We would like to go ____ (safari) in Tanzania next summer.
✅ go on a safari ❌ go safari We use go on a before nouns related to holidays, trips or similar, such as holiday, trip, journey, excursion, tour, cruise, etc.
After trying to rob a bank, he went ____ (prison) for 5 years.
✅ to prison ❌ prison We say go to prison (WITHOUT the) when someone is taken there as a prisoner.
We ____ (get) London at 5 in the evening.
✅ got to ❌ got
- get to + place = ‘arrive’
I ____ (do/make) my hair every morning.
✅ do ❌ make
- We use do in collocations referring to self-care.
The chef ____ (taste) the sauce to see if it needs more salt.
✅ is tasting ❌ tastes
- Although some verbs of the senses are usually classified as stative (e.g. taste, see, smell, feel), they can also be dynamic when they refer to voluntary actions and not perceptions.
He ____ (can't/ must not) be very proud of you right now. You disappointed him.
✅ can’t ❌ must not
- When we are sure something is not true, we use can’t (NOT mustn’t).
- He can’t be very proud of you = ‘I’m (quite) sure he is not very proud of you’
You ____ (couldn't have / mustn't have) been ill yesterday. Jessie saw you at the bowling alley.
✅ couldn’t have ❌ mustn’t have
- We can use can’t/couldn’t have + past participle to say that we are quite sure that something did NOT happen or was NOT true in the past.
- You couldn’t have been ill.= I’m quite sure you weren’t ill.
- We can use must but not mustn’t as a modal verb of deduction.
In this economy, ____ (we're unlikely / it's unlikely) to find a buyer for the house.
✅ we’re unlikely ❌ it’s unlikely ✅ it’s unlikely that we’ll find
- If something is is unlikely to happen or if it’s unlikely that something will happen, it means that it probably won’t happen.
- We could also say: … it’s unlikely that we will find a buyer.
This ____ (definitely won't / definitely will not) be his last mistake.
✅ definitely won’t ❌ definitely will not ✅ will definitely not
- Definitely and probably go before won’t, isn’t, shouldn’t, etc. But if we don’t use short forms, definitely and probably go after the auxiliary verb and before not.
- We can say: This definitely won’t be his last mistake, or This will definitely not be his last mistake.
I can’t get ____ (my child / sit) still at the dinner table.
✅ my child to sit ❌ my child sit
- We can use get + someone + to do something to mean ‘make or persuade someone to do something’.
We heard the neighbours ____ (fight) and we called the police.
✅ fight ✅ fighting ❌ fought
- After feel, hear, listen, notice, see, watch we can use a gerund or an infinitive. We use a gerund to express an incomplete action, an action in progress, or a repeated action, and we use an infinitive to talk about an action we heard or saw from beginning to end; usually a short action, and not a repeated action.
- In this sentence we can use fighting to mean that it went on for a long time, and we can use fight to mean that it was a short action and we heard it from beginning to end.