札幌の英会話教室トンプソンインターナショナル/Back to Square One

You are good at English communications. But are you sure that you are speaking the orthodoxy and the right structure of the language?Test yourself. Get "Back to Square One" to see how substantial your fundamental is.

"Big" and "Large" are synonyms. So why can you say "It is a big problem" but not "It is a large problem"?

Why we can say "I lived in Canada in 2004" but not "I have lived in Canada in 2004"? As well, what is the difference between "I studied English for 10 years" and "I have studied English for 10 years"?

During a party, you found one of your friends was sitting at a corner alone. So you approached him and said "What's up? You look boring!" And he was mad and walked away….What did you say wrong?

Literally "I don't feel well" and "I feel bad" both appear to have the similar meaning however, they do have a totally different idea of expression. Do you know the difference?

To a certain extent, the preposition "at" and "in" serve the same function. But what is the difference between "He is at school" and "He is in school"?

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1.
'Big' can be used to describe both concrete and abstract items whereas 'Large' can only be used for concrete ones.
2.
Grammatically, simple past tense is used to describe something happened in the past with no connection to the present and thus, time is usually stated and specified. There are 3 functions of Present Perfect tense. One of them is to show the continuation of something started in the past and continuing up to the present. It would make more sense to indicate the duration with "for" or "since". Therefore, "I have lived in Canada in 2004" is incorrect, but "I have lived in Canada since 2004" is alright. Based on the previous explanation, "I studied English for 10 years", means that I spent 10 years to study English some time before but I am not studying now; whereas "I have studied English for 10 years", means that you started to study English 10 years ago and I am still studying it.
3.
Be careful of some adjectives that they could both end with "ed" or with "ing", but they appear to have the similar meaning and spelling. The adjective if it ends with "ed", it is usually used to describe the human's feelings and emotions. If it has almost the same spelling but ends with "ing", it is usually used to describe a situation (including human's behaviours and characters). "You look boring", it sounds that "you are a boring person", of course, your friend will be mad at you. In such situation, you should say "you look bored". Your friend is bored and it is nice of you that you approach him and talk to him. Another example would be "excited" and "exciting". We say "we are excited" during the party, and "the party is exciting". Similarly, speaking of brushing up your English, you would say "I am interested" because "advanced level of English is interesting".
4.
It is just a habit or custom within the Native English Speaking Society without a particular rule or reasoning. We say "not feeling well" to express our physical discomfort. But we say "feeling bad" to express the depression or upset of our minds and emotions. In other words, if you can't go to work, you would say "because I'm not feeling well". You would say "I am feeling bad", if you did something wrong, or if you had a fight with your friend.
5.
There are a lot of ambiguities and similarities between the usage of "at" and "in". Again it is a habit or custom within the Native English Speaking Society. "He is at school" means that he is now physically at school. The "he" could be anyone. "He is in school" indicates that he is a student, it does not necessarily mean that he is now physically staying at school.