actually / in fact / well

Yukki from Japan writes:

Could you please tell me the difference between

actually, in fact and well? I think all of them
can be used to correct the previous utterance. Is
there any difference between them?

Roger Woodham replies:

  They are all very similar, but there are also slight differences in  
use.

actually / in fact

Both actually and in fact can be used to modify or contradict a

previous statement:

I hear that you're a doctor. ~ Well, actually, I'm a dentist.

Well, it may sound very straightforward to you, but in fact it's all
very complicated.
Would you agree with me that teachers should refrain from
socialising with their students? ~ Well, actually I think it's a good
idea for them to socialise - up to a certain point!

Actually and in fact can also be used to introduce more detailed

information or to make things clearer or more precise:

I'm going to take on a bit more responsibility now that Kevin's left
~ John, that's wonderful news. ~ Yes, well, actually / in fact I've
been promoted to senior sales manager.

I got so bored listening to what he was saying that I actually fell

asleep / in fact I fell asleep half way through his presentation.

Note that we can also use in actual fact or as a matter of fact to

clarify matters or to introduce new information:

I got so bored with what he was saying that in actual fact / as a

matter of fact I dozed off before he'd finished speaking.

Actually is sometimes used to introduce unwelcome news:

Richard wants to invite us to spend the weekend at his cottage in

the Lake District. Isn't that exciting? ~ Well, actually, I've already
said we can't go.

Note that when actually is placed at the end of the clause, it

confirms news that others do not expect:

I don't suppose you've posted my letters, have you? ~ I have,

actually.
Did you enjoy that modern opera at Covent Garden? ~ I did,
actually. Very much.
well

Well is more widely used as a discourse marker than in fact or

actually. As we can see from the examples above and below it is
very widely used to indicate that we are about to say something. It
is sometimes used to give the speaker more time to think:

So how much do you want for your 1999 Renault? ~ Well, I was
thinking of £2,500.
So how do you propose to furnish the house? ~ Well, I thought we
might invest in some second-hand furniture.

Well is also used to introduce a statement which indicates that

expectations have not been fulfilled:

You know I said I thought I might go skiing with Jamie this year?
Well, I'm not going to now.
How was the tennis lesson? ~ Well, in actual fact, we forgot to go.

Well can also be used to soften corrections or criticism:

You live in South Kensington, don't you? Well, Pimlico, actually.

You do like my yellow dress, don't you? ~ Well, yes, it's quite nice.
But I think the blue one would have suited you more.
Why didn't you give Bob a lift back home? ~ Well, how was I
supposed to know he was at the match?
I couldn't find my way to the music centre. ~ Well, why didn't you
ask me?

Well can also serve to introduce important information:

You know I've been seeing a lot of Eddie lately? ~ Hmm. ~ Well,
we're going to get engaged.

Oh well!

If you say oh well, you are saying that you accept the situation as
it is, even though you are not very happy about it:
 I'm afraid you'll have to pull out of the trip to Greece. ~ Oh well,
it doesn't matter.

I'm afraid I forget to save that document and now I've lost it. ~ Oh
well, it can't be helped. I'll just have to re-type it.

If you want to practise your English by writing some sentences,

here's a task.

Watch or record the interviews with correspondents in the news

broadcasts on BBC World and notice how often they use well to
gain time before replying. Here is an example:
 
So what's in store now that George Bush has got a free hand in
Congress? ~ Well, domestically I think he'll push for more tax cuts
and internationally he'll look for a toughly worded resolution from
the UN.

Then list them on our Message Board in the You, Me and Us

part of our website.

Your sentences will be corrected!

Adjective order

I tried to answer latest Quiznet programme on your site of adjective order. I found it a bit
tricky and difficult, so could you please give me any help of this matter. And Belen says:
May I ask which the correct order in adjectives is?

When we use two or more adjectives together to describe a noun, the order we put them in is
quite important. For example, we don't usually say an old Indian beautiful carpet. It sounds
much better say a beautiful old Indian carpet.

