Search results for “sentence”

As we often like to remind our readers, once you get further into the finer aspects of English grammar, the underlying concepts are often very accessible. Which brings us to the topic of today’s post: what are possessive adjectives? Possessive Adjectives: What They Are and How to Use Them Possessive adjectives are words that come …

An adverb is a part of speech that modifies other sentence elements such as verbs, adjectives, and other adverbs. It may also describe infinitives, gerunds, participles, phrases, clauses, or even the rest of the sentence in which it appears. Adverbs address information such as when (she is leaving now), where (she stops here), how (she …

In today’s post we will look at prepositions, objects, and the relationship between the two. With that knowledge, you’ll have greater insight into another fine point of English grammar. What Is a Preposition? A preposition is a word that usually comes before a noun or pronoun and expresses a relationship to another word. In other …

English grammar has its share of technical terms, so unless you regularly teach or study the language, you might furrow your eyebrows if you hear things such as present perfect tense or infinitive verb. Many of us may use such components in our writing and speech without being fully aware of what they are. That …

An object pronoun replaces a noun that is in the object position of a sentence. This means that it receives rather than performs the action of the sentence. Similar to subject pronouns, object pronouns add economy to language by helping us avoid redundancy and be more frugal with our words and characters. Consider the following …

The basics of English grammar can seem simple, especially when we are looking at sentence structures. Three basic components of a sentence include: Nouns, which are things Verbs, which are actions Adjectives, which are descriptive words But the better you get, the more complexities there are. For instance, did you know that there are such …

Most American-born people will have heard of direct and indirect objects at some point in their schooling years. And yet, those same English speakers—even those who grew up in the U.S.—may have a hazy understanding of the difference between a direct and indirect object. Today, we will review the distinction. We'll explain what an indirect …

A subject pronoun—also referred to as a subjective pronoun—replaces a noun that is in the subject position of a dependent or independent clause. This means that it performs rather than receives the action of the clause. Subject pronouns serve language by helping us avoid redundancy and be more frugal with language. Consider the following text: …

The decision of whether to capitalize the word "the" in front of a country name can be a tricky one for a couple of reasons. First, you will likely see capitalization used in different ways depending on who is writing and where the writing appears. Second, there isn't one consistent rule you can follow that …

The ampersand (the "&" symbol) is an unusual feature of the English language. It supposedly has survived in a limited form since the days of the Roman Empire. Despite the mark's longevity, people may still sometimes have questions about when and how to use it. In formal writing, use of the ampersand to replace the …