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

Grammar & Usage

Learn how to make the most of your Ellii subscription with tips from our publishing team.

Teaching with Ellii

<blockquote>Welcome to our&nbsp;<strong>Q&amp;A series</strong>! Our subscribers often write to our editors with excellent grammar or teaching questions.&nbsp;We wanted to share&nbsp;some of the more common questions and answers so that more people could&nbsp;benefit.</blockquote>

<h1>Question</h1>

<p>Are there cases where the <strong>present perfect</strong> and the <strong>present perfect progressive</strong> tenses are both&nbsp;correct? How can I explain this to my&nbsp;students?</p>

<h1>Answer</h1>

<p>One of the main uses of the present perfect tense&nbsp;is often interchangeable with the present perfect progressive (also known as the &quot;present perfect continuous&quot;), so this is a great&nbsp;question.</p>

<p>When I was doing my teacher training, a present perfect&nbsp;lesson was my first&nbsp;teaching assignment with actual students!&nbsp;I&#39;m not going to lie&mdash;I&nbsp;panicked and didn&#39;t explain it all that&nbsp;well.</p>

<p>In the years since, I got comfortable explaining both tenses, but I know how tough they are to&nbsp;teach.</p>

<p>Let&#39;s take a closer look!</p>

<h2>1. Form</h2>

<p>The first sentence below uses the present perfect tense (have + past participle). The second uses the present perfect progressive tense (have + been + -ing verb). Which is more common? Is there a difference in&nbsp;meaning?</p>

<ul>
	<li>I <strong>have studied</strong> English for five years.</li>
	<li>I <strong>have been studying</strong> English for five years.</li>
</ul>

<h2>2. Function</h2>

<p>Both the present perfect and the present perfect progressive can describe an action that started in the <strong>past</strong> and continues to the&nbsp;<strong>present</strong>.</p>

<p>The reason we would choose to use the progressive form is to emphasize that the action will continue in the <strong>future</strong>.</p>

<p>It&#39;s not quite that simple, though. The present perfect is also commonly used for an action that will continue in the future. So how do we explain when to use these tenses to our&nbsp;students?</p>

<h2>3. Difference</h2>

<p>The <strong>focus</strong> of both tenses is on a past action that is continuing, and it&#39;s often not important to know if the action may or may not continue into the&nbsp;future.</p>

<ul>
	<li>If the future meaning is <strong>not important </strong>(which is the most common case), stick with the<strong> </strong>present perfect&nbsp;tense.</li>
	<li>If it&#39;s necessary to <strong>emphasize</strong> the future meaning, use the present perfect progressive&nbsp;tense.</li>
</ul>

<h2>4. Other tips</h2>

<p>I also share the following info with my students to make sure they&#39;re clear on which tense to&nbsp;use.</p>

<ul>
	<li>Overall, the present perfect tense is&nbsp;<strong>more common</strong> than the present perfect progressive, so it&#39;s usually the best&nbsp;choice.</li>
	<li>Verbs that are less active (like &quot;live&quot;) use the present perfect more often, while more active verbs like &quot;study&quot; can take either tense&mdash;though the present perfect is also&nbsp;more common in this case&nbsp;too.</li>
	<li>For example, it&#39;s more common to hear &quot;I <em><strong>ha<strong>v</strong>e lived</strong> in Canada for eight years</em>,&quot; but that doesn&#39;t mean that &quot;I <strong>ha</strong><em><strong>ve been living</strong> in Canada for eight years</em>&quot; is wrong (it&#39;s correct too, but less common and not necessary unless you really want to emphasize that you&#39;re going to keep living in&nbsp;Canada).</li>
	<li>An example of a good time to use the present perfect progressive is during a job interview when you want to emphasize that your training is ongoing (e.g., <em>I <strong>have been learning</strong> English since high school, and I&#39;m still taking night classes to further improve my&nbsp;fluency</em>.)</li>
</ul>

<h2>Related materials that will make teaching easier</h2>

<p>For a more detailed look at these verb tenses (including diagrams, time markers, and exceptions), check out these posts on our&nbsp;blog:</p>

<ul class="resources">
	<li class="blog-post"><a href="https://ellii.com/blog/present-perfect-two-uses" target="_blank">Present Perfect: Two Uses</a></li>
	<li class="blog-post"><a href="https://ellii.com/blog/present-perfect-vs-present-perfect-progressive" target="_blank">Present Perfect Vs. Present Perfect Progressive</a></li>
</ul>

<p>We also have videos on these two tenses that are free to watch on Ellii&#39;s&nbsp;<a href="https://www.youtube.com/user/ESLlibrary" target="_blank">YouTube channel</a>.</p>

<p>If you&#39;re subscribed to the Ellii platform, you can type&nbsp;&quot;present perfect&quot; or &quot;present perfect progressive&quot; into the search field on our site for a lot of great lessons and resources on these two tricky tenses, including the comprehensive <a href="https://ellii.com/courses/88/lessons/1597" target="_blank">Present Perfect</a> and <a href="https://ellii.com/courses/88/lessons/1598" target="_blank">Present Perfect Progressive</a> lessons in our Grammar Practice Worksheets&nbsp;section.</p>

<p>Good luck and happy&nbsp;teaching!</p>

<div class="white-box">
<h5>Share your thoughts</h5>

<p>If you have any questions want to ask me or suggestions you&#39;d like to share, please leave them in the comment area&nbsp;below.</p>
</div>


Q&A: How to Explain the Present Perfect & Present Perfect Progressive

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<p><strong>Pictures</strong> are exceptionally supportive when it comes to language teaching and learning. A simple picture&nbsp;can instantly demonstrate the meaning of a word, removing any need for wordy or complicated definitions.&nbsp;</p>

<p>Pictures are also a brilliant way to <strong>prompt grammar</strong>. Many of our Ellii materials&nbsp;have visuals&nbsp;to support understanding and make grammar practice fun and engaging.&nbsp;</p>

<p>English language teachers can use materials like&nbsp;<a href="https://ellii.com/flashcards" target="_blank">Flashcards</a>, <a href="https://ellii.com/courses/132/lessons" target="_blank">Picture Stories</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://ellii.com/courses/134/lessons" target="_blank">Word Bank Readers</a>,&nbsp;and other Ellii&nbsp;visuals as versatile&nbsp;prompts for just about any grammar point.&nbsp;</p>

<p>Take, for example, the <a href="https://ellii.com/courses/91/lessons/2006" target="_blank">Daily Routines</a>&nbsp;lesson from the <a href="https://ellii.com/courses/91/lessons" target="_blank">Simple Sentences</a> section. The lesson is aimed at teaching the simple present, but the images alone could just as easily be used to teach the present progressive&nbsp;or the&nbsp;simple past.&nbsp;</p>

<p>Here&#39;s how you can use the pictures&nbsp;from the lesson above&nbsp;as grammar prompts.</p>

<p><b>Note:</b>&nbsp;These ideas are best to review familiar grammar. If students are new to the grammar target, introduce it in context first using one of Ellii&#39;s&nbsp;<a href="https://ellii.com/collections/videos" target="_blank">videos</a>, <a href="https://ellii.com/courses/90/lessons" target="_blank">stories</a>, or dedicated <a href="https://ellii.com/collections/grammar" target="_blank">grammar lessons</a>.</p>

<h2><b>1. Provide Prompts</b></h2>

<p>First, show students the images. Demonstrate the target language then ask students to make their own <strong>questions</strong>, <strong>answers</strong>, or <strong>statements</strong>. Give them word prompts depending on the grammar they&#39;re using.</p>

<p>For example:&nbsp;</p>

<ul>
	<li>Show the &quot;brush teeth&quot; image. Then ask your&nbsp;students to make a question with the words &quot;does&quot;&nbsp;and &quot;in the morning.&quot; &rarr; <em>Does she brush her teeth in the morning?</em></li>
	<li>Show the &quot;do homework&quot; image. Then ask your students to make a sentence with the words &quot;did&quot;&nbsp;and &quot;last night.&quot; &rarr; <em>I&nbsp;did my&nbsp;homework last night.</em></li>
	<li>Show the&nbsp;&quot;cook&quot;&nbsp;image. Then ask your students,&nbsp;&quot;What is he doing?&quot;&nbsp;&rarr; <em>He is cooking.</em>&nbsp;</li>
</ul>

<h2><b>2. Switch Tenses</b></h2>

<p>If students are reviewing multiple tenses, use the pictures to prompt students to change one tense to another.&nbsp;</p>

