structure – Page 3 – Fly High English

Posted on by Gareth

Structure: ‘must have’ & ‘can’t have’

This time in our structure help we talk about using ‘must have’ and ‘can’t have’. When we think about these two modals we think about them in relation to obligations for must, and ability for can. However, as with all modal verbs, there is more than one meaning. In addition to the above uses, we can use these modals in relation to probability / certainty. Both of these expressions relate to the past. ‘Must have’ expresses a high level of certainly that something was true or that it happened. Look at the following examples.

He is more than an hour late, he must have forgotten the takeoff time.
They arrived at the hotel after 2am, they must have been exhausted.

In both of these examples the speaker expresses a high level of certainty about what is said by choosing to use ‘must have’ (+ past participle). If the speaker isn’t so such, there are other expressions the can be used, however, the choice of expression here indicates a high level of certainty to the listener(s).

‘Can’t have’ (+ past participle) expresses a high level of certainty that something wasn’t true or didn’t happen. In this sense our two expressions represent opposites to each other. Look at the following examples.

His result in the test was bad, he can’t have studied for it.
They almost hit the animal while landing, they can’t have seen it until the last second.

Similarly in this case, the expression chosen indicates a high level of certainty that something wasn’t true or didn’t happen, other expressions exist to indicate different levels of certainty.

Now try to write some of your own examples using these two expressions.

Have a great day!

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.

Tag: structure

Structure: ‘must have’ & ‘can’t have’

Like this:

Structure: Rise vs Raise

Like this:

Structure: ‘all vs every 2’

Like this:

Structure: ‘another’ vs ‘other’

Like this:

Structure: ‘can & could vs be able to’

Like this:

Structure: ‘How to use “that” 2’

Using ‘that’

Like this:

Share:

Like this:

Share:

Like this:

Share:

Like this:

Share:

Like this:

Share:

Like this:

Using ‘that’

Share:

Like this: