Commonly Confused Words in English: WHOSE & WHO’S

Sure, Saint man.

“This” is used when referring to one item relatively close to you in distance. “These” is used when referring to two or more items that are physically close to you.

For example:

This necklace is beautiful.
These necklaces are beautiful.

“That” is used when referring to one item relatively far from you in distance. “Those” is used when referring to two or more items that are physically far from you.

That kitten is so sweet.
Those kittens are so sweet.

Hope this helps!

Rebecca

Thanks Mohammad!

Listening skills take some time to develop because we need to train our ear, but sounds like you’re already on your way. There are so many different accents in English and even native English speakers have a tough time watching a movie with different accents. We have to pay closer attention, so you’re not alone.

There are a lot of great books for developing your English listening skills, in the areas of general and business English. Glad the videos are helpful! All the best to you.

Rebecca

Hope I can clarify the issue.

First of all, when you speak of the continuous tense, you are writing about one possible form of verbs. For example,

write – writing
speak – speaking
listen – listening
eat – eating

Second, in the specific examples you gave, the words were not verbs, but nouns and adjectives. Here, it depends on the usage required, as one word can be used in many different forms.

It will be helpful for you to draw up a chart with columns for noun, verb, adjective and adverb. When you learn a vocabulary word, try and write down the whole family of words. Then write sample sentences using each form of the word. This will clarify their use.

Besides this, there are certain expressions with unusual combinations which need to be learned as a whole, such as better living standards.

English is challenging, but with persistence, you can improve steadily. Good luck!

Hi Vishal

Thanks for your feedback.

1) Usually, we don’t use shall in a sentence anymore, as it’s quite old fashioned to use it in this way. So in sentences, it’s better to use will.

I will call you tomorrow.

However, we can use shall in polite questions, where the subject is I or we.

Shall we dance?
Shall we go to a Chinese restaurant?
Shall I open the door for you?

2) I would like to come for dinner is the correct form.

Actually, I will like is incorrect so there is no option of using it in any situation.

The expressions ‘I would like’ or ‘would you like’ are very refined ways of speaking English. Feel free to use them liberally.

Would you like something to drink?
What would you like to do?
Where would you like to go?

I would like some tea please. or I’d like some tea please.
I would like to take a nap.

Hope this helps you. Good luck.

Thank you kindly, jojo. Hope I am able to make your English learning more enjoyable.

What you are referring to is the use of the Present Perfect Tense.

Sometimes, it’s true, there is not much difference between the Past Simple tense (I sold my car) and Present Perfect (I have sold my car).

When a mother comes home from work, she could ask her children,

Have you finished your homework?
Have you eaten dinner?

or

Did you eat dinner?
Did you do your homework?

In these cases, there’s not much difference, except the Present Perfect would be considered slightly better because the mother just wants to know the result of the action, not when it happened.

We use the Present Perfect to talk about an action that happened in the past with a result that affects the present. It includes the past and the present.

If someone says

“I lost my passport.”

This is the Past Simple and it means that the passport was lost at some time in the past. However, in reality, the tense does not tell us what the situation is today. Maybe the person found the passport after that.

If he says, “I have lost my passport.” , using Present Perfect, we know that he lost his passport and it’s definitely still lost.

In this case, there is a difference between the two tenses.

Check in any good grammar book for further examples. Hope this helps.

If you are in the US, make sure you have friends who speak English well and tell them to correct you when you make mistakes. Also, read whatever interests you. It doesn’t have to be a book. It could be a magazine or a website. Listen to English being spoken and repeated on newscasts. Borrow a good grammar book and work through the exercises slowly and steadily. This will improve your awareness of correct English usage. Join a conversational class at the local library. Find a private teacher, if possible. There are so many ways you can improve, and if you have the motivation, I am sure you will. My best wishes to you.

Who’s = a contraction of the two words “Who is”, or “Who has” such as in the following:

Who’s that man? (who is)
Who’s the principal of the school?(who is)
Who’s the prime minister? (who is)
That’s the person who’s (who is) in charge of customer service.
Who’s been in my office? (who has)
Who’s got the ring? (Who has)

Whose = a possessive pronoun to help you determine the one to whom something belongs
Whose coat is this? (We want to know to whom the coat belongs.)
Whose car is parked in your driveway? (Again, we want to know the owner of the car that parked in the driveway.)

Hope that helps you, Mashael.

Sometime refers to an undetermined or unplanned time in the future.

Write to me sometime. (I don’t know when, but at some point in the future.)

Sometimes means occasionally, as in:

Sometimes I cook Chinese food.
I go to the park sometimes.

Hope this helps. My best to you.

Understanding someone is not so easy in the beginning because of many factors – the speed, the accent, the vocabulary, the idioms and so on. Try working specifically on improving your listening skills by borrowing books that focus on listening comprehension related to conversational English. We use a lot of standard responses in conversation and once you become familiar with them, it will be easier to catch what people are saying. All the best to you, Charlemagne.