Sher
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WRITING TIPS
VERBS
The PRESENT PARTICIPLE - always ONE word and
always ends in -ING going, eating
The PAST PARTICIPLE - always ONE word; can
easily be found by pretending that 'I have' comes before
it (I have) gone; (I have) eaten
The INFINITIVE - can be found by pretending that
'to' comes before it: (to) go; (to) eat.
The following examples indicate the different
combinations of verbs:
He is breaking stones. (auxiliary +
present participle)
He has broken stones. (auxiliary + past
participle)
He will break stones. (auxiliary +
infinitive)
He will be breaking stones. (auxiliaries
+ present participle)
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LIE & LAY
to lie means:
to tell a fib
You lied to her.
to be in a horizontal position
Lie down and you'll feel
better.
to lay means:
to place something down in its correct position
Lay those bricks in a straight
line.
to produce :eggs
Our hens lay enough eggs to feed us all
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PRONOUNS
NOT: Give the papers to myself or James.
But: Give the papers to James or
me.
Emphatic Pronouns - add EMPHASIS to a noun or
pronoun that is ALREADY
THERE
I, MYSELF, have always believed
.....
The owners, THEMSELVES, were held
responsible....
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COMP
OUND
NOUNS
These are words that are joined (usually by a
hyphen). You need to be careful when using the PLURAL
form of compound nouns:
- armful / armfuls (you don't suddenly sprout
more arms to cope with the extra load)
- mother-in-law / mothers-in-law (you get
another mother, not another law)
- manservant / menservants (this one likes to be
absolutely sure and takes the -s as well as the 'men')
- man-eater / man-eaters (presumably the sharks
- or females - can only cope with ONE man at a time).
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POTATOS OR POTATOES?
If the word ends in -o preceded by a VOWEL
(that's -a -e -i -o -u) you just add -s: bamboo /
bamboos; embryo / embryos; rodeo / rodeos; ratio / ratios
If the word ends in -o preceded by a CONSONANT
(that's all the other letters) you add -es to the word:
tornado / tornadoes; flamingo / flamingoes; potato /
potatoes; motto / mottoes
If the word has been 'lifted' from another
language, you just add -s (even if the -o IS preceded by
a consonant): sombrero /sombreros; fresco /frescos;
ghetto / ghettos; merino / merinos; silo / silos.
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AGREEMENT OF
PRONOUNS
NOT "People that live alone, watch more
television." BUT "People WHO live
alone...."
An easy way to remember this is that who, whose and whom refer to people
and which and
that refer to
things.
NOT "Each family member has their own car." BUT
"Each family member has his or her own car." OR "All
family members have their own cars."
The pronouns everybody, anybody, nobody,
each, either etc are singular, so they take a
singular verb AND they must agree in number with their
antecedent (the thing they refer to).
Everybody HAS left the
hall.
Nobody IS home.
Each of the girls WRITES well.
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AGREEMENT OF VERB AND
SUBJECT
NOT "There's lots of animals at the zoo."
"There's" is short for "there IS" and "lots" is
PLURAL.
BUT "There ARE lots of animals at the zoo."
1. Any subjects
joined by AND take the plural form of the verb unless two
DIFFERENT nouns in the subject express ONE
idea:
Today's wife and mother HAS more stress in her
life.
Pain and suffering IS never over for these
people.
The 'wife and mother' is referring to ONE
woman.
'Pain and suffering' are two parts of a SINGLE
condition here.
2. The pronouns everybody, anybody, each,
either etc are singular so they take a singular
verb.
Everybody HAS left the
hall.
Nobody IS home.
Each of the girls WRITES
well.
Neither Jim nor
Bill HAS arrived. (Not one of
them has come.)
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MORE AGREEMENT
When subjects of DIFFERENT number or person are
joined by either
... or neither
... nor, the verb agrees with the subject CLOSEST to
it.
Either they or I
AM wrong. (I know it
sounds a bit odd at first, but you always say "I am " and
that sounds OK.)
Neither the tug
nor the fishing boats WERE seen.
When two subjects
are joined by as
well as, together with, with or besides, the verb
agrees with the FIRST or
MAIN
subject.
Jane, as well as
her sisters, IS home.
Jane is the MAIN person we are discussing, the
sisters just tagged along (as sisters are inclined to
do).
A hat, together
with a coat, WAS found on the bus.
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WORDS COMMONLY
CONFUSED
Some words are often misused simply because
people aren't sure about their correct meaning. One of
the most commonly misused pairs is “loose” and
“lose.”
Do these look familiar? There's no time to
loose. Do not loose this docket.
It seems that loose is everyone's
favourite and no-one like to use lose.
Loose
means'not attached,
released from bonds or restraint' e.g. a loose
connection.
Lose means to
misplace something e.g. There's no time to lose.
Do not lose this docket.
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MORE CONFUSION
1. Another pair of words often confused
is:
Affect - means to produce an effect (always a
verb)
e.g. The rain affected her plans.
Effect - means to bring
about
e.g. The effect of the rain was felt throughout
the countryside.
(can be a noun)
2. This pair of words can easily be
confused:
Proceed - means to go on
e.g. You must proceed to the office immediately.
Precede - means to come/ go
before
e.g. Your reputation precedes you.
3. Take care you don't confuse these words in
your writing:
Exceed - means to go
beyond
e.g. Do not exceed the speed limit.
