Lots of good writers have difficulty with homophones—words that sound alike, but have different meanings and spelling. Hear and here is one example—there are lots more. The problem with homophones is that while your spell checker will flag a word that is spelled incorrectly, it isn’t nearly as good at flagging a word that’s spelled
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Category Archives: Grammar
Collective nouns are words that are singular in form but refer to a group of people, things or animals. For instance, we can refer to one sheep or two sheep, but if we have a lot of sheep we refer to the multitude as a flock of sheep. Flock is a collective noun. Some common
Enjoy this wonderful typographical animation by Matt Rogers of Stephen Fry‘s ramble on language.
I love dancing and would never decline this invitation, especially if you ask like Yul Brynner. It wouldn’t hurt if you come with your own ballroom either. . But under any other circumstances, shall makes me wince. It’s a word that makes you sound either foreign (not necessarily a bad thing) or pretentious and archaic
My sort of sister-in-law Jane speaks English as a foreign language. She’s just finished a course that taught her business skills—she learned how to interview for a job, write a resume, give a presentation and speak better English. (Really, there’s nothing wrong with her English.) She told me her instructor advised the class to, “NEVER
“It’s a tricky point, when to use simple present and when to use the progressive, especially as simple present rarely refers to present time. The Greenbelt While the simple present refers to general truths that include the present moment, the present continuous emphasizes action in the present moment. Here’s how you form it: I am
If so, join the club. Lots of people get nervous when they hear terms like ‘present perfect’ or ‘future progressive.’ What does it mean? In case you want to know, here’s an overview of the twelve English verb tenses. In a series of upcoming articles, I’ll be delving deeper (that was future progressive!) into each
I notice many people don’t know how to use verb tenses, so here is the first of a series on the subject. Let’s start with the present tenses. The present tenses refer to action taking place in the present, to a state of being, to an occurrence in the very near future, and to action
If you’re even a little interested in language, you’ll love The Lexicographer’s Dilemma: The Evolution of “Proper English” from Shakespeare to South Park by Jack Lynch. Here’s an excerpt. Lynch asks “What is proper English?” and “Who gets to define it?” Turns out the earliest grammar guides coincide with the rise of the middle class
We notice that many people mix these words up in speech—and in writing. Just as ungrammatical speaking erodes your credibility, so does ungrammatical writing. The personal pronoun ‘I’ is always the subject of a sentence, phrase or subordinate clause: I attended the show. (subject) You wouldn’t say ‘Me attended the show.’ The personal pronoun ‘me’
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