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I’ve been writing English as a Second Language (ESL) books for foreign students for many years. I published my first book, which was titled The First Twelve Lessons and Beyond in 1979.
EVERY MOMENT COUNTS
Many of the following titles are available in larger bookshops in the main cities of mainland Spain. They can also be found on Amazon.
If you are interested in a particular title and are having problems finding it, please contact us.
Most of the following titles have been modified (or are in the process of being modified) to PDF and ePub format. These books will soon be available in an interactive format and therefore suitable for reading on Kindle, laptops and mobile phones.
My latest books
You can see my most recent books here, which are available on Amazon.
TO BE or BEING
If you’re in a London pub and tell the bartender, “I would like having a pint of Guinness,” he will understand you perfectly. However, he might think, “This guy speaks poorly.” With this book, learn which verbs go with TO and which go with ING, and then you’ll say correctly, “I would like TO HAVE…”
Active Voice to Passive Voice
We can say, “The bullfighter KILLED the bull.” That’s Active Voice. But the English prefer to say, “The bull WAS KILLED BY the bullfighter.” That’s Passive Voice. Now, why not say, “The bullfighter WAS KILLED BY the bull.” It’s because sometimes The bull wins! Ole! Learn to differentiate well between Active and Passive Voice in this fun book.
Phrasal Verbs
Native speakers can hardly say a sentence without containing one of those cursed phrasal verbs.
“KEEP MUM” is not keeping your mother! but KEEP QUIET.
In this book, you will see the 100 most important ones. Oh! Of course… when the English invented English, they didn’t consult with the Spanish.
Comparatives and Superlatives
If you say in a restaurant, “It was the baddest meal I’ve ever had,” it’s wrong. You should say WORST! This book will clarify your doubts about comparatives and superlatives. But don’t worry! We all make mistakes. Now, why make the same mistake when there are so many others you can make?
The Present Perfect & Friends
A very common mistake that Spanish speakers make when speaking English is “I have seen a good film last night.” Of course, your English interlocutor will understand you well, but you should have said “I saw…” to make the sentence perfect. In this book, you will see in which situations you should use the Present Perfect and in which ones you shouldn’t!
Reported Speech
INTREPID REPORTER REPORTS ON REPORTED SPEECH. What a tongue twister! Bet you can’t say it three times without stumbling. But where you won’t stumble is in knowing how to use – finally! – Reported Speech in English. With the Reported Speech book, the intrepid teacher Tom Red will teach you how to deal with Indirect Speech in English once and for all.
Confusing World of Used
“Pablo used to speak Spanish every day, but he went to live in London. He usually speaks English at work. At first, he wasn’t used to speaking English, but he soon got used to it. Now, he uses English more than Spanish.” Phew!! Could you do this in English with “get used to,” “be used to,” “used to,” “usually,” and “use” (verb)? This book will be perfect for navigating the confusing world of USED.
Position of Adjectives
The position of adjectives in English is usually the opposite of Spanish. If you tell an English person, “He is a man tall with a face friendly,” don’t be surprised if they say you’re missing only the feather. Avoid direct translation! Remember that when the English invented English, they didn’t consult with the Spanish. Ok, ok, nor the other way around! Sorry! But get on track with this good book.
British vs American English
If you’re in a department store in New York and ask where the LIFT is, they won’t understand you as they say ELEVATOR.
A motorway is DUAL-CARRIAGEWAY in the UK but FREEWAY in the US.
And so it goes with hundreds of words. BRITISH Vs AMERICAN ENGLISH is an ideal book for you.
FANBOYS
The English love their language so much that they formed a rock band that sings the virtues of their grammar. If you have trouble using English conjunctions, don’t worry. The FANBOYS will get you up to speed quickly, and you’ll never make a mistake again when using For And Nor But Or Yet y So.
The Past Simple vs The Past Continuous
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Please check the other books
The good news about the Future in English is that it doesn’t inflect like the present (go – goes) and past (go-went) and just puts WILL before the verb in all its cases (I-you-he-she-it-we-you-they WILL go). The not very good news is that English has many ways to express the future, for ex. I’m going, I’m going to go, I shall/will be going and more. You can practise all the variants in this entertaining book.
Can – could – may – might – must – shall – should - will and would. You probably know the theory for Modal Verb usage but can you use them orally without thinking? This book with its introductory mini-tutorial is ideal to prepare you for the 100 exercises that follow. Oh, and we haven’t forgotten the odd modals like ought, dare and need as well as had better and semi-modal have to.
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Please check the other books
Adverbs tell us in what way someone carries out an action. We say they modify the verb (drive carefully). But adverbs can also modify other adverbs (very badly) or adjectives (exceptionally good).Not all words ending in -ly are adverbs; there are many exceptions. These include the irregular adverbs like good/BAD, fast/FAST. There is a mini-tutorial in this book before passing on to the exercises.
Question tags are formed with the ordinary auxiliary (he plays tennis, doesn’t he?) or modal auxiliary verb (he can’t play tennis, can he?) in a statement except when the main verb is BE (she’s French, isn’t she?). A positive statement is followed by a negative question tag (she’s French, isn’t she?).and a negative statement by a positive tag (she’s not French, is she?). Here you have 100 exercises to cover all possible variants.
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Please check the other books
THERE TO BE is a strange verb. It means that something exists somewhere. You rarely say in its infinitive form but otherwise you never stop saying it, THERE is/isn’t, are/aren’t, were/weren’t, will be. There are … 100 great exercises in this book which teach you all the more complicated forms of THERE TO BE like There seem to be more people here tonight. (seem/have must agree with the subject):
The present perfect is a grammatical tense formed by the auxiliary verb have and the past participle of a main verb. Its main purpose is to express a past action which has present consequences (Chelsea have won the league twice this century). In this book we contrast it with the present simple tense (Chelsea won the league in 2003 and 2114). 100 exercises follow the mini-tutorial in this book.
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Relative pronouns are not fun but they can be a lot more fun than just relatives! But come on and meet my relatives anyhow. We have the twins who and whom as well as which and whose. That is the black sheep of the family, so common! And whomsoever is sooo formal, just a big snob! Oh, and you’ll also meet the first cousins what, when and where. Loads of exercises here!
If you like maths then the 3 conditionals are easy-peasy. They are virtually mathematical in construction, e.g. 1) If I like it I will do it (present + future tense), 2) If i liked it, I would do it (past tense + would) and 3) If i had liked it, I would have done it (had and past participle + would, have and past participle). Find lots of exercises here.
Please check the other books
There are different types of mixed conditional sentence. The most common one has a type 3 conditional in the If clause but the result is present and put into a type 2 clause: “If I had done the lotto I would be rich now”. You have a mini tutorial in this book and lots of examples before you start on the exercises.
My passion…
Do you know what?… I’ve written more than 100 books.
Apart from those above, here are some others:
