FDI

Indefinite Article With Uncountable Noun

Uncountable nouns are nouns which are difficult or impossible to count. Uncountable nouns include untouchable things (information, air), things like liquids (milk, wine), and things which are too large or numerous to count (equipment, sand, wood). Because these things can’t be counted, singular articles like a or an should not be used to modify them. Uncountable nouns can be modified by words like some. Alternately, the uncountable noun can be changed to a countable noun.

Please give me a water.

Water is an uncountable noun, and should not be used with the indefinite article, a.

Please give me some water.

Please give me a bottle of water.

Please give me an ice.

Please give me an ice cube.

Please give me some ice.

N.B. Depending on the context, some nouns can be countable or uncountable (e.g. hair, noise, time)

We need a light in this room.

We need some light in this room.

Spelling of Ing and ed forms

Top Ten Grammar.

Idioms

Prepositions and conjunctions

Up

"espouse" and "spouse"

The words "espouse" and "spouse" are related, both deriving from the Latin verb "spondēre," meaning "to promise or betroth." In fact, the two were once completely interchangeable, with each serving as a noun meaning "a newly married person" or "a husband or wife" and also as a verb meaning "to marry." Their semantic separation began in the 17th century, when the noun "espouse" fell out of use. Around the same time, people started using the verb "espouse" figuratively to mean "to commit to and support a cause." "Spouse" continued to be used in both noun and verb forms until the 20th century, when its verb use declined and it came to be used mainly as a noun meaning "husband or wife."
 

Homophones and Homographs

aid – to help or assist
aide - assistant

affect - change
effect – result or consequence

air – atmosphere (the stuff we breathe)
err – to make a mistake

aisle - walkway
I’ll – I will
isle - island

allowed - permitted
aloud – out loud

ant – picnic pest
aunt – relative, as in your mom’s sister

arc - curve
ark – Noah’s boat

ate – chewed up and swallowed
eight – number after seven

bare - uncovered
bear – grizzly animal

berry – fruit from a bush
bury – to put underground

base – bottom part
bass – deep or low

be – to exist
bee – buzzing insect

beach – sandy shore
beech – type of tree

beat - to pound
beet – type of edible plant

berth – tie up
birth – to be born

bite - nibble
byte – 8 bits (computer data)

