“What’s missing here?” you’ve heard me demand, tapping my blue felt-tip on a space between words in your copy. Sometimes, the answer is dead silence; sometimes, “Article?” Sometimes you even say the right one. A semester after The articles article, students are still coming to me confused about articles.  That’s OK; as I mentioned in that post, […]

Even the most advanced student of English has trouble mastering our tenses; so do some native speakers. (In eastern Pennsylvania, where I come from, people often use past perfect — I had gone — when they mean simple present — I went.) Simple present (I go), simple past (I went), simple future (I will go) […]

This post was meant to be headlined “End of the Semester,” but final projects and internship applications came first. (You know who you are.) No matter; refining your English was probably the last thing on your mind over the holiday break. Now, back to work. If I didn’t know better, I’d think Phil Corbett down […]