Showing posts with label learning grammar. Show all posts
Showing posts with label learning grammar. Show all posts

Wednesday, April 17, 2013

Who knows the difference between who's and whose?

Who knows the difference between who's and whose?  
Who's
Who's is a contraction of who is or, less commonly, who has.
Who's watching TV?
Do you know who's going to speak?
Who's ready to go?
Who's in the kitchen?
Who's this?
Who's already eaten?

Whose
Whose is the possessive of who or, somewhat controversially, which.
Whose book is this?
Do you know whose car this is?
I know a woman whose kids study there.
Whose side are you on?
An idea whose time has come.
  
The Bottom Line
The trouble here is due to the apostrophe, which on 99% of English words indicates possession, but on this one simply indicates a contraction. If you can replace the word with who is or who has, use who's. If not, use whose.  


You can find this lesson and more free English lessons at e Learn English - online language learning with Laura K. Lawless

Friday, March 22, 2013

Progressive Verb Forms

Progressive Verb Forms (also known as Continuous Forms). 
Structure of the Progressive Forms:
subject + auxiliary verb (be) + main verb (gerund) Sometimes a modal verb can be used before the auxiliary verb: subject + modal verb (could/would/should) + auxiliary verb (be) + main verb (gerund) There are other structures such as the Present Perfect Continous: subject + auxiliary verb (have) + past participle (been) + main verb (gerund) We use the progressive from when:
  • we want to describe an action that is happing right now
  • we want to describe an action that will be happening in the future
  • we want to describe an activity or process that started in the past and is still going on
Here are some examples:
  • We are reading an interesting story right now.
  • My wife is flying to Madrid tomorrow.
  • My wife would be flying to Madrid tomorrow if she had a holiday.
  •  Our partners have been working with us for 10 years now.