Tag Archives: grammar
All the Same but Different Posted by Gary Locke on Jun 1, 2018
There are examples in the English language where important and common prefixes all mean the same, and yet are different. What makes this so confusing is that the prefixes are not interchangeable. In other words, it is easy to use the wrong one! A prefix, as you probably know, is a letter or combination of…
All the While Posted by Gary Locke on Apr 12, 2018
There are words in the English language which are frequently abused, commonly misapplied, and often indiscriminately placed in sentences and phrases. Near the very top of that list is the word while. It is also one of the most typically argued about words among English language stylists. To understand the controversy, you need to know…
Making Polite Requests in English Posted by Gary Locke on Apr 5, 2018
Ask any parent, and they will tell you that there is one magic word in English: Please. The more often you say it in your daily life, the better your life will be. You will be regarded as polite, well mannered, poised, and mature. If you have the chance to say it in a job…
Head-First Plural Nouns Posted by Gary Locke on Mar 8, 2018
I was listening to the news on my car radio recently when I heard a reporter say that the U.S. government was being sued by a group of “states attorneys general”. I’ve heard that term before and knew that the use of the plural was correct, but it still sounded odd to me. Then, a…
What If…? The If Clauses in English Posted by Gary Locke on Jan 18, 2018
From early childhood we dream of possibilities. We ask ourselves, and others, questions which begin with words like, “If only…” or “What if…”, each time considering a future with uncertainty, curiosity, and wonder. Every time we do this, we are employing what’s known in English as a conditional clause. A conditional clause is a type…
Top 10 English Blogs of 2017 Posted by Gary Locke on Dec 28, 2017
2017 was a busy year for us at the English Language Blog. We covered a wide range of topics from studies of literary figures like Agatha Christie and Henry David Thoreau to the vocabulary of spies and how to properly write about time. Still, what we always like to know is what you wanted…
Further vs. Farther in English Posted by Gary Locke on Dec 1, 2017
You can go further in life if you know the difference between further and farther. We cover many confusing elements of English vocabulary in this blog, and for good reason – there are a lot of them! One of the most commonly mixed-up pairs of words is farther and further. They are both adverbs relative…