Sparky: English grammar is really difficult.
Mr.Maru: Why is that?
Sparky: well, sometimes I read a grammar rule and study it but people don't speak that way.
Mr.Maru: Can you give me an example?
Sparky: Using their, a teacher told me I shouldn't use their for a single person, but people use it all the time.
Mr.Maru: Yes, they/them/their is often used to talk about a single person. Some people do think it is wrong though.
Sparky: Why?
Mr.Maru: There are different kinds of grammar for English you can use - one is descriptive and one is prescriptive.

I am always trying to create new tools for English teachers to make use of. There has been an enormous community of ELT bloggers that have sprung up of late. I personally find this to be very welcoming and encouraging to see so many people contributing new and fresh ideas to the community.

English teachers are an unusual group of professionals. We are spread out all through the world and deal with different cultures and teaching styles. We ourselves often come from a diverse background from native speakers in North America to those in the United Kingdom and Australia to bilingual teachers from practically every country. We quite literally herald from the four corners of the map.

Mr.Maru: What are you doing?

Sparky: I'm starting learning karate.

Mr.Maru: Really? Why's that?

Sparky: If someone at the dog school tries to hit me, I can give them a karate chop.

Mr.Maru: That will be very useful. You'll be the strongest dog at school!

Sparky: Yeah, I started realizing that the other dogs are a lot bigger than me.

Mr.Maru: Well, you wanted to go to the school with all the Great Danes.

Sparky: I know. I know.

We went over the use of gerunds and infinitives in an earlier post on remember and forget with infinitives and gerunds.  There are some special rules for using the word 'start' with infinitives (to+verb) and gerunds (~ing form). Do you use the infinitive or the gerund with 'start'? Is there a difference in meaning? Let's find out.

Mr.Maru: How do you study English Sparky?

Sparky: I study when you are working.

Mr.Maru: Really? I thought you just slept all day.

Sparky: No, I like to study a lot.

Mr.Maru: You didn't used to study.

Sparky: Yeah, while I was three, I didn't study at all.

Mr.Maru: When you were three, you used to chase your tail. You ran around in circles.

Sparky: Those were good times.

How do you use as, when, and while? These words can be used in many different situations, but they have some important rules you need to know. Let's look at some examples.