Structure – Page 3 – Fly High English

Posted on by Gareth

Structure: Rise vs Raise

This time in our structure help we talk about the difference between the verbs ‘rise’ and ‘raise’. They look similar and have the same meaning but there is, as always, a difference in the way we can use each. Let’s take a look.

While both of these words mean the same thing (to move upwards), rise is an intransitive verb, meaning it can’t have an object. Look at these examples.

The sun rises in the morning.
The plane rose (past simple) into the sky and disappeared.

In these sentences there are no objects, the sun doesn’t rise anything, it performs the action without having a direct effect on anything (in relation to elements in our sentence). The situation is the same with the plane.

Now let’s look at raise, which is a transitive verb and can have an object; so you can raise something. Let’s look at some examples.

The passenger raised his bag into the overhead storage bin.
The copilot raised his hand to ask a question.

In these sentences there are objects – sentence elements – which are affected by the action; the bag in the first example and the hand in the second example.

Extra
Depending on how you think about your sentence, it may be possible to use either verb. Look at the following examples;

Ticket prices rose last month.
The airline raised ticket prices last month.

Now try to write of some of your own examples.

Have a great day!

Posted on by Gareth

Structure: ‘all vs every 2’

Previously we talked about ‘all vs every’ here. This time in our structure help we intend to add some more information about these two words and talk about some specific situations where students make mistakes. Let’s look at some of those.

Firstly, when we talk about people, we don’t use ‘all’, so we can’t say ‘all people’. In this type of situation we normally say ‘everybody’ or ‘everyone’. We can however, say ‘all of us / you / them’, but this is less common than ‘everyone’ or ‘everybody’.

We can’t normally use ‘all’ without a noun. We can’t say ‘all was good’, we have to say ‘everything / everyone was good’.

We can use all to mean ‘the only thing’, so we can say ‘all I said was that it is a good idea’.

Even though it seems incorrect, ‘every / everybody / everyone / everything are singular words so they require singular verb conjugations.

Everyone takes their seat after boarding a plane.
Everything makes sense now that you explained it to me.

Have a great day!

Posted on by Gareth

Structure: ‘another’ vs ‘other’

This time in our structure help we talk about the difference between another and other. These two words look similar and are used with similar meanings, but they are different. Let’s look at how they’re different.

Another is used with countable singular nouns to mean ‘extra’ or ‘additional’.

Let’s look at a couple of examples;

Can I have another cup of tea please?
We needed to perform another approach because we were too high.

Other is used with countable plural nouns also to mean ‘extra’ or ‘additional’.

Let’s look at a couple of examples;

The company has other planes. (countable plural noun)
We have other problems to solve.

We can also use the expression the other to mean ‘the last’ person or thing in a group.

Imagine you’re standing with a friend at the airport and you see a group of three people. Your friend asks you if you know the people, you say;
I know Peter and John, but I don’t know ‘the other’ guy.
Here ‘the other’ guy is the last person in the group.

Speaking about two planes you can see;
I know that plane is a Cessna, but I don’t know ‘the other’ plane.
Again, ‘the other’ plane is the last plane in a group of two.

Now try to write some examples of your own.

Here are some expressions with other.

the other day – used to refer to a non-specific time in the past
I met Peter the other day.

on one hand… on the other hand – used to express a contrasting point of view
On one hand, a new runway would solve a lot of problems, on the other hand it would create some different problems.

To read more about countable and uncountable nouns, click here

Have a great day!

Posted on by Gareth

Structure: ‘can & could vs be able to’

This time in our structure help we talk about using ‘can’, ‘could’ and ‘be able to. These words are sometimes used in the same situations, but there are some situations where that isn’t possible. Today we’ll look at some of those differences.

We use ‘can’, ‘could’ and ’be able to’ to talk about ability. We generally don’t use ‘be able to’ when the idea is ‘know how to’.

I can fly a plane (instead of ‘I’m able to fly a plane’).

We also don’t use ‘be able to’ to talk about something which is in progress. Consider the following example;

Look at that! He can perform a crab landing
(instead of ‘he is able to perform a crab landing’).

To talk about a specific example of ability in the past, we usually use ‘be able to’ instead of ‘could’.

Even though the weather was bad yesterday, we were able to land (not we could land).

They were able to resolve the problem before the flight last week and depart on time.

But ‘could’ is more natural in negative sentences related to a specific example of ability.

The weather was terrible and we couldn’t land.

The passengers couldn’t board due to a problem with the landing gear.

Try to think of some more examples to show these differences.

Have a great day!

Posted on by Gareth

Structure: ‘How to use “that” 2’

Using ‘that’

In our previous post we saw two common ways to use ‘that’. Today we’ll see two more ways to use ‘that’.

1. I am certain that he is a pilot.
The structure here is is/was + adjective + that + …. You can use ‘be’ in different tenses but the overall structure remains the same. After you use ‘that’ you can continue with verbs in different tenses, so you could use the present, past or future tenses etc…

Here are some more examples.
He was happy that nobody noticed his mistake.
They are sad that you will leave the airline next Friday.

Let’s look at another way to use ‘that.

2. It was reported that thirteen people were killed in the crash.
This is a more formal expression which we use to report what someone says or believes without saying who that person or those people are.
Notice the structure here; it + is/are + past participle + that….

Here are some more examples.
It is said that you have to have good stick and rudder skills to be a good pilot.
It is rumoured that the company is going to hire more employees.

Now try some examples of your own using the two different ways we looked at above.

Posted on by Gareth

Structure: ‘How to use “that” 1’

Using ‘that’

That is a very common word but also a word which can confuse people because we can use it in a few different ways.

First we’ll look at two of the ways that we can use it.

1. I know that pilot.
In this example ‘that’ is what we call a determiner, it helps to identify which thing or person you’re talking about. We also use ‘this’, ‘these’ and ‘those’ in a similar way. Note that we use that + noun here.

Let’s look at another example.

2. He said that the mechanic was late.
In this example we use ‘that’ as a conjunction (connecting word) to connect the two other parts together. Here are some verbs which are used in this way; say, agree, deny, suggest, believe, hope, remember, see, hear. Note that in this type of structure we use verb + that + clause

Here are some more examples.
I remembered that I had an exam.
I believed that he was an honest person.

Now try some examples of your own using the two different ways we looked at above.

Category: Structure

Structure: Rise vs Raise

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Structure: ‘all vs every 2’

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Structure: ‘another’ vs ‘other’

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