Adverbs of Frequency

Adverbs of Frequency are adverbs of time that answer the question "How frequently?" or "How often?". They tell us how often something happens.

Frequency	Adverb	Example
100%	always	I always go to bed at 11pm.
90%	usually	I usually walk to school.
×70%	often	I often surf the internet.
×50%	sometimes	I sometimes go to the cinema.
0%	never	I never swim in the sea.

Adverbs of frequency are put directly before the main verb. If 'be' is the main verb and there is no auxiliary verb, adverbs of frequency are put behind 'be'. 

Subject	auxiliary/be	adverb	main verb	object, place or time
I		often	go swimming	in the evenings.
He	doesn't	always	play	tennis.
We	are	usually		here in summer.

On-line exercises to practise adverbs of frequency:

• Adverbs of frequency Quiz
• Position of adverbs of frequency 1
• Position of adverbs of frequency 2
• Sentences with adverbs of frequency
• Fill in the gap: adverbs of frequency
• Adverbs of frequency order

Leap Day

Leap Day is February 29, which is an extra day added during a Leap Year, making the year 366 days long – and not 365 days, like a common year. Nearly every 4 years is a Leap Year.


A leap year (or intercalary or bissextile year) is a year containing one additional day in order to keep the calendar year synchronized with the astronomical or seasonal year.

A person born on February 29 may be called a leapling or a leaper. In common years they usually celebrate their birthdays on February 28 or March 1. In some situations, March 1 is used as the birthday in a non-leap year since it is the day following February 28. People born on February 29 are all invited to join The Honor society of Leap Year Day Babies.


Folk traditions:

• In Britain and Ireland, it is a tradition that women may propose marriage only on leap years.
• In Denmark, the tradition is that women may propose on the leap day, and that refusal must be compensated with 12 pairs of gloves.
• In Finland, the tradition is that if a man refuses a woman's proposal on leap day, he should buy her the fabrics for a skirt.
• In Greece, marriage in a leap year is considered unlucky. One in five engaged couples in Greece will plan to avoid getting married in a leap year.
• In Scotland, it used to be considered unlucky for someone to be born on Leap Day.

Adjective Degrees

Adjectives are words that describe or modify a person or the meaning of thing in the sentence. 

We use degrees of comparison to compare one person or one thing with another. Degrees of comparison can be classified as positive, comparative and superlative.

1. Adjective Degrees

When we talk about only one person or one thing, we use the positive degree of comparison.

• John is tall.

We use the comparative degree of comparison to show the difference between two people, things or groups.

• John is taller than Mary.

We use the superlative degree of comparison to compare three or more people, things or groups, to show which of them has "the most" of some quality. 

• John is the tallest.

We normally use "than" with comparative adjectives and "the" with superlative adjectives.

2. Comparative and superlative forms

Rule1: Add er or est to one syllabic words.

POSITIVE	COMPARATIVE	SUPERLATIVE
Small	Smaller	Smallest
Short	Shorter	Shortest

Rule 2: When an adjective ends in y, drop the y and change it to i and add er or est.

POSITIVE	COMPARATIVE	SUPERLATIVE
Busy	Busier	Busiest
Crazy	Crazier	Craziest

Rule 3: When an adjective ends in e, remove the e and add er or est in its place.

POSITIVE	COMPARATIVE	SUPERLATIVE
Cute	Cuter	Cutest
Nice	Nicer	Nicest

Rule 4: For adjectives ending in -ful, -less, -ing use more or most before the word. For two syllabic adjective also use more and most.

POSITIVE	COMPARATIVE	SUPERLATIVE
Beautiful	More beautiful	Most Beautiful
Pleasant	More pleasant	Most pleasant

Rule 5: There are some adjective which are known as irregular adjectives as they don’t follow any rules.