<p>For example:&nbsp;</p>

<ul>
	<li>Say or write: &quot;Change &lsquo;Does she brush her teeth in the morning?&rsquo; to the past tense.&quot; &rarr; <em>Did she brush her teeth in the morning?&nbsp;</em></li>
	<li>Say or write: &quot;Change &lsquo;I did my homework last night&rsquo; to &lsquo;every day.&rsquo;&quot;&nbsp;&rarr; <em>I do my homework every day.&nbsp;</em></li>
	<li>Say or write: &quot;Change &lsquo;He is cooking&rsquo; to &lsquo;last week.&rsquo;&quot; &rarr; <em>He cooked last week.</em></li>
</ul>

<h2><b>3. Draw or Create Stories</b></h2>

<p>Ask students to use simple drawings to express their daily routine or what they did yesterday. Remind students that their drawings don&rsquo;t need to be artistic, but simply communicative.&nbsp;</p>

<p>Here&rsquo;s an example:&nbsp;</p>

<p><img alt="daily routine drawings" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/2237/content_picture-prompt.jpg" /></p>

<p>Alternatively, you can <a href="https://help.ellii.com/article/50-how-to-print-flashcards" target="_blank">print</a>&nbsp;the images&nbsp;and ask students to put them in order.</p>

<p>Get your students to talk in pairs to explain their story. Then ask them to write sentences or a short text using the target grammar.&nbsp;</p>

<p>For example:&nbsp;</p>

<p><em>Yesterday I got up at 8:00 am. I brushed my teeth and had a shower. Then I had cereal and coffee&nbsp;for breakfast.</em>&nbsp;</p>

<blockquote>
<p>How do you use pictures to prompt grammar in the classroom? Which of these tips are you most likely to use? Share your ideas with us in the comments below.&nbsp;</p>
</blockquote>

<h2>Related</h2>

<ul class="resources">
	<li class="blog-post"><a href="https://ellii.com/blog/teaching-grammar-online-with-esl-library" target="_blank">How to Teach Grammar Online</a></li>
	<li class="resource"><a href="https://ellii.com/resource_categories/103/resources/2564" target="_blank">50 Grammar Targets</a></li>
	<li class="resource"><a href="https://ellii.com/courses/88/lessons/2565" target="_blank">Teaching Order for Grammar Practice Worksheets</a></li>
</ul>


How to Use Pictures as Grammar Prompts

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<blockquote>This is the first post in our new <strong>Q&amp;A series</strong>! Our subscribers often write to our editors with excellent grammar or teaching questions.&nbsp;We thought we&#39;d start sharing some of the more common questions and answers so that more people could&nbsp;benefit!</blockquote>

<h1>Question</h1>

<p>What can I&nbsp;do when&nbsp;students&nbsp;keep making the<strong> same grammar mistakes</strong> over and over again? How can I help&nbsp;them?</p>

<h1>Answer</h1>

<p>That&#39;s a great question and it&#39;s something so many teachers&nbsp;face!</p>

<p>Whenever I notice a student making a grammar mistake repeatedly, there are&nbsp;a few&nbsp;things I always do for&nbsp;that student (or, better yet, for the whole class if it&#39;s something they could all benefit&nbsp;from).</p>

<h2>1. Review the Form &amp; Function</h2>

<p>The most important thing is to <strong>review grammar notes&nbsp;</strong>on that particular grammar target so that your student(s) learns (or reviews) how the target is formed and how it functions in a&nbsp;sentence. This will greatly reduce their chances of making the same grammatical error in the future.&nbsp;</p>

<p>Subscribers love using our&nbsp;<a href="https://ellii.com/courses/88/lessons" target="_blank">Grammar Practice Worksheets</a>,&nbsp;which&nbsp;include grammar notes at the beginning of every lesson to make the presentation easy for teachers and&nbsp;students.&nbsp;</p>

<p>You can also search&nbsp;the <a href="https://ellii.com/blog/categories/grammar-usage" target="_blank">Grammar &amp; Usage section</a>&nbsp;on our blog to find grammar notes on many popular&nbsp;targets.</p>

<p>Another way to help&nbsp;students fix recurring grammar mistakes is to have them watch a captivating&nbsp;video.</p>

<p>Many grammar&nbsp;lessons on our site&nbsp;include a&nbsp;<a href="https://ellii.com/collections/videos" target="_blank">video</a> that introduces the target in a fun and engaging way. You can also&nbsp;play some of these <strong>grammar videos</strong> for your&nbsp;students from our <a href="https://www.youtube.com/user/ESLlibrary" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">YouTube channel</a>. We&nbsp;add&nbsp;new grammar videos&nbsp;there every&nbsp;month!</p>

<h2>2. Assign Practice Exercises</h2>

<p>Once you&#39;re confident that your student understands the form and function of the target, you can assign <strong>practice tasks</strong> (from drills to grammar in context) to ensure&nbsp;retention.</p>

<p>Use your class textbook, find exercises online,&nbsp;or try some lessons from our popular&nbsp;<a href="https://ellii.com/courses/88/lessons" target="_blank">Grammar Practice Worksheets</a>, <a href="https://ellii.com/courses/116/lessons" target="_blank">Fun Grammar Lessons</a>, or <a href="https://ellii.com/courses/89/lessons" target="_blank">Basic Grammar Sentences</a>&nbsp;sections.</p>

<h2>3. Look at the Grammar in Context</h2>

<p>Context is everything. Showing your students how to apply the grammar target&nbsp;they&#39;ve&nbsp;been struggling with in&nbsp;different settings is an effective way to help them fix the grammatical error they&#39;ve been repeating.&nbsp;</p>

<p><strong>News articles</strong> are a great place to see the target&nbsp;in context. Find an article that includes the target and have your student&nbsp;underline or otherwise point it&nbsp;out.</p>

<p>To&nbsp;see more <strong>grammar in context</strong>, subscribers&nbsp;can search for the target on our site, or they&nbsp;can visit our <a href="https://ellii.com/collections/grammar" target="_blank">Grammar Collection</a>&nbsp;(in the Materials dropdown menu) to see all the lessons that include that target. Our <a href="https://ellii.com/courses/90/lessons" target="_blank">Grammar Stories</a> and <a href="https://ellii.com/courses/129/lessons" target="_blank">True Grammar Stories</a> sections are great places for subscribers to look&nbsp;too.</p>

<h2>4. Don&#39;t Let Mistakes Slide</h2>

<p>Above all, don&#39;t stop <strong>pointing out</strong> (in a kind way, of course) when a student has&nbsp;misused a grammar target&nbsp;in writing or speaking. If we ignore it, the grammar mistake could become <a href="https://ellii.com/blog/6-strategies-to-help-students-overcome-fossilized-speech-patterns" target="_blank">fossilized</a> and more difficult to&nbsp;overcome.</p>

<p>I usually try to point out grammar&nbsp;errors&nbsp;without interrupting the student&#39;s&nbsp;speech or singling them out. I&nbsp;tell them privately after class, for example, or note several mistakes made by various students&mdash;without naming names&mdash;on the board after a group&nbsp;discussion.</p>

<h2>5. Offer Encouragement</h2>

<p>I also try to offer a lot of <strong>encouragement</strong> (e.g., &quot;It takes a long time to learn a language and English grammar is difficult, but you&#39;re doing great and you&#39;ll get&nbsp;there!&quot;).</p>

<p>Students can become overwhelmed or discouraged while learning a new language, so perhaps&nbsp;the best thing teachers can do is to keep motivating our learners as best we&nbsp;can.</p>

<p>Good luck and happy&nbsp;teaching!</p>

<blockquote>How do you handle recurring grammar mistakes? If you have&nbsp;suggestions you&#39;d like to share, please leave us a comment&nbsp;below!</blockquote>


Q&A: How to Help Students Fix Recurring Grammar Mistakes

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

Articles

<p>Perhaps the most commonly asked question in English is this: &quot;How are you?&quot;</p>

<p>In North America, this question is often used as a greeting. As such, the person who asks the question does not always wait for or expect an answer. In fact, they may not even blink an eye&nbsp;if you give a classic answer like &quot;I&#39;m fine, thank you&quot; or &quot;I&#39;ve been better.&quot;</p>

<p>However, when you&#39;re in a&nbsp;conversation with a friend, classmate, teacher, neighbor, or coworker, your interlocutor may be genuinely interested in your state of being at the time. Yet many people struggle with their answer because they want to be grammatically correct&mdash;they don&#39;t know whether they should use &quot;good&quot; or &quot;well&quot; if things are going okay, or &quot;bad&quot; or &quot;badly&quot; if&nbsp;things have taken a downward turn.&nbsp;</p>

<p>When thinking about your answer, you may first want&nbsp;to consider&nbsp;these points:</p>

<ul>
	<li>&quot;Good&quot; and &quot;bad&quot; are adjectives and can&nbsp;modify nouns or pronouns. When you&#39;re describing people or things, use &quot;good&quot; or &quot;bad.&quot;</li>
	<li>&quot;Well&quot; and &quot;badly&quot; are adverbs and can modify verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs. When you&#39;re describing the quality of how something is done, use the adverbs &quot;well&quot; and &quot;badly.&quot;</li>
	<li>However, as&nbsp;with so many areas of&nbsp;English grammar, there&#39;s an exception. When talking about health, &quot;well&quot; can be used as an adjective.&nbsp;</li>
</ul>

