If you’re familiar with basic English grammar, we bet you can describe a verb and perhaps name a tense or two. In the sentences the boy walks and the girl ran, the words walks and ran are the verbs. Did you also recognize that walks is in the present tense, or that ran is in the past tense? Whether you did or didn’t, we’re here to review verb tenses with you and …
If you’re a grammar pro, you know that verbs are one of the major types of words that we use in our sentences and clauses. Verbs are interesting words that describe actions or states of beings. As cool as verbs are, we aren’t going to discuss them right now. No, instead we are going to look at participles. Participles look a lot like verbs and …
The party was held by a generous celebrity. Delicious food was eaten. Songs were sung. Joy and fun was had by all! Wow! Sounds like a fun party. But what’s going on in those sentences? Don’t they look … backwards? All of these sentences are written in what is known as the passive voice. The passive voice flips the script and begins a sentence by …
Sometimes, it’s best to take the direct approach. When we want to do this in grammar, we use the active voice. The active voice gets straight to the point and tells us who did what in both shorter sentences like I ran and longer ones like I carefully ran to the store in order to buy the last inflatable gorillas they had on sale. If …
If you’re a grammar pro, you already know that adjectives are words that we use to modify and describe nouns and pronouns. Words like hot, fast, green, and indestructible are examples of adjectives. There are many different types of adjectives out there that we can use in our sentences. Comparative adjectives are a special kind of adjective that we use when we want to compare …
Adjectives describe and modify nouns and pronouns. The words smart, funny, happy, and outrageous are all examples of adjectives. Sometimes, however, these adjectives on their own are not enough. You might want to say that a joke is not only funny, but also so funny that no other joke can live up to it. Or you might need to say a shoe smells so bad that …
Has someone ever asked you to refer to them as they instead of he or she? Or, are you hedging because you can’t possibly refer to one single person as they? Well, what if we told you that they has been used to refer to just one person since at least the 1300s? And what if we also told you themself is perfectly acceptable—and in many …
Here is a fun challenge: Let’s count some of the things you see around you. Count how many chairs are in the room you are in or how many clouds are in the sky if you are outside. Now, count how much happiness you have—one happiness, two happinesses, 987 happinesses?! Did our little challenge suddenly become a lot more difficult? If you know your grammar, …
Nouns and pronouns are commonly used parts of speech that appear in almost all of our sentences. While they get the job done, sometimes you just want a little bit more sparkle and pizzazz. Would you rather take a vacation or a sensational vacation? Would you rather throw a party or a gigantic, outrageous party? Would you rather pet a kitten or a wicked, ghostly …
I are a grammar master. Do you likes learning new things about English? We should learns some new things together! Wait a second. Did something seem off about those first three sentences? All three of these sentences committed a major grammar mistake that makes them sound just plain wrong—because they are! These sentences are examples of errors in subject-verb agreement. Even if you consider yourself …
As a writer, you’re faced with a lot of choices related to your writing: how long should your essay be? Who should be addressed in a cover letter? What is a thesis statement? But there’s one question that also applies to every composition: how do you distinguish writing that’s informal vs. formal? That’s right. Whether a piece is informal or formal will influence everything down …
Adverbs are a major part of speech that we use to both provide more information and jazz up our sentences. For example, the sentence Jenna walked is a fine sentence but a little unexciting. However, we can spice things up with an adverb, as in the sentence Jenna walked gracefully. If Jenna is a little clumsy, we could alternatively say Jenna walked awkwardly. If we …