Learn tips on how to teach grammar and usage from our editors and grammar experts. 

Grammar & Usage

<h3>Which team is your favorite?</h3>

<p>Will you be discussing the World Cup in class? The <a href="http://www.fifa.com" target="_blank">2014 FIFA World Cup</a> runs from June 12 to July 13, and millions of people around the world will be watching and rooting for their favorite team. This sport is known as &quot;football&quot;&nbsp;to most of the world, but &quot;soccer&quot;&nbsp;in the US and Canada. Did you know that football/soccer is the world&#39;s most popular sport? It is played by 250 million players in over 200 countries. Starting today, the 32 qualifying teams will compete for the chance to be the World Cup champions! In honor of the first day of the World Cup, let&#39;s talk about the word &quot;team&quot;! When I was writing a blog post for another site,&nbsp;I wrote &quot;Who is your favorite team?&quot;&nbsp;Then I started questioning whether &quot;who&quot;&nbsp;was the correct question word to use. Should it be &quot;what&quot;? Should it be &quot;which&quot;?</p>

<h3>Who or What?</h3>

<p>The short answer is that anything goes. &quot;Team&quot;&nbsp;is one of those collective nouns that can be thought of as <em>the</em>&nbsp;<em>people who make up the team</em> or <em>the unit itself</em>. If you&#39;re thinking of <em>team</em> as <em>people</em>, you can use &quot;who&quot;&nbsp;(e.g., Who is your favorite team?). If you&#39;re thinking of <em>team</em> as a <em>unit</em>, you can use &quot;what&quot;&nbsp;(e.g., What is your favorite team?). However, neither of those questions sounded quite right to me.</p>

<h3>Which?</h3>

<p>So what&#39;s the&nbsp;best answer? In my opinion, to avoid confusion, it&#39;s better to reword a question and use &quot;which.&quot;&nbsp;I reworded &#39;Who is your favorite team?&quot;&nbsp;to &quot;Which team is your favorite?&quot;&nbsp;You can&#39;t go wrong with &quot;which&quot;&nbsp;because it can be used for either&nbsp;<em>people&nbsp;</em>or&nbsp;<em>a unit</em>.</p>

<h3>Singular or Plural Verb?</h3>

<p>While we&#39;re at it, should it be &quot;The team <strong>is</strong> playing in the championship game&quot;&nbsp;or &quot;The team <strong>are</strong> playing in the championship game&quot;? In American English, you usually use a singular verb for collective nouns, so &quot;is&quot;&nbsp;is correct in the example above. However, in British English, you can use either a singular verb (if you&#39;re referring to the&nbsp;<em>unit</em>) or a plural verb (if you&#39;re referring to the&nbsp;<em>people</em>). My advice is to use the singular verb&mdash;you can&#39;t go wrong!</p>

<h3>Related Materials:</h3>

<ul>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/courses/93/lessons/1895">World Cup&nbsp;&ndash; Low Intermediate Lesson Plan</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/courses/93/lessons/1894">The World Cup - Intermediate Lesson Plan</a></li>
</ul>

<p>Go team!</p>

Team: Who, What, or Which?

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<blockquote>
<p>She looked nervous after she looked nervously at her&nbsp;watch.</p>
</blockquote>

<p>Most students know that the <em>Be</em> verb takes an adjective, not an adverb. But what about other stative, non‑action verbs such as <em>look</em>, <em>appear</em>, and <em>feel</em>? These verbs can take both an adjective and an adverb! The confusion lies in the fact that these verbs have both non-action and action&nbsp;meanings.</p>

<h1>Trick</h1>

<p>Can you use the <em>Be</em> verb in place of <em>look</em>, <em>appear</em>, or&nbsp;<em>feel</em>?</p>

<ul>
	<li>If you can, then it&rsquo;s usually a non‑action verb and should take an&nbsp;<strong>adjective</strong>.</li>
	<li>If you can&rsquo;t, then it&rsquo;s usually an action verb and should take an&nbsp;<strong>adverb</strong>.</li>
</ul>

<h1>1. Look</h1>

<h2>Non-Action + Adjective</h2>

<p><em>Look</em> can be a non‑action verb that can describe someone&rsquo;s appearance. We use this verb to explain how someone else looks/appears to the&nbsp;speaker.</p>

<h3>Examples</h3>

<ul>
	<li>I think she <strong>looks</strong> very happy. (Trick: <em>I think she <strong>is</strong> very happy.</em>&nbsp;=&nbsp;correct)</li>
	<li>He <strong>looks</strong> tired today. (Trick: <em>He <strong>is</strong> tired today.</em>&nbsp;=&nbsp;correct)</li>
</ul>

<h2>Action + Adverb</h2>

<p><em>Look</em> is also an action verb that means to use one&rsquo;s eyes to see&nbsp;something.</p>

<h3>Examples</h3>

<ul>
	<li>He <strong>is looking</strong> carefully at the schedule. (Trick: <em>He <strong>is being</strong> carefully at the schedule.</em>&nbsp;=&nbsp;incorrect)</li>
	<li>She <strong>looked</strong> furtively at him from across the room. (Trick: <em>She <strong>was</strong> furtively at him from across the room.</em>&nbsp;=&nbsp;incorrect)</li>
</ul>

<h1>2. Appear</h1>

<h2>Non-Action + Adjective</h2>

<p><em>Appear</em> can be a non‑action verb that can describe someone&rsquo;s appearance. We use this verb to explain how someone else looks/appears to the&nbsp;speaker.</p>

<h3>Examples</h3>

<ul>
	<li>My teacher <strong>appears</strong> tired today. (Trick: <em>My teacher <strong>is</strong> tired today.</em>&nbsp;=&nbsp;correct)</li>
	<li>He <strong>appeared</strong> nervous this morning. (Trick: <em>He <strong>was</strong> nervous this morning.</em>&nbsp;=&nbsp;correct)</li>
</ul>

<h2>Action + Adverb</h2>

<p><em>Appear</em> is also an action verb that means to show up&nbsp;suddenly.</p>

<h3>Examples</h3>

<ul>
	<li>She <strong>appeared</strong> quickly once the bell rang. (Trick: <em>She <strong>was</strong> quickly once the bell rang.</em>&nbsp;=&nbsp;incorrect)</li>
	<li>The flowers <strong>appeared</strong> suddenly in the magician&rsquo;s hand. (Trick: <em>The flowers <strong>were</strong> suddenly in the magician&rsquo;s hand.</em> = Be careful; <em>appear</em> must take an adverb here but the <em>Be</em> verb does make&nbsp;sense.)</li>
</ul>

<h1>3. Feel</h1>

<h2>Non-Action + Adjective</h2>

<p><em>Feel</em> can be a non-action verb that can describe someone&rsquo;s emotions or physical state. We use this verb to explain how the speaker feels or how a speaker thinks someone else&nbsp;feels.</p>

<h3>Examples</h3>

<ul>
	<li>I <strong>feel</strong> stressed out at work. (Trick: <em>I <strong>am</strong> stressed out at work.</em>&nbsp;=&nbsp;correct)</li>
	<li>She must <strong>feel</strong> excited since it&rsquo;s her graduation day . (Trick: <em>She must <strong>be</strong> excited since it&rsquo;s her graduation day.</em>&nbsp;=&nbsp;correct)</li>
</ul>

<h2>Action + Adverb</h2>

<p><em>Feel</em> is also an action verb that means to touch something. This use is not as common as the non‑action&nbsp;verb.</p>

<h3>Examples</h3>

<ul>
	<li>I <strong>felt</strong> quickly for my phone to make sure it was still in my pocket. (Trick: <em>I <strong>was</strong> quickly for my phone to make sure it was still in my pocket.</em>&nbsp;=&nbsp;incorrect)</li>
	<li>She <strong>felt</strong> the fabric carefully before she bought it. (Trick: <em>She <strong>was</strong> the fabric carefully before she bought it.</em>&nbsp;=&nbsp;incorrect)</li>
</ul>

<h1>Practice</h1>

<p><img alt="Adjective or Adverb?" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/2180/content_look-appear-practice.png" /></p>

<p class="caption"><a href="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/attachments/2181/Adjective-or-Adverb1.pdf" target="_blank">Download the Adjective or Adverb&nbsp;PDF</a></p>

<h2>Answers</h2>

<ol>
	<li>nervous</li>
	<li>nervously</li>
	<li>happy</li>
	<li>frantically</li>
	<li>frantic</li>
	<li>sleepily</li>
	<li>sick</li>
	<li>excited</li>
	<li>suddenly</li>
	<li>good</li>
</ol>

<p>Can you think of any other verbs like this? Add them to the comments&nbsp;below.</p>


Look, Appear, Feel + Adjective or Adverb?