blew – past of blow
blue – color of ocean

boar - pig
bore – not interesting bore - to drill

borough – area or district
burrow – dig through
burro – small donkey

bough - branch
bow – bend or curtsy

buoy - floater
boy – young man

brake – stop pedal
break – smash

bread – bakery food
bred – form of breed

broach - mention
brooch - pin

brows - eyebrows
browse – look around

buy - purchase
by - beside
by - originating from,BR. bye – short for goodbye

cell – compartment
sell - vend

cent – penny coin
sent – did send

cereal – breakfast food
serial - sequential

Chile – country in South America
chili – bean stew
chilly – frosty

chord – musical tone
cord - rope

cite - quote
site - location
sight - view

close – opposite of open
clothes - clothing

complement – enhance; go together
compliment - praise

council - committee
counsel - guidance

creak - squeak
creek – stream of water

crews - gangs
cruise – ride on a boat

dear - darling
deer – woodland animal

dew – morning mist
do - operate
due - payable

die – cease to exist
dye - color

doe – female dear
dough – uncooked bread

dual - double
duel - battle

ewe – female sheep
you - second-person personal pronoun

eye – sight organ
I - me

fair - equal
fare - price

fairy – elflike creature with wings
ferry - boat

faze - impact
phase - stage

feat – achievement
feet – plural of foot

fir – type of tree
fur – animal hair

flea – small biting insect
flee - run

flew – did fly
flu – illness

flour – powdery, ground up grain
flower – blooming plant

for – on behalf of
fore - front
four – one more than three

forth - onward
fourth – number four

knew – did know
new – not old

gorilla – big ape
guerrilla - warrior

grease - fat
Greece – country in Europe

groan - moan
grown – form of grow

hair – head covering
hare – rabbit-like animal

hall - passageway
haul - tow

halve – cut in two parts
have - possess

hay – animal food
hey – interjection to get attention

heal - mend
heel – back of foot

hi - hello
high – up far

hoarse - croaky
horse – riding animal

hole - opening
whole - entire

holey – full of holes
holy - divine
wholly - entirely

hour – sixty minutes
our – belonging to us

knead - massage
need - desire

knight – feudal horseman
night - evening

knot – tied rope
not - negative

know – have knowledge
no – opposite of yes

lead – metal
led - was the leader

lessen – make smaller
lesson - class

loan - lend
lone - solitary

made – did make
maid - servant

mail - postage
male – opposite of female

marry – to wed
merry – very happy

meat – animal protein
meet - encounter

none – not any
nun – woman who takes special vows

oar – boat paddle
or - otherwise
ore - mineral

oh – expression of surprise or awe
owe – be obligated

one - single
won – did win

overdo – do too much
overdue – past due date

pail - bucket
pale – not bright

pain - hurt
pane – window glass

peace - calm
piece - segment

peak – highest point
peek - glance

plain - ordinary
plane – flight machine plane - flat surface

pole - post
poll - survey

poor – not rich
pour – make flow

pray – implore God
prey - quarry

principal – most important
principle - belief

rain – water from sky
rein - bridle

rap - tap
wrap – drape around

real - factual
reel - roll

right – correct; not left
write - scribble

ring - encircle
wring - squeeze

role - function
roll - rotate

rose - flower
rows - lines

sail – move by wind power
sale – bargain price

scene - landscape
seen - viewed

sea – ocean segment
see – observe with eyes

seam – joining edge
seem - appear

sew – connect with thread
so – as a result
sow - plant

soar - ascend
sore – hurt place

sole - single
soul - essence

some – a few
sum - amount

steal - swipe
steel - alloy

tail – animal’s appendage
tale - story

their – belonging to them
there – at that place
they’re – they are

to - toward
too - also

toe – foot appendage
tow – pull along

vary - differ
very - much

wail - howl
whale – huge swimming mammal

waist – area below ribs
waste - squander

wait – kill time
weight – measurable load

war - battle
wore – did wear

warn - caution
worn - used

way - path
weigh – measure mass

we - us
wee - tiny

weak – not strong
week – period of seven days

weather - climate
whether - if

which - that
witch – sorcerer

your – belonging to you
you’re – you are

Synonyms

Palm

Crockery and Flatware

15 things you did not know

Get ahead

The Car

Example

Look on

Spa Treatments

Parts of speech table..

Hello

Theater

Spoon

Correct Use

Translation

Birds

Weather

Contrary Proverbs

How to describe someone's personality

Useful Phrasal Verbs

15 Most Useful Phrasal Verbs

1. “Call off”: to stop–”call off the search”–and used when phoning in to work. “I called off today because I’m sick.”

2. “Look up”: search for. “I’ll go online and look up ‘phrasal verbs’.” “Look me up the next time you’re in town.”

3. “Get away with”: escape blame/punishment. “He sure got away with that”, or “the crook got away with 50 dollars”.

4. “Pull through”: used in discussing health–”The surgery was rough, but he pulled through”, or “the victim of the chicken attack pulled through with no lingering injuries”.

5. “Break up”: usually refers to relationships–”Fred and Matilda are going to break up”–but variations can be used to show an emotional state. “When Matilda dumped Fred, he was pretty broken up about it.”

6. “Blow out”: a tire flattens while driving–”Mel had a blowout on the way to work”–and it indicates a lopsided sports score. “It was a blowout; the Packers beat the Bears 24 to 3.” It is also used to indicate anger: “Ed broke Bob’s window, and Bob had a complete blowout when he saw it”.

7. “Give in/give up”: relent or surrender. “She did not want to go, but the kids pestered her until she gave in.” “The robber gave up when the cops cornered him.”

8. “Put up with”: endure, such as “Tom put up with many jokes when he rode his ostrich to work”.

9. “Look down on”: a person who feels superior to others is said to “look down on” them. “Dog owners sometimes look down on cat owners, which is silly, because cat owners sometimes look down on dog owners.”

10. “Turn into”: become something else–”caterpillars turn into butterflies”. It is also used in driving: “after you pass the park, turn into the school parking lot”.

11. “Carry on”: continue. “After the accident, the police told the bystanders to carry on.” It is also a rant–”when she spilled her milk, she carried on about it for hours”.

12. “Look after”: attend to–”babysitters look after children”, or “please look after that task I gave you”.

13. “Pass out”: faint–”Bennie became dizzy and passed out”–or “to give”: “Frankie passed out newspapers”.

