Indefinite articles - 'an' or 'a'? LPs - but is one 'an LP' or 'a LP'? A question from Marta in Poland : I am writing to ask about indefinite articles before a consonant sound. I know this is the reason we say 'a university' although 'u' is a vowel....
Its or it's 'The dog ate its food very quickly.' Kat asks: When do you use its instead of its ? End of Section Hello Kat. Thank you for you question about its and it's . They may have the same pronunciation, but they certainly have different meanings...
To / For A question from Paulo from Brazil: Hi Samantha, my name is Paulo. I like to study English and my question is about the use of the prepositions to and for in some special cases. As I wrote to you, I know that I must say Happy birthday to you...
Learning English negative auxilliary verbs: contracted forms: pronunciation Yasmeen from Portugal writes: What I want to know is what does shan't mean when someone says: We shan't be able to get into the show. Does it mean should not , abbreviated as...
A question from Subbu: How do you pronounce the word 'the'? There are two pronunciations: 'The' sometimes sounds like 'thee'. Sometimes it sounds like 'thaaa'. Amos Paran answers: Well done, Subbu for noticing this. I think because 'the' is such a co...
A question from Claudio. My question is the following: How can I pronounce the end of the regular verb the best? Sometimes it sounds like t sometimes d, sometimes like id. I want to know the rules. Professor Michael Swan answers: Claudio, thats an in...
Learning English a/an and the : pronunciation Lorena from Venezuela writes: How and when do you differentiate the pronunciation of a , an and the ? Roger Woodham replies: The The is pronounced with an e sound, as in b ee or flea , before a noun or ad...
Learning English Tag questions Ahmad Nazri from Malaysia writes: When should we use question tags: have they? / has he? did she? / does it? / do they? are we? / is he? Roger Woodham replies: A tag question is a question we can add to the end of a sta...
Ask about English bbclearningenglish.com ? BBC Learning English 2009 Page 1 of 2 BBC Learning English Ask about English 25thAugust 2009 Pronunciation of 'g' A question from Patrick in Poland: When we compare the words with g i.e. finger and fringe, e...
Learning English punctuation and pausing Yong from Malaysia writes: When do I put a comma before but and when do I not have to put a comma before but? What about a comma after but? Songul Kosker and Kazim Cakmak from Turkey write : Hi! Your web site...