As a general rule, adjectives are usually placed in this order:

opinion > size > quality > age > shape > colour > participle forms > origin > material type >
purpose

The phrase a beautiful old Indian carpet follows these guidelines:

  1 4 8  
  quality age origin noun
a beautiful old Indian carpet

You don't have to include an example of every type of adjective, but the ones you do use
should follow the order. So if you wanted to add red and green to the phrase a beautiful old
Indian carpet, you would put it between old and Indian like this:
   1 4 6 8  
  opinion age colour origin noun
a beautiful old red and green Indian carpet

It sometimes helps to remember the order of adjective if you consider that adjectives whose
meaning is closely, or permanently, connected to the noun are placed nearer to it in the
sentence. So in this phrase: a large comfortable wooden chair – wooden has a very close
connection with chair .

  2 3 10  
  size quality material type noun
a large comfortable wooden chair

Here are some more examples:

  3 7  
  quality participle noun
a new improved recipe
  1 3 10  
  opinion quality type noun
an old-fashioned romantic candle-lit dinner for two

Sometimes we can use but between adjectives, especially if their meanings seem
contradictory.

  2   3  
  size   quality noun
a small but tasty meal

If we use 2 adjectives that are similar in meaning, we usually put the shorter one first: a soft,
comfortable cushion.

I hope that's answered your interesting English questions, Pasan and Belen!

Catherine

Adverbials

A group a Spanish learners of English have

written with the following question:

Hello! We are Spanish students and we want to

find out all we can about adverbials in English
with explanations and examples.
 Roger Woodham replies:

  adverbials  

An adverbial is an adverb, adverbial phrase or adverbial

clause which gives us additional information about e.g. the
time, place, or manner of the action which is described in the
rest of the sentence:

 We have been living here in this house for over

twenty years.

 We were sleeping peacefully in our beds when the

earthquake struck.

From these examples, you can see that the most common
position for adverbials is at the end of the sentence Place
adverbials (here in this house) come before time adverbials
(for over twenty years). Manner adverbials (peacefully)
come before place adverbials (in our beds).

They do not always follow this pattern. This applies particularly

to adverbial clauses. In the above example we could begin with
the adverbial clause, if it was important to highlight it at this
stage in the discourse:

 When the earthquake struck, we were sleeping

peacefully in our beds.

Thus, adverbials answer questions such as:

Where? When? How? Why?

How often? How long? How much?
Where did you arrange to meet him? ~
I arranged to meet him outside the bank.

Why did you arrange to meet him there?

So that he could give me the money.

How long did you wait for him?

I waited for half an hour but he didn't arrive.

When did you first meet him?

We first met when he became the manager of the
bank.

How often have you been seeing him since then?

Once a week, usually. More frequently, if his wife was
away.

Note from the above examples that adverbs of frequency are

often placed in mid-position in the sentence, as well as at
 end-position. Placing them before the subject is sometimes
also possible:

 I sometimes call on my younger sister when I'm in

London
 I never see my older sister, but occasionally I call my
younger sister.
 Yes I see her from time to time. We get together
once in a blue moon.

  adverbial clauses

A wide variety of different conjunctions are used to initiate

adverbial clauses which function as the adverbial part of a main
clause. Some of the most common are listed below:

time:   when, after, before, as soon as

reason:   because, since, as
purpose:   so that, in order to
contrast:   although, whereas
comparison:   as if, as though
condition:   if, provided (that), so long as, in case
 We served drinks as soon as our friends arrived.
After we had eaten, we played cards.

 We moved to Cornwall because we wanted to live in

the countryside. As the winters in the north east
  can be quite harsh, we decided to move to the south  
west.

 I finished work early in order to catch the 4.30 train.

I left work early so that I could catch the 4.30 train.