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<p><em>Updated June 2016</em></p>

<blockquote>
<p>How often do you study adverbs of&nbsp;frequency?</p>
</blockquote>

<p>Students study <em>adverbs of frequency</em> (aka <em>adverbs of time</em>, <em>frequency adverbs</em>) early on because they are used with the simple present tense. These handy adverbs are used to convey<em> how often</em> an action is done. But because we have so many ways to indicate&nbsp;frequency in English, it can be difficult for learners to remember the meaning difference for these&nbsp;adverbs.</p>

<p>I&rsquo;ve found that using percentages when teaching adverbs of frequency really helps students comprehend the differences in meaning. Share our chart in class, and then try the fun activity suggested at the end of this&nbsp;post!</p>

<p><a href="https://ellii.com/resource_categories/103/resources/2234" target="_blank"><img alt="Screenshot of our Adverbs of Frequency resource" height="auto" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/218/content_103_Adverbs-of-Frequency_US.png" width="320" /></a></p>

<p class="caption">Grammar &amp; Usage Resources &ndash; <a href="https://ellii.com/resource_categories/103/resources/2234" target="_blank"Adverbs of&nbsp;Frequency</a></p>

<h1>Sentence Patterns</h1>

<h4>1. Adv + V</h4>

<h4>2. BE + Adv</h4>

<p>These adverbs come&nbsp;<strong>before</strong>&nbsp;the main verb (unlike Adverbs of Manner, which come after the verb) and are usually used with the simple present tense. Remind students of the Be verb exception, where these adverbs come&nbsp;<strong>after</strong>, not before, the Be&nbsp;verb.</p>

<h2>Examples</h2>

<ul>
	<li>I <strong>always</strong> eat breakfast. (Adv&nbsp;+&nbsp;V)</li>
	<li>She <strong>often</strong> goes swimming after school.&nbsp;(Adv&nbsp;+&nbsp;V)</li>
	<li>Our teacher <strong>never</strong> lets us into the class if we&rsquo;re late. (Adv&nbsp;+&nbsp;V)</li>
	<li>He is <strong>always</strong> tired. (BE&nbsp;+&nbsp;Adv)</li>
	<li>They are <strong>almost never</strong> here. (BE&nbsp;+&nbsp;Adv)</li>
</ul>

<h2>Notes</h2>

<ol>
	<li>Because they&rsquo;re so common, some frequency adverbs can be moved around in the sentence and assume other adverb positions. <em>Sometimes</em>, <em>often</em>, and <em>usually</em> fall into this category. We can say, with the same meaning in each case,&nbsp;<em>Sometimes he is late</em>, <em>He is sometimes late</em>, and <em>He is late&nbsp;sometimes</em>.</li>
	<li>The position of <em>not very often</em> is an exception to the normal rule. We add <em>not</em> to the auxiliary verb <em>do</em> (before the verb), and <em>very often</em> goes at the end of the sentence (e.g., <em>She doesn&rsquo;t go to parties very&nbsp;often</em>).</li>
	<li>Though usually used with the simple present tense, it is possible to discuss frequency using other tenses. For example, we can say <em>I always ate breakfast when I was a child</em> (simple past) and <em>I will never eat broccoli when I grow up</em> (simple&nbsp;future).</li>
</ol>

<h1>Activity</h1>

<p>I often do this simple, student‑produced activity after introducing adverbs of frequency. Encourage students to try using all the adverbs in the scale above (make sure they&rsquo;re not just repeating &ldquo;sometimes&rdquo; over and&nbsp;over).</p>

<h2>Step #1</h2>

<p>Distribute five slips of paper to each student and have them write an action on each slip. Give some examples such as &ldquo;eat pizza,&rdquo; &ldquo;sing in the shower,&rdquo; &ldquo;call a friend,&rdquo; etc. They can also write silly ones like &ldquo;see a UFO&rdquo; or &ldquo;star in a&nbsp;movie&rdquo;!</p>

<h2>Step #2</h2>

<p>Collect the slips of paper and mix them up. Divide students into group of four or five. Divide up the slips and hand them out to the&nbsp;groups.</p>

<h2>Step #3</h2>

<p>Have students take turns picking up a card and forming a question using &ldquo;how often.&rdquo; Each group member should answer using an adverb of&nbsp;frequency.</p>

<h1>Practice</h1>

<ul class="resources">
	<li class="lesson"><a href="https://ellii.com/courses/88/lessons/2241" target="_blank">Adverbs of Frequency</a></li>
	<li class="lesson"><a href="https://ellii.com/courses/88/lessons/1626" target="_blank">Adverbs of Manner</a></li>
	<li class="lesson"><a href="https://ellii.com/courses/90/lessons/1648" target="_blank">Adverbs of Time</a></li>
	<li class="lesson"><a href="https://ellii.com/courses/89/lessons/1585" target="_blank">Simple Present: How often do&nbsp;you?</a></li>
	<li class="lesson"><a href="https://ellii.com/courses/91/lessons/2006" target="_blank">Daily Routines</a></li>
	<li class="flashcards"><a href="https://ellii.com/flashcard_genres/4/flashcard_categories/27" target="_blank">Daily Routines Flashcards</a></li>
</ul>

<p>For more tips on adverbs, see <a href="https://ellii.com/blog/7-adverb-patterns/" target="_blank">7 Adverb Patterns</a> on our&nbsp;blog.</p>


Adverbs of Frequency

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<h1>Who uses whom?</h1>

<p>Last week&rsquo;s post was all about <a href="https://ellii.com/blog/restrictive-non-restrictive-adjective-clauses/" target="_blank">Adjective Clauses</a> (aka Relative Clauses)&mdash;the two types and their punctuation rules. This week, I thought I&rsquo;d focus on another aspect of adjective clauses which can cause confusion for students: <strong>choosing which pronoun to use</strong>. Sometimes there are four or five choices for one&nbsp;sentence!</p>

<p>When students are presented with all the relative pronoun options, they can get a bit overwhelmed. I&rsquo;ve found that presenting them on a <strong>scale of formality</strong> really helps to clear things up. For simplicity, the scales show restrictive adjective clauses where the relative pronoun is the <strong>object</strong> of the clause&mdash;that way, students can see the most options. Notes on changes for non-restrictive clauses and subject pronouns are included below the&nbsp;scales.</p>

<h1>People</h1>

<table>
	<tbody>
		<tr>
			<th>more formal</th>
			<td>whom</td>
			<td>The man <strong>whom I met yesterday</strong> was&nbsp;kind.</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<th>&uarr;</th>
			<td>who</td>
			<td>The man <strong>who I met yesterday</strong> was&nbsp;kind.</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<th>&uarr;</th>
			<td>that</td>
			<td>The man <strong>that I met yesterday</strong> was&nbsp;kind.</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<th>less formal</th>
			<td>&empty;</td>
			<td>The man <strong>I met yesterday</strong> was&nbsp;kind.</td>
		</tr>
	</tbody>
</table>

<p><em>Who</em>, <em>that</em>, or <em>&empty;</em> (no pronoun) are all very common when the relative pronoun is the <strong>object</strong> of the adjective clause (i.e., there is another noun or pronoun&mdash;&ldquo;I&rdquo; in the examples above&mdash;following the relative pronoun). I usually suggest using <em>who</em> or <em>that</em> when writing and dropping the pronoun when&nbsp;speaking.</p>

<p>Point out to students that when the relative pronoun is the <strong>subject</strong> of the adjective clause, there are only two options: <em>who</em> or <em>that</em>, with <em>who</em> being slightly more formal than <em>that</em>. We cannot drop the pronoun when it&rsquo;s the subject of the clause. (E.g., <em>The man <strong>who called me</strong> was a telemarketer</em> and&nbsp;<em>The man <strong>that called me</strong> was a telemarketer</em> are the only correct&nbsp;options).</p>

<p>Should we teach students to use <em>whom</em>? It&rsquo;s very formal and not so common these days, but I believe we should at least point it out to students, making sure to tell them that it&rsquo;s rarely used in speaking or writing (unless the writing is quite formal) but that they may come across it while reading. Don&rsquo;t forget to mention that <em>whom</em> is&nbsp;<strong>only&nbsp;</strong>possible when it&rsquo;s the <strong>object</strong> pronoun in the adjective clause&mdash;it&rsquo;s never possible as the subject pronoun. (E.g., we can say <em>The person <strong>whom I talked to</strong> at the meeting finally called me</em> but we <strong>can&rsquo;t</strong> say <em>The person <strong>whom called me</strong> was a telemarketer</em>. There must be another noun or pronoun following&nbsp;<em>whom</em>.)</p>

<h1>Things</h1>

<table>
	<tbody>
		<tr>
			<th>more formal</th>
			<td>which</td>
			<td>The book <strong>which I read yesterday</strong> was&nbsp;good.</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<th>&uarr;</th>
			<td>that</td>
			<td>The book <strong>that I read yesterday</strong> was&nbsp;good.</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<th>less formal</th>
			<td>&empty;</td>
			<td>The book <strong>I read yesterday</strong> was&nbsp;good.</td>
		</tr>
	</tbody>
</table>