<h2>So&hellip;is it &quot;I feel good&quot; or &quot;I feel well&quot;?<br />
&quot;I am good&quot; or &quot;I am well&quot;?</h2>

<p>Actually, both words are correct in each sentence, though their meanings differ&nbsp;somewhat. We use &quot;well&quot; to describe our physical well-being, whereas we use &quot;good&quot; to describe our mood or disposition.</p>

<p>Since &quot;badly,&quot; unlike &quot;well,&quot; can only be used as an adverb, the correct word to use in these two sentences is &quot;bad&quot;: &quot;I feel bad.&quot; &quot;I am bad.&quot; But, at this point, you may be asking why we can&#39;t use an adverb, especially in the &quot;feel&quot; sentence. The answer has to do with linking verbs.</p>

<h2>What are linking verbs?</h2>

<p>Linking verbs are verbs that do not show any action. Many grammarians call them &quot;states of being&quot; verbs. Rather than showing action, they connect the subject to&nbsp;information&nbsp;that further identifies, describes, or renames it. In other words, they connect the subject to its complement. A linking verb tells you what the subject <em>is</em>, <strong>not</strong> what it <em>does</em>.</p>

<h3>Common Linking Verbs:</h3>

<ul>
	<li>all forms of the Be verb (when used as the main verb, not as an auxiliary)</li>
	<li>5&nbsp;verbs&nbsp;related to the senses (<em>taste, feel, sound, look, smell</em>)</li>
	<li>verbs such as <em>seem, grow, become, turn,</em> etc.</li>
</ul>

<p>Linking verbs are followed by adjectives, not adverbs. Here are some examples:</p>

<ul>
	<li>The pie smells delicious.</li>
	<li>The coffee tastes bitter.</li>
	<li>The band&nbsp;sounded good.&nbsp;</li>
	<li>The teacher became angry when the students laughed at him.</li>
	<li>Marcos seems sad today.</li>
	<li>Amir feels bad about his mistake.</li>
	<li>Suyin has been absent for three days. She must feel sick.</li>
</ul>

<p>Notice in the last example that &quot;feel&quot; is followed by the adjective &quot;sick&quot; because it is describing how Suyin is. However, <em>feel</em>, along with <em>taste</em> and <em>smell</em>, is not always considered a linking verb.&nbsp;If you have a cold and a stuffy nose, you may say &quot;I smell badly.&quot; However, if you say &quot;I smell bad,&quot; you should probably take a shower. Likewise, if you feel bad, you are either sick or you have regret or remorse. If you feel badly, on the other hand, you have lost the ability to feel. Unless you are numb, you don&#39;t feel badly.</p>

<p>So, back to our original question: How are you? As previously noted, &quot;I am good&quot; is not only an acceptable answer, but also a correct one. But, as soon as you change the verb to a non-linking verb in your response, you must choose<em> well</em>: &quot;I am doing well.&quot; (The main verb is <em>do</em> in this sentence, which is not a linking verb.) If you say &quot;I am doing good,&quot; you are commenting on your philanthropy.</p>

<p>One final note: Don&rsquo;t use an&nbsp;adjective when you need an adverb to describe how something happened or the manner of it.</p>

<ul>
	<li>The plane landed safely. (not <em>safe</em>)</li>
	<li>People drove more carefully (not <em>more careful</em>) during the rainstorm than they normally do.</li>
	<li>She plays the piano really well. (not <em>good</em>)</li>
</ul>

<p>Hopefully, you can now answer the question &quot;How are you?&quot; with confidence. We welcome your comments below.</p>


Good Vs. Well 

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These posts are written for learners of English themselves. Find learning tips and ideas for learning English.

For Students

<p>I invite you to read the following sentence aloud: The <strong>chef</strong> added <strong>cherries</strong> to the <strong>Christmas</strong> pudding.</p>

<p>Did you notice that all the bolded words begin with &ldquo;ch,&rdquo; yet each makes a different sound?</p>

<p>When two letters represent one sound, the combination of letters is called a digraph. The digraph &ldquo;ch&rdquo; makes three different sounds in English.</p>

<p>This can be confusing for language learners since there are no spelling or pronunciation rules to follow. The origin of these words, however, can be a guide.</p>

<h2>CH = /TCH/</h2>

<p>The digraph &ldquo;ch&rdquo; is most commonly pronounced as /⁠tch⁠/ (written as /⁠tʃ⁠/ in the International Phonectic Alphabet, or IPA). Most of the words with this sound come from Old English and are Germanic in origin. Examples include child, church, and each.</p>

<p>Some words of French origin, like challenge and chance, also use the /⁠tch⁠/ sound. This is because in Old French, words with &ldquo;ch&rdquo; were pronounced /tch/.</p>

<h2>CH = /K/</h2>

<p>In words of Greek origin, &ldquo;ch&rdquo; is usually pronounced as /⁠k⁠/. The word character, for example, comes from the classical Greek <em>kharaktēr</em> (meaning&nbsp;&ldquo;engraved mark&rdquo;).</p>

<p>More examples of words with the /⁠k⁠/ sound are anchor, chaos, echo, mechanic, orchestra, psychology, school, and stomach.</p>

<h2>CH = /SH/</h2>

<p>In words of French origin, &ldquo;ch&rdquo; can be&nbsp;pronounced as /⁠tch⁠/ or /⁠sh⁠/ (IPA: /⁠tʃ⁠/ or /⁠ʃ⁠/).&nbsp;</p>

<p>The city name &quot;Chicago,&quot; for example, is thought to have come from the French-Canadian form of the Miami-Illinois word &ldquo;shikaakwa,&rdquo; or &ldquo;smelly onion.&rdquo; Algonquin people are known to have named natural landmarks after plants that grew in the surrounding area.</p>

<p>Other examples of words from French with the /⁠sh⁠/ sound include brochure, champagne, chef, fuchsia, machine, mustache, parachute, and quiche.</p>

<h2>Related</h2>

<ul class="resources">
	<li class="resource"><a href="https://ellii.com/resource_categories/103/resources/3173">Pronunciation Rules: Hard &amp; Soft C</a></li>
	<li class="resource"><a href="https://ellii.com/resource_categories/103/resources/3170">Pronunciation Rules: Hard &amp; Soft G</a></li>
	<li class="resource"><a href="https://ellii.com/resource_categories/103/resources/3180">Hard &amp; Soft C Word Cards</a></li>
	<li class="resource"><a href="https://ellii.com/resource_categories/103/resources/3137">Hard &amp; Soft G Word Cards</a></li>
	<li class="blog-post"><a href="https://ellii.com/blog/hard-soft-g-c">How to Pronounce Hard &amp; Soft G &amp; C</a></li>
</ul>


Pronouncing the Three "CH" Sounds

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<p>What is black and white and red all over?</p>

<p>If you said &ldquo;a sunburned zebra,&rdquo; you would be correct! But if you said &ldquo;zee-brah&rdquo; instead of &ldquo;zeb-rah,&rdquo;&nbsp;would you still be right? That depends on where in the world you are.</p>

<p>&ldquo;Zebra&rdquo; can be pronounced both ways, just like the letter &ldquo;Z&rdquo; can be pronounced as either &ldquo;Zed&rdquo; or &ldquo;Zee.&rdquo; Let&rsquo;s explore how and why.</p>

<h2>Zed</h2>

<p>Of the two different pronunciations, <strong>zed</strong> is the eldest. It comes from the Greek and Latin&nbsp;&ldquo;zeta,&rdquo; meaning &ldquo;z,&rdquo; and the French word for the same letter, &ldquo;z&egrave;de.&rdquo;</p>

<p>Zed was <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/zed" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">first used</a> to refer to the last letter of the English alphabet in the 12th century. It appeared in print for the first time in the early 1400s in a Middle English manuscript.</p>

<p>In the United Kingdom and countries where Commonwealth English is used, like Australia, India, New Zealand, Singapore, and South Africa, zed is the pronunciation for the letter &ldquo;z.&rdquo;</p>

<p>Although Canada is also a commonwealth nation, Canadian English is influenced by both British and American English. Here, both zee and zed<em> </em>are considered acceptable pronunciations, although the latter is far more common.</p>

<div class="whiteBox"><span class="label hangingLabel">Related Lesson</span>

<p class="circleThumb"><a href="https://ellii.com/courses/118/lessons/3479"><img alt="" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/emails/monthly-newsletter/thumbs/118_Alphabet-Song_Capital.png" /></a></p>

