Grammar Archives - Swissed English

07 Apr Prepositions of time: in, at, on

Posted at 21:53h in Grammar, Swisstakes

"I can't sleep ~~in the~~ night" 🥱

Is it in the night or at night? At the weekend, on the weekend or in the weekend?

Let's have a look at the different prepositions of time used in English, as well as some general guidelines on when to use which preposition.

31 Jan People don’t “sucks”

Posted at 17:24h in Grammar, Swisstakes

People suck. (Not necessarily my personal opinion, just graffiti I saw on a cargo train.)

11 Oct What’s the difference between action and state verbs?

Posted at 15:57h in Grammar

While verbs usually describe actions, some verbs can be used to describe states, such as emotions, opinions or beliefs. Such verbs cannot be used in continuous forms (be + -ing). Let's have a look how state and action verbs are used.

01 Sep Stop smoking vs. Stop to smoke

Posted at 15:04h in Grammar

Which is correct: 'I want to stop smoking' or 'I want to stop to smoke'? Grammatically, both sentences are correct. However, they have different meanings. The verb stop can be followed by a verb in the infinitive (to ...) or an -ing form (also known as gerunds).

18 Aug Apostrophes and Possessives: the ‘s form

Posted at 13:38h in Grammar, Swisstakes

The owner of this hair and nail salon close to where I live should have paid more attention in class (or at least checked their grammar before getting this sign). Using an apostrophe + s to make a noun plural is incorrect - a very common mistake which unfortunately looks even worse on a shop window. So how should we use the 's form?

28 Jul How do I talk about future plans?

Posted at 15:56h in Grammar, Swisstakes

In Swiss German, future tenses aren't really necessary to talk about future plans. Most of the time, words or phrases like 'tomorrow', 'next month' or 'next year' serve as indicators of the future.

It's not that simple in English, however. We can use two tenses when talking about future plans or decisions: be going + infinitive or the present continuous.

So, how do we use these two tenses to talk about future plans and arrangements in English?

21 Jul Word building: Prefixes

Posted at 16:32h in Grammar, Swisstakes, Vocabulary

Prefixes can be quite confusing. Although some languages make use of prefixes like un- or in- to form negative adjectives, mentally translating from one language to another won't always help you get it right. The use of unsensitive instead of insensitive is a common mistake - here's why:

11 Jul Make or do?

Posted at 11:29h in Grammar, Swisstakes

Why is it wrong to say 'make the dishes?' Many students confuse do with make, but how can we tell which verb we should use? It all depends on the kind of activity you're talking about. Read on to find out!

02 Jul What verb form follows ‘didn’t’?

Posted at 13:35h in Grammar, Swisstakes

Didn't is used in negative sentences when we talk about finished actions. What verb form should I use after didn't?

23 Jun Say or tell?

Posted at 14:17h in Grammar, Swisstakes

When should we use say or tell? We need to keep a couple of rules in mind when deciding whether to use say or tell. Let's have a look at some examples...