Geek Weekend: How many tenses are there in English?

True or False, there are at least twelve tenses in English language?

After a comprehensive English-learning experience you have probably familiarized yourself with the following:

Present Simple, Present Continuous, Present Perfect, Present Perfect Continuous
Past Simple, Past Continuous, Past Perfect, Past Perfect Continuous
Future Simple, Future Continuous, Future Perfect, Future in the Past

So, true of false, at least twelve tenses exist in English? The answer is lurking after the break.

Geek Weekend: "The" in proper names

Your favorite topic in the whole wide world, I'm sure. Articles. I'm not going to retell your grammar book. Yes, the USA, the UK, the Netherlands, the Pacific Ocean, the Black Sea, the Danube river, the Andes, but America, England, Holland, Rome, Mount Everest.

Here is your pop quiz, though.

1. Think of two countries with singular one-word names that take an article "the". 
2. Name two cities with an article "the". 

As always, the answers are after the break. 

Geek Weekend: God bless America till death do us part? It's time we tackled the subjunctive.

This absolutely weird to a non-native speaker's ears piece of knowledge is so overlooked in English classes that I was genuinely excited when I had an opportunity to learn something so dramatically new.

Have you ever wondered why we say, "God bless America" or "Till death do us part"? Or a trickier one, "It's time I went"?

Let's build up on something more or less well-known. 

Gwen Stefani sings, "If I was a rich man." Beyonce goes, "If I were a boy." Which one knows her English grammar? 

The reason why we say things like "If I were you" or "If only it were true" is because it's subjunctive or hypothetical. In second conditional it's all pretty straightforward, use past simple. When it comes to the verb "be", use "were". 

Funny note, most course books nowadays endorse the usage of "was" in second conditional as a correct option. I don't get it, to be honest. 

We use "were" because it's a subjunctive form in the past. However, conditionals are not the only cases of subjunctive. 

Here is a little grammar puzzle that will bring joy to your inner geek. 

Consider this sentence, "I demand that you apologize immediately." (I apologize for my American English spelling.) The task is to substitute "you" with "he". As you might've guessed by now, it's subjunctive. 

The answer is after the break. 

Has Beckham started talking posh?

A fairly technical look at how some of the most well-known British sound. Proceed if you too have been wondering whether Beckham has started talking posh. Or if you're interested in consonant dropping, vowel changing, grammar irregular dialects, which never sound like your English course listening files.



And he may sound more posh nowadays, but his grammar is still rubbish.

Geek Weekend: Consist of / comprise

This obscure piece of language has been passed down to me by a Canadian friend.

Let's say, the course book consists of 10 units. Now use the word "comprise" to convey the same meaning.

The answer is after the break.

52 Week Challenge

I'm not a fan of New Year resolutions. Probably because I have no weight I want to lose, money to save, and house to improve. So, new year, old me. Here is something fun instead. A 52-week challenge. 

New Experiences
1. Have as many new experiences as possible. December 31 taught me how to gracefully open a champagne bottle (actually, it was Rachel Maddow) and I kickstarted the new year in a true autistic fashion in the underground, with very few people and no obnoxious fireworks. So this will be a year of random new experiences. 
2. Devise a multimedia English-learning course (or a cohesive part of a course). This should be fun with the arrival of my new MacBook Pro later this month. 
3. Learn to cook a new dish every month (0/12)
   
   Friends & Family
4. See my mother at least once a month (0/12)
5. See at least a friend a week - which should be a breeze if James sticks with our lessons (1/52)
6. Take Pony out. Right, so this one sounds stupid but she has never even let me pay for myself. 
7. Walk Gabi myself every morning Anna can't (no lazy arse excuses this year - this one kinda sounds like a resolution, huh?)
   
   Hobbies
8. Read a book a week (0/52)
9. Write a review on every book I've read for epinions.com (1/52)
10. Update this blog at least once a week - #GeekWeekend coming right after this (1/52)
11. Do an Oscar challenge - watch all the movies nominated in the major categories
12. Study Italian 10 minutes a day on Duolingo - Too bad they don't have Hebrew. Learn Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, Italian, and English. Totally fun. Totally free. App of the year 2013.
13. Ace Paul Bloom's course Moralities of Everyday Life on coursera.org - OK, maybe acing is just overachieving, but sticking with it till the end and completing every single assignment is something more realistic I should shoot for. (Thankfully, I love Paul Bloom so this might as well be a success.)

Thirteen sounds good enough. Happy New Year and may we all find enlightenment really soon.