Grammar

A phoneme is the individual level of sound in speech. Throughout the mid-twentieth century, numerous theories have emerged in the attempt to precisely define the phoneme and provide an accurate...

The correct sentence is “He has already gone to school.” It’s in present perfect tense. Let's consider the grammar points governing the sentence. First, both “has” and “have” are auxiliary verbs;...

Vexed means annoyed or frustrated, so you could substitute one of those words in the sentence to help you hear which preposition sounds best. With is the first one that springs to mind, but others...

Here are what I think are the most likely correct answers for the blanks in the sentences above: on from This one could be either "with" or "at." To whom "around" makes the most sense, though I...

Structural Grammar: A grammar intended to explain the working of language in terms of the functions of its components and their relationships to each other without reference to meaning....

The above answers miss the point and make things too complicated. Both of your phrases are incorrect. "One of the my favorite song" is incorrect, because what you have is a partitive construction....

There are many ways to use the verb "know" to fill in the blank above in a grammatically correct way. First, you could use one of the many varieties of past tense that exist in the English...

The above answers do a good job, but it is good to start with definitions. Lexical verbs express action, state of being, or predicate meaning. In a word, they are the main verbs of a sentence. An...

The prefix in the word "impossible" is "im". Prefixes are placed in front of the root of the word and change the meaning of the word. In this case, the root of the word "impossible" is...

You asked if the quotation used at the beginning of a sentence was proper grammar. The answer is yes. However, the serious error in your sentence is caused by not including the source of this...

Dessert is spelled with two esses (ss) because you always want more of it!! (As opposed to a desert full of sand, of course.) Just another few words about semi-colons. Any time there is a list...

It is actually somewhat inaccurate to label a noun as definite or indefinite in its own right, for nouns do not exhibit these qualities in themselves, but only in the context in which they are used...

Three-term descriptions of vowel sounds are made up of three components: open or close, front or back, and round or spread. All of these distinctions refer to where the tongue moves in the mouth...

1. by 2. since 3. on 4. by my 5. against Prepositions can be difficult in English if you are a non-native speaker. They are words that show a relationship or connection between two other words....

A verb phrase is made up of the main verb and any helping (or auxiliary) verbs. For example, in the sentence "The cat is walking across the piano," "walking" is the main verb, while "is" is the...

I will show the stress in or emphasis on each of the words you have listed in your post. In the word photographer, the second syllable, tog, is emphasized. In the word photography, the second...

It might be helpful to consider to put on in contrast with its opposite: to take off. Putting clothes on involves a physical action. When it is time to get dressed, I put on my shirt. I slip it...

Pure vowels articulate a single vowel phoneme. Dipthongs articulate combined vowel phonemes. According to the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), there are eight dipthong vowels. These are...

Before we talk about the difference between a marked and an unmarked theme in linguistics, let's take a moment to define a couple terms. First, a clause is a group of words that contains at least a...

In grammar instruction, two prevailing ideas guide how one should teach. Inductive and deductive reasoning refers generally to how one comes to an understanding of what is true or probable. In...

The indefinite articles a and an differ in usage based on the next word in the sentence. General Rule: Use a before a word that begins with a consonant and an before a word that begins with a...

Typically, a decision to use a comma following the introductory word in a sentence such as this depends on the meaning of the word and what article of grammar it is. In the cases you laid out...

If written correctly, the household sign would read “Welcome to the Smiths’.” The apostrophe is indicating possession, and as there is more than one member of the Smith family, it also needs to...

The only preposition that actually goes properly with this is "over." This is not the only preposition that would be grammatically correct, but it is the only one that properly completes the...

Language is made up of components or building blocks that are used to make meaning. The building blocks of language are: phonemes, morphemes, lexemes, syntax, and context. These components or...

Affixes are lexical additions to the root of a word. The purpose is to either change the meaning or class of a word (derivational) or to modify a word to indicate its grammatical components and...

To determine which syllable of a word is stressed, try saying the word aloud and listening for which part you emphasize most. In this case, both nouns have stressed first syllables while both verbs...

The words used with grammar can sound tricky in themselves, so it's important to bare down the question and look at the surrounding context in questions of grammar. The speaker is looking backward...

"Simple" and "simply" are different parts of speech. They are related - kind of like members of a family - but can't quite do the same jobs. "Simple" is an adjective. That means it describes a...

1. The downslide country of the economy is a on In this sentence, the words are simply in the wrong order. If our job was to rearrange the exact words from the original sentence into a clear...

I do not know that this is really a question of grammar. To me, it is really just a question of usage. There is no grammatical reason that a person should be "in" mathematics as opposed to being...

In simple terms, a parenthetical clause is a group of words that has been separated from the rest of a sentence, adding extra information without changing the meaning of a sentence. The Oxford...

Yes, this sentence is 100% grammatically correct. You can end sentences with a main verb or an auxiliary (helping) verb. You could also write, "Waverly is not as smart as June is," or "They are not...

A finite clause contains a verb, subject, and context that clearly presents the tense of the clause. A non-finite clause, in comparison, does not clearly state the tense. For example: Finite...

The quotation as written is not correct grammar. What it should say is, "We have yet to receive your $300 check for the conference fee in the mail." To say "we have yet to receive" means the same...

Starting a sentence with "unless" is much the same as starting a sentence with "because." Although our 4th grade teachers told us NEVER TO DO IT (because in 4th grade it often resulted in a...

Noun clauses are dependent clauses, meaning that they are sentence fragments. They can function as predicate nominatives, objects of prepositions, subjects, appositives, direct or indirect objects....

The two listed sentences are both grammatically correct. There is not a problem with word order, capitalization, and/or punctuation, so in that regard, the sentences are good. Unfortunately, a...

The phrase should be "English teacher" with a capital "E" as the term "English" here refers to a language of national origin/affiliation. The names of languages are, as a rule, capitalized as in...

Grammatically speaking, the sentence, "But for my help, she would not have succeeded," is a correct sentence, as long as you insert a comma after help—between the phrase and the independent clause....

The most correct would be to use the present progressive tense, "We have been studying English for five years." That tense indicates that the action began in the past, but is still continuing. You...

If you do some simple research on this, you will find great explanations with examples. To summarize, however, there are many processes by which words come into a language. Aggulutination – forming...

Descriptive writing requires the author to appeal to the reader's senses: sight, smell, taste, touch, and sound. This means that the text should use imagery (words and phrases) that bring what the...

An overview of some rules for word formation in English is offered below. CompoundingFrequent collocations over time and with usage become double- or triple-word compounds that with further time...

Category differs from function because category denotes what a word is while function denotes what a word does. What kind of [sentence] constituent is this? — This question denotes...

The words stimulate, simulate, and emulate sound similar. However, the meaning of these words is very different. To stimulate means to try to encourage something to happen. The government may take...

"Knowing that" has only to do with the fact that a person knows "what" happens or has happened. "Knowing how" implies that the person understands the mechanism that makes something happen. For...

A full or correct sentence must include a subject and a predicate. The one apparent exception to this is a sentence in which the verb is in the imperative mood, which is indicated in English by the...

A kernel clause is a simple, declarative clause. It has one verb, and it is affirmative and active. It is called a kernel clause because it is the basic kernel, or core, of clauses. "Kernel" is a...

The present progressive tense is used to indicate continuing action. It shows that something is happening now. It can also be used to indicate fixed plans in the future and temporary actions. It is...