English Learning Contents

“Never” is an Adverb of Frequency. Adverbs of Frequency describe how often an event happens, for example, trains arriving and departing a station.

“Never” means that something doesn’t occur at all, in fact, it’s the opposite of always, which means that something occurs at all times. Can you think of something that doesn’t happen at all?

Humorously, it’s said that one should “never say never,” because they will eventually be wrong. However, native English speakers often use the Adverb “never.” The word is used as an exaggeration. For example, you may encounter the phrase, “You’ll never guess who I saw”. In actuality, you may be able to guess whom the speaker saw, it was a mutual friend. 

In all cases, an Adverb describes a Verb, Adjective, or another Adverb. For example, “quickly” is an Adverb that may be used to describe the speed of action. It is often used in sentences like, “He quickly runs”. But today, we are discussing Adverbs of Frequency. Adverbs of Frequency describe how often an event occurs.

There are two types of Adverbs of Frequency, definite and indefinite. Definite Adverbs of Frequency give the exact time of an event, such as hourly. For example, you may hear a native English speaker say, “The train arrives, hourly”. But, Indefinite Adverbs of Frequency are abstract. “Always” is an Indefinite Adverb of Frequency, a few things always happen.

Many languages, such as Japanese, French, and Arabic, have idioms, but what are they? Simply put, an idiom is a group of words that has a meaning that can’t be deduced through logic.

Interestingly, an idiom’s meaning has been established by usage rather than entries in a dictionary. And so, if you were to look up the words one by one in a dictionary, you wouldn’t gain any clarity on the meaning of the sentence.

The English language has idioms for a wide range of phenomena. It even has one that fits the above situation, “ I searched the dictionary, but it didn’t shed any light on my confusion.”

Today’s lesson is about the idiom “seeing red.” A person who says “I see red” doesn’t literally see the color red, they’re angry.

Many languages have idioms. Chinese and English are well known for these colorful phrases. So, what is an idiom? An idiom is a group of words for which the meaning can’t be deduced through logic.

An idiom’s meaning can’t be found in a dictionary. Interestingly, the meaning of these phrases has been established by usage rather than the words within them. So, if you were to look up the words one by one in a dictionary, you wouldn’t gain any clarity on the meaning of the sentence. You may even encounter a native speaker using an idiom to describe the above situation. They might say, “I searched the dictionary, but it didn’t shed any light on my confusion.”

Again, idioms are imaginative but not necessarily logical. Moreover, they can be amusing and demonstrate a culture’s view of an idea or behavior. Here are a couple of examples:

When talking to native English speakers, you will encounter Mixed Conditionals. In these sentences, the main clause’s tense differs from the tense of the Object. To clarify, in a Mixed Conditional sentence, the Subject and the Object refer to different periods of time. The Subject refers to the past and the Object to the present or future.
Interestingly, Mixed Conditional sentences discuss an unreal event by using the Conjunction “if.” Here’s an example, “If we had bought a map, we wouldn’t be lost.” Buying the map is not a real event, it’s hypothetical.

A Mixed Conditional contains: If + past perfect… would + Infinitive

The bare Infinitive does not function as a noun., these are somewhat complex, but just know that they are in the final Verb group
Don’t worry, it’s not complicated to make a sentence with the Mixed Conditional. Let’s look at an example:

“If it hadn’t snowed, I wouldn’t be cold.”

When talking to a native English speaker, you will encounter the Zero Conditional.  It’s used to speak of rules of games or science. But don’t panic, it’s easy to spot,  Zero Conditionals always have the words “if” or “when” in them. For example, “If it gets below zero, water freezes”. In this sentence, and in all conditional sentences, “if” means in the event that A happens, B will follow. By saying this, the speaker is expressing that  “below zero” = “freeze”

A phrasal verb, such as “get away”, contains two or more words, a verb along with other elements of language. While listening to a native English speaker, you will encounter one of these three Phrasal Verb linguistic structures (word orders):

     Verb + Adverb (eg break down)

     Verb + Preposition (eg see to)

     Verb + Adverb + Preposition (eg look down on)

The Adverbs related to these structures (syntaxes) are referred to as Adverbs of Manner. They are always placed after the Verb. 

A few common examples of the Adverb + Verb structure are speaking softly, did well, and get away (the subject of today’s lesson). 

A phrasal verb, such as to ‘get up’,  contains two or more words, a verb along with other elements of language. While listening to a native English speaker, you will encounter one of these three Phrasal Verb linguistic structures (word orders):

     Verb + Adverb (example: break down)

     Verb + Preposition (example: see to)

     Verb + Adverb + Preposition (example look down on)

The preposition “at” is used in expressing the particular location of an item or time an event happens, among other things. For example, we are at the lake. By saying this, the speaker is telling the listener that they are located near the lake.

Another example, we go to bed at nine o’clock. By saying this, the speaker is telling the listener the exact time they go to sleep.