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I'd Rather You Knew How to Use Then Than You Didn't
There are people out there who either don't know the difference between "then" and "than" or don't care. They're spelled almost the same, so they MUST be the same word, seems to be the rallying cry of these people. It's true, then and than are only one letter apart, but it's that one little difference that makes them DIFFERENT WORDS! Communication ( Read more... ) -
Some helpful links
While my knowledge of how to use the English language is extremely solid, there are things that I don't know and have to look up. Sometimes, it's something that I know, I just don't know why I know it, so to explain it properly I do some research.
I thought I'd give you some of the links that I use to help get my usage straight.
www.wsu.edu/~brians/ ( Read more... ) -
Less vs. Fewer
Once again we have an issue that springs from people just not realizing that words have specific meanings and uses and aren't just interchangeable. Less and fewer are two words that people use incorrectly all the time. The confusion is so widespread that mistakes even appear on professionally manufactured products. So why does this confusion exist ( Read more... ) -
Lie, lay, laid, lain
The verbs lie and lay cause an inordinate amount of confusion among English speakers. The confusion stems from two points:- people don`t know the difference between transitive and intransitive verbs, and
- lay, in addition to being its own verb, is also the past tense of the verb lie.
First of all we have the ( Read more... ) -
Today's Subject: Subject, Object & Predicate
You`ve probably noticed that the predicates all have a verb in them. That`s because verbs are action words and predicates are the action of a sentence.
Some of you are probably asking, “If all a sentence needs to be complete is to have a subject and a predicate, what the heck is an object?” Good question! Objects are optional things that some ( Read more... ) -
Parts of Speech Part Three
Now we come to the last three parts of speech in English: the conjunction, the preposition and the interjection.
Interjections. These are "flavour" words used to inject a feeling into an sentence. Surprise, rage, pain, adoration and other emotions can all be injected into a sentence by using interjections. Some of the most common interjections are ( Read more... ) -
Parts of Speech Part Two
In case you missed it, Parts of Speech Part One is here: mistertassie.livejournal.com/2115.html . Now we're going to move on to some more of the parts of speech we use in English.
Articles. We're lucky in English, we only use three articles in our language and they are all neutral. I've never understood why other languages need to make tables ( Read more... ) -
Parts of Speech Part One
When I use the phrase "parts of speech" in class, I am usually greeted with a sea of blank faces that are expressing the thought "Whos of what now?" which is sad, because parts of speech are so fundamental to our use of language. Would you hire a contractor who didn't know what all the tools in his toolkit were, or what they did? Of course not, so ( Read more... ) -
Bring vsTake
These two words have meanings that, while related, are not interchangeable. Sadly many people seem to think that they are. The bring/take confusion strikes many, but is surprisingly simple to get straight. There is even a mnemonic device to help. I'll give you the mnemonic and then explain why it'll help you get it right every time.
The device: ( Read more... )