'there' and 'they're'. They are all pronounced
the same but have different spellings and are used differently. 'Their' is used to show plural
possession: It is Phil's and Ellie's laptop - it is their laptop. It is Georgina's and Roy's
dog - it is their dog. 'There' is used to identify something for the first time and is
often followed by the verb 'to be'. There is a cafe near our office but it's so expensive. There
is a bookshop nearby and it has some nice books. 'They're' has the same meaning as 'they are' and
is often followed by an adjective. Where are Sam and Dan? They're late - they're never on time.
Bye for now. 'Fall' can be a verb and a noun and has many meanings - let's look at the most common
together now. As a verb, 'fall' can mean to come down from a high position. In the Autumn,
or the fall in American English, the leaves start to fall. A similar but slightly different
meaning is to suddenly go down towards the ground, probably by accident. The noun form describes this
act when learning to walk. Toddlers fall a lot but they're usually not bad falls. 'Fall' also means
'to become lower in size, amount or strength'. The noun form describes this change, and is often
followed by the preposition 'in'. There has been a fall in house prices recently but no one
knows why they have fallen. And one more useful meaning of the verb 'fall' is to change condition
- people can fall asleep, fall ill, fall silent. Hi, I'm Sian from BBC Learning English. What's the
difference between 'stop to do' and 'stop doing something'? Well, stop what you're doing right now
because that's what I'm going to tell you. When we use 'stop' plus -ing, the activity in the -ing
form stops. So, I have stopped drinking coffee - I'm not drinking coffee anymore, I'm only
drinking water. But when 'stop' is followed by the infinitive, it means we stop doing another
action to do the action in the infinitive. So, I stopped to buy a tea this morning. I
stopped walking in order to buy a tea. Right, I'm gonna stop talking now - write me a comment
and tell me something that you've stopped doing. Hi, everybody welcome back to English In A Minute.
I'm James, and today we're going to look at the verb 'try'. It can be a little bit tricky to use
this verb because it changes its meaning depending on whether you use an -ing verb, or a verb with
'to'. So, let's take a look at some examples: I tried baking a cake. I tried to bake a cake.
These two sentences are almost exactly the same but their meaning is a little bit different. I
tried baking a cake. When we use 'try' with an -ing, all we're saying is that we attempted to
do something - it could be a new experience, something that you haven't done before. I tried
to bake a cake. When we used 'try' with a verb and 'to', we're saying that a task is quite difficult
to complete or that we've failed. If you'd like to try learning more English, why not go to our
Facebook page or to the website. Bye, everyone. Hi, I'm Tim from BBC Learning English, and today
I'm going to tell you about three useful words: 'because', 'as' and 'since'. These are all used
to give reasons. 'Because' is more common than 'as' or 'since' and we use it when we want to
focus on the reason. I'm tired because I didn't sleep very well. When we want to give extra focus
to the reason, we can put the because clause at the beginning of the sentence. Because my bed
is uncomfortable, I'm getting a bad back. 'As' and 'since' are more formal than 'because' and
we use them to focus on the result rather than the reason. I hope Tom's brought that comic as I
wanted to borrow it from him. Noodles are popular since they're easy to cook. We often use 'as' and
'since' clauses at the beginning of the sentence - just remember to add a comma. So, as our minute
is up, I'll finish recording this video. Hello, everyone. I'm Sam from BBC Learning English,
and today we're looking at five ways to use the word 'hard'. As an adjective describing
a thing, it can mean the opposite of 'soft', for example: Wood is hard. The opposite of 'easy',
for example: The exam was hard, and it can mean something that involves effort: Running a marathon
is hard. As an adverb describing an action, it can mean to 'do something with energy',
such as: She works hard, or 'to use force', for example: He hit the ball hard. Just
be careful not to confuse it with hardly, because that has a different meaning. So, not too
hard, is it? Let's learn some common uses of the word 'contact'. Firstly, 'contact' can be used
as a verb to mean 'speak or write to someone', often when someone wants to give or receive
information. The doctor contacted me this morning to tell me the results of my tests.
'Contact' can also be used as a noun to talk about speaking or writing to someone. As a noun,
it's often used with other words such as 'in', 'lose' or 'make'. 'In contact with' means 'speak
or meet regularly', 'make contact' means 'try to speak or write to someone after finding where
someone is', while 'lose contact' means 'no longer communicate'. Stay in contact when you
go away. 'Contact' can also be used to refer to a person who can help or give you information
in work or socially. My contacts told me there's a job opening at the business. 'Contact' as a
noun refers to people whose names numbers and or email addresses you have stored on your mobile
phone. I'll add you as a new contact on my phone. Hi, I'm Georgina from BBC Learning English. Have
you ever wondered about the difference between 'as if' and 'as though'. We use 'as if' and 'as
though' to make comparisons about an imaginary situation or a possible situation that might
be true. To make comparisons about an imaginary situation we use the past tense for the verb
following 'as if' or 'as though'. He acted as if he didn't hear anything but he did they feel as
though they weren't appreciated, but they were. To make comparisons about a possible situation that
might be true, we use the present tense for the verb following 'as if' or 'as though'. He speaks
as if he knows a lot about cooking - he must love it. Let's ask her for directions - she looks as
though she lives here. My stomach is rumbling as if I didn't have any breakfast, but I did.
Bye. Let's talk about appearance - what's the difference between 'look' and 'look like'? So, we
use 'look' with an adjective to say how something or someone appears. We don't know for certain, but
we're making a statement based on what we can see with our eyes. You look really tired today. When
did you go to bed? Now, remember we can also use 'look' for things: These grapes look delicious.
We use 'look like' to compare the appearance of something or someone to something else, so, 'look
like' is followed by a noun or a noun phrase. I look like my mother. We have the same eyes.
You can also use these rules with these verbs 'sound', 'smell', 'taste' and 'feel'. This
smoothie smells disgusting but it tastes good. I'm Sam from BBC Learning English and today we
are going to look at the three ways in which we use 'if only'. We use this to say that
we would like something to be different, but careful: it has different forms. For the
past, we use 'if only' plus 'past perfect'. If only I hadn't left my keys at home. For the
present we use 'if only' plus 'past simple', for example: 'If only I understood maths', or 'if
only I were better at maths' - where we use 'were' instead of 'was'. And to talk about the future,
we use 'if only' plus 'would' plus 'a verb', for example: If only he would call.
If only English were easier, hey?