<p>For restrictive clauses like the examples above (i.e., no commas are used), <em>which</em> is more formal and not often used in Canadian and American English. In British English, it&rsquo;s still fairly common. In Canadian and American English, <em>that</em> is more acceptable for restrictive clauses, while <em>which</em> is the better choice for non-restrictive clauses (e.g., <em>The Hobbit, <strong>which was a great book</strong>, was made into a movie.</em>) See <a href="https://ellii.com/blog/restrictive-non-restrictive-adjective-clauses/" target="_blank">Restrictive &amp; Non-Restrictive Adjective Clauses</a> for more information. For restrictive clauses, I usually suggest using <em>that</em> when writing and dropping the pronoun when&nbsp;speaking.</p>

<p>Point out to students that when the relative pronoun is the <strong>subject</strong> of the adjective clause, there are only two options: <em>which</em> or <em>that</em>, with <em>which</em> being more formal than <em>that</em> (and not commonly used in restrictive clauses). We cannot drop the pronoun when it&rsquo;s the subject of the clause. (E.g., <em>The book <strong>that was on sale</strong> was recommended to me</em> is the best option in Canadian and American&nbsp;English).</p>

<h1>Places</h1>

<table>
	<tbody>
		<tr>
			<th>more formal</th>
			<td>in which</td>
			<td>The city <strong>in which I live</strong> is&nbsp;beautiful.</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<th>&uarr;</th>
			<td>which</td>
			<td>The city <strong>which I live in</strong> is&nbsp;beautiful.</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<th>&uarr;</th>
			<td>where</td>
			<td>The city <strong>where I live</strong> is&nbsp;beautiful.</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<th>&uarr;</th>
			<td>that</td>
			<td>The city <strong>that I live in</strong> is&nbsp;beautiful.</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<th>less formal</th>
			<td>&empty;</td>
			<td>The city <strong>I live in</strong> is&nbsp;beautiful.</td>
		</tr>
	</tbody>
</table>

<p>For other adjective clauses involving places, times, etc., putting the preposition before the pronoun is very formal. As with <em>whom</em>, I&rsquo;d tell my students not to do that (except possibly in very formal writing) but I&rsquo;d mention that they might see it when reading.</p>

<p>The other pronouns are all commonly used. It&rsquo;s hard to classify <em>where</em> and <em>when</em> on the formality scale&mdash;they can be used for both formal and informal situations. For these cases, I usually suggest using <em>where/when</em> or <em> that</em> when writing and dropping the pronoun when speaking. Note that these pronouns are always the <strong>object</strong> of the clause, never the&nbsp;subject.</p>

<h1>Practice</h1>

<ul class="resources">
	<li class="lesson"><a href="https://ellii.com/courses/88/lessons/1612" target="_blank">Adjective Clauses</a> &ndash; Grammar Practice Worksheets</li>
	<li class="lesson"><a href="https://ellii.com/courses/88/lessons/1611" target="_blank">Adjective Phrases</a> &ndash; Grammar Practice Worksheets</li>
	<li class="lesson"><a href="https://ellii.com/courses/89/lessons/1552" target="_blank">Relative Clauses &ndash; He&rsquo;s a person who&hellip;</a> &ndash; Basic Grammar Sentences</li>
	<li class="lesson"><a href="https://ellii.com/courses/89/lessons/1551" target="_blank">Relative Clauses &ndash; He&rsquo;s the person who&hellip;</a> &ndash; Basic Grammar Sentences</li>
	<li class="lesson"><a href="https://ellii.com/courses/90/lessons/1647" target="_blank">Adjective Clause and Phrase Stories</a> &ndash; Grammar Stories</li>
</ul>


Relative Pronouns – Formality Scales

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Stay up-to-date with ELT trends and ideas with articles from experts and teachers in the field.

Articles

<blockquote>
<p>Can adjective clauses, which can be confusing for students, ever be easily&nbsp;learned?</p>
</blockquote>

<p>As if adjective clauses (also called <em>relative clauses</em>) weren&rsquo;t complicated enough already, our students also need to learn when to add punctuation. In my experience, some textbooks deal with the punctuation issue much later on (or not at all) in an adjective clause lesson. I prefer to explain it to my students fairly early on before they start practicing doing the wrong&nbsp;thing.</p>

<p>The following are some teaching tips on the punctuation of restrictive and non-restrictive adjective clauses. (And does anyone else get the terms <em>restrictive</em> and <em>non‑restrictive</em> mixed up? I always had to double-check before&nbsp;class!)</p>

<h1>Restrictive Adjective Clauses</h1>

<div class="white-box">
<h5>Restrictive / Defining Adjective Clauses</h5>

<ul>
	<li>Follow a GENERAL noun</li>
	<li>Don&rsquo;t use commas!</li>
</ul>
</div>

<p><strong>Restrictive</strong> adjective clauses (also known as <strong>defining</strong> adjective clauses) contain information that is necessary to define the noun. The noun is a <strong>general</strong> noun such as boy, apple, book, city, etc. A good tip to tell your students is that if the meaning is&nbsp;<em>any</em>, then it&rsquo;s a general noun (<em>book = any book; I don&rsquo;t have a specific book in&nbsp;mind</em>).</p>

<p>Because the noun is general, it needs information to specify/define it so that we know which noun the speaker is talking about. The adjective clause, then, is <strong>important</strong> information that <strong>defines</strong> the noun, and because it is important, <strong>no commas</strong> are needed. (Remind students that commas are often used to offset secondary, less important information in&nbsp;English.)</p>

<p>Point out that even though the noun is general, the adjective clause is going to define the noun, so we usually need the article&nbsp;<em><strong>the</strong></em>, not&nbsp;<em>a</em>, with adjective clauses that are defining a subject noun. For an object noun, either article is&nbsp;possible.</p>

<h4>Examples</h4>

<ul>
	<li>The boy <strong>who is running around the room</strong> is my&nbsp;son.</li>
	<li>I met the boy <strong>who was running around the&nbsp;room</strong>.</li>
	<li>The woman <strong>who is wearing the red dress</strong> told me the&nbsp;time.</li>
	<li>The apple <strong>that I had at lunch</strong> was&nbsp;delicious.</li>
	<li>The book <strong>that I finished reading yesterday</strong> was really&nbsp;interesting.</li>
	<li>I finished reading a book <strong>that was really&nbsp;interesting</strong>.</li>
	<li>The city<strong> that I want to visit the most</strong> is&nbsp;Paris.</li>
</ul>

<h1>Non-Restrictive Adjective Clauses</h1>

<div class="white-box">
<h5>Non-Restrictive / Non-Defining Adjective Clauses</h5>

<ul>
	<li>Follow a SPECIFIC&nbsp;noun</li>
	<li>Use commas!</li>
</ul>
</div>

<p><strong>Non-restrictive</strong> adjective clauses (also known as <strong>non-defining</strong>&nbsp;adjective clauses) contain information that is NOT necessary to define the noun (it is simply extra info). The noun is a <strong>specific</strong> noun such as the proper name of a person, place, or thing, or a noun already defined by a pronoun/adjective/attributive noun, etc. A good tip to tell your students is that if it&rsquo;s clear which noun the speaker is talking about, then it&rsquo;s a specific noun (<em>Paris = a specific city</em>; <em>I know which city it&nbsp;is</em>).</p>

<p>Because the noun is specific, it DOESN&rsquo;T need information to specify/define it because we already know which noun the speaker is talking about. The adjective clause, then, is <strong>extra</strong> information that <strong>doesn&rsquo;t define</strong> the noun, so <strong>commas</strong> are needed. (Remind students that commas are often used to offset secondary, less important information in&nbsp;English.)</p>

<h4>Examples</h4>

<ul>
	<li>My son, <strong>who is running around the room</strong>, had too much sugar&nbsp;earlier.</li>
	<li>I scolded my son, <strong>who was misbehaving in front of my&nbsp;guests</strong>.</li>
	<li>Mr. Jones, <strong>who is my teacher</strong>, has been at this school for 25&nbsp;years.</li>
	<li>My lunch, <strong>which I ate in five minutes</strong>, was&nbsp;delicious.</li>
	<li><em>The Hobbit</em>, <strong>which was an excellent book</strong>, was made into a&nbsp;movie.</li>
	<li>I finished reading&nbsp;<em>the Hobbit</em>, <strong>which was made into a&nbsp;movie</strong>.</li>
	<li>Paris, <strong>which I visited last year</strong>, has a lot of interesting&nbsp;architecture.</li>
</ul>

<div class="whiteBox">
<h5>Note</h5>

<p>Be aware that some textbooks don&rsquo;t use the hyphen (they use <em>nonrestrictive</em>)&mdash;stick with the word/spelling used in your students&rsquo; main&nbsp;textbook.</p>
</div>

