In English, the subjunctive mood is used to explore conditional or imaginary situations. It can be tricky to use, which partially explains why many speakers and writers forgo it. But it's quite useful (and aesthetically pleasing, at least to us), and careful users of English should do their part to ... Read more
Participles
Participles are versatile adjectives (sometimes adverbs) formed by adding -ing or -ed to the stem of an infinitive verb. Participles like laughing, breathing, and stunning are present participles, and words like baked, blanketed, and cracked are past participles. While there are no irregular ... Read more
Phrasal verbs
A phrasal verb is a phrase (a group of two or more words working together) that functions as a verb. For example, any of these phrases would mean something completely different if one of the words were removed: ask around blow up break down burn out calm down come forward deal ... Read more
Active voice vs. passive voice
If the subject of a clause acts, the clause is in the active voice. If the subject is acted upon, the clause is in the passive voice. For example, I kissed Sheila is in the active voice because the subject (I) acts (kissed) upon the object of the verb (Sheila). I was kissed by Sheila is in the ... Read more
Auxiliary verbs
Auxiliary verbs are irregular verbs that provide information about other types of verbs. The main auxiliary verbs in English are to have, to be, and their conjugated forms, while others include can, could, did, do, may, should, and would. To be To be and its inflected forms (am, are, be, been, ... Read more
Nonfinite verbs
A nonfinite verb is a verb that does not function as the predicate verb in a clause. While some nonfinite verbs take the form of past or present participles, they are generally not inflected---that is, they don't have mood, tense, number, aspect, gender, or person. The opposite of a nonfinite ... Read more
Split infinitives
Contrary to what some grammarians say, there is no rule against using split infinitives in English. One might use them with care, but splitting an infinitive is sometimes the best way to clearly express a thought. What are split infinitives? An infinitive is the uninflected form of ... Read more
English moods (imperative, indicative, and subjunctive)
In a sentence, the grammatical mood conveys the speaker's attitude about the state of being of what the sentence describes. This may sound a little complicated, but it's simple enough: In the indicative mood, for instance, the speaker is sure that something is the case, while in the imperative mood ... Read more