<h2><a href="https://ellii.com/courses/118/lessons/3479">The Alphabet Song with Zed: Capital Letters</a></h2>

<p>In this <a href="https://ellii.com/courses/118/lessons">Phonics</a> video, students learn and practice the capital letters of the English alphabet, ending in <strong>zed</strong>. They&#39;ll listen to &quot;The Alphabet Song&quot; and try singing along. This video is also available with lowercase letters.</p>
</div>

<h2>Zee</h2>

<p><strong>Zee</strong>, on the other hand, entered English as a 17th century variant of zed. Its first known appearance is in the 1677 textbook, <em>A New Spelling Book</em> by British Nonconformist minister and teacher, Thomas Lye. The book eventually made its way to the British colonies in America.</p>

<p>A variety of pronunciations continued to be used in the US up until 1828, when famed lexicographer Noah Webster confirmed that&nbsp;&ldquo;it is pronounced zee&rdquo; in <em>An American Dictionary of the English Language</em>.</p>

<p>This pronunciation was <a href="https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/62639/why-it-zed-britain-and-zee-america" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">thought to be</a> influenced by the <em>bee, cee, dee, eee</em> pattern of the rest of the alphabet. When the &ldquo;Alphabet Song&rdquo; was copyrighted in Boston in 1835, &quot;zee&quot; was used to rhyme with &quot;me.&quot; Since then, zee has became the American standard.</p>

<blockquote>
<p>&hellip;W, X, Y, and <strong>Z(ee)</strong><br />
Now I know my ABCs<br />
Next time, won&#39;t you sing with <strong>me</strong></p>

<p class="attribution">&mdash;The Alphabet Song</p>
</blockquote>

<div class="whiteBox"><span class="label hangingLabel">Related Lesson</span>

<p class="circleThumb"><a href="https://ellii.com/courses/118/lessons/3465"><img alt="" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/emails/monthly-newsletter/thumbs/118_Alphabet-Song_Capital.png" /></a></p>

<h2><a href="https://ellii.com/courses/118/lessons/3465">The Alphabet Song: Capital Letters</a></h2>

<p>In this <a href="https://ellii.com/courses/118/lessons">Phonics</a> video, students learn and practice the capital letters of the English alphabet, ending in <strong>zee</strong>. They&#39;ll listen to &quot;The Alphabet Song&quot; and try singing along. This video is also available for lowercase letters.</p>
</div>


Zed Vs. Zee

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<p>Have you ever gone AWOL? The acronym, which stands for Absent Without Leave, denotes being absent from a job or event without having given notice or gotten permission.</p>

<p>The abbreviation comes from the military; AWOL is the status given to soldiers who are not where they are supposed to be. If a soldier remains AWOL for more than 30 days, it&rsquo;s considered a desertion.</p>

<p>&ldquo;Going AWOL&rdquo; is just one example of the many words and phrases in common use in English that originate from wartime. In this post, we&rsquo;ll explore a few more.</p>

<h2>To Bite the Bullet</h2>

<blockquote>
<p>Fauci: Not ready for sports, leagues must &#39;bite bullet,&#39; cancel</p>
<p class="attribution">&mdash;Reuters <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-sports-fauci-coronavirus-sports/fauci-not-ready-for-sports-leagues-must-bite-bullet-cancel-idUSKBN22B30N" target="_blank">headline</a>, April 29, 2020</p>
</blockquote>

<p>Before anesthetics, soldiers endured the agony of medical procedures by biting down on a bullet to distract themselves from the pain.</p>

<p>The phrase&nbsp;&ldquo;bite the bullet&rdquo;&nbsp;now denotes forcing&nbsp;yourself to do something difficult or unpleasant, or to be brave in a difficult situation. It was first recorded in Rudyard Kipling&#39;s&nbsp;<em>The Light That Failed.</em></p>

<p>&quot;Bite the bullet&quot; is similar to the phrase&nbsp;&ldquo;dodge the bullet,&rdquo; which means to avoid a difficult or unpleasant situation.</p>

<h2>Blockbuster</h2>

<blockquote>
<p>&#39;F9&#39; could be the blockbuster Hollywood needs to kick-start moviegoing</p>
<p class="attribution">&mdash;New York Times <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/24/business/f9-fast-furious.html" target="_blank">headline</a>, May 24, 2021</p>
</blockquote>

<p>The term&nbsp;&ldquo;blockbuster&rdquo; is often used today to describe a movie, book, or other form of entertainment media that&nbsp;is widely popular and financially successful.</p>

<p>The term was first used in 1942, however, to describe a new, large, highly explosive bomb&mdash;big enough to destroy an entire city block.</p>

<h2>To Catch&nbsp;Flak</h2>

<blockquote>
<p>LILLEY: Ford catches flak for doing what so many begged him to do</p>
<p class="attribution">&mdash;Toronto Sun <a href="https://torontosun.com/opinion/columnists/lilley-ford-catches-flack-for-doing-what-so-many-begged-him-to-do" target="_blank">headline</a>, April 22, 2021</p>
</blockquote>

<p>In modern times, &quot;to catch flak&quot; is to receive criticism&nbsp;for something you say or do. This meaning was popularized in the 1960s.</p>

<p>During World War II, &quot;flak&quot; was an abbreviation for the German, &quot;fliegerabwehrkanonen,&quot; or&nbsp;&quot;flyer defense cannons.&quot; If a soldier &quot;caught flak,&quot; it meant that they were wounded by gunshots.&nbsp;</p>

<h2>Cup of Joe</h2>

<blockquote>
<p>Coffee without beans? Seattle startup brews a new cup of joe</p>
<p class="attribution">&mdash;Seattle Times <a href="https://www.seattletimes.com/business/coffee-without-beans-seattle-startup-brews-a-new-cup-of-joe/" target="_blank">headline</a>, May 14, 2021</p>
</blockquote>

<p>When someone asks for a &ldquo;cup of Joe,&rdquo; they are asking for a cup of <a href="https://ellii.com/courses/82/lessons/1452" target="_blank">coffee</a>, but where did this phrase come from?&nbsp;<a href="https://www.rd.com/article/reason-coffee-called-cup-of-joe/" target="_blank">One theory</a> is that the phrase originated when Josephus Daniels became Secretary of the US Navy in 1913 under <a href="https://ellii.com/courses/84/lessons/1531" target="_blank">Woodrow Wilson</a> and abolished the serving of alcohol aboard ships.</p>

<p>From then on, coffee was the strongest drink available to the disgruntled sailors, who began calling the drink&nbsp;&ldquo;a cup of Joe&quot; out of spite.</p>

<h2>Loose Cannon</h2>

<blockquote>
<p>Clinton calls Trump a &#39;loose cannon,&#39; risky choice for president</p>
<p class="attribution">&mdash;Reuters <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-election-clinton/clinton-calls-trump-a-loose-cannon-risky-choice-for-president-idUSKCN0XV2CT" target="_blank">headline</a>, May 4, 2016</p>
</blockquote>

<p><a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/origin-of-the-phrase-loose-cannon" target="_blank">According to Merriam-Webster</a>, we have <a href="https://ellii.com/courses/84/lessons/1529" target="_blank">Teddy Roosevelt</a> to thank for the phrase&nbsp;&quot;loose cannon&quot; entering the zeitgeist. The phrase describes someone (or something) that is dangerously uncontrollable.</p>

<p>Before war ships had fixed-turret guns, cannons on wheels were rolled back and forth between the gunports. A cannon not properly secured could break loose and present a real hazard to sailors.</p>

<p>Roosevelt used this image when describing his legacy to journalist William Allan White, saying, &quot;I don&#39;t want to be the old cannon loose on the deck in the storm.&quot;</p>

<h2>More Examples</h2>

<ul>
	<li>
	<p>&quot;Deadline&quot; &ndash; a date or time when something must be finished&nbsp;<br />
	(From the lines drawn around war prisoners that were not allowed to be passed)</p>
	</li>
	<li>
	<p>&quot;Flying colors&quot; &ndash; complete success<br />
	(From the tradition of victorious navy ships returning home with their&nbsp;flags&nbsp;flying)</p>
	</li>
	<li>
	<p>&quot;No man&#39;s land&quot; &ndash; an ambiguous or uncertain situation<br />
	(From the WWII term used to describe land between the German trenches and the allied troops)</p>
	</li>
	<li>
	<p>&quot;On the double&rdquo; &ndash; quickly, as fast as possible<br />
	(From the quickened marching pace for troops)</p>
	</li>
	<li>
	<p>&quot;Roger&quot; &ndash; an acknowledgement,&nbsp;yes<br />
	(From the old NATO phonetic alphabet, where &quot;R&quot; was pronounced &quot;Roger&quot; on the radio)</p>
	</li>
</ul>


