Just for the Sports Fans (and Those Interested in Learning About American Sports)

If you are interested in learning about how to bet on different American Sports, click here. I'm not interested in American sports, even though I'm an American. Since I'm not interested in them, I can't really teach about them, or how to bet on them. I know many who are learning English are also interested in American culture, and this is an excellent resource for you. Many Americans bet on different sports.

What I do know about American sports is minimal, but I do know that soccer is starting to become quite popular. Other sports include basketball, football, baseball, bowling, golf*, swimming, aquatic dance*, dancing*, wrestling, sailing, fishing, skating, ice skating, horse racing, boating, and the list goes on. The asterisks (*) indicate sports that are considered to not be a sport, but rather an activity by some people. Some people debate on if these are really sports at all.

PS: That is a betting site, where they teach you how to make bets on who is going to win in a game or match. When you win BIG, don't forget me!

For Other Teachers - Excellent Resource

Great source for those who want to teach ESL/EAL to students. It helps you teach better, and helps students learn more easily! You can have a class work on up to 20 projects together. They have free and paid options. Check it out and see which one works best for you.

They're, Their, and There

These are problem words, even for native speakers of English. They are phonetically identical, but it is the spelling that causes confusion. So this is more of a writing lesson, than a pronunciation lesson.

They're going to be happy because their package is there at the house.

'They're' is the same as 'they are', so the sentence could be written as They are going to be happy because their package is there at the house. 'They're' is a contraction, much like could've for 'could have', didn't for ''did not, and so on.

'Their' is a possessive word. It means more than one person, at least two are involved in the possession of the noun in question. If only one person was involved in the possession of a noun, then the word used would be either 'his', 'her' or 'hers'. If the sentence had been about a man, it could have been written 'He'll be happy his package is there at the house.' You can change he'll to she'll and his to her if you wanted to write the sentence about a woman. It would read then like this: 'She'll be happy her package is there at the house.'

'There' is a location word. 'Here', another location word, is closer to the speaker or writer than 'there' is. 'There' shows that distance exists between the speaker or writer and the noun in question. Remember, 'there' and 'here' do not rhyme. 'There' rhymes with 'air', 'dare', 'bear' but 'here' rhymes with 'ear', 'gear', and 'mere.'

The sentence 'They're going to be happy because their package is there at the house.' shows that the people will be happy that the package belonging to them is at home.

Possessives

Some possessives use an apostrophe, while a few do not. Its is not the plural form of it (this is possible, but that is an unusual usage of the word, and will most likely be covered later). Its is the possessive form.

When speaking about a dog, for instance, you might say 'This dog has lost its collar!' but another way to express the same thing is to say (or write) 'The dog's collar was missing.'

When a girl or a woman has something, it is her or hers. For example: That is her camera. or That camera is hers. We might say 'that camera belongs to her. She owns the camera.

With a boy or a man, we would say That is his camera. or That camera is his. We could also say 'That camera belongs to him He owns the camera..

Other possessive words are ours, our, theirs, their, mine, my, your, and yours.

The subject determines which form, and the possessor determines which possessive word you should use.

Here are some examples:

Those are ours.

Those are our cameras.

Those cameras are ours.

That is our camera.

******

Those are theirs.

Those are their cameras.

Those cameras are theirs.

That is their camera.

******

Those are mine.

Those are my cameras.

Those cameras are mine.

That is my camera.

******

Those are yours.

Those are your cameras.

Those cameras are yours.

That is your camera.

If you paid attention very closely, you may have noticed that the sentences with your and yours matched up with the sentences that used our and ours. All that was different in those written sentences is that there is a 'y' in the 'your' and yous' sentences.

Just remember, 'your' and yours' do not rhyme with 'our' and 'ours'! 'Your' and 'yours' rhymes with 'ore' and 'ores' (like iron ore, or silver ores, in the ground), and 'our' and 'ours' rhymes with 'hour' and 'hours', which are time words.

In the Midwest, 'hour' rhymes with 'shower'. 'Our' and 'ours' rhyme with 'shower' and 'showers'.