Today, let us have some sentence correction practice with the following seven sentences:
What is the common error among all of them? You would be right if you said that they are missing the preposition 'to'. Let's have the first one: 1. I've been listening his music for five years.
The second sentence is still about the verb 'listen': 2. I'm always listening 70s and 80s music.
To hammer home this point, let's have one more sentence, still using the word 'listen': 3. I've just started listening Post Malone.
The fourth sentence is about a movie that is familiar to many: 4. He came Marty's house from the future to warn him about something.
Let's have a few examples from the book, 'The Hobbit': At the beginning of the book, the dwarf Gloin says: "In fact, if it had not been for the sign on the door, I should have been sure we had come to the wrong house." Bilbo answers: "I am quite sure you have come to the wrong house." Besides that conversation, here is another sentence from the book that uses 'come to': "The dwarves then noticed that they had come to the edge of a ring where elf-fires had been." (On a side note, and in case you are curious, 'dwarfs' was the standard plural form of the word dwarf. It was J.R.R. Tolkien, the author of the book the Hobbit, who popularized the plural form 'dwarves'.) Let's move on to the fifth sentence: 5. There are no masks to export other countries.
For example:
How about you try using 'export to' by answering the question:
The next sentence shows a very common mistake that it deserves a video of its own: 6. It's my first time to go a concert.
As mentioned at the beginning, we also use 'to' to state a destination. Examples: We go to a shopping mall. Someone goes to a wedding. People will go to the beach. To practice this pattern, how about answering this question:
We have reached our 7th and last sentence for today which is this one: 7. I have not replied her message yet.
We reply or respond to a message, a letter, an email and so on. We reply to somebody or something. This means that we are giving a spoken or written answer. For example: Do you reply or respond to emails as soon as you read them? I sometimes don't because I tend to think too much. How about you? Anyway, we also reply or respond to questions, comments, compliments, and criticisms. Practice by answering the following questions:
All right, that's the end of our sentence correction for today. Kindly note that 'to' is not the only preposition that we use with these verbs. There are lots of other prepositions used with these same verbs that would definitely change their meaning. We just have to practice a lot to remember which prepositions are used with which verbs. However, below is a short list of common verbs that are used with 'to'. There are more verbs followed by to than what you can see in this list but these are some of the most common ones. We have seen some of these verbs in the sentence corrections above. Let's briefly run through this list and have simple examples for each one. Common verbs followed by the preposition to: Go to - I go to the gym every weekend. Come to - Will you come to my birthday party? Drive to - Let me drive you to the airport. Journey to - The journey to the Arctic was not easy. Point to - He pointed to a house across the street. Turn to - The lady turned to the man on her right. Give to - Please give this letter to his assistant. Offer to - The manager offered the job to someone who deserved it. Send to - I will send these flowers to my mother. Adapt to - The new employee has adapted to the system quickly. Add to - Do you have anything to add to my proposal? Belong to - This jacket belongs to the man who just left. Consent to - The patients have to consent to this procedure first. Devote to - He devotes his weekends to gardening. Happen to - What happened to your car? Lead to - This situation often leads to bad customer experiences. Listen to - I tried talking to him but he won't listen to me. Explain to - The mayor explained the new rules to his staff. Object to - He objected to being called a traitor. React to - Everyone reacted to the news with shock. Refer to - Please refer to page 90 on your manual. Reply to - Please reply to this email on or before Friday. Respond to - How do you want me to respond to their invitation? Speak to - May I please speak to the manager? Talk to - I wanted to talk to the staff before the party. Say to - She always knows what to say to guests to make them comfortable. Apologize to - You should apologize to that lady. Agree to - I did not agree to that plan at all. Write to - I was told to write to the manager about this complaint. I hope these examples have given you some practice material in terms of using the preposition 'to' when it's needed. Repetition is, of course, key to getting grammar structures right. I will be posting more videos of sentence corrections showing common errors among EFL learners. If you find these tips useful, please subscribe and hit the notification bell so that you'll get notified if I have a new upload.
