Paulo from Italy wrote and asked which grammar book I recommend. My favorite advanced book is “Understanding and Using English Grammar.” by Azar. When I taught at Santa Monica College I often had students buy that book. I love it. I have never found a better grammar book in all my years of teaching.
Go through all of the exercises in it. Make sure you know all the rules. It’s a good review for those of you who have been out of school for a while.
As I said in a previous post, people will sometimes think they hear an accent when you are making grammar mistakes. Something about your speech will sound foreign to them.
You've been very helpful, thank you.
By the way I just bought your book and I think it's great.
Paolo
Hello Lisa,
It's Alex here. I know we're supposed to talk about accent here but I just have this grammar question that really bugs me and would you pleeeease help me with this? Is there actually a rule about not using different types of tense in one sentence?
Is the following sentence correct?
"I chose to major in science because I think it is an interesting subject."
What if I still think science is an interesting subject now? Do I still have to say "I chose to major in science because I thought it was an interesting subject"?
Thanks very much!
Cheers
Alex
Hi Alex,
Yes, you can definitely say that sentence because "science is interesting" is a fact that does not change. Good question.
Just don't randomly change tenses within a sentence if there is no reason.
Lisa