THE OFFICIAL WEBSITE OF THE BOOK
Updates 2018
This page logs what was changed in each update to TEE, though rather inconveniently it starts almost a year in on 30 June 2015.
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19 December 2018 - 30 January 2019
Yes, it's that time of year where we can give you a few extra pages in the form of presents! In this special, we have:
Doctor Dot Fullstop: What exactly is Typical English?
Features: The Miserable student has his nice long list of comments that he made over 2018.
Cartoony Universe: More cartoons added, and there's been so many jokes as regards mobile phones that I've decided to give them their own section.
Features: A little update to my light-hearted discussion on why Christmas and New Year in Poland is not as good as you thought.
Quizzes and Puzzles: The final part of our series of quizzes for you on holidays and festivals in the UK and USA. We've had Part 1 and 2 on the UK, part 1 on the USA; and this week it's Part 2 on the USA. Plus we have all the answers to all the holidays and festival questions!
Miserable student quote: 'When my girlfriend said she demanded my presents, I thought she wanted me to come to her and give her all my gifts, not to formally tell me face-to-face that she was leaving me...'
12 December 2018
Quizzes and exercises: As a lead-in to our Christmas and Winter special, we have a series of quizzes for you on holidays and festivals in the UK and USA. We've had Part 1 on the UK & the USA; this week it's Part 2 on the UK.
Features: Shall added to future tenses and structures.
Not4GrammarBores: This week we have anecdote.
Miserable student quote: 'It's true that I'm driven by my work. My girlfriend keeps forgetting to drop me off at the office.'
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5 December 2018
Quizzes and exercises: As a lead-in to our Christmas and Winter special, we have a series of quizzes for you on holidays and festivals in the UK and USA. Last week it was Part 1 on the UK; this week it's Part 1 on the USA.
Not4GrammarBores: This week it's derivation.
Miserable student quote: 'Someone says there's going to be a presentation on fortune telling, but they don't know when it'll be.'
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28 November 2018
Quizzes and exercises: As a lead-in to our Christmas and Winter special, for the next four weeks we have a quiz for you on holidays and festivals in the UK and USA. This week: Part 1 on the UK.
Not4GrammarBores: We have compounding and reduced pronunciation.
Miserable student quote: 'I wanted to organise a seminar on time management but I didn't know how long that would take.'
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21 November 2018
What's the difference: A biker and a cyclist. And this is to do with British and American English.
Not4GrammarBores: We have a transcription and language variation.
Miserable student quote: 'I was invited to a meeting of people with no sense of direction but I didn't know which way to go.'
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14 November 2018
Wrong words: A magazine can be a type of storage place, but it's often used to mean something else.
Not4GrammarBores: We already have lexicogrammar, so let's take it further with lexico-grammatical patterns.
Miserable student quote: 'I once applied to be a monk for a silent order. I must have been unsuccessful as nothing was said at the interview.'
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7 November 2018
Features: A great new feature on tenses and structures used to describe the future. And it turns out there are quite a lot of them.
Not4GrammarBores: I'm being generous this week and got you two new words and phrases: turn of phrase and permissive.
Miserable student quote: 'I wanted to form a sarcasm club but when I asked people for their opinions, I couldn't tell if they were being serious or not.'
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31 October 2018
What's the difference: A little extra information for lay, lie, laid.
Not4GrammarBores: The pronoun it has its own entry, but we've also got dummy pronoun, expletive pronoun and pleonastic pronoun, all of which are other names for it.
Miserable student quote: 'I'm going to be really scary this halloween. I'm bringing a fund-raising collection tin.'
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24 October 2018
Not4GrammarBores: We have the familiarly strange oxymoron.
Miserable student quote: 'At a bus station a bus stops. A train stops at a train station. So what about my work station?'
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17 October 2018
In Confusing words: The difference between since and for.
Not4GrammarBores: Seems obvious, but we have the short answer.
