Grammar

What is an Oxymoron? An oxymoron is defined as a figure of speech that ties two words having contradictory meanings together to bring about literary impact. The effect brought about by an oxymoron allows writers to effectively communicate subtle details. Some of them might not make sense at first glance, but they enable the reader […]

Prepositions are words that connect nouns, pronouns, or phrases with other words in a sentence. They introduce or precede these nouns, pronouns, or phrases, which are known as the object of the preposition. Prepositions tell us if the object has a relationship of sequence, space, or logic with the rest of the sentence. They also […]

The confused man was lost in the maze. The wet dog made a mess on the carpet. It was a story older than time itself. The sunny morning turned into a cold, dreary afternoon. The underlined groups of words in the above sentences are known as phrases. Phrases function as meaningful grammatical units in a […]

Jennifer came to dinner with us. Brad speaks loudly. When I went home, I saw him. When I went home, I saw him, and wished him a good evening. In its simplest form, a clause is a group of words consisting of a subject and a verb that share a strong relationship. Clauses, however, are […]

People like to hate on the passive voice. English teachers, writing coaches, authors–many of them echo the sentiment that writers should avoid the passive voice at all costs, instead using the active voice whenever possible. While writers should generally prioritize the active voice, because too much passive language makes writing confusing to read, saying The […]

I are going to my friend’s house after school. He have a trampoline. When reading the above sentences, you notice pretty quickly that something needs adjusting. These sentences lack proper subject-verb agreement. When we put the subject, the one doing the action, in bold, and underline its action verb, it becomes easier to spot when […]

Correlative conjunctions, much like coordinating conjunctions, link two elements of similar grammatical form. They are called correlative because they always occur in pairs and work to communicate the same relative meaning. Here are examples that illustrate the use of these conjunctions: Example 1 You can eat pie. You can eat ice cream. Since the above […]

There is one part of speech that is drastically different from the others. Unlike nouns, pronouns, prepositions, adjectives, and the rest, this part of speech doesn’t help someone understand the relationships between words. It does not serve any real grammatical purpose either. This fascinating group of words is called interjections, and they are truly special. […]

Before I turned thirty… I had swam with sharks. I had had my heart broken more times than I thought possible. I had married the love of my life. My wife and I had raised two sons. As a family, we had made many memories. Doesn’t the above list sound perfect? Well, even though I […]

Back in 1997… I was climbing trees with friends. I was playing with Legos every Saturday morning. I was doing ollies off the curb on my razor scooter. I was catching salamanders and keeping them in a small plastic cage. I was living my best life, at 5 years old. Ah, the good ol’ days, […]

You have stolen my heart. You have made my heart beat twice its normal speed since I met you. Has anybody told you how beautiful you look tonight?  What do these three pick up lines have in common? Well, aside from working well, they also all use the present perfect tense, which is one of […]

My morning routine I wake up and chug a protein shake. I look at myself in the mirror and say “You rule.”  My mom asks, “Another run today?” to which I respond, “You know it.” I run three miles. On my run, the ladies I pass look at me longingly. When I get home, I […]