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“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
I’ve never really stopped to analyse what the words it and there mean at the start of a sentence. Today I learnt that they are dummy subjects giving no information about the sentence. The Oxford A-Z of Grammar & Punctuation by John Seely explains that it and there “simply serve to start the sentence off”. Examples: It was raining on … 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
Have you heard of the word gerund? According to the Collins English Dictionary and Thesaurus, a gerund is “a noun formed from a verb” by using the present participle of a verb (ending in -ing) . Here are some examples: He is driving to work (driving in this sentence is a present participle) The driving range is five miles away (driving … Continue reading
There are a few sets of words that have two forms of the past tense and learnt and learned are one set. Two more examples are spelled/spelt and burned/burnt. From much research today, it appears that learned and learnt are two forms of the past tense of the verb to learn. I have found a few … Continue reading
Today’s blog was a request from a work colleague and after a little research I am very clear on how to use these words now. The most important clarification to me is that the verb to lead always has a past tense spelt led (not lead). The rest is quite easy to remember. To summarise, the word … Continue reading
A work colleague asked me what the plural of matrix was today so I guessed matrices, looked it up and I was right. This gave me an idea for today’s blog. Please find below some singular words – see if you can guess what their plurals are. The answers are at the end of the blog: … Continue reading
I almost got stuck on what to blog about tonight. After a full day at work, sometimes the brain just doesn’t want to take anything else in. I eventually decided on writing about the word just and its meanings. John Seely in his book the Oxford A-Z of Grammar & Punctuation, explains that just is an … Continue reading
For the background to my writing challenge, please read my first blog by clicking the following link – http://wp.me/p1x6Ui-4. If you would prefer to dive straight into note 85, then please read on… William Strunk Jr and E.B. White in their classic book The Elements of Style define linking verbs as “A verb that joins … Continue reading
For the background to my writing challenge, please read my first blog by clicking the following link – http://wp.me/p1x6Ui-4. If you would prefer to dive straight into note 84, then please read on… Richard Bell writes monthly for Writing magazine and I often read his ‘Red Editing Pen’ section, where he writes three sentences which … Continue reading
My Writing Notebook 