14. “Put off”: postpone. “He put off painting and cut the grass first.” It is also used to describe an aversion: “Norm was stranded in the woods for 3 days with only a box of candy bars, so he’s put off by chocolate for now”.

15. “Look forward to”: anticipate. “I look forward to meeting with you,” or “kids look forward to the holidays”.

Look

Interview

Parts of the body

Parts of the body

Positions

Read this, if you can

Fingers name

Food

The house

Babbling like a child

Babbling like a child

Balmy in manner as a bland southern morning

Be like the granite of thy rock-ribbed land

Beauteous she looks as a water-lily

Beautiful as the dawn, dominant as the sun

Beauty maddens the soul like wine

Beheld great Babel, wrathful, beautiful, burn like a blood-red cloud upon the plain

Beneath a sky as fair as summer flowers

Bent like a wand of willow

Black as a foam-swept rock

Black his hair as the wintry night

Blithe as a bird [blithe = carefree and lighthearted]

Bounded by the narrow fences of life

Bowed like a mountain

Breaking his oath and resolution like a twist of rotten silk

Breathed like a sea at rest

Bright as a diamond in the sun

Bright as a fallen fragment of the sky

Bright as the coming forth of the morning, in the cloud of an early shower

Bright as the sunbeams

Bright as the tear of an angel, glittered a lonely star

Brilliant and gay as a Greek

Brisk as a wasp in the sunshine

Brittle and bent like a bow

Bronze-green beetles tumbled over stones, and lay helpless on their backs with the air of an elderly clergyman knocked down by an omnibus

Brown as the sweet smelling loam

Brute terrors like the scurrying of rats in a deserted attic

Buried in his library like a mouse in a cheese

Burns like a living coal in the soul

But across it, like a mob's menace, fell the thunder

But thou art fled, like some frail exhalation

Butterflies like gems

The Car

Hank lived in a small town, but then he got a job in a big city and moved there with his wife and his two children. On the first Saturday in their new home, Hank took his new red car out of the garage and was washing it when a neighbor came by. When he saw Hank's new car, the neighbor stopped and looked at it for a minute. Then Hank turned and saw him.

The neighbor said," That's a nice car. Is it yours?"

"Sometimes", Hank answered.

The neighbor was surprised. "Sometimes?" he said, "What do you mean?"

"Well", answered Hank slowly, "When there's a party in town, it belongs to my daughter, Jane. When there's a football game somewhere, it belongs to my son, Joe. When I've washed it, and it looks really nice and clean, it belongs to my wife. And when it needs gas it's mine."

* That's what a  family car is*.

How much / how many

Find the correct answer:

1. We need some tea. ______ do we need?
    A. How much
    B. How many

2. We need some eggs. ______ do we need?
    A. How much
    B. How many

3. We need some paper. ______ do we need? 
    A. How much
    B. How many

4. We need some money. ______ do we need?
    A. How much
    B. How many

5. ______ cigarettes do you smoke a day?
    A. How much
    B. How many

6. ______ packets of cigarettes do you have?
    A. How much
    B. How many

7. ______ work have you got to do?
    A. How much
    B. How many

8. ______ sleep did you get last night?
    A. How much
    B. How many

9. ______ children have you got?
    A. How much
    B. How many

10. ______ bottles of wine are there in the cellar?
    A. How much
    B. How many

11. ______ English grammar do you know?
    A. How much
    B. How many

12. ______ Americans do you know?
    A. How much
    B. How many

13. ______ sugar do you take in your tea?
    A. How much
    B. How many

14. ______ apples do you eat in an average week?
    A. How much
    B. How many

15. ______ fruit do you eat in an average week?
    A. How much
    B. How many

16. ______ chairs are there in your house?
    A. How much
    B. How many

17. ______ furniture do you have?
    A. How much
    B. How many

18. ______ traffic was there on the motorway today?
    A. How much
    B. How many

19. ______ times must I tell you?
    A. How much
    B. How many

20. ______ real friends do you have?
    A. How much
    B. How many

STRIKING SIMILES

A

A blind rage like a fire swept over him

A book that rends and tears like a broken saw

A breath of melancholy made itself felt like a chill and sudden gust from some unknown sea

