1-1 Lessons

Here you will find all you need to know about taking private 1-1 lessons with me.

Mini English Courses

This where I have brought together all the common English mistakes made by students and turned them into free mini courses.

Blog

This will begin in November 2025. I will write about how non-native users of English can make less mistakes and improve their self-correction.

Common Mistakes

Here you will find all the most common English mistakes divided into grammar categories for you to study at your leisure.

How to Use This Website

A list of ways you can use this website to help you improve your English.

The Library

A library of English Grammar Terms, English Irregular Verbs, and English Punctuation Terms.

Do you make these common mistakes?

As a pronoun they usually talks about a group of people, but it can also talk about one person.

Does this sound good?

  • I don’t know who broke the window, but he or she is going to pay for a new one!

Of course it doesn’t. So, we use they.

  • I don’t know who broke the window, but they are going to pay for a new one!
  • I don’t know who was driving the bus, but they were very good.
  • Whoever cleans the kitchen, I wish they would do a better job

For adjectives with one or two syllables add -er to the end.

  • A dog is slower than a cat.
    (slow – one syllable)

For adjectives with two syllables and ending in -y, change the -y to -i, and add -er.

  • Gary is funnier than John.
    (fun-ny – two syllables – ending in -y)

For adjectives with three or more syllables use more + adjective.

  • This year will be more exciting than last year.
    (ex-ci-ting – three syllables)
  • The sky is bluer than yesterday.
  • Gary’s lessons are easier to understand.
  • The mountain will be more dangerous now it is snowing.

No comparison made.

Wrong meaning: the back of something.

Correct meaning: another way of talking about the part of your body that you sit on – your bum.

  • I parked my car at the backside of the building.
  • I parked my car at the back of the building.
  • I have a pain in my backside so, it is difficult to sit down.

Help with confused words.

People is the plural of person.

Persons is only used in legal, and official instructions and documents.

  • One person was swimming in the pool.
  • Hundreds of people were killed in the fighting.
  • All persons entering the building are required to follow the official instructions.

More help with nouns.

Times means multiplied by and can’t be used to show something that is smaller.

  • 3 x (times/multiplied by) 4 = (is/equals) 12.

  • Battery A has three times less power than battery B.
  • Battery A has one third of the power of battery B.
  • Battery A has 33% of the power of battery B.

  • YouTube runs four times slower on Chrome than on Firefox.
  • YouTube runs one quarter of the speed on Chrome than it does on Firefox.
  • YouTube runs 25% of the speed on Chrome than it does on Firefox.

More help with misused words.