 When I arrived home I went to see Joan although it

was very late. Whereas in the 70s and 80s most
men worked until they were 60 or 65, nowadays
most retire when they are in their fifties.

 He shook my hand warmly as if / as though he had

known me for years.

 You can borrow my car on Saturday, provided / so

long as you return it by seven o' clock in the
evening.
Take a packed lunch with you, in case you get
hungry.

    adverbs of manner  
 Note that not all adverbs of manner which answer the question
How…? end in -ly. Most of them do, like this:

 How did they sleep? ~ They slept peacefully

 How well does she dance ~ She dances sublimely

But common exceptions include:

hard fast straight late

 He worked hard in order to pass the exam

 He was driving straight at me and I ran very fast to

get out of his way.

 There was a power failure earlier today and the trains

are all running late now.

Note also that adjectives that end in -ly, e.g. lively, lovely
silly, friendly, cannot form the adverb by adding another -ly
as this would be impossible to pronounce. Instead some other
way must be found:

 He behaved in such a silly way I was ashamed of him

Surprisingly, they were dancing in a very lively
manner at the over 60s disco.

  If you would like more practice more please visit our Message
  Board in the You, Me and Us part of our website.
    

ALMOST

Dear Jamal

Thank you for asking about the uses of ‘almost’, which is an adverb that means ‘nearly’, not
completely’ or ‘not quite’.

As it is an adverb, we use it to modify a verb, and we usually place it before the verb. For
example, ‘I almost finished the exam, but in the end I ran out of time’. However, if the verb is
‘to be’, you put ‘almost’ after it. For example, ‘It is almost 9 o’clock’.

Secondly, we use ‘almost’ with adjectives, such as ‘I am almost ready to leave’. ‘He is
almost certain to be late.’

We also use almost with words like every, all, nothing, and no-one. This is an area that often
confuses students of English so pay attention to these examples.

Almost everyone uses the Internet these days.

I buy a newspaper almost every day.

Almost all of the students passed the exam.

I was disappointed because almost no-one came to my art exhibition.

There’s almost nothing in the fridge so I’d better go shopping.

In addition, we use almost with time expressions, like my earlier example ‘it is almost 9 o’
clock’, and with periods of times and quantities of things. For example, ‘I spent almost three
months in New York’, ‘The house I want to buy costs almost two hundred thousand pounds’.

While on the subject of time, I should also mention that you can use ‘almost’ with the words
‘always’ and ‘never’, but not with ones like ‘sometimes’, ‘often’ and ‘occasionally’.

I almost always go to work by bus.

I almost never go to the theatre.

Well, I’ve almost finished telling you about the uses of ‘almost’, but there is one more
interesting point to make. We use ‘almost’ with like to say that two things are very similar.

My pet dog is almost like a member of the family.

Writing to bbclearningenglish.com is almost like having a personal teacher.

End of Section

About Gareth Rees

Gareth Rees has a BA (hons) in History and Philosophy of Science, CTEFLA, and DELTA.
He has taught EFL, EAP and Business English in China, Spain and England, and he is the
co-author of the Language Leader Elementary and Pre-Intermediate English language
course books (Pearson Longman). He currently teaches English in the Language Centre at
the University of the Arts, London.

ALSO

Hello - thanks for writing in. This is a good question but I’m afraid it’s got a difficult answer:
grammatically, also can be put in lots of different places in a sentence, but changing its place
will also change the meaning and emphasis of the sentence.
First of all, let’s discuss the role of also – what does it do? Well, it helps us to join two ideas
together. It has the same meaning as'too' or 'as well'. As far as the placing of also is
concerned, have a look at these example sentences which are all grammatically correct:

Also, I think that you should consider quitting your job.

I also think that you should consider quitting your job.
I think that you also should consider quitting your job.
I think that you should also consider quitting your job.
I think that you should consider also quitting your job.
I think that you should consider quitting your job also.

