Origins – Plenty Of Rooms At The Top
The top of a mountain is called, as you know, the summit, a word derived from Latin summus, highest, which…
Year: 2009
Origins – Well-Known
‘Widely but unfavourably known’ is the common definition for notorious. Just as a notorious liar is well-known for unreliable statements,…
Verbs – Dare.
This verb behaves like an ordinary verb in sentences such as these: She dares/dared to contradict her teacher. Does/did she…
Trouble With Tenses – Learned Or Learnt?
Many irregular verbs, like regular ones, have the same form for the past tense and past participle – often ending…
Trouble With Tenses – Unnecessary Perfects.
Perfect infinitives – (to) have done – are sometimes used unnecessarily after a past tense: ? I expected to have…
Trouble With Tenses- Sequence of Tenses.
Which should you say? Margaret said I owe her 100 dollars. Margaret said I owed her 100 dollars. Traditional grammar,…
Problems With Verbs – Lay, Lie.
Do you lie in on Saturday mornings, or lay in? Do you lay the rug on the floor, or lie…
Pronouns and Case – Ambiguity- Whose is His?
Consider this sentence: ? A supermarket supervisor has been charged with the attempted murder of his boss at a New…