POSITIVE	COMPARATIVE	SUPERLATIVE
Good	Better	Best
Little	Less	Least
Bad	Worse	Worst
Much	More	Most
Old	Older	Oldest

Comparatives and Superlatives: Activities

This video shows us various examples of the use of comparatives and superlatives in songs.

Activities

• Comparative and superlative theory
• Comparative adjectives (bigger, older, better, worse)
• Superlative adjectives
• Comparative and superlative
• Comparative and superlative Quiz
• Comparison of adjectives 1
• Comparison of adjectives 2

Demonstratives

The demonstratives this, that, these, those ,show where an object or person is in relation to the speaker.

This (singular) and these (plural) refer to an object or person near the speaker. That (singular) and those (plural) refer to an object or person further away. 

It can be a physical or a psychological closeness or distance:

• Near:

I heard this dog barking.I didn't hear these dogs barking.

• Far:

I heard that dog barking.I didn't hear those dogs barking.
On-line exercises:


From Adele's ESL Corner:

• This/These
• That/Those
• This/These/That/Those

From English Exercises: 

• This/These
• Clothes/This/These
• This/That

From Carmen Luisa:

• This/That/These/Those

From Englisch Interaktiv:

• This/These

From EOLF:

• This/That/These/Those

From Language.com:

• This/These/That/Those

The Fonix: Volunteers Vocabulary

As this year’s theme for the Regional Stage will be helping others and volunteering, you will find some definitions and words related to this issue below.



A volunteer is...


• A person who performs or offers to perform a service voluntarily.
• Someone who offers his or her services freely, voluntary.  
• A person who offers to do something of one's own free will. 
• Someone who offers to do something without being forced.

• Also: The act of choosing to do something of one's own free will.
• Verb: Offer to do something.

Synonyms or related words for this sense of volunteer:

Willingness and to be willing: volition, will, volunteer, show willing, be agreeable to something, be only too glad/pleased/happy (to do something), content yourself with something, do something of your own accord, stand for... 

Volunteering is generally considered an altruistic activity, intended to promote good or improve human quality of life, but people also volunteer for their own skill development, to meet others, to make contacts for possible employment, to have fun, and a variety of other reasons that could be considered self-serving.

The Solar System

To refresh your knowledge about the Solar System, just take a look at this presentation:

The Process of Mummification

The ancient Egyptians developed a sophisticated method to preserve a dead body for the afterlife: mummification. First, the internal organs were removed and all moisture from the body was eliminated. Next, the body was wrapped with long strips of linen, and then covered with a large linen cloth. Follow the steps of the mummification process in this short animation about the Getty Museum's Romano-Egyptian mummy Herakleides.

Past Continuous

The past progressive or past continuous (was or were working) is used to describe an action that was in progress at some point in the past.

It is formed with the verb to be in past simple and the gerund (form finishing in –ing) of the main verb:

Take a look at this video explaining how this tense works:

Past Continuous Exercises

If you want to practise the past progressive or past continuous in English, here you have some useful links to help you:

The Grammar Aquarium

autoenglish.org

Quantifiers: Some and Any

General rules:

SOME is used in affirmative statements with uncountable nouns. ANY is used in questions. ANY is used in negative statements with plural countable nouns. ANY is used in negative statements with uncountable nouns.

	COUNTABLE		UNCOUNTABLE
	Singular	Plural	Always singular
AFFIRMATIVE		SOME1	SOME6
NEGATIVE	ANY2	ANY3	ANY7
INTERROGATIVE	ANY4	ANY5	ANY8

1. There are some books.
2. There isn't any book.
3. There aren't any books.
4. Is there any book?
5. Are there any books?
6. There is some sugar.
7. Is there any sugar?
8. There isn't any sugar.

 Activities:

• The Yellow Pencil (6 exercises).
• Englisch-Hilfen. 
• English Exercises (also issue on a and an).
• Cadi UV exercise 1.
• Cadi UV exercise 2.
• Autoenglish.
• Ego4you (grammar, examples and exercises).