<h1>Related Practice</h1>

<ul class="resources">
	<li class="lesson"><a href="https://ellii.com/courses/88/lessons/1612">Adjective Clauses</a>&nbsp;&ndash; Grammar Practice Worksheets</li>
	<li class="lesson"><a href="https://ellii.com/courses/88/lessons/1611">Adjective Phrases</a> &ndash;&nbsp;Grammar Practice Worksheets</li>
	<li class="lesson"><a href="https://ellii.com/courses/89/lessons/1552">Relative Clauses &ndash;&nbsp;He&rsquo;s a person who&hellip;</a> &ndash; Basic Grammar Sentences</li>
	<li class="lesson"><a href="https://ellii.com/courses/89/lessons/1551">Relative Clauses &ndash;&nbsp;Who&rsquo;s the person who&hellip;</a> &ndash; Basic Grammar Sentences</li>
	<li class="lesson"><a href="https://ellii.com/courses/90/lessons/1647">Adjective Clause &amp; Phrase Stories</a> &ndash; Grammar Stories</li>
	<li class="blog-post"><a href="https://ellii.com/blog/relative-pronouns-formality-scales/">Relative Pronouns &ndash; Formality Scales</a></li>
</ul>

<h1>Final Note</h1>

<p>I plan on writing another blog post or two about which pronouns to use with restrictive/non-restrictive adjective clauses, but I&rsquo;ll mention one case here because it involves punctuation. Many people follow this&nbsp;rule:</p>

<p>Use <em>that</em> for restrictive adjective clauses and <em>which</em> for non-restrictive adjective&nbsp;clauses. (I.e., use <em>that</em> when there&rsquo;s no comma and <em>which</em> following a&nbsp;comma.)</p>

<h4>Examples</h4>

<ul>
	<li>The book <strong>that</strong> I finished reading was&nbsp;great.</li>
	<li>My science textbook, <strong>which</strong> was boring, took me a long time to&nbsp;read.</li>
</ul>

<p>Note that these rules are very common in American and Canadian English. In the UK, &ldquo;<em>which</em>&rdquo; is still accepted in both types of clauses, according to the <em>New Oxford Style Manual</em>. What about other English-speaking countries? My colleague from New Zealand said that they use &ldquo;<em>that</em>&rdquo; in restrictive clauses, not &ldquo;<em>which</em>.&rdquo; I&rsquo;d love to hear from other people in the comments section&nbsp;below!</p>


Restrictive & Non-Restrictive Adjective Clauses

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<h3>Working hard or hardly working?</h3>

<p>Words that have the same adjective and adverb form can be confusing for students (e.g.,&nbsp;<em>I bit the <strong>hard</strong> cheese</em><em> [adj]</em>, <em>I studied <strong>hard</strong>&nbsp;[adv]).</em> But what about when an adverb has two forms, such as <em><strong>hard</strong></em> and <em><strong>hardly</strong></em>? These tricky adverbs have different forms depending on the sentence position and/or meaning. Devoting a lesson to these adverbs is a great idea&mdash;it will cause less confusion when students come across them and will give students a chance to practice them. Read on for an analysis of four of the most common adverbs with two forms, and get your students to try the practice exercise at the end to test what you&rsquo;ve taught&nbsp;them.</p>

<h1>Close &amp;&nbsp;Closely</h1>

<h2>Close</h2>

<table>
	<tbody>
		<tr>
			<th>Meaning</th>
			<td>
			<p>near in space or time</p>

			<p>(Note that <em>closely</em> can often be used in place of&nbsp;<em>close</em>.)</p>
			</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<th>Position</th>
			<td>after a verb</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<th>Example</th>
			<td>
			<ul>
				<li>Don&rsquo;t drive so <strong>close</strong> to the car in front of&nbsp;you.</li>
			</ul>
			</td>
		</tr>
	</tbody>
</table>

<h2>Closely</h2>

<table>
	<tbody>
		<tr>
			<th>Meaning</th>
			<td>near in space or&nbsp;time</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<th>Position</th>
			<td>
			<p>before or after a&nbsp;verb</p>

			<p>(Point out to students that before a verb, only <em>closely</em> can be used&mdash;never&nbsp;<em>close</em>.)</p>
			</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<th>Examples</th>
			<td>
			<ul>
				<li>They are <strong>closely</strong>&nbsp;related.</li>
				<li>She worked <strong>closely</strong> with me on the&nbsp;project.</li>
			</ul>
			</td>
		</tr>
	</tbody>
</table>

<h1>Hard &amp; Hardly</h1>

<h2>Hard</h2>

<table>
	<tbody>
		<tr>
			<th>Meaning</th>
			<td>with a lot of effort</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<th>Position</th>
			<td>after a verb</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<th>Example</th>
			<td>
			<ul>
				<li>You&rsquo;ll have to work <strong>hard</strong> if you want to impress your&nbsp;boss.</li>
			</ul>
			</td>
		</tr>
	</tbody>
</table>

<h2>Hardly</h2>

<table>
	<tbody>
		<tr>
			<th>Meaning</th>
			<td>almost not at all</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<th>Position</th>
			<td>before a verb or before a pronoun with &ldquo;any‑&rdquo; or &ldquo;no‑&rdquo;</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<th>Examples</th>
			<td>
			<ul>
				<li>I <strong>hardly</strong> got any work done with all the&nbsp;noise.</li>
				<li><strong>Hardly</strong> anyone showed up for my&nbsp;party.</li>
			</ul>
			</td>
		</tr>
	</tbody>
</table>

<h1>Late &amp;&nbsp;Lately</h1>

<h2>Late</h2>

<table>
	<tbody>
		<tr>
			<th>Meaning</th>
			<td>after an expected time</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<th>Position</th>
			<td>after a verb</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<th>Example</th>
			<td>
			<ul>
				<li>I slept&nbsp;<strong>late</strong> again, so I&rsquo;m going to get in trouble with my&nbsp;teacher.</li>
			</ul>
			</td>
		</tr>
	</tbody>
</table>

<h2>Lately</h2>

<table>
	<tbody>
		<tr>
			<th>Meaning</th>
			<td>recent time</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<th>Position</th>
			<td>at the beginning or end of a&nbsp;sentence</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<th>Examples</th>
			<td>
			<ul>
				<li><strong>Lately</strong>, I&rsquo;ve been worried about my&nbsp;future.</li>
				<li>I&rsquo;ve been worried about my future&nbsp;<strong>lately</strong>.</li>
			</ul>
			</td>
		</tr>
	</tbody>
</table>

<h1>Slow &amp;&nbsp;Slowly</h1>

<h2>Slow</h2>

<table>
	<tbody>
		<tr>
			<th>Meaning</th>
			<td>
			<p>the opposite of&nbsp;<em>fast</em></p>

			<p>(Note that <em>slowly</em> can usually be used in place of <em>slow</em>, but it is more common to use <em>slow</em> after verbs of movement. Some people object to <em>slow</em> being used as an adverb, but it has been in use for over four centuries, according to <em>Merriam-Webster&rsquo;s&nbsp;Dictionary</em>.)</p>
			</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<th>Position</th>
			<td>after verbs of movement</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<th>Example</th>
			<td>
			<ul>
				<li>Go <strong>slow</strong> so that you don&rsquo;t slip on the&nbsp;ice.</li>
			</ul>
			</td>
		</tr>
	</tbody>
</table>

<h2>Slowly</h2>

<table>
	<tbody>
		<tr>
			<th>Meaning</th>
			<td>the opposite of <em>fast</em></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<th>Position</th>
			<td>
			<p>before or after a&nbsp;verb</p>

			<p>(Point out to students that before a verb, only <em>slowly</em> can be used&mdash;never&nbsp;<em>slow</em>.)</p>
			</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<th>Examples</th>
			<td>
			<ul>
				<li>She <strong>slowly</strong> stood up to give her&nbsp;presentation.</li>
				<li>She walked <strong>slowly</strong> to the front of the&nbsp;room.</li>
			</ul>
			</td>
		</tr>
	</tbody>
</table>

<h1>Exercise</h1>

<h2>Questions</h2>

<ol>
	<li>My friend arrived _______ to the party. <strong>(late&nbsp;/&nbsp;lately)</strong></li>
	<li>He worked _______ with his boss during that project. <strong>(close&nbsp;/&nbsp;closely)</strong></li>
	<li>I hate when people drive _______ on the freeway. <strong>(slow&nbsp;/&nbsp;slowly)</strong></li>
	<li>The mother told her son to stay _______ to her as they walked through the crowd. <strong>(close&nbsp;/&nbsp;closely)</strong></li>
	<li>We&rsquo;ve _______ begun our presentation. <strong>(hard&nbsp;/&nbsp;hardly)</strong></li>
	<li>Have you heard from your sister&nbsp;_______&nbsp;? <strong>(late&nbsp;/&nbsp;lately)</strong></li>
	<li>The man _______ woke up from his nap. <strong>(slow&nbsp;/&nbsp;slowly)</strong></li>
	<li>The students have been studying _______ for weeks. <strong>(hard&nbsp;/&nbsp;hardly)</strong></li>
</ol>

