Grammar and Usage

You probably already know that a noun is a word that denotes a person, place, thing, or idea—this is a concept we learn relatively early in school. Needless to say, there are several different types of nouns that we use to depict everything we experience… continue reading

If you ever felt uncertain whether to use amongst or among, do not worry. Their definitions are identical. The only difference between these two words is that among is more commonly used in American English. Both among and amongst are prepositions. They can be defined… continue reading

An appositive is a noun or a noun phrase that is positioned next to another noun to rename or describe it in a different way. (The word appositive is from the Latin for to put near.) An appositive is usually offset with commas, parentheses (round… continue reading

What Are Adverbs? Adverbs are words that describe and/or modify a verb (he talks loudly), an adjective (very small), another adverb (ended too quickly), or even a whole sentence (Fortunately, I had brought an umbrella). Adverbs often end in -ly, but some (like fast) look… continue reading

Compound words sometimes don’t have the same meaning as the individual words they comprise. For example – anytime and any time,  It’s a situation where the whole is different from the total of its parts. Every day and everyday are similar—everyday (without a space) does… continue reading

Is it “into” or “in to?” This is actually a common error, although it really shouldn’t be. When choosing between the two, remember that into is a preposition that shows what something is within or inside. As separate words, in and to sometimes just simply end… continue reading

A complex sentence is a sentence that includes one independent clause and at least one dependent clause. They work best when you need to provide more information to modify or explain your sentence’s main point. Complex sentences are simple to spot as they often use… continue reading

  An imperative sentence gives a demand, command, or instruction directly to an audience and typically begins with an action word (a verb). These sentences often appear to be missing a subject or the person, place, or thing that performs a main action. This is… continue reading