How do I say...?
When do you use...?
This section is for students of English. It's where we pull example sentences out of The Ghostly Girl and relate them to language learning.
QUESTION TAGS TIP:
In Chapter 7, Enver says:
'You work at the Smugglers' Adventure, isn't it?'
The question tag here should be don't you?
Enver is the only person in The Ghostly Girl who uses isn't it instead of other question tags. Collect examples of correct question tags from The Ghostly Girl. (Everyone's question tags apart from Enver's are correct.) Collect the tags in the sentences they appear in.
CONDITIONALS TIP:
Here's an example of type zero conditional. If + present simple + present simple.
Or you could say:
If we catch them, we kill them.
(Note the comma in the second sentence. You don't need it in the first.)
'We kill them if we catch them.' is taken from Chapter 8.
Can you think of more examples of type zero conditional, apart from the grammar book classic, 'If you heat ice, it melts'?
TAKE A LOOK AT THESE TENSES IN TWO SENTENCES FROM CHAPTER 11:
When they had gone in, Ann Marie came up to David. She was carrying a broom and a rubbish sack.
The first verb is in the past perfect: had gone in. The next thing that happened is in the simple past: came up to ( and it's a nice phrasal verb. Collect as many phrasal verbs as you can from The Ghostly Girl).
And the verb in the second sentences is in the past progressive/continuous: was carrying.
We spend a large part of our lives telling stories to people, even if we're just telling them about what we had for dinner or what happened at school or college or work.
So you probably need past tenses more than any other. (Unless you're a dreamer... in which case, look out for future language tips on this blog...tips on how to talk about the future.)
NEXT TIP:
Here's a nice example of a sentence (from Chapter 11) in the simple past followed by a sentence in the past perfect telling you what had happened before:
