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Ellipsis Four-Dot Method

You may have seen three dots within text when reading a sentence (…). This punctuation mark is called an ellipsis. An ellipsis represents an omission of one or more words within a quoted passage. The plural of ellipsis is ellipses. The ellipsis serves efficient writing by allowing us to abbreviate content or otherwise include only …

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Bare or Bear: Which Word Do You Want to Use?

Bare and bear are two commonly confused words. They sound the same and their spellings differ only by transposed letters, but they have different definitions so it's easy to use one when you might mean the other. Today we'll look at the distinctions between bare and bear and how you can use the words correctly. …

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When Should You Use To Whom It May Concern?

The classic letter opening To Whom It May Concern was once incredibly common and popular. You might be seeing it used less often these days, which might lead you to wonder when the salutation is proper to include in a letter or email. We will address that topic and more in this discussion. The Concern …

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Relative Pronouns: What Is a Relative Pronoun?

A relative pronoun substitutes for a noun to introduce a subordinate (dependent) clause, which is one that must be joined with an independent (main) clause to complete the sentence in which it appears. A dependent clause led by a relative pronoun is also referred to as a relative clause. You might hear it called an …

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Quotation Marks for Emphasis

A main way writing differs from speech is that it often has less-immediate versatility in stressing intentions and feelings behind the words being used. Unlike writing, speech offers instantly recognizable aspects such as verbal pacing, nonverbal cues, gesticulation, and inflection. To achieve desired emphasis, writers must become adept with their available tools. Italic, bold, and …

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Dreamed vs. Dreamt

Suppose you wake with the strange sensation that you have just been in a desert made of brown sugar in a room where it was raining toasted marshmallows. Was all that sugar something you had dreamed, or had you dreamt of something sweet? If you're someone who focuses on improving your mastery of American English …

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Superlative Adjectives: What Is a Superlative Adjective?

Understanding superlative adjectives begins with recognizing the three forms (degrees) that most adjectives have: positive, comparative, and superlative. These different forms are likely familiar to many of you. Positive Comparative Superlative cold colder coldest tall taller tallest soft softer softest As shown, shorter adjectives often form the comparative degree with -er and the superlative degree …

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Prophecy or Prophesy: Which Spelling Is Correct?

Imagine that a higher cosmic power decided to speak with you directly. Overnight you might become a prophet. But did you receive a prophecy or a prophesy? Will you prophesy or prophecy to other people? If you're looking answers you're in the right place. Today we will review the proper use of each word. The …

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Infinitives

Every English verb has an infinitive, which is the base form of the verb before it is conjugated. It consists of the word to and the present form of the verb (the infinitive stem): e.g., to run, to sing, to write, to follow. Although an infinitive is the base of a verb, it does not …

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Tenant vs. Tenet: Can You Tell Them Apart?

Two words might sound the same in American English, but when they appear in writing, we see that they have different spellings and mean different things. Such is the case with tenant and tenet, two words that reach the ear similarly sometimes but have no relation. We will spell out their differences, starting with the …

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