g. suggest, say, believe, think, report, rumour) with a that-clause, in formal situations, to report opinions and beliefs. It has been suggested that it was caused by secret experiments. It was reported that the remains of an alien spaceship... Continue Reading →
The Passive: Basic Passive Forms
The Passive We use passive form be + past participle of the verb to emphasize what happens to, or what is done to, the subject of the sentence, rather than what the subject of the sentence does. Borders between countries are being broken down. We usually use the passive form if the person or thing... Continue Reading →
The Future: Other Ways to Refer to the Future, The Future in the Past
Other Ways to Refer to the Future We sometimes use expressions like be (just) about to (+ infinitive), be on the point of (+ noun / -ing), and be on the verge of (+ noun / -ing) to talk about things that are going to happen in the very future. I’m just about to have... Continue Reading →
Past Perfect Simple and Past Perfect Continuous
Past Perfect Simple (Subject + had + v3 + object) or Past Simple (Subject + v2 + object) We use the past perfect simple to describe events or situations which happened before another event or situation in the past which we describe using the past simple. On 1 May, Aron was still alive, but he’d... Continue Reading →
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