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1. What is the history and development of phrasal verbs.

2. Does the expression "steady as a whistle" exist in English? Is there an unwritten law that such an expression could not be invented?

There is no such expression in English. The Cambridge Online dictionary contains the following expressions:

			Steady (solid) as a rock means firm and not moving.
			Something that is (as) clean as a whistle is extremely clean.

These expressions are called similes, which that dictionary defines as "expressions comparing one thing with another". We picture a rock as being unmoving and steady, and a whistle as being shiny and clean.

As far as inventing similes is concerned, learners should be encouraged to do this as long as the comparisons are valid ones. For example, English speakers say "as white as a sheet" because, traditionally anyway, sheets were usually white. A learner might prefer "as white as snow", or "as white as cotton wool", and these are good "invented similes" because the image in people's minds of snow and cotton wool is of whiteness.

The expression above would not be a valid "invented simile", however, because most people do not picture whistles as being steady.

3. What is the difference between the verbs hurt and injure?

The verb hurt can be either transitive or intransitive. A transitive verb takes an object, while an intransitive verb does not:

			I hurt my leg (transitive - "leg" is the object).
			My leg hurts (intransitive - no object).

The verb injure can only be transitive:

I injured my leg.

It is NOT possible to say:

My leg injures.

4. What is the difference between the expressions "how about? " and "what about? ".

According to the Cambridge Online Dictionary, there is no difference between these two expressions, both of which are used to make suggestions.

How/What about (=I suggest) a trip to the zoo/going to the zoo?

In both cases we are asking "What do you say to my suggestion?" or "What do you think of my suggestion?"

Both expressions can also be used to ask for information or news about people and things:

How/What about Jane? (What is the news concerning Jane?)

5. The word "house" is pronounced / haus /. but should the word "houses" be pronounced / hausiz / or / hauziz /?".

The correct pronunciation is / hauziz /.

6. What is the difference between these and those?

This/that/these/those can be used as determiners (words used before nouns to show which particular example of the noun you are referring to).

This and that are used with singular and uncountable nouns.

These and those are used with plural nouns:

			This cat is mine.
			That dog is yours.
			This fruit juice is very tasty.
			That water is dirty.
			These cats are mine.
			Those dogs are yours.

This/these are used to speak about people and things that are near to the speaker:

			Take this bag to your mother.
			I only cleaned these shoes this morning.

That/those are used to speak about people and things that are more distant from the speaker, or not present:

			Go and get that book for me, will you?
			Those poor rhinos in Africa are being killed for their horns.

This/these can be used to speak about experiences and situations that are already taking place or are just about to begin:

			This football game is great - come and watch.
			I really like these video-clips they're about to show.

That/those can be used to speak about experiences and situations that have just finished, or that finished some time ago:

			That pudding was absolutely delicious.
			Have you heard from those Danish people we met in Spain last summer?

7. Which is correct, An unique staff or a unique staff?

The correct answer is the latter, as the word unique is pronounced

/ ju:ni:k /

in both British and American English. See articles.

We have received many other questions about grammatical points that we have already dealt with. As a simple rule, before you send in a question, you should check both our grammar definitions section, and our grammar archive - the answer might already be on site, and so you can save yourself some time:

There are three different ways of accessing our grammar archive:

	(1)			You can have a look at our current grammar question. Right at the top of the page, follow the link to the archive.
	(2)			Click on the "Grammar" link on the left-hand menu of our home page. The page you go to links to the archive.
	(3)			Click on the "Archives" link on the left-hand menu of our home page. Then choose "Grammar archive".

Here are some of the questions that we have received about grammar points we've already dealt with:

Betzabe Cano from Peru, Cecilia, and Roma Gutierrez from Mexico, Linette from Chile, Nesrin Aksungur from Turkey, Reiahee from Iran and Urko from Spain all ask about conditionals. See grammar definitions, would, mixed conditionals, and the zero conditional.

Ana Rios from Peru and M A A Marzook from Sri Lanka both ask about the use of wish.

Magdalena Peralta from Mexico, Pegal from Thailand and Shima from Malaysia all ask about countable and uncountable nouns.

Kanokwan from Thailand and Maria from the UK both ask about transitive and intransitive verbs.

Carlos and Ranko from Mexico, Gloria Lorena and Gregorio Adriano from Colombia, Muneer from Pakistan, Rafael from Brazil and Vinod from India all ask about the use of phrasal verbs.

Mark Williams from the UK, Victor Yen from Taiwan and Vincent Kreder from Lithuania all ask about the use of apostrophes.

Cyelo Flores from Mexico and Zayda Arias from Colombia both ask about the difference between like and as.

Arjun Dev and Pooja from India both ask about the use of would.

Anthony from Peru, Atallah from Jordan, Iclal Kurt from Turkey, Janet from Hong Kong and Mushtaq Ahmad "Habibi" from Pakistan all ask about the past perfect.

Betzabe Cano from Peru and Maria Armeni from Malta both ask about comparative and superlative adjectives.

Nehat Islami and Shemi from Turkey and Pelin Do?an from the UK ask about. future tenses.