Grammar & Punctuation – Could – English editing.
A modal auxiliary verb, the past form of can. It can refer to ability in sentences that are about the past: She could not move. It can also refer to…
Grammar & Punctuation – Coordinating conjunction – English editing.
A Conjunction that joins two items of the same grammatical status. The commonest coordinating conjunctions are: And But Or They can be used to link words: Biscuits or Chocolate. Phrases:…
Grammar & Punctuation – Conversion – English editing.
The process by which a word from one word class is used as if it belonged to another class. For example, glue started life as a noun, but is now…
Grammar & Punctuation – Subordinating conjunctions – English editing.
If the two items do not have equal status, then a subordinating conjunction is used. Most commonly this happens in Complex sentences when a main clause is joined to a…
Grammar & Punctuation – Coordinating conjunctions – English editing.
A class of words that are used to join together words, phrases, or clauses is called conjunctions. Coordinating conjunctions link items that have equal status grammatically: Uncomfortable but safe Ice…
Grammar & Punctuation – Possible events – English editing.
Conditional clauses can describe situations which have not yet happened, but are possible: If it comes to court, you two can testify. Here both verbs are in the present tense.…
Grammar & Punctuation – Future events – English editing.
Very often conditional clauses speculate about events in the future. Such clauses can be open or closed. In an open conditional the speaker expresses no opinion about whether the future…
Grammar & Punctuation – Past events – English editing.
Conditional clauses can also be used to speculate about how things might have turned out in the past: If they had been her own children, she would have used them…