Do you ever wonder about the difference between their, there and there?

They are all pronounced the same but have different spellings and are used differently.

Their is used to show plural possession.

It is Phil and Ellie's laptop.

It is their laptop.

It is Georgina and Roy's dog.

It is their dog.

Their 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 going to 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 These two sentences are almost exactly the same, but their meaning is a little bit different.

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.

When we use 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 are 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 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 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 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.

Hello, everyone.

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.