Military Language in Everyday Use

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<p>Last month, my fellow editor, Tanya, and I attended the annual conference hosted by ACES: The Society for Editing. This year&#39;s conference was called Refine &amp; Refresh, and it was chock-full of enlightening and informative sessions.&nbsp;The topics ranged from the importance of fact-checking to the history of dictionaries to the need for inclusive language&mdash;a subject that Tanya will delve into in an upcoming blog post.</p>

<p>When I first glanced at the schedule, one session title immediately grabbed my attention: Grammar Saves Lives. Jennifer Rowe, an award-winning professor at the Missouri School of Journalism, did not disappoint with her lively presentation, which included tips to avoid the &quot;pesky pitfalls of modern grammar.&quot; As one participant noted in the chat, the session was &quot;delightfully nerdy.&quot;</p>

<p>While admitting that the session title was somewhat hyperbolic, Jennifer made her case with this simple example: &quot;Let&#39;s eat, Grandpa.&quot; vs. &quot;Let&#39;s eat Grandpa.&quot; If we use a comma denoting direct address, we&#39;re talking to Grandpa and are perhaps getting ready to enjoy a nice meal together. However, if we omit the comma, we are cannibals. Hence, grammar saves lives!</p>

<p>Jennifer focused on areas of grammar that trip up even the most language-obsessed people. Two points that she covered&nbsp;struck me as real potential hazards.</p>

<h2>Tricky Subject&ndash;Verb Agreement</h2>

<p>Sometimes words between a noun or pronoun and the verb cause confusion. If the subject is followed by a prepositional&nbsp;phrase, you should ignore the prepositional phrase when you are deciding the verb&#39;s number. In the following two examples, the subjects are singular (Brady; the new tree). Hence, the verbs are also singular (is; was). The intervening phrases do not affect the verbs&#39; number.</p>

<ul>
	<li>Brady, in addition to other players, is ready for the season.</li>
	<li>The new tree, along with the bushes, was planted yesterday.</li>
</ul>

<p>The next two examples pertain to gerunds. While gerunds often have objects, it is important to keep in mind that the gerund is the subject of the sentence&mdash;not the object&mdash;and the verb is always singular.</p>

<ul>
	<li>Learning grammar basics is necessary.</li>
	<li>Spitting watermelon seeds entertains children for hours.</li>
</ul>

<h2>Confusing Subjective &amp;&nbsp;Objective Case</h2>

<p>In English, nouns take the same form in the subjective and objective cases. Pronouns, on the other hand, change form depending on whether they are functioning as a subject or as an object. The only exception is the pronoun &quot;it,&quot; which remains the same.</p>

<ul>
	<li>The room [subject] is cold.</li>
	<li>She walked into the room [object].</li>
</ul>

<p>Compare the sentences above with the following sentences, which contain pronouns.</p>

<ul>
	<li>We [subject] laughed during the movie.</li>
	<li>The teacher told us [object] to be quiet.</li>
</ul>

<p>Seems straightforward, right? Yet many of us use the subjective case of the first person pronoun&nbsp;when we should use the objective case in certain instances. Most of us were taught that the polite and proper thing to do when including ourselves in a list of two or more people is to place ourselves at the end of the list. For whatever reason, when nouns or pronouns precede the singular pronoun in such cases, the tendency is often to use &quot;I,&quot; even if the objective case is called for.</p>

<p>Barack Obama, who is known for his great oratorial skills, is guilty of making this grammatical error, as demonstrated in the following examples.</p>

<p>✗ What a warm greeting you have given Michelle and I.</p>

<p>✗ It is our daughters who keep Michelle and I grounded.</p>

<p>However, if Obama had removed &quot;Michelle&quot; from the two sentences, he would have instinctively used &quot;me.&quot; When in doubt, remove the nouns and/or pronouns that come before the first person pronoun, and it will be obvious whether to choose &quot;I&quot; or &quot;me.&quot;</p>

<p>Do you struggle with these two areas of grammar? Are there others that cause you to make mistakes?&nbsp;Please share in the comments section below.</p>

<p>&nbsp;</p>


Grammar Saves Lives

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<p>In English, we often use the nouns &ldquo;home&rdquo; and &ldquo;house&rdquo; interchangeably to mean the same thing.</p>

<p>For example, you might hear someone say, &ldquo;I&rsquo;m going to my friend&rsquo;s home this weekend.&rdquo; But if they had said, &ldquo;I&#39;m going to my friend&#39;s house this weekend,&rdquo; it would be correct too.</p>

<p>However, in some instances, it would be incorrect to use &ldquo;house&rdquo; when meaning &ldquo;home,&rdquo; and vice versa. So what is the difference, then, between &ldquo;home&rdquo; and &ldquo;house&rdquo; and how they&rsquo;re used?</p>

<h2>Using &quot;Home&quot;</h2>

<p>The noun &ldquo;home&rdquo; is used to refer to one&rsquo;s place of residence.</p>

<p>Example: Junko has been away from <strong>home</strong> for three months.</p>

<p>It is also used to describe:</p>

<ul>
	<li>The social unit formed by a family or group of people living together.<br />
	Example: Rita works hard to make a good <strong>home</strong> for her children.</li>
	<br />
	<li>An animal&rsquo;s habitat.<br />
	Example: Australia is <strong>home</strong> to the koala bear.</li>
	<br />
	<li>A place of origin or headquarters.<br />
	Example: Migrating birds fly <strong>home</strong> after the winter.</li>
	<br />
	<li>An establishment providing residence and care to people.<br />
	Example: Judy works part-time at a nursing <strong>home</strong>.</li>
	<br />
	<li>The objective of certain games.<br />
	Example: Baseball players must touch the <strong>home</strong> plate to score.</li>
</ul>

<h2>Expressions with &quot;Home&quot;</h2>

<p>The noun&nbsp;&quot;home&quot; is also used in various idioms and expressions. Here are three examples:</p>

<ul>
	<li>To make yourself at home =&nbsp;to do what makes you feel most comfortable.<br />
	Example: When Kaya arrived at the apartment, Maria showed her the sofa and said, &quot;<strong>Make yourself at home</strong>.&quot;</li>
	<br />
	<li>Close to home =&nbsp;affecting someone personally, often in an uncomfortable or unsettling way.<br />
	Example: Luke was trying to enjoy the film, but its message hit too <strong>close to home</strong>.</li>
	<br />
	<li>To bring home =&nbsp;to&nbsp;make something perfectly clear.<br />
	Example: Watching the TV footage really <strong>brought home</strong> how devastating the earthquake was.</li>
</ul>

<div class="whiteBox"><span class="label hangingLabel">Related Resource</span>

<p class="circleThumb"><a href="https://ellii.com/resource_categories/105/resources/2183"><img src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/emails/monthly-newsletter/thumbs/105_Warm-Ups-and-Fillers.png" /></a></p>

<h2><a href="https://ellii.com/resource_categories/105/resources/2183">Home Sweet Home</a></h2>

<p>In this <a href="https://ellii.com/resource_categories/105/resources">Warm-Ups &amp; Fillers</a> pair-work activity for all levels, students take turns describing and drawing each other&#39;s homes.</p>
</div>

<h2>Using &quot;House&quot;</h2>

<p>The noun &ldquo;house&rdquo; is used to refer to the physical building in which a person, family, or group of people resides.</p>

<p>Example: I&rsquo;m going to meet Nick at Junko&rsquo;s <strong>house</strong>.</p>

<p>It is also used to describe:</p>

<ul>
	<li>A building in which something is sheltered or stored.<br />
	Example: In Cobble Hill, there is a renovated carriage <strong>house</strong> for sale.</li>
	<br />
	<li>A student or religious residence/community.<br />
	Example: Sigma Alpha Epsilon is the largest fraternity <strong>house</strong> in the US.</li>
	<br />
	<li>A place of business or entertainment.<br />
	Example: Harper Collins is a well-known publishing <strong>house</strong>.</li>
	<br />
	<li>The audience in a theater or concert hall.<br />
	Example: Hamilton opened to a full <strong>house</strong> on its first night on Broadway.</li>
	<br />
	<li>A type of dance music.<br />
	Example: Disco is one of the main influences of <strong>house</strong>.</li>
</ul>

<h2>Expressions with &quot;House&quot;</h2>

<p>The noun&nbsp;&quot;house&quot; is also used in various idioms and expressions. Here are three examples:</p>

<ul>
	<li>On the house =&nbsp;for free; at the expense of management.<br />
	Example: The first round of drinks is <strong>on the house</strong>.</li>
	<br />
	<li>To clean house =&nbsp;to eliminate corruption, inefficiency, or undesirable conditions.<br />
	Example: After the scandal broke, the owner <strong>cleaned&nbsp;house</strong>, firing the team&#39;s&nbsp;general manager and support staff.</li>
	<br />
	<li>To get on like a house on fire =&nbsp;to progress rapidly and successfully.<br />
	Example: Jasmine and Ali&nbsp;<strong>get on like a house on fire</strong>.&nbsp;</li>
</ul>

<div class="whiteBox"><span class="label hangingLabel">Related Lesson</span>

<p class="circleThumb"><a href="https://ellii.com/courses/113/lessons/3606"><img src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/emails/monthly-newsletter/thumbs/113_Alis-House.png" /></a></p>

<h2><a href="https://ellii.com/courses/113/lessons/3606">Ali&#39;s House</a></h2>

<p>Students read a simple story about a house and answer comprehension questions in this new <a href="https://ellii.com/courses/113/lessons">Word Bank</a> lesson for beginners.</p>
<b> </b></div>


Home Vs. House

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Starter courses for each level with a suggested teaching order from the ESL Library publishing team.

