The Walking Wiki

Probably because I am a graduate that has the word English in its name, the people around me tend to use me as their walking dictionary, thesaurus, and mini English-Wiki. I don't mind it at all because it's just natural that someone would turn to an English teacher to ask about something related to the English language.

Grammar

Syntax

Phonology

Semantics

Vocabulary

Pronunciation

These are the common things that people ask if they feel they are not feeling that confident about something. Most of the time, providing the correct alternative/answer is pretty simple. The slightly difficult questions that surface is always when people ask why.

Why do we use 'We are happy' instead of 'We is happy'?

In fact, being a TESL graduate, it's important to break it down in laymen terms so that someone who might not be that knowledgeable in grammatical jargon can understand. For the example given above, it's easily explained with singular/plural examples. Many times people will ask clarification about simple structures or pronunciation that can be easily explained.

What if someone asks Why is 'is' for singular and 'are' is for plural?

Why are there different pronunciations when the word structure is the same?


I.E: deaf, leaf,


but 


Similar pronunciations when the word structure is different?


I.E: chief, beef, give,

Beats me.

I'll ask a German.