by NatashaDeen | Aug 20, 2012 | Mechanical Monday, Writing
Thanks to fellow EWG member for the clarification (again! One of these days, I’ll get it straightened out in my head) on passed versus past. As per Laurie: Past can be: An adjective – I was thinking of past times An adverb – They hurried past (i.e. along)...
by NatashaDeen | Jun 25, 2012 | Mechanical Monday
Finally, a grammar tip I can understand: For most nouns, the singular is turned to a plural by adding an “s,” (song –> songs). Other tips: Words that end in ‘x’ ‘sh’ ‘ch’ ‘s’ ‘z’ –> add an ‘es’ (box –> boxes) Words that end in a consonant + ‘y’ –> drop the ‘y’ and add...
by NatashaDeen | Jun 18, 2012 | Mechanical Monday
Argh, this is when I don’t get grammar, it gets me…so adverbs are words that end in “ly,” like “shortly, quickly, etc.” HOWEVER, adverb time clauses are dependent clauses (read: they don’t make sense on their own, they need another part of the sentence) which have...
by NatashaDeen | Jun 11, 2012 | Mechanical Monday
I read that when using a future tense, “will” expresses a willingness, “going to” expresses a prior plan, and either is used for predictions…interesting and a little confusing given how often we interchange the verb…it makes me wonder if the best way to figure out...
by NatashaDeen | Jun 4, 2012 | Mechanical Monday
This one is quick & good (and helpful when you think of character dialog): According to Schrampfer Azar, “The use of shall with I or we to express future time is possible but uncommon in American English. Shall is used more frequently in British English than in...
by NatashaDeen | May 28, 2012 | Mechanical Monday
I think I’ve talked about this before, but an independent clause expresses a complete thought, a dependent clause does not: Julie studies at Perdu. (Independent) When Julie was studying at Perdu… (Dependent because we’re not sure what happened—it’s not a complete...