In this post, Blandine tells us about how she suddenly decided to take part in the famous Maroilles race, the 20 kilometres of Maroilles. Not an easy race by any means, and to make it worse, she was not all that ready…
“Maybe” versus “may be”
In the Confusables series, we talk about English words and expressions that are easily confused with one another because of similarities in spelling, pronunciation, and/or meaning. This is a source of confusion but it shouldn’t be, because the difference is clear-cut! As usual, I am not going to provide a grammatical analysis. Instead, we’re just … Continue Reading
Weed
As we have a couple of days of vacation, I and my family decided to visit our relatives in Sanandj, the center of Kurdistan province. While we were there, we had to go to the countryside with a friend one afternoon. It is spring in north hemisphere and everywhere is green, a special light green … Continue Reading
Writing Workshop: birthday present
What you see below is a poorly written text with quite a few mistakes: You don’t seem happy of your birthday present. Don’t you like it? What?! You wanted diamond necklace?! Who do you think am I? Bill Gates? No! I never said I will buy you jewellery! Stop to have such unrealistic expectations. You … Continue Reading
Question about the relationship between tenses
In the “I have a question” series, we discuss your language-related questions and problems. Would you please explain about how we should deal with the problem of the correct usage of tenses in relation together, or a grammer text that we can refer to when we get caught in making sentences in which we need … Continue Reading
Goodbye
Whatever the results will be tonight, just one thing which is obviously certain is that we could say: “Good bye Mr. President!”
Confusables 9: “because” vs “because of”
In the Confusables series, we talk about English words and expressions that are easily confused with one another because of similarities in spelling, pronunciation, and/or meaning. What is the difference between because and because of? To answer the question, we must talk a little about conjunctions and prepositions first. A conjunction /kənˈdʒʌŋkʃn/ is a word … Continue Reading
Enjoy a sunny Sunday by the Deûle… and ride a tram!
On Sunday, I made a suggestion on the website: why not say hello to Philippe and discover the “Tourist tram” near Wambrechies? And that’s exactly what we did. It was a sunny and warm day and we decided to walk from Lille to Wambrechies. We had a picnic on our way, with a salad and … Continue Reading
A quizzical smile
This is the first post with an experimental format that I am calling “The Russian Dolls”. The text is revealed step by step as you engage with it and answer some questions… This post is about Adele, James Bond, and more…