• I’ve known him for a long time, it seems.
• I’ve known him since he showed me his collection of old records and we discovered that we share a hobby.
• Incorrect: I know him for a long time -> I’ve known him for a long time.

I made up this chart and the one for until/by a few years ago and get a lot of mileage out of them. I’ll post some more as the summer unrolls.

Until or by?

• Until means from now until then.
• By, used for deadlines, means not later than then.
• By… at the latest!
• Imagine: If you said “until Friday”, your friend might say “Sure, until Friday is fine. But I need it on Saturday, so can you come round on Saturday morning to drop it off?”
• Here’s an exercise on using “until” and “by”, with a pdf.

• “Nice to meet you” when we meet someone for the first time, and “Nice meeting you” when we then say goodbye.
• “Nice meeting you” when we meet someone for the first time, and “Nice to meet you” when we then say goodbye.

˙noʎ ʇǝǝɯ oʇ ǝɔıu (s,ʇı) :ǝuoǝɯos ʇǝǝɯ
˙noʎ ƃuıʇǝǝɯ ǝɔıu (sɐʍ ʇı) :ǝʎqpooƃ ʎɐs

The difference is very subtle, and perhaps not everyone will agree with me, but it really sounds wrong to me when someone mixes up the two. I think it’s because we also say “(I’m) pleased to meet you” (which doesn’t work grammatically with the -ing) and “It was nice meeting you” (which seems to refer more to the whole event rather than just the act of meeting).

Socializing is my own main topic this week! I’m very honored to be a guest blogger on Barbara Hoskins Sakamoto’s blog, Teaching Village. She’s the co-author of a children’s English textbook series called Let’s Go, teaches children and adults in Japan, and you can “meet” her here in Darren Elliott’s video interview:

Barbara Hoskins-Sakamoto Interview from darren elliott on Vimeo.

Her blog subtitle says it all: “We’re better when we work together”. The blog has been gaining momentum as more and more people from our PLN (professional learning network) join as guest authors. Her latest venture is a series of quizzes on blogposts written by different members of the network, a great way to zone in on what these people are “all about”.

My contribution is on a socializing game I did recently and will repeat this coming week. It’s a variation on one I learned from Jo Westcombe, who is just full of great teaching ideas.

• Can you schedule a/an _________________ for the project team?
  ɯɐǝʇ ɐ ɥʇıʍ ƃuıʇǝǝɯ ɐ ǝlnpǝɥɔs
• I want to make a/an ___________________ with Mr Hoss to discuss the CERT project.
  ǝuoǝɯos ɥʇıʍ ʇuǝɯʇuıoddɐ uɐ ǝʞɐɯ
• Can we fix a/an ______________________ for the next meeting?
  ʇuǝʌǝ ʎuɐ ɹoɟ ǝʇɐp ɐ xıɟ
• I think Hossy baby is in love. He’s going out on a hot ____________ tonight.
  ǝʇɐp ɐ uo ʇno oƃ

I asked her how much…

• do I need to pay.
• did I need to pay.
• I need to pay.
• I needed to pay.

This is reported speech and a quoted, or indirect, question. Two rules apply:

1. Make the verb match the tense of the reporting verb, “asked” (change it into the past tense)
2. Use sentence order, not question order in the quoted question part.

There is one correct answer. However, you may find the others used, too, and by people who speak perfect English. Why?

First of all, we sometimes quote direct questions and it’s not always easy to hear the quotation marks! Just think of this line from Paul Simon’s “50 Ways to Leave your Lover”: “She said why don’t we both just sleep on it tonight.”

And secondly, we adapt the tense in the reported speech to our frame of reference, which can be wider than just the situation at the time of speaking.

Compare:

• I asked her what she was talking about. (The frame of reference is the situation at the time.)
• I asked her when she was/ is planning to move. (The frame of reference is is wider than just the situation at the time.)

This week’s question is one of business register.

From an order form: “Please note that payment for food platters ___________ be received in advance.”

Must or has got to?

How would you say the same thing to a customer?

• Here are some great ideas for thinking about this holiday in an English class.
• Sean Banville has a nice holiday lesson on it.