That’s right, it can go in lots of places! As I said before, changing the position alters the
emphasis and meaning of the sentence. As it is an adverb, it’s probably most commonly used
next to a verb, but as you have heard, this isn’t fixed if you particularly want to stress another
part of the sentence. Basically, you put also next to or as close as possible to the word that
you are highlighting.

Another important thing to note is that the use of commas (when written) or pauses (when
spoken) can again change the meaning of the sentence. Compare these:

a) I also think that it is very expensive.

b) I, also, think that it is very expensive.

Which one of these implies that the speaker has already told you something else they think?
The answer is (a) I also think that it is very expensive. Sentence (b) I, also, think that it is
very expensive suggests that someone else has already expressed this opinion.

Basically you need to remember that we use 'also' to add information to something we have
already said and you need to place it in the sentence next to the thing or idea that you are
adding. I hope this makes it clear!

adjectives: appropriate/suitable and

adequate/sufficient/enough

Rosana Mendes Campos from Brazil writes:

In Portuguese, we have one word,

appropriado, which is used to talk about
manners and something that is fitted to a
purpose. We use
this word when we refer to social rules and
behaviour and when we talk about what one
should, for example, wear under this or when
we talk about weather conditions. I understand
that in English you have three different words
with different usages, namely appropriate,
suitable and adequate. Could you please
explain and illustrate the differences in use of
these three words in English?
 more
Roger replies:
questions

appropriate ~ suitable

Appropriate and suitable are both qualitative adjectives - i.e.

they describe the quality of something - and are very similar in
meaning and usage. As you suggest, they carry the meaning of
'fitted, suited to a purpose.' They are both placed as modifiers
before nouns and they are both used as complements after the
verb be, although appropriate is perhaps more commonly
used in this way, especially with the pronoun it. They are both
used with the preposition for and are often used with negative
prefixes. The adjectival form suitable (for) sometimes crops
us in the verb format suited (to). Study the following
examples:

 It is inappropriate to make jokes at funerals.

 It was inappropriate for her to joke with the Queen in
such a light-hearted manner.
 The clothes she was wearing were quite
unsuitable/inappropriate for the cold weather.
 Does this dress suit me? ~ Oh yes, it does. And it's very
suitable/appropriate for formal occasions.
 It is a very violent film and is considered
unsuitable/inappropriate for children to watch.
 I'm glad you praised him for that. It was an
appropriate thing to do.
 He is just not suited to/suitable for this type of work.
 Such small flats are not really suitable for couples with
young children. It is unsuitable/inappropriate
accommodation.

adequate ~ sufficient ~ enough

Adequate, sufficient and enough are slightly different in

meaning. If something is adequate, there is enough of it, but
only just enough. If there is sufficient quantity of something,
this suggests that there is as much of it as you need. Usage of
these adjectives often denotes quantity rather than quality,
whereas appropriate and suitable suggest a qualitative
response to something. Study the following examples:

 The pay was adequate, but it certainly wasn't generous.

The rate of pay - £5.50 an hour - was barely adequate
to raise a family on.
 His answer to the question was adequate but it wasn't
developed sufficiently to gain high marks.
 The Prime Minister gave an inadequate reply to the
journalist's question.
  The action taken to combat the spread of malaria was
quite inadequate.
 There were not enough seats for all the guests. The
supply of seats was quite inadequate.
 There was easily enough food for every one. There was a
sufficient amount of food.
 There was insufficient evidence to convict him of house-
breaking.

Approximately / Roughly / About / Nearly

Dear Sirs,

Could you please explain the difference in usage of approximately, roughly, about, nearly?

Many thanks in advance.

Samad

Listen and download

Real      mp3 (1 mb)      Transcript (48 K)
Samantha Hague answers:

Hi Samad. I wonder why you asked this question – are you by any
chance writing a report?! All of the words you list above are adverbs which describe a
quantity or variation in quantity. Well, these words are known as degree adverbs and one of
the differences between the words you mention is their degree of formality, which would
affect the times you use them.