A cloud in the west like a pall creeps upward

A cloud like a flag from the sky

A cluster of stars hangs like fruit in the tree

A confused mass of impressions, like an old rubbish-heap

A cry as of a sea-bird in the wind

A dead leaf might as reasonably demand to return to the tree

A drowsy murmur floats into the air like thistledown

A face as imperturbable as fate

A face as pale as wax

A face tempered like steel

A fatigued, faded, lusterless air, as of a caged creature

A few pens parched by long disuse

A figure like a carving on a spire

A fluttering as of blind bewildered moths

A giant galleon overhead, looked like some misty monster of the deep

A glacial pang of pain like the stab of a dagger of ice frozen from a poisoned well

A glance that flitted like a bird

A great moon like a red lamp in the sycamore

A grim face like a carved mask

A hand icily cold and clammy as death

A heart from which noble sentiments sprang like sparks from an anvil

A jeweler that glittered like his shop

A lady that lean'd on his arm like a queen in a fable of old fairy days

A life, a Presence, like the air

A life as common and brown and bare as the box of earth in the window there

A light wind outside the lattice swayed a branch of roses to and fro,

shaking out their perfume as from a swung censer

A lightning-phrase, as if shot from the quiver of infallible wisdom

A list of our unread books torments some of us like a list of murders

A little breeze ran through the corn like a swift serpent

A little weed-clogged ship, gray as a ghost

A long slit of daylight like a pointing finger

A memory like a well-ordered cupboard

A mighty wind, like a leviathan, plowed the brine

A mind very like a bookcase

A mystery, soft, soothing and gentle, like the whisper of a child murmuring its happiness in its sleep

A name which sounds even now like the call of a trumpet

A note of despairing appeal which fell like a cold hand upon one's living soul

A purpose as the steady flame

A question deep almost as the mystery of life

A quibbling mouth that snapped at verbal errors like a lizard catching flies

A radiant look came over her face, like a sudden burst of sunshine on a cloudy day

A reputation that swelled like a sponge

A ruby like a drop of blood

A shadow of melancholy touched her lithe fancies, as a cloud dims the waving of golden grain

A silver moon, like a new-stamped coin, rode triumphant in the sky

A slow thought that crept like a cold worm through all his brain

A smile flashed over her face, like sunshine over a flower

A soft and purple mist like a vaporous amethyst

A soft haze, like a fairy dream, is floating over wood and stream

A soul as white as heaven

A sound like the throb of a bell

A stooping girl as pale as a pearl

A sudden sense of fear ran through her nerves like the chill of an icy wind

A sweet voice caroling like a gold-caged nightingale

A thin shrill voice like the cry of an expiring mouse

A thing of as frail enchantment as the gleam of stars upon snow

A vague thought, as elusive as the smell of a primrose

A vanishing loveliness as tender as the flush of the rose leaf and as ethereal as the light of a solitary star

A voice as low as the sea

A voice soft and sweet as a tune that one knows

A white bird floats there, like a drifting leaf

Against a sky as clear as sapphire

Age, like winter weather

Agile as a leopard

Agitated like a storm-tossed ship

Air like wine

All around them like a forest swept the deep and empurpled masses of her tangled hair

All like an icicle it seemed, so tapering and cold

All my life broke up, like some great river's ice at touch of spring

All silent as the sheeted dead

All sounds were lost in the whistle of air humming by like the flight of a million arrows

All that's beautiful drifts away like the waters

All the world lay stretched before him like the open palm of his hand

All unconscious as a flower

Alone, like a storm-tossed wreck, on this night of the glad New Year

An anxiety hung like a dark impenetrable cloud

An ardent face out-looking like a star

An ecstasy which suddenly overwhelms your mind like an unexpected and exquisite thought

An envious wind crept by like an unwelcome thought

An ideal as sublime and comprehensive as the horizon

An immortal spirit dwelt in that frail body, like a bird in an outworn cage

An impudent trick astal diamond, or serene morning air

And melting like the stars in June

An09174"> An isle of Paradise, fair as a gem

An old nodding negress whose sable head shined in the sun like a polished cocoanut

