English with Jennifer

QUESTION: How do we use the phrase “nothing less than”? What follows?

ANSWER: An advanced student posed this question, and it seemed deceptively easy at first. The dictionary confirmed that my examples with nouns and noun phrases were grammatically correct:
1) nothing less than perfection – as in “The demanding parents expected nothing less than per...

Tonight is the night. I’ll be walking on stage in a couple of hours to perform in the annual piano recital organized by our local teacher. It’s funny how several steps upward can transport you into a whole new emotional state. When you decide to take center stage with the lights shining down on you and the silent audience waiting with expectation, you might battle with the in...

I mostly work with advanced students, but I recently started working with a high beginner. It’s interesting to recycle (yet modify) certain topics, such as verb forms. A beginner must tackle the initial list of common irregular verbs in the simple past. The high intermediate student must increase quick recall of all the past participles. Then comes the shifting between forms....

Have you recently used such niceties such as, “How was your weekend?” Have you ever taught your learners expressions to interrupt like, “Sorry to bother you”? I have. Apparently, we’re doing great harm — according to a series of ads trending on YouTube. A Google search confirmed that they’re deepfakes. (See screenshot.) Most often, the characters are middle-aged women, and th...