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 also gives us the mathematical term sum, as in addition.…
Origins – Well-Known
‘Widely but unfavourably known’ is the common definition for notorious. Just as a notorious liar is well-known for unreliable statements, so a notorious gambler, a notorious thief, or a notorious…
Verbs – Dare.
This verb behaves like an ordinary verb in sentences such as these: She dares/dared to contradict her teacher. Does/did she dare to tell him the truth? She doesn’t/didn’t dare to…
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 in -t (met, lent, slept, and so on) or -d…
Trouble With Tenses – Unnecessary Perfects.
Perfect infinitives – (to) have done – are sometimes used unnecessarily after a past tense: ? I expected to have met you here at 6 o’clock. The ‘pastness’ is already…
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, based on Latin, has taught that the second is preferable.…
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 it? People often use the verb to lay for to…
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 Year’s Eve party, and with the murder of his wife…