Language In Use

hear it, speak it,
understand it & use it

This site aims to help students learn about - and teachers teach - the English language. There are tasks to help work through the material, expert advice and strategies for identifying unknown texts..

VISIT THESE NEW AND UPDATED PAGES All Right? The Phatic Function Wine Blurbs Irony in a Restaurant Review The Guided Busway in the news Unnecessary Quotation Marks Scots Dialect and Oor Wullie Euphemisms - The Fat Lady Sings Knuckleheads Police guilty of ‘ploddledygook’ Language of the Street - killers of Ben Kinsella A Place Name Journey The glamour of hotels Should the apostrophe die?

These pages are written by Duncan Grey.
Materials or suggestions? Want something on English you can't find here? write to Duncan.

Students wanting to acknowledge reference to this site should use Harvard notation as follows:
GREY, D S., 2010. Language In Use [online]. Cambridge, UK. Available from: http://www.putlearningfirst.com/language/... [Accessed day, month, 2010]

Extracts from this site have been used not only in classroom worldwide but also by English examination boards, ESL textbooks in Greece, Quebec and Nunavut, Canada.

"I would just like to thank you for all your hard work on ‘putlearningfirst.com’. Your pages have helped me get back to grips with the English language. I love the simple and direct explanations and would recommend them to anyone." Gabby

"We love your article.  As a former ESL teacher, I know it will be a great generator of ideas." Patrick

"I just love what you write. ... Let's start a movement to get rid of people who can't use apostrophes right! Love it! " Marla, San Francisco