Courses

<p>Welcome to <a href="https://ellii.com/folders/published">Ellii&#39;s guided grammar courses</a>! These courses were designed to present lessons on the main grammar targets of the English language in a suggested teaching order along with complementary materials (charts, flashcard sets, lessons using the target in context,&nbsp;etc.).</p>

<p>Teachers can have students work through the grammar courses continuously or in conjunction with other leveled courses&nbsp;in <a href="https://ellii.com/folders/published">Ellii Folders</a>.</p>

<h1>Teachers&#39;&nbsp;Notes</h1>

<p>To access the grammar courses, log in to <a href="https://ellii.com/lessons">Ellii</a>&nbsp;and go to <a href="https://ellii.com/folders/published">Folders</a> (in the Saved drop-down menu). Click on the <a href="https://ellii.com/folders/published">Ellii Folders</a> heading. In our folders, you will see various courses arranged by level and/or theme, including the grammar&nbsp;courses.</p>

<h2>Levels</h2>

<p>The grammar courses are divided into <strong>nine folders</strong>. There are <strong>seven levels</strong> in total, but High Beg and Int levels are subdivided into parts&nbsp;A and B due to the volume of content. The following table contains the course name, the complete level name, and corresponding levels in Ellii&#39;s lessons.</p>

<p>If you&#39;re wondering which level to use with your students, our <a href="https://ellii.com/resource_categories/104/resources">Grammar Tests</a> can be used for placement. Note that they are also used for assessment throughout the grammar courses, though there are other assessment options available to you (scroll down to the Assessment section below).&nbsp;<a href="https://ellii.com/blog/introducing-our-new-grammar-tests">See more info on Ellii&#39;s Grammar&nbsp;Tests</a>.</p>

<table>
	<tbody>
		<tr>
			<th>Grammar Course<br />
			Name</th>
			<th>Level<br />
			Name</th>
			<th>Corresponding<br />
			Ellii Levels</th>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Pre Beg</td>
			<td>pre-beginner</td>
			<td>Pre Beg,<br />
			Pre Beg &ndash; Beg</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Beg</td>
			<td>beginner</td>
			<td>Beg</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>High Beg A</td>
			<td>high-beginner</td>
			<td>Beg &ndash; Low Int</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>High Beg B</td>
			<td>high-beginner</td>
			<td>Beg &ndash; Low Int,<br />
			Low Int</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Low Int</td>
			<td>low-intermediate</td>
			<td>Low Int,<br />
			Low Int &ndash; Int</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Int A</td>
			<td>intermediate</td>
			<td>Int</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Int B</td>
			<td>intermediate</td>
			<td>Int,<br />
			Int &ndash; High Int</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>High Int</td>
			<td>high-intermediate</td>
			<td>Int &ndash; High Int,<br />
			High Int</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Adv</td>
			<td>advanced</td>
			<td>High Int &ndash; Adv,<br />
			Adv</td>
		</tr>
	</tbody>
</table>

<h2>Course Content</h2>

<p>In each level of the grammar courses, you will find a list of various materials in a suggested teaching order. Materials&nbsp;include:</p>

<ul>
	<li><strong>Lessons</strong> (one or more comprehensive lessons on a grammar&nbsp;target)</li>
	<li><strong>Resources</strong> (charts or other handy reference&nbsp;materials)</li>
	<li><strong>Flashcards</strong> (pre-made flashcard sets to show in class or&nbsp;online)</li>
	<li><strong>Blog Posts</strong> (examples and teaching tips on how to present the&nbsp;target)</li>
	<li><strong>Other Lessons</strong> (lessons from non-grammar sections that contain the grammar target in&nbsp;context)</li>
</ul>

<h3>Suggested Order</h3>

<p>You can adapt the order and content based on your students&rsquo; needs and the length of your course. These materials are in a suggested order, but you do not need to follow this order exactly or use all of these&nbsp;lessons.</p>

<p>You may want to ask yourself these questions: What errors do my students make over and over again? What grammar questions come up in class? Could my learners benefit from additional materials on a certain target, or do they have a good grasp of it after the main&nbsp;lesson?</p>

<p>Keep in mind that you can also use some of the supplementary content for homework, review, or&nbsp;assessment.</p>

<h3>Digital Tasks</h3>

<p>Most of the suggested lessons have digital tasks so that you can teach your students online or assign digital homework. If you need help using the digital platform, visit our <a href="https://help.ellii.com/category/110-digital-tools" target="_blank">Help&nbsp;Docs</a>.</p>

<p>If you are only able to teach online at this time and you want to use a lesson that is currently only available as a PDF, you can download the Student PDF and email it to your student(s) or you can open it on a shared screen while you teach an online&nbsp;lesson.</p>

<h3>Course Content Notes</h3>

<p>Targets in each level often have a variety of supplementary material to choose from. Look at the Details column within each Grammar Course folder to help you decide which additional content to use. You can choose supplementary materials that are slightly easier or more difficult if your students are struggling or finding a target too easy. For difficult targets, you may decide to use all the supplementary&nbsp;materials.</p>

<p>Some levels of the courses begin with a review of the main verb tense learned in the previous level. If your students are quite comfortable with that target, you can skip&nbsp;it.</p>

<p>Main grammar targets also contain blog posts that precede the lesson in the suggested teaching order. They contain helpful tips on how to best present&nbsp;the grammar target. Note that the blog posts were written for you, the teacher (though you can choose to share them directly with your students by screensharing or printing them out, if you&nbsp;wish).</p>

<p>Some resources, such as the verb tense resources, are charts that are also included in the grammar notes of the main lesson. You may choose to include them as a handy reference for your students, or you can skip&nbsp;them.</p>

<p>Lower levels often have two comprehensive lessons on a target to choose from. Lessons from our <a href="https://ellii.com/courses/88/lessons">Grammar Practice Worksheets</a> are geared toward teens and adults, while our <a href="https://ellii.com/courses/116/lessons">Fun Grammar Lessons</a> are geared toward young learners. However, you can also choose to do both lessons, especially if your students need more practice with a particular target (and adult learners can always benefit from more illustrations&nbsp;too).</p>

<p>Lower levels also benefit from flashcards in the <a href="https://ellii.com/flashcard_genres" target="_blank">Flashcard Library</a>. We&#39;ve included some ready-made sets for you in the folders. You can also create and broadcast your own digital flashcard sets using our <a href="https://ellii.com/blog/flashcard-player">Flashcard&nbsp;Player</a>.</p>

<h2>Learning Objectives</h2>

<p>Here is a brief overview of the grammar targets covered in each level of the grammar courses. (For another overview of the suggested teaching order of grammar targets, click Teaching Order in the drop-down menu of the Select Sort Method filter on our <a href="https://ellii.com/courses/88/lessons">Grammar Practice Worksheets</a> landing&nbsp;page.)</p>

<table>
	<tbody>
		<tr>
			<th>Level</th>
			<th>Grammar Targets</th>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Pre&nbsp;Beg</td>
			<td>be, have, simple present, nouns, adjectives, yes/no questions, can</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Beg</td>
			<td>be, nouns, articles, there is/there are, subject &amp; object pronouns, simple present, imperative verbs, modals of ability</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>High&nbsp;Beg&nbsp;A</td>
			<td>present progressive, adverbs of frequency, adjectives, prepositions of time, prepositions of place</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>High&nbsp;Beg&nbsp;B</td>
			<td>parts of speech, prefixes, suffixes, simple past, used to, there is/there are, yes/no questions, wh- questions</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Low&nbsp;Int</td>
			<td>modals of ability (past), non-count nouns, quantifiers, possessive nouns, adverbs of manner, prepositions of direction, simple future</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Int&nbsp;A</td>
			<td>collocations, subject&ndash;verb agreement, reflexive &amp; intensive pronouns, gerunds &amp; infinitives, modals of advice, modals of possibility, first conditional, comparative &amp; superlative adjectives, comparative &amp; superlative adverbs</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Int&nbsp;B</td>
			<td>present perfect, present perfect progressive, modals of necessity &amp; obligation, second conditional, complete sentences, conjunctions, tag questions, past progressive, future progressive</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>High&nbsp;Int</td>
			<td>phrasal verbs, passive voice, causative verbs, third conditional, past modals, adjective clauses, adjectives phrases, adverb clauses, transition words</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Adv</td>
			<td>passive causative, reported speech, embedded questions, past perfect, past perfect progressive, subjunctive, future perfect, future perfect progressive</td>
		</tr>
	</tbody>
</table>

