Sentences.
Grammar is a way of describing how words are combined to form sentences. SENTENCE: Martin Like Football. | | | WORD WORD WORD Each of the words in that sentence…
Parts of Sentence.
Putting words into classes like this tells us a lot about how words are used, but it doesn’t tell us much about how sentences are constructed. To do that we…
How English Sentences Work.
For this purpose an A-Z arrangement is the most suitable. The problem with grammar, however, is that in order to understand one term, you usually need to know what one…
Handling Negatives – Neither . . . Nor . . .
Consider these two sentences: X. Keep straight on, swerving neither left or right. X. An assistant commissioner said they could neither vouch for the truth nor accuracy of the reports.…
Handling Negatives – Not . . .Because . . .
In writing especially, not . . . because can give rise to serious ambiguities. Consider these sentences: I didn’t go because I was ill. I didn’t go, because I was…
Adverbs Without -LY.
Many adverbs do not end in -ly. Examples include always, soon, today, ever, yet, away, here, so, too. One unusual adverb is hard, as in They fought hard. It contrasts…
Adjectives Ending in -LY – ONLY.
In the use of only, natural idiom is often at odds with logical word order. It is quite natural to say John only gave his sister 5 dollars. But purists…
Dangling Participles and Lack of Symmetry – Non-Parallel Constructions.
If elements in a sentence are proposed as parallel in kind, they should be presented as parallel in structure. The following sentence fails to meet this simple requirement: X. She…