Miserable student quote: 'I've getting so old now that instead of sneaking out of home to go to friend's parties I'm sneaking out of parties to go home.'
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10 October 2018
Not4GrammarBores: Plural nouns and singular nouns added.
Miserable student quote: 'I like making giant five-metre crosses because they're big positives.'
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3 October 2018
Sorry. I've been so busy that there's only the new cartoon and the joke on the home page, plus one new term for:
Not4GrammarBores: I'm so busy I'd like to have my website written (by somebody else). This is an example of the causative.
Miserable student quote: 'I like whiteboards because they're re-markable.'
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26 September 2018
A new page has been added to the renamed Cartoonworld (it was cartoon one-offs), with Cartoonworld 2, mainly because the first page was getting full.
Not4GrammarBores: We've got something called a mixed metaphor.
Miserable student quote: 'I bought myself a new smartphone from a Chinese company. I showed it to my girlfriend. She seemed both amazed and surprised. She said, 'Wow! Why?'
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19 September 2018
This one's either a mistake or confusing words, but hopefully has been explained here... in Confusing words, what exactly are billiards?
Not4GrammarBores: synesis. Sorry, that's the only new word to add this week. But you've got a new student error, so don't complain!
Miserable student quote: 'My girlfriend split with me. I wanted her to say goodbye. She sent me a box of Cheerios.'
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12 September 2018
This one's mainly for our German students, but I've heard this mistake in Poland too... in Intonation and pronunciation, how do you pronounce the word clothes?​
Not4GrammarBores: What on earth is the greengrocer's apostrophe?
Miserable student quote: 'I always take a break after a lot of exercise. Usually about two months.'
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5 September 2018
In what's the difference, when to use end or finish in the context of whether the activity has ended or finished.
Not4GrammarBores: We have double adjectives and multiple adjectives!
Miserable student quote: 'I've got such a bad memory that I had to see a specialist doctor. He said I'd seen him before and asked me where his 1,000 euros was...'
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29 August 2018
In a brief history of the English language and in the future, we've added a couple of additional paragraphs as regards voice-activated technology.
Next, we have a new typical error in English as regards grammar - the use of 'by' and 'until'.
In What's the difference, an update reveals that viruses really are not very nice, and there's more information on what is an ophthalmologist.
Not4GrammarBores: We have pluperfect, plupluperfect and anglophone.
Miserable student quote: 'After spending my holidays visiting the factories of Good Year, Dunlop, Michelin, Bridgestone and Pirelli, I was rather tyred afterwards.'
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27 June-22 August 2018
As we're now celebrating the summer holidays, in What's the Difference we'll look at that most popular of summer holiday activities - the barbecue. Or is it barbeque? No wait, it's grill, isn't it...?
Not4GrammarBores: All these are connected with each other, so we have eponym, eponymous, Kafkaesque and Orwellian.
Miserable student quote: 'Why do aliens never visit our planet for a holiday? Because it's only got one star.'
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20 June 2018
Just a handful of things this week:
Not4GrammarBores: Let's revisit the letter Z with zero plural, and we'll throw in fused participle and main verb at the same time.
Miserable student quote: 'You know, kids' vocabulary today really is terrible. They don't know any word that means something so bad or unpleasant that it shocks you. I think it's appalling.'
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13 June 2018
Okay, after last week's nothing, we have these new things and updates:
Quizzes and exercises: Getting the right order when it comes to owning or possessing things: we don't really say the dog of Brian, for example!
Cartoony universe: More cartoons added to one-offs.
Not4GrammarBores: It's time for the big one. Adverbials, along with adverb clause.
Miserable student quote: 'When I was at school I studied physics while my girlfriend studied biology. Unfortunately, we split very soon because there was no chemistry.'
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6 June 2018
Sorry everyone - I've been so busy this week that, apart from the jokes and the cartoons, I haven't had the chance to fully write up any new material for this week's edition. So apologies and hopefully I'll get something up for next week. However, we will be taking a summer break over July and August so the last update will be on Wednesday 27 June and we will be back on Wednesday 29 August.
