This has been the most common mistake in my students’ essays this term.
Gays should have the same opportunities than heterosexual couples.
♥ We use the same as or the same…+noun+ … as before a noun or pronoun.
Gays couples should have the same opportunities as heterosexual couples.
I’d like to visit Australia one day, just the same as you.
♥ We use the same that before a clause (subject+verb)
He was wearing the same clothes that he’d had on the day before.
I hope it helps you!
Only last week I had to deal with this issue in class when one of my students asked me.
“Does the word “team” take a singular or a plural verb?” and my answer was: “Both”.
There are some singular words in British English that can take both singular or plural verbs and pronouns depending on what you want to say about them.
Singular forms are used when we see the “team” as one thing, as an impersonal unit.
The team is going to lose
Plural forms are used when the group is considered as a collection of people doing personal things like taking decisions, hoping or wanting .
The team are full of enthusiasm (referring to every member of the team)
Group nouns which can be used with both singular and plural are:
party school staff team government jury family
public club class firm the BBC comittee
“police”, on the other hand, is normally used with a plural verb
The police were not able to find anything
Today, this section Word of the Day, has a double aim. On the one hand, it is 
going to help my students see the difference between these two verbs “remember ” and “remind” and on the other hand, it is going to serve as an excuse for showing you a little tool to help you remember things.
Some of my students have problems seeing the difference between these two verbs, so here’s a written explanation and a short video explaining this difference. I recommend you to see the video first as it’ll definitely serve a double purpose, that of helping you improve your listening ability and at the same time solving your doubts regarding these two common verbs.
Remind me to set homework at the end of the lesson.
Cristina reminded us that the exam had been brought forward to Tuesday
When you say that someone or something reminds you of sth/so. you associate it with a memory from your past.
This boy reminds me of a boyfriend I had when I was at university .
I’ll always remember the first time I saw him
Remember to buy bread on your way home
In summary:
People ARE REMINDED of things. (it doesn’t appear in their head)
People REMEMBER things. (it does appear in their head)
REMEMBER = Person doing it themselves
REMIND = Other person making someone else remember
Click to do some EXERCISES . Link 1, Link 2
What is a good way to remind people of things that need to be 
done without seeming like a nag? Is there a way to politely remind people to do things? Yes, there is: it’s called RemindPost and it is a simple, free service to let you send reminders to people or to yourself and be notified when they’re done.
It works like this: You email someone a task. If they don’t mark it complete by the time you specify, both of you will be notified.
Hope you find it useful!
by Nancy Heiges an ESOL Instructor
There’s an old joke about a missionary’s wife. She and her husband recently arrived at their new church in a South American country. The congregation held a dinner to welcome them, and the local pastor invited them to speak. The wife was reluctant because her Spanish was rudimentary, but after much encouragement, she went up to the podium and began apologetically, “Estoy muy embarazada, y él” – she indicated the local pastor – “tiene la culpa.” Instead of friendly laughter, she was met with stunned silence because, of course, what the congregation understood was, “I am very pregnant, and it’s his fault.”
“Embarrassed” and “embarazada” are examples of ‘false friends’ between Spanish and English: words that look or sound like they should mean the same thing in both languages but really don’t. As a student of Spanish and teacher of English, I’ve run across a few ‘false friends’ which have caused some pretty amusing mistakes. The following examples are real cases of confusion I’ve had with students and friends. The definitions of the Spanish words represent the particular usage I learned in each case.
1. Spanish “molestar” (to bother or annoy) and English “molest.” Imagine my shock when a student told me, “I no finish my homework because my brother molest me.”
2. Spanish “constipado” (congested) and English “constipated.” My Spanish friend was really confused when I urged him to eat prunes for a stuffy nose.
3. Spanish “coraje” (anger) and English “cour-age.” My class looked worried when I bragged I had “coraje” after I killed a spider.
4. Spanish “Tengo frío” (I’m cold) and English “I have a cold.” I told some students I’d missed class the other day because “tuve frío” and they looked at me like, “You big baby, it’s 65 degrees.”
5. Spanish “papa” (potato) and English “Papa.” I thought my Mexican friend was bringing her father over for dinner, so I was puzzled, but nonetheless pleased, when she gave me a dish of mashed potatoes instead.
6. Spanish “sopa” (soup) and English “soap.” I still make the mistake of asking the Hispanic children I work with to please wash their hands with soup.
7. Spanish “sensible” (sensitive) and English “sensible.” My class watched a movie together and several of us were quite misty-eyed by the end of it. I was really pleased when one of the Hispanic students praised us for being “sensible.”
8. Spanish “carrera” (major subject in school) and English “career.” When my 18-year-old Colombian student told me about his career in business, I was amazed that he’d gotten such an early start.
Fortunately for language students, Spanish and English are very friendly languages; most words that sound the same do have similar meanings. ‘False friends’ like these are exceptions, and it comes in handy to know them.