Drink, drank, drunk. That’s easy enough to remember. But what’s the difference, and how should they each be used in a sentence? In this article, we will explain why drink is an irregular verb, show how and when to correctly use the words drank and drunk, and provide examples of all three words being properly used in sentences. Drank and drunk are forms of the …
The asterisk is the most amazing symbol ever created!* If you use an asterisk, your writing will win tons of awards and make you world famous!* There is nothing that the asterisk cannot do!* OK, those last couple of sentences could use a bit of clarification: these are the opinions of the writer and do not necessarily represent everyone who uses an asterisk. For that …
When we want to craft the perfect sentence, phrases and clauses are two of our most important tools. But what are these exactly? In this article, we will define what phrases and clauses are, explain how they are different from each other, and provide examples of how we typically use both of them to build sentences. In grammar, a phrase is a group of words …
If you’re thinking of using italics to emphasize words, keep in mind that the type of writing you do—and what style guide you follow—will determine how you use italics. Italics are typically used to show emphasis (For example: “I don’t care what he thinks. I do what I want!”) or to indicate titles of stand-alone works (Black Panther, Lost in Translation). Different style guides have …
There’s something funny about the word funner. It has the sound of a word twisted for the sake of a game of Scrabble, and any mention of “funner” is liable to draw the response of, “Do you mean ‘more fun’?” Yet grammatically speaking, there’s no need to pick one or the other: funner and more fun are equally acceptable ways of comparing two fun things …
If you paid attention during your English classes, you know that the past tense and past participle of the verb pay is paid. Right? Actually, it turns out that payed is, in fact, the correct past tense and past participle form of pay in a few rare cases. In this article, we’ll cover why and when the verb pay takes different forms, explain how the …
Is stupider a word? It turns out stupider is an actual word. The word stupid is an adjective that refers to someone or something that’s foolish or senseless. This adjective, however, only gets you so far. When you want to compare two nouns, you’ll need what’s called a comparative adjective. For example, in the sentence “Sam is bigger than Selena,” the adjective bigger is comparative. It tells you …
There are things in this world that we plead for and never get. For some people, one of those things is some clarity on what, exactly, separates pled from pleaded—or if one of those forms should be avoided entirely. The answer largely depends on who you ask. What does pleaded mean? Plead is a verb that means “to appeal or entreat earnestly.” It’s often used …
Lexical verbs are the main verbs (or action words) in a sentence. They can show the subject’s action or express a state of being. They fall into several categories: transitive, intransitive, linking, dynamic, and static. Transitive and Intransitive Verbs A transitive verb expresses action, and needs a direct object to receive that action. “Alice sees the candle,” is an example. Sees is the lexical verb …
One of the most common types of words we use in grammar are nouns. A noun is a word that refers to a person, place, thing, or idea. In writing and speaking, we use many different types of nouns to describe the things around us. Take a minute to look around you and you’ll see many different things. If you are inside, maybe you see …
You probably know that the past tense of meet is met and not meeted, but do you know why? In this article, we will explain how and when to correctly use meet and met, explain why meet is considered to be an irregular verb, and provide examples of how we use meet and met in sentences. The verb meet is an irregular verb. Meet is …
You probably know to use sent instead of sended, but do you know why? In this article, we will demonstrate how and when to correctly use send and sent, explain why send is considered an irregular verb, and provide examples of both words used in sentences. The verb send is an irregular verb. Send is the base form of the verb, which can be used …