Miserable student quote: 'My friend told me he'd got something that was really cool. It was a fridge.'
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30 May 2018
What's the difference: Whole and entire are under investigation this week, but the answers are not that clear...
Not4grammarbores: We're continuing the cheating theme here with four new words which, in reality, are all the same thing. So welcome to double genitive, double possessive, oblique genitive and postgenitive. Maybe we'll be more adventurous next week...
Miserable student quote: 'I was asked if I'd like to speak at a conference about procrastination, but it's been postponed until next week. Or maybe the week after...'
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23 May 2018
Typical Errors in English examples: We've not had a new example for a while, so here's something in Misunderstandings and wrong words, and it's all to do with pirates...
Not4grammarbores: Well, we're cheating a little here, but we've added frequency adverb, definite frequency adverb, indefinite frequency adverb and adverb of frequency. Don't say we don't give you variety...
Miserable student quote: 'I was asked if I'd like to speak at a conference about the lack of opportunities. I told them no chance.'
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16 May 2018
Cartoony Universe: More cartoons added to cartoon one-offs and illustrated idioms.
Not4grammarbores: page, printing, and editing.
Miserable student quote: 'I decided to begin a new job in making handles, handgrips and levers. For career advancement, I think it'll open doors.'
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9 May 2018
Ask Doctor Dot Fullstop: So when it comes to relative pronouns, particularly with those restrictive and non-restrictive... oh, it's complicated, Just go there, will you? It's to do with which/that, all right?
Not4grammarbores: Character, character spaces, and proofing.
Miserable student quote: 'A skyscraper with many floors. I think there are a few storeys in that.'
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2 May 2018
Translations: The first two pages have now gone (they're in the book) and the old pages 9 & 10 has been moved to 1 & 2.
Cartoony Universe: The blobfish now have their own section. And they have nothing to do with English.
Not4grammarbores: Update on double comparison, restrictive relative clause and non-restrictive relative clause.
Miserable student quote: 'You know you're old when the candles cost more than the cake.'
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25 April 2018
Intonation and pronunciation: The first two pages have now gone (they're in the book) and the old pages 4 & 5 has been moved to 1 & 2.
Not4grammarbores: Three more new words: dangler, dangling modifier and dangling participle.
Miserable student quote: 'My friend said he would prove that time travel existed. He threw his watch out of the window.'
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18 April 2018
Word Order: The second page is now gone (it's in the book) and the old page 3 has been moved to page 2.
What's the difference? This one even gets me. Complement or compliment?
Not4grammarbores: Three more new words: constituency, embedded clause and nominal.
Miserable student quote: 'Think of your brain as an app. You'll start using it then.'
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11 April 2018
What's the difference: A revised update to may/might.
Confusing words: The first two pages are now gone (they're in the book) and the last two moved up into positions 1 & 2.
Not4grammarbores: Three more new words: synonymous, non-standard English and directive.
Miserable student quote: 'War does not decide who's right. Only who is left.'
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4 April 2018
Misunderstandings: We've removed the first three pages as they're in the book and put the last three into 1, 2 & 3.
Grammar: The first two pages are now gone (they're in the book) and the last two moved up into positions 1 & 2.
Not4grammarbores: Three more new words: Great Vowel Shift, name and epithet.
Miserable student quote: 'Incorrect. Mistaken. Erroneous. Off beam. Wide of the mark. I mean, they're all wrong!'
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28 March 2018
Sorry, all quiet this week as I've been busy elsewhere, but we still have the new jokes and, of course, the new words for the grammar glossary. And we'll still have an update next week, even though it's Easter.
Not4grammarbores: Three more new words: pre-numerative, pro-form and antecedent.
Miserable student quote: '30 minutes every day spending time away from your work desk? Give me a break.'
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21 March 2018
Not4grammarbores: Three more new words for our glossary: qualifier, premodification and postmodification.
