Search results for “sentence”

Some topics in American English grammar may require repeat visits and discussions, mainly because they can remain elusive even after practice, review, and application. One of those topics is how to form the plural and possessive forms of last names ending in s, ch, or z. Most of us are likely comfortable with creating the …

It’s déjà vu for linguistic purists and caretakers of American English: We’re reading an article, having a chat, listening to the radio, or watching TV, and we receive the expression that something is different than something else. We close our eyes, lower our chin, softly sigh, and shake our head. No matter what we do, we just can’t …

Some would say that the 2012 election year’s political dialogue divided the country into the obscenely ultra-rich one percent and the ninety-nine percent who comprise the poor, the shrinking middle class and the, I guess you could say, tastefully affluent. Compare that with the literary one-percenters, a mulish minority of nitpickers who believe “proper” speaking and …

We enjoy helping you reinforce the way you express yourself with precise grammar and composition. We appreciate just as much when you join meaningful discussions about written language. Our recent GrammarBook article Worn-Out Words and Phrases inspired some great feedback about whether certain terms have outlived their welcome. After reading and considering your thoughtful responses, we determined …

As noted in a recent GrammarBook e-newsletter article, verbs form both the engine and the steering wheel driving our language. They determine the direction and speed of a sentence. Sometimes, we’ll spot other words riding with them in the passenger seat. They’re not verbs, but they still attach themselves with seat belts secured. We accept and …

A reflexive pronoun is one that refers back to itself: myself, yourself, himself, herself, itself, 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. Examples Karl will give himself the day off from doing yardwork. …

You don’t need to learn how to diagram a sentence to be able to learn the rules of grammar and punctuation. Let me help you use pronouns correctly without any unnecessary jargon. First, let’s define a pronoun: a pronoun is a word that takes the place of a noun. We can divide pronouns into three …

Sometimes in writing and speaking we arrive at a phrase that forms a fork in the road to expression. Ideally, we can distinguish one path from the other, even if by subtlety. Other forks pose a greater challenge. Each way looks the same, and the sounds from both are familiar. We pick our path and …

These articles used to be a lot more fun to write, but that was before newspapers and magazines went on life support. Mainly, we do “Media Watch” for the copy editors, those unsung word nerds who make journalists watch what they say and how they say it. When companies struggle, they downsize, so we shudder …

Our review of English verbs has included discussion of when to add s to a verb. You might also wonder when to add es to the end of a verb. As we point out in that other discussion, only verbs paired with a third-person singular noun or pronoun (he, she, boat, courage) as a subject add …