January 2009

In this Issue

	Welcome to 2009
	More Resources
	Vocabulary Builder
	Video English
	Grammar Spot
	Featured Article
	Readers' Questions
	Writing Tools

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Word of the Day

Do you know the meaning of ... quibble Check out the English4Today Dictionary section

Quick Quote

Thanks to words, we have been able to rise above the brutes; and thanks to words, we have often sunk to the level of the demons. Aldous Huxley

Confusing Words

draft | draught Did you download English4Today's latest free studyGuide? Download today!

NEW YEAR SPECIAL EDITION

Happy New Year to all of our readers all over the world! In this issue we want to thank you for being with us in 2008 by bringing you some free gifts from English4Today as well as a 50% savings offer on our grammar e-book and desktop software. The 50% savings is only being offered to you ... our subscribers!

2008 was a great year at English4Today with a massive increase in the number of subscribers to our newsletter as well as members of our online services... and we expect 2009 to be even better! We're really looking forward to having you and your friends with us in 2009 to share the courses, materials, software and resources that our terrific team of teachers, programmers and designers put together. Check out these great New Year specials!

Grammar E-Book Award-winning English4Today publication. Over 200 pages of grammar explanations with examples covering all of the most common English grammar points.	$15.00 $7.50
English4Today Desktop Software Windows software to help you improve and master English. Includes the full English grammar, tests, language games, tips on improving your written English and much, much more.	$28.00 $14.00

NEW!! Fantastic site for English learning resources

We know that our subscribers use a range of English language resources to help them learn English and not all of them are on English4Today websites! Well, now we've made it easier for you to find exactly what you need. Schools? Software? Video ? Books? Examinations? - it's all there!

We've built a website with hundreds of quality links to websites and services that can help you with your English language learning whether it is online or off-line, in your country or learning in a school or college abroad. The site is designed to be easy to navigate and has a category system that covers all of a students or teachers needs. Visit the new site today...!

English4Today Vocabulary Building Web

Most of us would like to have a better, richer vocabulary well now you can! English4Today has released a beta web of a new vocabulary building service where you will be able to subscribe to a 'word of the day' email that is based on a level of vocabulary difficulty that you select and, if you have a free membership, you will also be able to add the work along with your own translation and expample to your myVocab folder and then test yourself whenever you want.

Give yourself a quick test! Do you know the meanings of any of these words: vacuous, sinecure, vacuous, pestiferous, rupicolous, nefarious - if you don't click on any one of them to get their meanings.

This week's word is: ponderous

January : Featured Video

Every month English4Today brings you a featured video. This month's video is part of our series on the formation and use of the Simple Past Tense.

The great thing about using the video learning section on English4Today is that you also have access to full text explanations, examples and plenty of exercises if you have free membership. The Simple Past series has several videos that show you clearly and simply how to form the Simple Past, use the interrogative and negative and how and when to use it.

Watch the video now!

Featured Article: Tips to learn English!

Do you have any plan to pursue your further education abroad? Will you need English for your career or your education? If so, you may wish to investigate your options for learning, or improving, your English skills.

Mary Williams takes your through what you need to know and explains some useful approaches and techniques for learning English.

Read the full article....

Grammar Spot : Comparative and Superlative

Get a little confused about when to use -er, -est to make comparisons? Not sure about the rules to follow or how we use comparatives and superlatives to talk about nouns that are countable and those that are not? Not sure when to use 'most' and when to use 'more'? Or having trouble with those annoying irregular comparatives like 'good' and 'bad'?

Well, there's a very good review section on this in the English4Today Online Grammar.

For the full explanation see the English4Today Online Grammar

Readers' Questions : Would and Could?

Every month we publish one question from an English4Today member in the newsletter. However, we answer a lot more in the Online Grammar FAQ and a lot of them have podcast sound files with the answers.

This month's question was sent in by Savish in India:

What is the difference between 'would' and 'could'?

Hi Mahesh. This is a very common question and there seems to be a lot of confusion about what the difference is exactly between ‘would’ and ‘could’. Let’s take a look at ‘would’ first:

‘Would’ for Unreal, Impossible or Hypothetical Situations

We probably see this most often in conditional sentences where we want to talk about a situation that is either not real or not likely to occur now or in the future. To do this we use a past tense of the verb in the if-clause and would + infinitive in the main clause...read more

Get the full answer now with sound file podcast