<h2>Assessment</h2>

<p>There are several ways to assess your students&#39; progress in the grammar courses, both within each level and cumulatively throughout the courses. You may choose to use some of the assessment tools listed below as review and others as&nbsp;assessment.</p>

<ul>
	<li><strong>Quizzes</strong> on each of the main grammar targets within most lessons (<a href="https://ellii.com/courses/88/lessons">Grammar Practice Worksheets</a> and <a href="https://ellii.com/courses/116/lessons">Fun Grammar Lessons</a>) in each&nbsp;level</li>
	<li><strong>Exit Tests </strong>that&nbsp;provide a comprehensive assessment for each level of the course
	<ul>
		<li><a href="https://ellii.com/resource_categories/104/resources/3544">Pre Beg Assessment</a></li>
		<li><a href="https://ellii.com/resource_categories/104/resources/3549">Beg Assessment</a></li>
		<li><a href="https://ellii.com/resource_categories/104/resources/3557">High Beg A Assessment</a></li>
		<li><a href="https://ellii.com/resource_categories/104/resources/3558">High Beg B Assessment</a></li>
		<li><a href="https://ellii.com/resource_categories/104/resources/3559">Low Int Assessment</a></li>
		<li><a href="https://ellii.com/resource_categories/104/resources/3560">Int A Assessment</a></li>
		<li><a href="https://ellii.com/resource_categories/104/resources/3561">Int B Assessment</a></li>
		<li><a href="https://ellii.com/resource_categories/104/resources/3562">High Int Assessment</a></li>
		<li><a href="https://ellii.com/resource_categories/104/resources/3550">Adv Assessment</a></li>
	</ul>
	</li>
	<li><strong>Verb Tense Reviews&nbsp;</strong>that demonstrate students&#39; understanding of the six simple and six perfect tenses, including mixed-tense exercises
	<ul>
		<li>Find&nbsp;<a href="https://ellii.com/courses/88/lessons/1963">Verb Tense Review 1</a> at the end of <a href="https://ellii.com/folders/published/70262">Int&nbsp;B</a></li>
		<li>Find&nbsp;<a href="https://ellii.com/courses/88/lessons/1997">Verb Tense Review 2</a> at the end of <a href="https://ellii.com/folders/published/70264">Adv</a></li>
	</ul>
	</li>
	<li><strong>Grammar Tests&nbsp;</strong>that provide a cumulative assessment of students&#39; progress throughout the courses
	<ul>
		<li>Find&nbsp;<a href="https://ellii.com/resource_categories/104/resources/2448">Grammar Test 1</a> at the end of <a href="https://ellii.com/folders/published/77167">High Beg&nbsp;B</a></li>
		<li>Find&nbsp;<a href="https://ellii.com/resource_categories/104/resources/2449">Grammar Test 2</a> at the end of <a href="https://ellii.com/folders/published/70260">Low Int</a></li>
		<li>Find&nbsp;<a href="https://ellii.com/resource_categories/104/resources/2450">Grammar Test 3</a> at the end of <a href="https://ellii.com/folders/published/70262">Int&nbsp;B</a></li>
		<li>Find&nbsp;<a href="https://ellii.com/resource_categories/104/resources/2451">Grammar Test 4</a> at the end of <a href="https://ellii.com/folders/published/70264">Adv</a></li>
	</ul>
	</li>
</ul>

<h1>More Grammar Content</h1>

<p>Ellii has many materials that cover grammar targets in a variety of ways. You can search for a grammar target by clicking on the magnifying glass icon in the top right corner of our site, or you can look through the targets on each main lesson section page (links below). Levels that lessons are offered in are listed beside each lesson section. This list also includes some resources that apply to all&nbsp;levels.</p>

<ul>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/courses/88/lessons">Grammar Practice Worksheets</a> (Beg &ndash; Adv)</li>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/courses/116/lessons">Fun Grammar Lessons</a> (Beg &ndash; High&nbsp;Int)</li>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/courses/123/lessons">Super Simple Grammar</a> (Pre Beg &ndash; Beg)</li>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/courses/90/lessons">Grammar Stories</a> (Beg &ndash; Int)</li>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/courses/129/lessons">True Grammar Stories</a> (Beg &ndash; Low&nbsp;Int)</li>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/courses/89/lessons">Basic Grammar Sentences</a> (Beg &ndash; Int)</li>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/courses/91/lessons">Simple Sentences</a> (Beg &ndash; Low&nbsp;Int)</li>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/resource_categories/103/resources">Grammar &amp; Usage Resources</a> (Beg &ndash; Adv)</li>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/blog/categories/grammar-usage">Grammar &amp; Usage Blog Posts</a> (Beg &ndash; Adv)</li>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/folders/published/69792">Grammar Videos</a> (Beg &ndash; Int with more added every month; find various targets in related Grammar Practice Worksheets lesson or on our YouTube channel)</li>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/resource_categories/104/resources">Grammar Placement/Exit Tests</a> (Beg, Low&nbsp;Int, Int, High&nbsp;Int&nbsp;&ndash;&nbsp;Adv)</li>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/courses/133/lessons">That&#39;s News to Me</a>&nbsp;(Low Int &ndash; Adv; find authentic news articles for finding grammar in&nbsp;context)</li>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/resource_categories/103/resources/2809">Verb Conjugations</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/resource_categories/103/resources/2808">Verb Conjugations &ndash; Condensed</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/resource_categories/103/resources/2851">Verb Tense Review</a></li>
</ul>

<p>We hope you and your students enjoy our guided grammar courses! Stay tuned for more grammar courses in the future, such as grammar in context, grammar for young learners,&nbsp;etc.</p>

<p>If there&#39;s a grammar course (or lesson) you&#39;d like to see, please leave us a comment below or <a href="https://ellii.com/contact">get in touch</a>. We&#39;d love to hear from&nbsp;you!</p>


Teachers' Notes for Ellii's Guided Grammar Courses

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Find useful resources and tips for teaching English with interactive apps and sites.

EdTech

Discover what's new or coming soon, including upcoming lessons and resources and product feature updates. 

Announcements

<p><strong>Update 09/2023: Please note that our company name and platform has changed a lot since 2020. You will find all our video content in Ellii&#39;s <a href="https://ellii.com/media/videos">Media Gallery</a>.</strong><br />
&nbsp;</p>

<p>ESL Library now has video content! Videos provide English language learners with many benefits, and they are a great way to increase student engagement and comprehension.</p>

<p>You can watch our Simple Present video here on the blog. Read on to learn more about the videos we currently offer and the ways they can enhance your&nbsp;class!</p>

<div class="videoWrapper"><iframe allow="autoplay; fullscreen" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/429774530" width="640"></iframe></div>

<h1>Grammar Videos</h1>

<p>Our Simple Present video is available to watch above, but you will also find it in the Video Intro task for the&nbsp;<a href="https://ellii.com/courses/88/lessons/2403">Simple Present</a> lesson in our&nbsp;<a href="https://ellii.com/courses/88/lessons">Grammar Practice Worksheets</a> section.</p>

<p>Take a look at the&nbsp;<a href="https://ellii.com/folders/published/69792">ESL Library Videos Folder</a> for a complete list of the grammar videos we currently have available. We&#39;re adding more every&nbsp;month!</p>

<p><a href="https://ellii.com/pricing">Plus</a> members&nbsp;can play our videos in a live class or an online class using a shared screen. Our videos are also&nbsp;assignable as homework tasks.</p>

<p>To play a video in a live or online class, click on the Task Player on the grammar lesson landing page. Within the Task Player,&nbsp;start the Video Intro task. For more info, see <a href="https://help.ellii.com/article/200-how-to-broadcast-tasks">How to Broadcast Tasks</a>.</p>

<p><img alt="" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/1045/content_Screen_Shot_2020-10-28_at_10.55.02_AM.png" /></p>

<p><img alt="" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/1046/content_Screen_Shot_2020-10-28_at_10.57.01_AM.png" /></p>

<p>To assign a video as homework or to send it to students&rsquo; own devices in class, click on the Assignment Manager&nbsp;on the grammar lesson landing page and choose who to assign it to. For more info, see <a href="https://help.ellii.com/article/122-how-to-assign-digital-homework">How to Assign Digital Homework</a> and&nbsp;<a href="https://ellii.com/blog/how-to-assign-grammar-tasks-online">How to Assign Grammar Tasks&nbsp;Online</a>.</p>

