What is a participle clause? How is a participle formed? These might be the kinds of questions running through your mind. As an author and former editor, they’re definitely questions I’ve heard before. Participle clauses in English grammar allow us to be more informative without making complicated sentences. Let’s take …
When naming off items in a list, many people choose to include the abbreviation, etc., to help avoid creating long, rambling sentences. It quickly allows the reader to understand that other items in the list are related to one another and are not important to the overall understanding of the …
English grammar is considered easy to learn, but certain aspects need to be clarified. For example, the words that make up prepositions of time are identical to those that make up prepositions of location. But I’ll break down the differences between them. Let’s dive into some preposition examples and learn …
We all use “please” to add a degree of politeness to our speech, but do you know how to punctuate it? Some people use it with a comma, and some do not, but which way is correct? Actually, both depend on how you use it and what emphasis you want …
All good writers know that verbs have tenses that show when the action or state of being occurs. For instance, all future tenses show future action. But what if it’s in the perfect continuous form? What is the future perfect continuous tense? I know it’s so easy to get all …
How often do you go to school? How frequently do you brush your teeth? Whatever your answers to these questions are, they are called adverbs of frequency. See what I did there? A frequency adverb or adverb of frequency describes the frequency of an action in a given period. I’ll …
Have you eaten sweets your whole life, or have you been eating sweets your whole life? I know, what’s the difference, right? It’s minor and hard to miss, but there’s actually a big difference between those two statements. This grammar issue is common among many English writers. Let’s discuss the …
The phrase “I was wondering” serves as a polite way to introduce a sentence or as part of an imperative sentence when requesting something. Although a question mark never directly follows its use, it is a common end mark to use when it is included in a sentence. Let’s look …
What makes the statement, “I’ve been watching that TV series” different from “I’ve watched that TV series”? The first statement is in the present perfect continuous tense, expressing an ongoing process for a specific time duration. The uses and formulas of the present perfect continuous tense are easy to learn, …
Deciding between the simple present and present continuous tenses will require you to look at the time period of the action. I use the present simple form when the action is regular and permanent, while I use the present continuous form for a temporary, ongoing action. Keep reading as I …