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Which sentence is correct between these two:
If your answer was b, you got it right! So what's the difference? Advice /ədˈvɑɪs/ or /ad-vahys/ is a noun that means a recommendation or suggestion about what to do or how to handle a situation. Advice is something that we get from friends, bosses, or lawyers. Advise /ədˈvɑɪz/ or /ad-vahyz/ is a verb that means 'to offer an opinion or suggestion' or in other words, to give advice to someone. Advise is something that we do. Note that they also sound a little differently. Advice is pronounced with an /s/ sound, as in “ice,” while the verb advise is pronounced with a /z/ sound like the “-ize” in "size". Regarding their different forms: Advice is uncountable so we would never say 'advices'. We can, however, say pieces of advice. Advise, on the other hand, is a regular verb with the usual past, present and future tenses: advised, advise, will advise. Let's have some examples and common expressions: 1. People run away from her at parties because she's always giving unsolicited advice. Unsolicited advice refers to advise that is being given without being asked, and is therefore usually unwanted. 2. I usually avoid telling people that I'm a lawyer because people always try to ask for free legal advice. 3. His manager advised him to accept the terms being offered in the contract. 4. Please advise your students to upload requirements through the official website. 5. That's dangerous. I wouldn't advise you to do that. Exercises: Advice or advise? 1. She took the trip against her doctor's __________________. 2. The team manager should ________________ his team members about the appropriate steps to be taken. 3. I will ask Prof. Norton to ____________ us on how to proceed. 4. I could always count on him for good _____________________. 5. Experts _____________ that hours spent by kids in front of a screen should be limited. Characteristic of the English language, we have certain expressions that are paired only with specific words or structures. Below is the list of special expressions that are used with verb-ing or gerunds. Gerunds are verbs ending in -ing, such as running, skydiving, and cycling, that function as nouns. For example, in the sentence "Skydiving is a very expensive hobby", the word skydiving is a noun, not a verb, that refers to an activity and is used as a subject.
1. 'have' expressions a. have trouble + verb-ing - I had trouble getting the car to the garage. b. have difficulty/have a difficult time + verb-ing - The students have difficulty understanding your instructions. c. have a problem + verb-ing - She said she was having problems finishing her manuscript. d. have a hard time + verb-ing - I told the boss I had a hard time marketing the product to new customers. e. have fun + verb-ing - Did you have fun taking pictures at the theme park? f. have a good time + verb-ing - I hope the children are having a good time visiting their cousins. 2. spend (one's) time + verb-ing expressions Examples: He spent the summer catching catfish near the lake. Did you spend the whole morning playing video games? I spent time at the park just watching the cherry blossoms shed their petals. 3. waste (one's) time + verb-ing expressions The professor told us not to waste our time reading this paper. Annie wasted no time in preparing for the long trip. They say the boss often wastes thirty minutes lecturing the group at the start of every meeting. 4. stand, sit or lie + expression of place + verb-ing I must have stood there looking silly in my costume. We would sit on that hillside painting quietly for hours every day. He lay low on the grass hoping he wouldn't be seen. 5. find or catch + noun/pronoun + verb-ing They caught him trying to sneak out company property. The found the children frolicking dangerously close to the swollen river. I came by this sentence today while doing an edit:
You see, the expression [to have difficulty] is one among a special group of expressions that are followed by a verb-ing or a gerund. A gerund is a noun formed from an -ing verb which usually refers to an activity (ex. swimming, hiking), process (ex. aging, weathering) , or state (believing, loving). We then have the structure:
Here are examples:
Note though, that we can also use the preposition "in" when using this expression, as in:
Applying this rule about using gerunds with 'have difficulty', we can then go back to our sentence earlier:
If you are interested in this special group of expressions used with gerunds, find more examples in the following blog post: Feel free to practice writing your own sentences with the expression [have difficulty + verb-ing in the comments below! |
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