Miserable student quote: 'I just spent five hours just watching people getting involved in the act or process of making or enlarging a load of holes. It was boring.'
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14 March 2018
Not4grammarbores: Three more new words for our glossary: head, embedding and prepositional phrase.
Quizzes and puzzles: A bit more grammar with tenses for you as we ask questions using the past tense, perfect tense and even 'have' as an auxiliary...
Miserable student quote: 'My friend has got a publication that lists all the different kinds of things that are unfair that people can choose. It's a catalogue of grievances. Sorry, it's not my best one-liner this week...'
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5 March 2018 (Although it should have been 7 March... sorry about that)
Not4grammarbores: Three more new words for our glossary: participant, process and constituent. And they also mean an activity that people take part in, a series of actions which are carried out in order to achieve a particular result, and someone who lives in a particular area called a constituency, especially someone who is able to vote in an election. But this is our grammar and language glossary...
Miserable student quote: 'My friend said, 'After months of being unemployed and no money, I'm now in a position of a high quality standard capacity that earns money.' and I said, 'Good job!'
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28 February 2018
Ask Doctor Dot Fullstop: Almost a major article in itself, but it's an answer to the question, active or passive in writing?
Not4grammarbores: C, D, E & F now all have their own pages, and there's three new words for our glossary: argot, backchannel and circumstance.
Miserable student quote: 'My girlfriend wants to borrow some money from me. She said, as she left to go to her parents, 'leave me a loan.'
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7, 14 & 21 February 2018
Features: Okay, I mentioned it last week, but I'll mention it again: check the nice new article that looks back at the history of English spelling and writing. We're now taking a short winter break...
Not4grammarbores: Five new words for our glossary: concordancing, concordancer, concordance lines, keyword, and KWIC.
Miserable student quote: 'Someone didn't know what this massive cross was that's been put on top of the hill near me, and thought it looked terrible. Me? I thought it was a big plus.'
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31 January 2018
Features: A nice new article that looks back at the history of English spelling and writing.
Not4grammarbores: Five new words for our glossary: coordinator, discourse marker, emphatic sentence, key word, and node.
Miserable student quote: 'I took an exam on extreme temperatures. I was rubbish as I scored an absolute zero.'
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24 January 2018
Not4grammarbores: Three new words for our glossary: phonics, open class, and closed class. And that's it really. We've been a little busy to do anything else at the moment...
Miserable student quote: 'I read my girlfriend's horoscope this morning. It looks like I'm in for a bad day.'
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17 January 2018
Not4grammarbores: Three new words for our glossary: cliché, diacritic, and runes.
Cartoony Universe: Cartoon one-offs and Doctor Dot Fullstop's Ignorances in English have been updated with all the recent cartoons.
Miserable student quote: 'A man said we really should appreciate the fact that we live in a state of indefinite continued progress of existence and events that occur in apparently irreversible succession from the past through the present to the future. Sounds like it's about time.'
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10 January 2018
In TEE and translations, a direct translation made by a Polish Sat-Nav app which is not quite right.
Not4grammarbores: Four new words to think about this week, particularly if you're interested in linguistics: lemma, types, type-token ratio and tokens.
Miserable student quote: 'My girlfriend said that love and passion was much better on holiday. At least, that's what she said on her postcard.'
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20 December 2017- 3 January 2018
As you can tell, we've gone all Christmassy this week! A reminder that we have a nice interesting blog entry in features. If you've got a sense of humour, great! But if you are ultra-serious about Christmas - particularly in Poland - or you simply don't find anything funny, then maybe you should avoid... We have now compiled our miserable student's words of wisdom of 2017, so you can find out all the more amusing things he's been saying here. Not4grammarbores: All our new words are connected with literature... well, it is Christmas, and there's a lot of different kinds of literature associated with the subject. So we have haiku, parable, fable, fairy tale, tale, poem, poetry, rhyme, novel and play.
Miserable student quote: 'I hate Christmas. I buy all the presents but Santa gets all the credit.'
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