Search results for “sentence”

The dash (—) and the ellipsis (…) are two useful tools for writing in English. Each mark gives us the means to add pacing and patterns of thought that follow how we often think and speak. However, one mark's functions can sometimes be confused for the other's. We'll look at how to use the marks …

Many of us may have learned about prepositional phrases in school, but unless we are writers, editors, or teachers, we might not think about them often even though we use them every day. In this brief discussion, we'll review what prepositional phrases are and look at some reinforcing examples. What Is a Preposition? A preposition …

American English is rife with details concerning written style. One common item concerns how to punctuate lists and particularly whether to include commas in them. In this review, we'll consider ways you can approach presenting content in lists. Our focus will be on lists in a vertical format as opposed to in sentence form (e.g., …

Even those who pay attention to grammar can allow certain inaccuracies to slip in, particularly in informal communication. One of the most prevalent grammatical errors appears in how we apply phrases such as you and I and you and me. Writers and speakers might use one or the other to sound articulate and yet be …

A reflexive pronoun in English is one that refers back to itself: myself, yourself, himself, herself, itself, oneself, ourselves, yourselves, themselves. It is used when the subject and the object of a sentence are the same. It can act as either an object or an indirect object: We should finish it by ourselves. (object of a …

Many of us use the phrases if I was and if I were interchangeably. Some of us might apply one or the other according to what our ears are accustomed to but perhaps not fully recognize the grammatical reasoning behind that use. This brief review will explore the difference between if I was and if …

Clear communication in writing depends on more than precise punctuation and word choice. It also relies on proper placement of modifiers. If related elements are not in proximity or the sentence does not otherwise make internal references clear, we will have a statement such as the following: To avoid an accident while driving at night, …

Where and were are words that look and sound similar. That's probably why they could be easy to confuse sometimes. If you want to know the difference—and, more important, consistently use the right word in context—this brief discussion will provide what you're looking for. Let's start with a definition of each word, and then we'll …

A conjunction is a part of speech that connects words, phrases, or clauses. The two types of conjunctions are coordinating conjunctions and subordinating conjunctions. Correlative conjunctions are coordinating conjunctions used in pairs. They connect two items of equal rank and grammatical unit. Some common correlative conjunctions include: either…or neither…nor both…and not only…but also as…so rather…than …

Numbers can often present different style questions in American English. When should we spell them, and when shouldn't we? In particular, what are ordinal numbers and what are cardinal numbers, and how do we treat them? Mastering these distinctions will refine your precision in your daily writing. For this discussion, we'll review style guidance from …