Approximately, about, nearly and roughly are most usually used to modify measurements or
quantities. And I’m going to start with the adverb which is more formal in tone, which is
approximately. Just listen to these examples:

Approximately half of the residents in the survey stated that they agreed with the
government’s plan to reduce traffic in the city centre.

Police say that the main suspect charged in the case escaped from custody approximately
twelve days ago.
I think Samad, you’ll realise that these examples could be part of an academic paper or an
official report. It’s not impossible to use approximately in speech, but you’d be far more
likely to use roughly, nearly or about in everyday situations and the rest of my explanation
will look at the use of these three adverbs.

Jane told me that she spends nearly one-third of her salary on rent.

I guess there’ll be roughly thirty people going to the party tonight.

Because the traffic was bad, it took about four hours to get to my aunt’s house.

By about five o’clock, the library was deserted.

It’s possible to interchange roughly and about in each of these four sentences with the same
meaning. About can be confusing for learners when they first see it as a degree adverb,
because they’re familiar with its use in prepositional phrases, such as

Books and newspapers were spread about all over the room.

Nearly is slightly different to roughly and about, because nearly means ‘almost’, or ‘not
quite’. So, if Jane spends nearly one-third of her salary on rent, it means that she spends just
under one-third. If we said roughly or about, her rent could be slightly more or slightly less
than one-third. If it takes me nearly ten minutes to walk to the station, it means it takes me
not quite ten minutes. All of these adverbs could be used in writing too, but if you’re writing
a report it’d be usual to enter the actual figures or percentages in brackets, so:

Roughly half (53%) of the children in the study could not identify the US on a map of the
world.

In conversation, we often use about when talking about time:

Shall we meet at about seven o’clock?

He says he’ll be here in about five minutes.

And interestingly, we often talk about distances in terms of time:

I live about half an hour out of town.

It’s about three hours on the train to London.

Well, Samad, thank you for your question, I think that’s about all I have to say about these
adverbs!

'As well as' and 'in addition to'

Van Anh from Vietnam asks:

My question is: what is followed by as well as?

For example, can we say I can swim as well as
cook well?

more
Roger replies:
questions

I think it all depends on whether it is used as part of an

adverbial phrase when making comparisons, in which case the
infinitive or simple form of the verb is the norm, or whether it
is used as a conjunction introducing clauses of comparison and
similar in meaning to in addition to, in which case the '-ing'
pattern is required. Let us compare the two usages:

as + adj + as + clause/phrase

as + adv + as + clause/phrase

For example:

 'I saw as many as three thousand people at the

concert.'
 'He was badly injured, but I did as much as I could to
make him comfortable.'
 'I waited for as long as I dared, but when it got dark, I
went home.'
 'Please come as quickly as you can. My father is very
ill.'
 'The Irish played as well as the Scots but didn't convert
as many attempts on goal.'
 'Richardson was as good an actor as Gieldgud (was).'

Note that if an adjective is placed between as and the noun,

a / an must be placed after the adjective.

What is interesting in your example, Van Anh, is that if you say:

'I can swim as well as cook well', you are stating that these are
two things that you can do, whereas if you say: 'I can swim as
well as I can cook', you are stating that you can do both these
things to an equal degree of proficiency.

When we use as well as - similar in meaning and usage to in

addition to - as a subordinating conjunction, the '-ing' form in
the verb which follows is required:

 'As well as playing tennis with Steve three times during

 the week, I (also) play badminton with my wife at the
weekend.'
 'In addition to working on his Ph.D. dissertation, he
(also) translates articles for The Weekly Review.'

Note here that the adverb as well is similar in meaning to as

well as and is often used as an alternative to too. Note that
both as well and too must be used at the end of the sentence:

 'We enjoyed a rare night out last night. We ate at Luigi's,

and went to the cinema as well.' ( = As well as eating
out, we (also) went to the cinema.)
 'We eat well here in Sardinia. The wine is excellent too.'
 'My wife is a chemist and both her parents were chemists
as well.'

