Rock Your English! newsletter

Darling, sweet darling! Thank you so much for letting me slip into your inbox today! And what a great day it’s going to be! I’m so glad we are newsletter friends. Can you feel the Buffilove?

WHAT’S UP IN BUFFILAND

Oy! So much! I’ve got an attitude of gratitude, so I made this little video thanking everyone who has invested in my new book “30 Ways To Save Your Ass In English” – (you can watch it even if you haven’t invested. That’s how much I love you).

And boy have we got cool news! My book release party will be held at the fabulous KNIJN BOWLING CENTER in Amsterdam, hosted by the fabulous Eric Corton, with music from amazing artists! Set your calendars for October 22, darlings! I can’t wait to see you there! Tickets (and books!)  available here!

And as far as the rest of my life goes, I’ve been working on the new Sunday Sun album, correcting exams, and being proud of my darling Adriaan, who came in second in the X Factor finale! And kudos to the hottest and smartest jury member ever, Miss Angela Groothuizen! I loved working with you both!

WRITE IT RIGHT!

Lately, I’ve been seeing tons of emails with sloppy mistakes in English. Maybe there’s a strange “crappy grammar” disease running rampant through offices in the Netherlands? Have you all been drinking out of the same glass? Or doing other stuff that I shouldn’t know about? Can’t I leave you alone for just 1 minute without any grammar disasters?!? Sigh. Here we go:

“I look forward to meet you” is wrong.

Yes, wrong. Always. It should be “I look forward to meeting you.” I can get all sexy and tell you it has something to do with a prepositional object, but let’s not go there. Just know after “I look forward to…” always use the verb + ing. And yes, you can also say “I’m looking forward to meeting you”. This is also correct, and has a slightly more informal tone.

“My friend ordered your book and I did to!”

Awesome that you both ordered my book, thank you so much for that, but don’t forget there’s a big difference between “to” and “too”. They sound the same, so when you talk you can never make a mistake, but alas, the truth comes out when you write! “To” is used as part of a verb (“I like to go skiing”), to give direction (“he went to the store”), or until (“the meeting is from 2 to 4”). “Too” means “also” (“OMG! I love grammar too!!”), or “excessively” (He ate too much and then this happened…). Oh, and we’ve also got the number two. This might help you remember it better!

YOUR QUESTIONS – ANSWERED!

“Hey, Buffi! Is ‘dreamt’ British and ‘dreamed’ American spelling?” – from C, via email (info@rockyourenglish.com).

Heya, C! Yes. Thanks for asking!

ALL GOOD THINGS MUST COME TO AN END

Like correcting grammar exams (WHEN?!? WHEN?!?). And talent show finales. And making silly mistakes. And this, my darling, my weekly mini-loveletter to you. Oh, and I have a question for you – should I keep this up all summer long? Happy to if you’ll keep on reading and responding! But if it doesn’t brighten your day/heart/screen for a few minutes every Monday, I might just take a couple of weeks off in August. Do let me know if you’d like to receive this all summer long- happy to keep on writing them for you! Looking forward to hearing from you, as always!

Sending you all a Swiss Chalet on top of a beautiful sun-kissed mountain, filled with a huge sofa, a huge pot of coffee/tea/gin (yes, I know you don’t serve gin in a pot but just go with me on this one), 3 big bars of chocolate, and a bookcase filled with your favorite books. And no clocks. In my head…..

Wit lof from buffi x