<h2>Answers</h2>

<ol>
	<li>My friend arrived <strong>late</strong> to the&nbsp;party.</li>
	<li>He worked <strong>closely</strong> with his boss during that&nbsp;project.</li>
	<li>I hate when people drive <strong>slow (or slowly)</strong> on the&nbsp;freeway.</li>
	<li>The mother told her son to stay <strong>close</strong> to her as they walked through the&nbsp;crowd.</li>
	<li>We&rsquo;ve <strong>hardly</strong> begun our&nbsp;presentation.</li>
	<li>Have you heard from your sister&nbsp;<strong>lately</strong>?</li>
	<li>The man <strong>slowly</strong> woke up from his&nbsp;nap.</li>
	<li>The students have been studying <strong>hard</strong> for&nbsp;weeks.</li>
</ol>

<p><a href="https://ellii.com/resource_categories/103/resources/2158" target="_blank"><img alt="Adjectives with Two Forms resource" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/67/content_103_Adverbs-with-Two-Forms_US.png" /></a></p>

<p class="caption">Grammar &amp; Usage Resources &ndash; <a href="https://ellii.com/resource_categories/103/resources/2158" target="_blank">Adverbs with Two&nbsp;Forms</a></p>

<h2>Bonus Question</h2>

<p>Can your students guess which adverbs belong in the following famous quote? Can they explain the&nbsp;meaning?</p>

<blockquote>
<p>Are you working __________ or __________ working? <strong>(hard&nbsp;/&nbsp;hardly)</strong></p>
</blockquote>

<p>Other adverbs with two forms that you may wish to explore with your students include: fair/fairly, fine/finely, free/freely, high/highly, just/justly, most/mostly, near/nearly, pretty/prettily, right/rightly, sharp/sharply, well/goodly, wide/widely, and&nbsp;wrong/wrongly.</p>

<p>For more tips about adverbs, see my post on the <a href="https://ellii.com/blog/7-adverb-patterns/" target="_blank">7&nbsp;Adverb&nbsp;Patterns</a>.</p>


Adverbs with Two Forms

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<blockquote>
<p>Actually, my coworkers often tell me quite emphatically that adverbs are really confusing for their&nbsp;students&hellip;</p>
</blockquote>

<p>Whereas most parts of speech have one or two sentence patterns, adverbs have at least seven! Different types of adverbs are introduced at different levels&mdash;frequency adverbs usually come first at the lower levels, followed by adverbs of manner and adverbs to describe adjectives and other adverbs, ending with viewpoint adverbs at the higher levels. However, I&rsquo;ve found it quite beneficial to lay out all seven patterns at once (usually with an intermediate-level class) because students can more easily grasp the different uses and meanings. This is especially useful for prep for tests like the TOEIC, where students must be able to recognize all possible patterns in the grammar section of the test. Keep reading for an analysis of the adverbs used in the introductory sentence (or scroll down to the end of this&nbsp;post).</p>

<h1>The 7 Adverb Patterns</h1>

<ol>
	<li>Adv + V</li>
	<li>BE + Adv</li>
	<li>V + Adv</li>
	<li>V + Adv + V</li>
	<li>Adv + Adv</li>
	<li>Adv + Adj</li>
	<li>SVO + Adv / Adv + SVO</li>
</ol>

<h1>Explanations &amp; Examples</h1>

<h2>Adverbs of Frequency</h2>

<p><strong>Patterns #1 and 2</strong> relate to adverbs of frequency (i.e., adverbs that explain <strong>how often</strong> an action occurs). These adverbs come <strong>before</strong> the main verb and are usually used with the simple present tense. Remind students of the Be verb exception, where these adverbs come <strong>after</strong>, not before, the Be verb. Adverbs of frequency include the words <em>always</em>, <em>almost always</em>, <em>frequently</em>, <em>usually</em>, <em>often</em>, <em>sometimes</em>, <em>seldom</em>, <em>not very often</em>, <em>almost never</em>, and&nbsp;<em>never</em>.</p>

<h3>Examples</h3>

<ul>
	<li>I &nbsp;<strong>always</strong> eat breakfast. (Adv&nbsp;+&nbsp;V)</li>
	<li>She <strong>often</strong> goes swimming after school. (Adv&nbsp;+&nbsp;V)</li>
	<li>Our teacher <strong>never</strong> lets us into the class if we&rsquo;re late. (Adv&nbsp;+&nbsp;V)</li>
	<li>He is <strong>always</strong> tired. (BE&nbsp;+&nbsp;Adv)</li>
	<li>They are <strong>almost never</strong> here. (BE&nbsp;+&nbsp;Adv)</li>
</ul>

<h3>Notes</h3>

<h4>Note #1</h4>

<p>Because they&rsquo;re so common, some frequency adverbs can moved around in the sentence and assume other adverb positions <em>Sometimes</em>, <em>often</em>, and <em>usually</em> fall into this category. We can say, with the same meaning in each case, <em>Sometimes he is late, He is sometimes late,</em> and <em>He is late&nbsp;sometimes</em>.</p>

<h4>Note #2</h4>

<p>The position of <em> ot very often</em> is an exception to the normal rule. We add <em>not</em> to the auxiliary verb <em>do</em> (before the verb), and <em>very often</em> goes at the end of the sentence (e.g., <em>She doesn&rsquo;t go to parties very&nbsp;often</em>).</p>

<h2>Adverbs of Manner</h2>

<p>Adverbs of manner <strong>modify verbs</strong>, and they represent the majority of adverbs. These adverbs use <strong>patterns&nbsp;#3 and 4</strong>&mdash;they come <strong>after</strong> the verb if there is only one verb, such as with the simple present or simple past, and they come <strong>after the first part of the verb</strong> if the verb has two or more parts, such as with the present progressive, simple future, present perfect, present perfect progressive, passive, etc. These adverbs are usually formed by adding <em>‑ly</em> to the adjective form. Adverbs of manner are used to say <strong>how</strong> an action is performed (i.e., the manner in which it is&nbsp;performed).</p>

<h3>Examples</h3>

<ul>
	<li>The teacher spoke <strong>slowly</strong> so that the students could understand. (V&nbsp;+&nbsp;Adv)</li>
	<li>He stood <strong>awkwardly</strong> at the front of the class. (V&nbsp;+&nbsp;Adv)</li>
	<li>The students read <strong>silently</strong>. (V&nbsp;+&nbsp;Adv)</li>
	<li>I am <strong>quickly</strong> learning that honesty is the best policy. (V&nbsp;+&nbsp;Adv&nbsp;+&nbsp;V)</li>
	<li>He has <strong>confidently</strong> stated that he will run in the election next year. (V&nbsp;+&nbsp;Adv&nbsp;+&nbsp;V)</li>
	<li>If you study for that test, you will <strong>needlessly</strong> be wasting your time because I heard it&rsquo;s going to be easy. (V&nbsp;+&nbsp;Adv&nbsp;+&nbsp;V&nbsp;+&nbsp;V)</li>
</ul>

<h3>Notes</h3>

<h4>Note #1</h4>

<p>Not all adverbs of manner have an <em>‑ly</em> ending. Some exceptions include <strong>well</strong>, <strong>fast</strong>, <strong>hard</strong>, <strong>late</strong>, and&nbsp;<strong>far</strong>.</p>

<h4>Note #2</h4>

<p>Some adverbs can move around into other adverb positions. For example, we can say, with no change in meaning, <em>I am quickly learning that honesty is the best policy</em> and <em>I am learning quickly that honesty is the best policy</em>. But mention to your students that you can&rsquo;t change the position for every adverb and that V&nbsp;+&nbsp;Adv&nbsp;+&nbsp;V will almost always be&nbsp;correct.</p>

<h2>Modifying Adverbs</h2>

<p>Adverbs not only modify verbs, they can also <strong>modify adjectives and other adverbs</strong>, as in <strong>patterns&nbsp;#5 and 6</strong>. These types of adverbs come <strong>before</strong> the adjective or adverb they are describing, and are used for <strong>emphasis</strong> (for a big or small amount). These adverbs include <em>really</em>, <em>very</em>, <em>so</em>, <em>too</em>, <em>pretty</em>, <em>quite</em>, <em>fairly</em>, <em>slightly</em>,&nbsp;etc.</p>

<h3>Examples</h3>

<ul>
	<li>He is <strong>very</strong> tall. (Adv&nbsp;+&nbsp;Adj)</li>
	<li>My cat is <strong>pretty</strong> lazy. (Adv&nbsp;+&nbsp;Adj)</li>
	<li>I finished the test <strong>quite</strong> quickly. (Adv&nbsp;+&nbsp;Adv)</li>
	<li>My friend runs <strong>really</strong> fast. (Adv&nbsp;+&nbsp;Adv)</li>
</ul>

<h2>Adverbs of Viewpoint</h2>

<p>The adverbs of <strong>pattern&nbsp;#7</strong> are usually introduced in higher-level classes. I know them as viewpoint adverbs, but I&#39;m sure there are many other names such as adverbs of opinion, adverbs of stance, commenting adverbs, etc. These adverbs <strong>give a point of view or emphasis</strong> to an entire thought/sentence, and they almost always come at the <strong>beginning</strong> (usually followed by a comma) or <strong>end</strong> of the sentence or clause (usually preceded by a comma). They include <em>actually</em>, <em>basically</em>, <em>clearly</em>, <em>surely</em>, <em>ideally</em>, <em>honestly</em>, <em>theoretically</em>,&nbsp;etc.</p>

