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According to Cambridge Dictionaries Online http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/circa?q=circa, circa is a preposition word meaning approximately and is “used especially with years”. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circa explains that circa is also latin for ‘around’ and used quite a bit for historical writing. The shortened form can be written in any of the following ways (although the last two are only used … 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
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
My Writing Notebook 