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Realising that I couldn’t explain the difference between further and farther (without looking it up) this became the subject of today’s blog. Farther is used when talking about distance, whereas further is used for everything else, according to The Little Red Writing Book by Brandon Royal. Oxford Dictionaries online http://oxforddictionaries.com/ defines farther as “at, to, … Continue reading
Graham King in Collins Improve your Grammar explains that who is a subject pronoun and whom is an object pronoun. Before looking at today’s examples, you must first remember the following: Who must match similar subject pronouns: he/she/they Whom must match similar object pronouns: him/her/them Here are some examples to illustrate what is meant by this: EXAMPLE … Continue reading
In British English, some people tend to make the distinction between enquire and inquire as follows: The verb to enquire = to ask (the noun is enquiry) The verb to inquire = to investigate (the noun is inquiry) Examples: I would like to enquire about swimming lessons? She was making an enquiry about swimming lessons. … Continue reading
According to John Seely in his book the Oxford A-Z of Grammar & Punctuation, you use “shall with I and we”, i.e. the first person singular and plural and you use “will with all other persons” e.g. he will and they will. Here are some examples to illustrate this: I shall be at the cinema at 8pm, if you want to join me. … Continue reading
There is a distinct (discrete) difference between the words discreet and discrete although (according to the Daily Writing Tips website http://www.dailywritingtips.com/the-difference-between-discreet-and-discrete/) “both discreet and discrete derive from the same Latin word discretus” which means separated or distinct. DISCREET The Pocket Writer’s Handbook by Martin Mander & Stephen Curtis defines discreet as: Careful Unlikely to attract attention Examples in … Continue reading
The Pocket Writer’s Handbook by Martin Mander & Stephen Curtis explains that although the word ‘may’ is the traditional way of saying ‘be allowed to’ (when asking permission to do something) the word ‘can’ meaning ‘be able to’ is often used instead. The difference is shown in the following examples: “May I have a sweet?” (Am … Continue reading
The Oxford Dictionaries online http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/cannot explains that “both the one-word form cannot and the two-word form can not are acceptable, but cannot is more common”. There are, however, occasions where the word ‘can’ needs to be separated from ‘not’. This is where the word ‘not’ belongs to another part of the sentence. Consider the following three examples: I … Continue reading
Deficient and defective are both adjectives with very different meanings. Their definitions are below: Deficient Cambridge Dictionaries Online http://www.dictionary.cambridge.org defines deficient as: “Not having enough of” “Not good enough” The Pocket Writer’s Handbook by Martin Mander & Stephen Curtis defines deficient as: “Lacking” “Inadequate” When used in a sentence: The doctor said that Sally is deficient in … Continue reading
“One of the most valuable services that adjectives provide is a range of comparisons” writes Graham King in his book Collins Improve your Grammar. According to John Seely in The Oxford A-Z of Grammar & Punctuation, many adjectives have three forms. They are: Absolute e.g. large (base adjective) Comparative e.g. larger (used when comparing two … Continue reading
The adjective lengthy is defined in the Collins English Dictionary & Thesaurus as ‘of relatively great or tiresome extent or duration’. Some shorter meanings are; long; drawn-out; prolix; verbose and tedious. Here is an example of lengthy being used in a sentence: The best man gave such a lengthy speech, that everyone fell asleep. Lengthily, on the other hand, is an … Continue reading
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