<h3>Examples</h3>

<ul>
	<li><strong>Basically</strong>, I think his theory is faulty. (Adv&nbsp;+&nbsp;SVO)</li>
	<li><strong>Clearly</strong>, we have more work to do. (Adv&nbsp;+&nbsp;SVO)</li>
	<li><strong>Actually</strong>, she believes that the earth is flat. (Adv&nbsp;+&nbsp;SVO)</li>
	<li>She believes that the earth is flat, <strong>actually</strong>. (SVO&nbsp;+&nbsp;Adv)</li>
	<li><strong>Surely</strong>&nbsp;there is a way to improve the system. (Adv&nbsp;+&nbsp;SVO)</li>
	<li>There is a way to improve the system, <strong>surely</strong>. (SVO&nbsp;+&nbsp;Adv) (Note that <em>surely</em> usually doesn&rsquo;t use a comma at the beginning, but it should be preceded by one if it&rsquo;s at the&nbsp;end.)</li>
</ul>

<div class="whiteBox">
<h5>Note</h5>

<p>In more formal writing and speaking, these adverbs can also be inserted, with commas before and after, into the middle of a sentence. (E.g., <em>She believes, actually, that the earth is&nbsp;flat.</em>)</p>
</div>

<h1>Final Notes</h1>

<p>This post didn&rsquo;t deal with the adverbs used in adverb clauses and phrases. I&rsquo;ll write about these adverbs some other time, but I&rsquo;ll discuss them briefly in case your students ask about them while you&rsquo;re explaining the seven patterns. <strong>Conjunctive adverbs</strong> (or <strong>adverbs of time</strong>, among other names) are adverbs that are followed by a clause or phrase. These adverbs include <em>when</em>, <em>after</em>, <em>before</em>, <em>while</em>, <em>as</em>, <em>since</em>, <em>until</em>, etc. For example, the adverb <em>after</em> is used in the sentence <em>After he graduates, he will get a job</em> (or <em>He will get a job after he graduates</em>). Its purpose is to join the two clauses and denote a time relationship (first he will graduate, then he will get a&nbsp;job).</p>

<h1>Practice</h1>

<p>Did you figure out what was happening in the introductory sentence? See if your students can analyze all the adverbs after you&rsquo;ve taught them the seven&nbsp;patterns!</p>

<h2>Answer</h2>

<ul>
	<li><em>Actually</em> is modifying the whole sentence (Adv of Viewpoint +&nbsp;SVO).</li>
	<li><em>Often</em> is modifying the verb <em>tell</em> (Adv of Frequency +&nbsp;V).</li>
	<li><em>Quite</em> is modifying the adverb <em>emphatically</em> (Modifying Adv +&nbsp;Adv).</li>
	<li><em>Emphatically</em> is modifying the verb <em>tell</em> (V + Adv of&nbsp;Manner).</li>
	<li><em>Really</em> is modifying the adjective <em>confusing</em> (Modifying Adv +&nbsp;Adj).</li>
</ul>


7 Adverb Patterns

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<h3>How long can one verb&nbsp;be?</h3>

<p dir="ltr">When a verb is comprised of four parts, it starts to get complicated&mdash;and that&rsquo;s exactly what happens with the future perfect progressive (<em>will + have + been + -ing verb</em>). The future perfect and the future perfect progressive are rarely used in English, so should we bother teaching these tenses to our students?</p>

<p dir="ltr">My opinion is that if students will come across it, we need to teach it to them at some point (but you can definitely wait until they&rsquo;re at an advanced level). Just be sure to mention that since it&rsquo;s unusual to know for sure what will happen at two points in the future, these tenses are rarely used. Also, they are quite formal, and we usually substitute the simple future and the future progressive for a more informal style.</p>

<p dir="ltr">For advanced students and those taking a test like the TOEIC, TOEFL, IELTS, etc., here&rsquo;s a tried-and-true method for making the future perfect and future perfect progressive as clear as&nbsp;possible.</p>

<h3>Future Perfect: WILL + HAVE +&nbsp;P.P.</h3>

<p>The future perfect is formed with the future modal <em>will</em>, the base verb <em>have</em>, and the <em>past participle</em> of the main verb. It is used when you think <strong>the first future action will finish before the second future action</strong>. The following diagram will help illustrate this to your&nbsp;students:</p>

<p><img alt="" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/34/content_Tanya_Future-Perfect-Vs-Future-Perfect-Progressive_Chart-1.png" /></p>

<p>Make sure you point out that a&nbsp;<strong>simple present</strong> verb is used in the dependent clause, so students need to be careful of the subject (the verb will end in&nbsp;<em>-s</em> for the following subjects:&nbsp;<em>she</em>, <em>he</em>,<em> it</em>, a singular count/countable noun,&nbsp;and a&nbsp;non-count/uncountable&nbsp;noun).</p>

<h3>Future Perfect Progressive: WILL + HAVE + BEEN + ING&nbsp;VERB</h3>

<p>The future perfect progressive is formed with the future modal <em>will</em>, the base verb <em>have</em>, the past participle <em>been</em>, and the <em>-ing</em> form of the main verb. It is used when you think <strong>the first future action will continue until the second future action</strong>. The following diagram will help illustrate this to your&nbsp;students:</p>

<p><img alt="" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/35/content_Tanya_Future-Perfect-Vs-Future-Perfect-Progressive_Chart-2.png" /></p>

<p>Again,&nbsp;a&nbsp;<strong>simple present</strong> verb is used in the dependent clause, so students need to determine if the subject requires an&nbsp;<em>-s&nbsp;</em>ending.</p>

<p>Note: If you want to elaborate for more advanced students, you can explain that the future perfect progressive is formed by combining the future perfect (<em>will + have + p.p.</em>) plus the basic progressive pattern (<em>be + -ing verb</em>). Since the past participle of the Be verb is <em>been</em>, you get <em>will + have + been + -ing verb</em>. Also note that <em>have</em> will never be <em>has</em> (no matter what the subject is) because it is always <em>modal + base&nbsp;verb</em>.</p>

<h3>Comparison Chart</h3>

<p>To compare the two verb tenses and show your students examples, use the following <strong>verb&nbsp;chart</strong>.</p>

<p><a href="https://ellii.com/resource_categories/103/resources/2157"><img alt="Future Perfect Vs. Future Perfect Progressive – Resource" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/36/content_103_Future-Perfect-Vs-Future-Perfect-Progressive.png" style="width: 400px; height: 518px;" /></a></p>

<p class="caption">Grammar &amp; Usage &ndash; <a href="https://ellii.com/resource_categories/103/resources/2157">Future Perfect Vs. Future Progressive</a></p>

<h3>Important Note</h3>

<p>When giving your students examples, it is very important to <strong>mix up the order</strong> of the independent and dependent clauses. Make sure that you give some examples where the <strong>independent clause</strong> comes first (with the future perfect or future perfect progressive tense), and others where the <strong>dependent clause</strong> comes first (with the simple present tense).</p>

<p>Point out that when the dependent clause comes first, students must use a <strong>comma</strong> between the clauses. Showing both types of examples also means that students won&rsquo;t incorrectly memorize &ldquo;<em>will + have + been + p.p.</em> first, <em>present verb</em> second,&rdquo;&nbsp;which can cause&nbsp;errors.</p>

<h3>Practice with Ellii Lessons</h3>

<p>Try our <a href="https://ellii.com/courses/88/lessons/1614">Grammar Practice Worksheet lesson on the Future Perfect</a>. This lesson has over 16 pages of practice&mdash;try using some in class on different days, assign some for homework, and use one or two as a&nbsp;quiz.</p>

<p>We also have a lesson on the <a href="https://ellii.com/courses/88/lessons/1972">Future Perfect Progressive</a>, which includes exercises that combine both tenses.&nbsp;</p>

<p><a href="https://ellii.com/courses/88/lessons/1997">Verb Tense Review 2 &ndash; The Perfect Tenses</a> contains even more practice exercises that compare these two tenses.</p>


Future Perfect Vs. Future Perfect Progressive

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<p>A few weeks ago, I blogged about <a href="https://ellii.com/blog/so-such-too/" target="_blank">So, Such &amp; Too</a>. I mentioned that these commonly confused words often trip students up because they have similar meanings and grammatical functions. Two other words that students have trouble keeping straight are <strong><em>too</em></strong> and <strong><em>enough</em></strong>. While their meanings are basically the opposite of each other, these two terms have similar grammatical functions. However, teaching students the different sentence patterns helps to minimize the&nbsp;confusion!</p>