Note the special use of as long as which is similar in meaning and

use to provided that. Both are more emphatic forms of if and
are used to introduce conditions:

 'As long as you promise to help me, I don't mind cooking

for twelve people on Easter Sunday.'
 'I'll join you on this skiing holiday, provided I can have my
own room at the hotel.'

'beside'
/
'beside
s' and
'toward
'/
'toward
s'

Sanjay Khumar Bhola from India asks:

I often confuse the difference between beside

and besides. Please clear up my confusion.

more
Roger replies:
questions
It is quite important not to confuse them, for they are different
in meaning and usage.

beside

Beside is a preposition, similar in meaning to 'next to', 'at the

side of' or 'by':

 'Where is the apple orchard?' 'It’s right beside the main

road. You can’t miss it!'
 'We were lying beside the pool when the phone rang. It
was his boss wanting to know why he wasn’t at work.'

It is often used with verbs such as 'standing', 'sitting', 'lying'. It

is also used in the expression beside the point when referring
to something that is not relevant to the subject under
discussion:

 'Modern art isn’t really art at all!' 'That’s beside the

point when so many young people respond to it with
such interest. They regard it as art.'

besides

Besides is a preposition, meaning 'in addition to', 'as well as' or

'apart from':

 'What exam subjects are you taking besides English and

maths?'
 'Were there any boys at the party besides Matt and
Dillon?'

It can also introduce a participial phrase:

 'Besides bruising his face, he cut his lip and bloodied his
nose.'

Besides also functions as an adverb, meaning 'as well',

'furthermore' or 'anyway'. It is often used to introduce an
afterthought. Consider these examples:

 'It’s too late to start a round of golf now. We shall never

finish before dark. Besides, it’s starting to rain.'
 'He doesn’t have very much money and he doesn’t have
very many prospects. Besides, he’s far too young to
think of getting married.'

toward - towards

What about towards and toward? One of my own students was

 worried that there might be similar pitfalls in store for her when
using these prepositions. Well, I can re-assure all of you that
these prepositions can be used quite interchangeably and that
there is no difference in meaning. The only slight difference in
usage is that toward is perhaps more characteristic of American
English and towards more usual in British English. Toward or
towards means 'in the direction of':

 'Can you see that light over there?' 'I think it’s coming
towards us.'
 'There are always more mosquitoes in the air toward
evening. Have you noticed?'

BORED OR BORING

Hello. Thank you for your interesting question about the difference between the words 'bored'
and 'boring', a question that I am very interested in answering.

'Bored' and 'boring' can be used as adjectives, but they describe things in different ways. I
shall begin by giving two examples:

 I feel bored because this TV programme is boring.

 I am frightened because this film is frightening.

In both of those examples, I had certain temporary feelings - I was bored and I was
frightened. What were the causes of those feelings? Well, the TV programme was boring and
the film was frightening. These '-ing' adjectives describe the qualities of something, whereas
the '-ed' adjectives describe a temporary state or feeling, which is caused by something.

If I stop watching the film, I won't be frightened any longer, but the film is still a frightening
film.

We can see this difference between a temporary feeling and a permanent quality if we look at
the words you asked about – boring and bored.

Here are two examples:

 I don't like David. I think he is boring.

 Oh, I'm bored. Let's go out and do something fun.

In the first example, I don't like David because he is boring, and this is a permanent
characteristic or quality of his. In my opinion, he was boring yesterday, he is boring today,
and he will be boring tomorrow. However, in the second example, I have a temporary feeling
- I am bored - and if we do something fun I will not have that feeling anymore.
So, I hope my answer has been useful and interesting, and that you are no longer confused by
this grammar point. As a teacher, I never get bored talking about grammar, although I
sometimes think that my students find it a little boring. What about you? Are you fascinated
by grammar?