<p><img alt="" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/1047/content_Screen_Shot_2020-10-28_at_10.58.13_AM.png" /></p>

<h1>Benefits of Grammar Videos</h1>

<p>Our grammar videos:</p>

<ul>
	<li>make learning grammar fun (which is often a&nbsp;challenge!)</li>
	<li>offer a condensed version of our comprehensive grammar&nbsp;notes</li>
	<li>can be used for multiple levels and&nbsp;ages</li>
	<li>appeal to all types of learners (especially visual and auditory&nbsp;learners)</li>
	<li>provide the opportunity for students to strengthen multiple skill sets (grammar, listening, reading, and pronunciation in some cases)</li>
	<li>offer a more engaging way to present the grammar notes/explanation of a&nbsp;target</li>
	<li>show grammatical forms, functions, and patterns visually to aid&nbsp;comprehension</li>
	<li>show animated images of examples to really drive a target&nbsp;home</li>
	<li>help learners comprehend and retain info better than a text-only presentation</li>
</ul>

<h1>More Video Content</h1>

<p>Videos can do a lot more than clarify&nbsp;a grammar target! Videos can bring a dialogue to life or shed light on difficult concepts and vocabulary. They also make tasks more engaging and can facilitate conversation. Our video development team is busy creating videos for&nbsp;the following sections:</p>

<ul>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/courses/76/lessons">Everyday Dialogues</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/courses/72/lessons">Discussion Starters</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/courses/131/lessons">Phonics Stories</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/courses/93/lessons">Holidays &amp; Events</a></li>
</ul>

<p>For a complete list of the videos we currenly have on our site, see the&nbsp;<a href="https://ellii.com/folders/published/69792">ESL Library Videos Folder</a>.</p>

<h1>Feedback &amp; Requests</h1>

<p>We have so many ideas for future videos, but we&rsquo;d also love to hear yours! Teacher feedback and requests have always guided what we do at ESL&nbsp;Library, and our videos will be no&nbsp;exception.</p>

<p>What would you like to see in terms of video content on our site? Drop us a line or leave a comment below. We&rsquo;d love to hear from&nbsp;you!</p>

<p><em>PS. Did you know that we have many teacher-training videos already available? Check out our <a href="https://help.ellii.com/collection/1-how-to-videos">Help Docs video section</a> for demos and guidance on the content and features of our&nbsp;site.</em></p>


Introducing Videos on ESL Library

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<h1>Teaching Grammar Online with ESL Library</h1>

<p>Teaching grammar can be a challenge at the best of times, and having to suddenly manage it digitally can be especially difficult. We hope this series of posts on how to teach grammar online will be helpful!&nbsp;Please feel free to leave comments and questions below. We&#39;re here for you!</p>

<p>This three-part grammar series will cover:</p>

<ul>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/blog/teaching-grammar-online-with-esl-library">How to Teach Grammar Online</a></li>
	<li>How to Assign Grammar Tasks Online (this post)</li>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/blog/how-to-assess-grammar-online">How to Assess Grammar Online</a></li>
</ul>

<h1>How to Assign Grammar Tasks Online</h1>

<p>Our <a href="https://ellii.com/courses/88/lessons">Grammar Practice Worksheets</a> section has 60 lessons available on our online platform.</p>

<p>Once you&#39;ve chosen a target and clicked on the Digital tab, you will see all the digital tasks that are available to our subscribers. During the COVID-19 pandemic, our Standard plan subscribers have <a href="https://ellii.com/blog/teaching-with-digital-resources-during-the-covid-19-pandemic">free access</a> to all our Premium plan digital tasks, so you will be able to use them all with your students.</p>

<h2>1. Order of Tasks</h2>

<p>The digital tasks in every <a href="https://ellii.com/courses/88/lessons">Grammar Practice Worksheets</a>&nbsp;lesson follow a logical, progressive order (with the easiest tasks at the beginning and the more difficult ones at the end). All these&nbsp;lessons begin with the grammar notes&nbsp;and most end with a quiz (see <a href="https://ellii.com/blog/how-to-assess-grammar-online">How to Assess Grammar Online</a>).</p>

<p>For example, our <a href="https://ellii.com/courses/88/lessons/1594">Simple Past</a> lesson includes&nbsp;the grammar notes followed by two easy multiple-choice exercises to practice positive and negative sentences in the simple past. After that, there are two tasks to practice regular verbs. Next comes an irregular verb list and two practice exercises. The remaining four tasks include a mix of regular and irregular verbs and cover time markers, question formation, and opposites. The lesson concludes with a quiz&mdash;a quick assessment task so you can check your students&#39; comprehension of everything they learned in this lesson.</p>

<p>Keep in mind that the task order is only a general guideline. Feel free to vary the order of the tasks you assign according to&nbsp;the needs of your students.</p>

<h2>2. Launching Tasks</h2>

<p>You can <a href="https://ellii.com/blog/launch-or-preview-digital-tasks">preview each task</a> before you assign it by clicking the task title. This is also how you would <a href="https://ellii.com/blog/launch-or-preview-digital-tasks">launch the task</a>&nbsp;if you were screensharing it. Under Task Info, you will find the answer key and the task at a glance all on one page.</p>

<p>How many tasks should you do at one time? This depends on the time of your session and the needs of your learners.&nbsp;</p>

<p>If you only have an hour, try going through two or three tasks plus correction and discussion. If you are teaching the same learners all week, you could break up the lesson and do two or three tasks a day from the lesson along with other related material (see the Related section of any lesson page). If your students appear to know the grammar target quite well, you could do a couple of tasks and then move on to another target. However, if you have a long class, you could definitely cover the whole lesson (all the tasks for one target) since they are progressive in difficulty and not repetitive in nature.</p>

<p>You could always assign one or two tasks (or all of them!) for homework. See the next section for more information on assigning tasks for homework.</p>

<h2>3. Assigning Tasks</h2>

<p>To assign a task for homework, use&nbsp;the Assignment Manager button from a lesson page (see our <a href="https://help.ellii.com/category/110-digital-tools">Help Docs</a> and <a href="https://help.ellii.com/category/119-digital-tools">How-To Videos</a>&nbsp;for help with this).&nbsp;</p>

<p>You will get your students&#39; results in real&nbsp;time for most tasks. For tasks with written (typed) answers, you will be able to score the answers and leave written feedback for your learners.</p>

<p>Keep in mind that you could also assign tasks for your students to complete during an online session. This way&nbsp;they can complete the tasks individually at their own pace (just as they would in class using a paper-based exercise), and you can see the&nbsp;results for all your students while you&#39;re conducting a class using a screensharing platform. After your students complete a task, you could choose to go through it while screensharing to discuss any problems they may have had.</p>

<p>The beauty of assigning homework tasks is that you could always choose to assign more to students who are struggling and fewer to students who aren&#39;t. You can also assign a random, one-off task on a certain target from any lesson to a student who had a question about it or wanted extra practice.</p>

<h1>Teaching Order</h1>

<p>When should you teach articles? How about prepositions of place? Should you teach imperative verbs before the present progressive? Many teachers wonder which order of grammar targets is best. We have a <a href="https://ellii.com/courses/88/lessons/2565">Teaching Order</a> chart for our <a href="https://ellii.com/courses/88/lessons">Grammar Practice Worksheets</a> section that you can apply to all our grammar materials.</p>

<p>Please keep in mind that this is a general guideline and is absolutely not set in stone! The order can vary according to your students&#39; needs. It may also vary if you&#39;re following a certain curriculum.</p>

<p><a href="https://ellii.com/courses/88/lessons/2565">This resource</a> is mainly for teachers, and as such&nbsp;it is not available as an assignable digital resource, but feel free to share this order with your students using a screensharing platform. You could also download the PDF and email it to your students if you want them to see it.</p>

<p>If you&#39;re an online tutor, you can customize your teaching order much more easily. Try giving&nbsp;your student(s) a list of grammar targets and ask which ones they struggle with the most. Assign writing and/or speaking tasks to discover which targets your student&nbsp;struggles with. You could also use the four assessment/placement tests mentioned above. Any of these methods will also work with a big class, but it might be a bit more difficult to establish a teaching order if your students&#39; needs vary widely.</p>

<p>We hope you found this second post in our three-part series about teaching grammar online useful!</p>

<ul>
	<li>Here is the next post in the series: <a href="https://ellii.com/blog/how-to-assess-grammar-online">How to Assess Grammar Online</a></li>
	<li>If you missed our first post in the series, find it here: <a href="https://ellii.com/blog/teaching-grammar-online-with-esl-library">How to Teach Grammar Online</a></li>
</ul>

<h1>&nbsp;</h1>