<h1>Too</h1>

<table>
	<tbody>
		<tr>
			<th>Patterns:</th>
			<td>
			<ul>
				<li>TOO + ADJ</li>
				<li>TOO + ADV</li>
			</ul>
			</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<th>Meaning:</th>
			<td><em>Too</em> has the meaning of <em>very</em> or <em>a lot</em>, and it is usually used for <strong>negative</strong> cases. <em>Too</em> means that something is incomplete or unable to be completed (it basically means&nbsp;<em>can&rsquo;t</em>).</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<th>Function:</th>
			<td>This adverb comes <strong>before</strong> the adjective or adverb it&rsquo;s&nbsp;describing.</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<th>Examples:</th>
			<td>
			<ul>
				<li>The test was <strong>too difficult</strong> to finish on time. (too&nbsp;+&nbsp;Adj)</li>
				<li>It&rsquo;s<strong> too cold</strong> to go skiing today. (too&nbsp;+&nbsp;Adj)</li>
				<li>She speaks <strong>too quickly</strong>. I can&rsquo;t understand what she&rsquo;s saying. (too&nbsp;+&nbsp;Adv)</li>
				<li>Don&rsquo;t wait <strong>too long</strong> before registering for the course. (too&nbsp;+&nbsp;Adv)</li>
			</ul>
			</td>
		</tr>
	</tbody>
</table>

<div class="whiteBox">
<h5>Note</h5>

<p>The pattern <em>too + Adj/Adv</em> is often followed by an infinitive verb (<em>to&nbsp;+&nbsp;base&nbsp;V</em>).</p>
</div>

<h1>Enough</h1>

<table>
	<tbody>
		<tr>
			<th>Patterns:</th>
			<td>
			<ul>
				<li>ADJ + ENOUGH</li>
				<li>ADV + ENOUGH</li>
				<li>ENOUGH + N</li>
			</ul>
			</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<th>Meaning:</th>
			<td><em>Enough</em> has the meaning of completion or satisfaction, and it is usually used for <strong>positive</strong> cases. <em>Enough</em> refers to the correct amount of&nbsp;something.</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<th>Function:</th>
			<td>When functioning as an adverb, <em>enough</em> comes <strong>after</strong> the adjective or adverb it&rsquo;s describing. When functioning as an adjective, it comes <strong>before</strong> a&nbsp;noun.</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<th>Examples:</th>
			<td>
			<ul>
				<li>The instructions were <strong>clear enough</strong> for me to assemble the unit myself. (Adj&nbsp;+&nbsp;enough)</li>
				<li>Was your internet connection <strong>fast enough</strong> to download that file on time? (Adj&nbsp;+&nbsp;enough)</li>
				<li>He spoke <strong>slowly enough</strong> for everyone to understand. (Adv&nbsp;+&nbsp;enough)</li>
				<li>I couldn&#39;t run <strong>fast enough</strong> to win the race. (Adv&nbsp;+&nbsp;enough)</li>
				<li>There was <strong>enough pizza</strong> for everybody. (enough&nbsp;+&nbsp;N)</li>
				<li>Did you bring <strong>enough money</strong> on your trip? (enough&nbsp;+&nbsp;N)</li>
			</ul>
			</td>
		</tr>
	</tbody>
</table>

<div class="whiteBox">
<h5>Note</h5>

<p>The patterns <em>Adj/Adv + enough</em> and <em>enough + N</em> are often followed by <em>for + N</em> or an infinitive verb (<em>to +&nbsp;base&nbsp;V</em>).</p>
</div>

<h1>Summary</h1>

<p>Use <em>too</em> for negative situations and <em>enough</em> for positive ones. <em>Too</em> comes before the adjective or adverb it&rsquo;s describing, while <em>enough</em> comes after the adjective or adverb. <em>Enough</em> comes before a noun, whereas <em>too</em> is never used before a&nbsp;noun.</p>

<p>I hope that was clear <em>enough</em>,</p>

<p>Tanya</p>


Too & Enough

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<blockquote>
<p>Wherever you go and whatever you do, may the luck of the Irish be there with you.</p>

<p class="attribution">&mdash;Irish blessing</p>
</blockquote>

<p>March 17 is St. Patrick&#39;s Day, and for the past few days we&#39;ve been busy getting our St. Patrick&#39;s Day materials ready. As I was editing our older material, I had to decide whether to spell this holiday as <em>Saint</em> or <em>St.</em> Patrick&#39;s Day. Also, I had to find out if this holiday&#39;s nickname should be spelled <em>Paddy</em> or <em>Patty</em>. I found the answers interesting, so I thought I&#39;d share them with my fellow English-language lovers!</p>

<h1>Saint or St.?</h1>

<blockquote>
<p>St. Patrick&#39;s Day = correct (and more popular)</p>

<p>Saint Patrick&#39;s Day = correct</p>
</blockquote>

<p>Both <em>Saint Patrick&rsquo;s Day</em> and <em>St. Patrick&#39;s Day</em> are correct, but which is more common? <em>The Chicago Manual of Style</em>&nbsp;states that both are possible, and to choose one form and be consistent. The next thing I did was to look up both variations in <em>Merriam-Webster&#39;s Dictionary of Current English</em>, since that is the dictionary we follow in our <a href="http://ellii.com/blog/creating-our-in-house-style-guide/" target="_blank">style guide</a>. <em>MW&#39;s</em> had an entry for <em>Saint Patrick&#39;s Day</em>, but not for <em>St. Patrick&#39;s Day</em>, even though they list other saints as <em>St.</em> (<em>St. Denis</em>, for example). But after talking to the rest of the team and realizing we all grew up seeing <em>St. Patrick&#39;s Day</em>, I decided to run a Google Ngram on these two terms to find out which was more common in&nbsp;literature.</p>

<p><img alt="A screenshot from Google book Ngram Viewer showing more results for St. Patrick's Day than Saint Patrick's Day" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/1275/content_Tanya_Saint-or-St-Patricks_Graph.jpg" /></p>

<p>Clearly, <em>St. Patrick&#39;s Day</em> is more common in literature, so that&#39;s what we decided to stick with in our materials! A quick <a href="http://googlebattle.com" rel="noreferrer noopener nofollow" target="_blank">googlebattle.com</a> check confirmed that <em>St. Patrick&#39;s Day</em> also appears far more often on the web.</p>

<p><img alt="A chart from GoogleBattle that shows St. Patrick's Day with 329,000,000 results, compared to Saint Patrick's Day with 35,000,000" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/1277/content_Tanya_Saint-or-St-Patricks_Chart.png" /></p>

<p>Note: Don&#39;t forget that the word&nbsp;<em>Day</em> is always capitalized in holiday names!</p>

<h1>Paddy or Patty?</h1>

<blockquote>
<p>St. Paddy&#39;s Day = correct</p>

<p>St. Patty&#39;s Day = incorrect</p>
</blockquote>

<p>Before I did some digging for this blog post, I assumed that <em>Patty</em> was the correct spelling of St. Patrick&#39;s nickname, and that people wrote <em>Paddy</em> in error (because <span class="inlineBlock">/t/</span> is always pronounced /d/ between two vowels&hellip;think of how you say <em>water</em>). But this is NOT the case! <em>Paddy</em> is correct, because it is based on the Irish boy&#39;s name <em>P&agrave;draig</em> (the English version is <em>Patrick</em>). I learned that the Irish dislike when people write <em>Patty</em> (this is short for <em>Patricia</em>, a girl&#39;s name), so be sure to spell it <em>Paddy</em> and<em> St.&nbsp;Paddy&#39;s Day&nbsp;</em>from now on. Thanks to <a href="http://paddynotpatty.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">paddynotpatty.com</a> for their humorous summary of these rules!</p>

<h1>St. Patrick&#39;s Day Resources</h1>

<p><a href="https://ellii.com/collections/holidays-events/luck" target="_blank">ESL Lesson Plans and Resources for Teaching about St. Patrick&#39;s Day and Luck</a>: Find a Lucky Idioms poster, beginner &amp; intermediate lesson plans, podcasts, flashcards, and more!</p>

<p>Happy St. Paddy&#39;s Day!</p>

<p>Tanya</p>


Saint Patrick's or St. Patrick's? Paddy or Patty?