An omnibus across the bridge crawls like a yellow butterfly

An undefined sadness seemed to have fallen about her like a cloud

An unknown world, wild as primeval chaos

An unpleasing strain, like the vibration of a rope drawn out too fast

And a pinnace like a flutter'd bird came flying from afar

And a tear like silver, glistened in the corner of her eye

And all our thoughts ran into tears like sunshine into rain

And at first the road comes moving toward me, like a bride waving palms

And Dusk, with breast as of a dove, brooded

And eyes as bright as the day

And fell as cold as a lump of clay

And her cheek was like a rose

And here were forests ancient as the hills

And many a fountain, rivulet, and pond, as clear as elemental diamond, or serene morning air

And melting like the stars in June

And night, as welcome as a friend

And silence like a poultice comes to heal the blows of sound

And spangled o'er with twinkling points, like stars

And the smile she softly uses fills the silence like a speech

As a child in play scatters the heaps of sand that he has piled on the seashore

As a cloud that gathers her robe like drifted snow

As a flower after a drought drinks in the steady plunging rain

As a leaf that beats on a mountain

As a lion grieves at the loss of her whelps

As a man plowing all day longs for supper and welcomes sunset

As a sea disturbed by opposing winds

As amusing as a litter of likely young pigs

As arbitrary as a cyclone and as killing as a pestilence

As austere as a Roman matron

As beautiful as the purple flush of dawn

As blind as a mole

As brief as sunset clouds in heaven

As bright as sunlight on a stream

As busy as a bee

As cattle driven by a gadfly

As chimney sweepers come to dust

As clear as a whistle

As clear as the parts of a tree in the morning sun

As close as oak and ivy stand

As delicate and as fair as a lily

As delightful to the mind as cool well-water to thirsty lip

As diamond cuts diamond

As direct and unvarying as the course of a homing bird

As distinct as night and morning

As dry as desert dust

As dumb as a fish

As easily as the sun shines

As easy as a turn of the hand

As elastic as a steel spring

As extinct as the dodo

As faint as the memory of a sound

As familiar to him as his alphabet

As fatal as the fang of the most venomous snake

As fleeting and elusive as our dreams

As foam from a ship's swiftness

As fresh and invigorating as a sea-breeze

As full of eager vigor as a mountain stream

As full of spirit as a gray squirrel

As gay and busy as a brook

As gently as the flower gives forth its perfume

As gently as withered leaves float from a tree

As graceful as a bough

As grave as a judge

As great as the first day of creation

As high as heaven

As I dropped like a bolt from the blue

As I dwelt like a sparrow among the spires

As if a door were suddenly left ajar into some world unseen before

As impossible as to count the stars in illimitable space

As in the footsteps of a god

As inaccessible to his feet as the clefts and gorges of the clouds

As inexorable as the flight of time

As innocent as a new laid egg

As iridescent as a soap bubble

As locusts gather to a stream before a fire

As mellow and deep as a psalm

As men strip for a race, so must an author strip for the race with time

As merry as bees in clover

As nimble as water

As one who has climbed above the earth's eternal snowline and sees only white peaks and pinnacles

As pale as any ghost

As patient as the trees

As quick as the movement of some wild animal

As quiet as a nun breathless with adoration

As radiant as the rose

As readily and naturally as ducklings take to water

As reticent as a well-bred stockbroker

As ruthlessly as the hoof of a horse tramples on a rose

As shallow streams run dimpling all the way

As simple as the intercourse of a child with its mother

As sleep falls upon the eyes of a child tired with a long summer day of eager pleasure and delight

As some vast river of unfailing source

As stars that shoot along the sky

As still as a stone

As stupid as a sheep

As sudden as a dislocated joint slipping back into place

As summer winds that creep from flower to flower

As supple as a step-ladder

As swaggering and sentimental as a penny novellete [novellete = short novel]

As swift as thought

As the accumulation of snowflakes makes the avalanche

As the bubble is extinguished in the ocean

As the dew upon the roses warms and melts the morning light

As the fair cedar, fallen before the breeze, lies self-embalmed amidst the moldering trees

As the light straw flies in dark'ning whirlwinds

As the lightning cleaves the night

As the loud blast that tears the skies

As the slow shadows of the pointed grass mark the eternal periods

As those move easiest who have learn'd to dance

As though a rose should shut, and be a bud again

As though Pharaoh should set the Israelites to make a pin instead of a pyramid

As unapproachable as a star

As weird as the elfin lights

As well try to photograph the other side of the moon

At extreme tension, like a drawn bow

Away he rushed like a cyclone

Awkward as a cart-horse