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<blockquote>
<p>I hope this won&rsquo;t be too difficult for students to&nbsp;understand&hellip;</p>
</blockquote>

<p>Commonly confused words, whether they look the same, sound the same, or have the same meaning, are the sources of many recurring student errors. I&rsquo;ve found that many students confuse &ldquo;so&rdquo; and &ldquo;such&rdquo; because they have the same meaning but a slightly different grammatical function. My students also have trouble with &ldquo;so&rdquo; and &ldquo;too&rdquo; for the opposite reason&mdash;they have the same grammatical function but the meaning is slightly different. It&rsquo;s a great idea to review these terms with your English learners no matter what level they are&nbsp;at!</p>

<h1>So Vs. Such</h1>

<h2>Meaning</h2>

<p><em>So</em> and <em>such</em> both have the meaning of <em>very</em> or <em>a&nbsp;lot</em>.</p>

<h2>Grammatical Function</h2>

<p><em>So</em> comes before an <em>adjective</em>, while <em>such</em> comes before an <em>adjective +&nbsp;noun</em>.</p>

<blockquote>
<p>SO + Adjective</p>

<p>SUCH + (article) + Adjective +&nbsp;Noun</p>
</blockquote>

<h2>Examples</h2>

<ul>
	<li>That movie was <strong>so&nbsp;good</strong>.</li>
	<li>The test was <strong>so&nbsp;difficult</strong>.</li>
	<li>It is <strong>so cold</strong> in my&nbsp;room.</li>
	<li>My hometown is <strong>so&nbsp;beautiful</strong>.</li>
</ul>

<ul>
	<li>That was <strong>such a good&nbsp;movie</strong>.</li>
	<li>It was <strong>such a difficult&nbsp;test</strong>.</li>
	<li>He is <strong>such a good soccer&nbsp;player</strong>.</li>
	<li>My new coworkers are <strong>such talented&nbsp;people</strong>.</li>
</ul>

<div class="whiteBox">
<h5>Tip</h5>

<p>Students often incorrectly use <em>so</em> instead of <em>such</em>. Make sure you remind them that <em>so + Adjective + Noun</em> is impossible (e.g., we can&rsquo;t say <em>That was so a good movie</em> or <em>That was so good&nbsp;movie</em>).</p>
</div>

<h1>So Vs. Too</h1>

<h2>Meaning</h2>

<p><em>So</em> and <em>too</em> both have the meaning of <em>very</em> or <em>a lot</em>, but <em>so</em> is usually used for <strong>positive</strong> cases, whereas <em>too</em> is used for <strong>negative</strong> cases. When <em>so</em> and <em>too</em> are both used for negative cases, <em>so</em> usually implies that something was <strong>completed</strong> or able to be done, while <em>too</em> implies it is <strong>incomplete</strong> or unable to be done. <em>Too</em> basically means <em>can&rsquo;t</em>!</p>

<table>
	<tbody>
		<tr>
			<th>So</th>
			<td>for <strong>positive</strong> situations, or for <strong>negative</strong> situations when there is a meaning of <strong>completing</strong>&nbsp;something</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<th>Too</th>
			<td>for <strong>negative</strong> situations when there is a meaning of <strong>not completing</strong>&nbsp;something.</td>
		</tr>
	</tbody>
</table>

<h2>Grammatical Function</h2>

<p><em>So</em> and <em>too</em> both come before an <em>adjective</em> (or&nbsp;<em>adverb</em>).</p>

<h2>Examples</h2>

<ul>
	<li>That book was <strong>so interesting</strong>.&nbsp;(positive)</li>
	<li>My cat is <strong>so cute</strong>.&nbsp;(positive)</li>
</ul>

<ul>
	<li>The wiring is <strong>too complicated</strong> for me to fix.&nbsp;(negative)</li>
	<li>It is <strong>too tough</strong> to guess when this project will be finished.&nbsp;(negative)</li>
</ul>

<ul>
	<li>She finished the test <strong>so quickly</strong>.&nbsp;(positive)</li>
	<li>She finished the test <strong>too quickly</strong>.&nbsp;(negative)</li>
</ul>

<ul>
	<li>That test was <strong>so difficult.</strong> (negative, meaning is <em>the test was really hard but I finished&nbsp;it</em>)</li>
	<li>That test was <strong>too difficult</strong>. (negative, meaning is <em>the test was really hard and I couldn&rsquo;t finish&nbsp;it</em>)</li>
</ul>

<ul>
	<li>It was <strong>so cold</strong>. (negative, one possible meaning is <em>I went outside and it was very&nbsp;cold</em>)</li>
	<li>It was <strong>too cold</strong>. (negative, one possible meaning is <em>I didn&rsquo;t go outside because it was very&nbsp;cold</em>)</li>
</ul>

<div class="whiteBox">
<h5>Tip</h5>

<p>Students often use <em>too</em> incorrectly for positive situations. I&rsquo;ve found it helpful to explain what the meaning with <em>too&nbsp;</em>actually is. For&nbsp;example:</p>

<ul>
	<li><em>The movie was too good</em> means that you were enjoying the movie so much that you couldn&rsquo;t stand it and had to leave before it was over. This doesn&rsquo;t really make&nbsp;sense!</li>
	<li><em>The pizza was too delicious</em> means that you took a bite of the pizza and decided you couldn&rsquo;t eat it because it tasted so good. Strange,&nbsp;right?</li>
</ul>
</div>

<h1>Note</h1>

<p><em>So</em>, <em>such</em>, and <em>too</em> also have other purposes and functions in English. Feel free to ask about other cases in the comments section&nbsp;below.</p>


So, Such & Too

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<blockquote>
<p>The students had the grammar explained to them by their&nbsp;teacher&hellip;</p>
</blockquote>

<p>Do your students understand the passive voice? Sure. Have they mastered causative verbs? Yep. But do they realize that causative verbs can be passive too?&nbsp;<em>What?</em></p>

<p>Don&rsquo;t let the passive causative cause your students any angst. Try presenting it using the method below, and wait for that <em>Aha</em>&nbsp;moment!</p>

<h1>What Is the Passive Causative?</h1>

<p><a href="https://ellii.com/blog/causative-verbs" target="_blank">Causative</a> verbs (<em>have</em>, <em>let</em>, <em>make</em>) are used when one person is <em>causing</em> another to do something. The <a href="https://ellii.com/blog/the-passive-voice" target="_blank">passive</a> is used when the focus is on the&nbsp;<em>thing&nbsp;</em>instead of the person. When you combine them together, you are essentially saying <em>someone caused something to be done (by&nbsp;someone)</em>.</p>

<p><img alt="Passive Causative Resource" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/3193/content_103_Passive-Causative_US.jpg" /></p>

<p class="caption"><a href="https://ellii.com/resource_categories/103/resources/2324">The Passive Causative</a> &ndash; Grammar &amp; Usage&nbsp;Resources</p>

<h1>Why &ldquo;Get&rdquo;?</h1>

<p>Since the causative verbs are <em>have</em>, <em>let</em>, and <em>make</em>, students might be wondering why the passive causative is formed with <em>have</em> or <em>get</em>. <em>Get</em> is possible for two&nbsp;reasons:</p>

<ol>
	<li><em>Get</em> is the casual passive form. Instead of <em>the problem was solved</em>, you can say <em>the problem got&nbsp;solved</em>.</li>
	<li><em>Get</em> also has a causative meaning. You can say <em>I got someone to do something</em>, with the meaning of <em>cause</em> or <em>force</em>. However, because it&rsquo;s not a true causative verb, the base verb is not used, and an infinitive verb is used instead (which is the normal case for a second verb in a sentence after an object). See our <a href="https://ellii.com/blog/causative-verbs" target="_blank" title="Causative Verbs">Causative Verbs</a> post for more&nbsp;information.</li>
</ol>

<h1>One More Example&hellip;</h1>

<p><em>I got my hair cut</em> is probably one of the most commonly used passive causative sentences around. But because <em>cut</em> is an irregular verb that has the same form for the past participle as it does for the base verb, it&rsquo;s a good idea to give students another example with a verb that changes forms. Try showing them these&nbsp;sentences:</p>

<table>
	<tbody>
		<tr>
			<th>Causative:</th>
			<td>The manager <strong>had</strong> the assistant <strong>write</strong> the&nbsp;report.</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<th>Passive:</th>
			<td>The report <strong>was/got written</strong> (by the&nbsp;assistant).</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<th>Passive Causative:</th>
			<td>The manager <strong>had/got</strong> the report <strong>written</strong> (by the&nbsp;assistant).</td>
		</tr>
	</tbody>
</table>

<h1>Related</h1>

<ul class="resources">
	<li class="lesson">Lesson:&nbsp;<a href="https://app.ellii.com/lesson/2834-passive-causative" target="_blank">The Passive Causative</a></li>
	<li class="resource">Chart:&nbsp;<a href="https://ellii.com/resource_categories/grammar-usage/resources/2324-the-passive-causative-have-get" target="_blank">The Passive Causative: Have &amp;&nbsp;Get</a></li>
	<li class="lesson">Lesson:&nbsp;<a href="https://app.ellii.com/lesson/2325-causative-verbs" target="_blank">Causative Verbs</a></li>
	<li class="resource">Chart:&nbsp;<a href="https://ellii.com/resource_categories/grammar-usage/resources/2314-causative-verbs-have-let-make" target="_blank">Causative Verbs: Have, Let &amp;&nbsp;Make</a></li>
	<li class="blog-post">Blog Post:&nbsp;<a href="https://ellii.com/blog/causative-verbs" target="_blank">Causative Verbs</a></li>
	<li class="lesson">Lesson:&nbsp;<a href="https://app.ellii.com/lesson/1601-passive">Passive</a></li>
	<li class="resource">Chart:&nbsp;<a href="https://ellii.com/resource_categories/grammar-usage/resources/2276-the-passive-voice" target="_blank">The Passive Voice</a></li>
	<li class="blog-post">Blog Post:&nbsp;<a href="https://ellii.com/blog/the-passive-voice" target="_blank">The Passive Voice</a></li>
</ul>


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Tanya Trusler