Accede - means to agree
to
e.g. I hope you'll all accede to my request to
make a donation.
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NOUNS and PLURALS
1. Nouns with NO
plurals
Some words use the same form for the plural as
they do for the singular (and this is common sense when
you look at the nouns involved - by definition, these
words refer to a 'group', so it doesn't make sense to
have another word.
Some examples: corps, deer, dozen, innings,
sheep, species, series
2. Nouns with NO
singulars
Some nouns don't have a singular form (and this,
too, is logical when you think about it - there is
obviously a nano-second in time when you do, in fact,
only have one MEASLE, but it doesn't take long before
you're covered in MEASLES).
People are generous by nature, since we never,
ever give THANK for anything, but always give
THANKS.
Other nouns that fit into this classification
are bellows, scissors, pliers, trousers, tweezers etc.,
(ever tried cutting something with a 'scissor'?)
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REALLY ODD NOUNS
Some words have TWO meanings in the singular
form and take two DIFFERENT plural
forms:
* brother - brothers (members of the same
family)
-
brethren (members of the same society)
* die - dies (metal stamps for badges
etc)
- dice (cubes for playing games)
* index - indexes (tables of contents in
books)
- indices (mathematical term)
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COMPOUND
NOUNS
These are words that are joined (usually by a
hyphen). You need to be careful when using the PLURAL
form of compound nouns:
* armful / armfuls (you don't suddenly sprout
more arms to cope with the extra load)
* mother-in-law / mothers-in-law (you get
another mother, not another law)
* manservant / menservants (this one likes to be
absolutely sure and takes the -s as well as the 'men')
* man-eater / man-eaters (presumably the sharks
- or females - can only cope with ONE man at a
time).
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ORDER OF ADJECTIVES
In English, we use adjectives to give more
information about nouns and pronouns, but you can't just
use them willy-nilly. There's a special order that we're
accustomed to hearing and if you upset that order, you
run the risk of distracting your reader from your
content.
The order
is: Determiner,
Observation, Size, Shape, Age, Colour, Origin, Material,
Qualifier ... so you'd write about those amazing little
square antique black English wooden book
stands.
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USING COMMAS BETWEEN
ADJECTIVES
The Rule is that you use a comma "to
separate coordinate adjectives. You could think of
this as "That tall, distinguished, good looking fellow"
rule (as opposed to "the little old lady"). If you can
put an and or
a but between
the adjectives, a comma will probably belong there. For
instance, you could say, "He is a tall and distinguished
fellow" or "I live in a very old and run-down house." So
you would write, "He is a tall, distinguished man" and "I
live in a very old, run-down house." But you would
probably not say, "She is a little and old lady," or "I
live in a little and purple house," so commas would not
appear between little and old or between little and purple." http://webster.commnet.edu/grammar/commas.htm
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FLAMMABLE OR
INFLAMMABLE
Usually, if you add a prefix to a word, you're
changing its meaning, except for words like "flammable"
and "inflammable."
If something is "flammable" it means it will
burn readily ... right? So ... if it's "inflammable" that
should mean it doesn't burn ... right?
Wrong. Both words mean the same.
"Inflammable," is derived from the Latin
"inflammare," meaning "to kindle," from "in" (in) plus
"flamma" (flame).
"Flammable," is derived from the Latin word,
"flammare," meaning "to set on fire."
The confusion comes because the Latin prefix
"in," can mean "in" (as in "inflammable"), but usually
means "not" (as in "invisible" - "not visible"). You can
see the problem with our two words; "inflammable" could
mistakenly be perceived as meaning
"fireproof."
The Oxford English Dictionary has this usage
note: "Historically, flammable
and inflammable mean the same thing. However, the
presence of the prefix in- has misled many people into
assuming that inflammable means "not flammable" or
"noncombustible." The prefix -in in inflammable is not,
however, the Latin negative prefix -in, which is related
to the English -un and appears in such words as indecent
and inglorious. Rather, this -in is an intensive prefix
derived from the Latin preposition in. This prefix also
appears in the word enflame. But many people are not
aware of this derivation, and for clarity's sake it is
advisable to use only flammable to give
warnings."
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WHEN TO ADD -IBLE AND WHEN TO ADD
-ABLE
Why do some words add the suffix -ible and
others -able?
A good rule of thumb is that if the root word is
a complete word, you add able e.g. accept - acceptable;
laugh - laughable; suit - suitable and so
on.
If the word ends in y, change it to
i e.g. justify
- justifiable, and if it ends in e, you usually (but not
always) drop the e. e.g. believe -
believable.
But ... if the consonant preceding that vowel is
a g or a
c, you keep
the e. If you
don't, the consonant would become hard, and the word
would sound odd. e.g. notice - noticeable; knowledge -
knowledgeable. And, if removing the e would change the
pronunciation of the preceding vowel then you leave the
e. e.g. like
(long i) - likeable; sale (long a) -
saleable.
If the root is an incomplete word, you add -ible
e.g. vis- visible; tang- tangible; cred -
credible.
(Remember this by the two i's: Incomplete
-ible.)
Generally speaking, the suffix - able is more
common than -ible
You can only use -able after g, i and the hard c
("k" sound) (e.g., navigable, amiable,
irrevocable)
You must use -ible after double consonants
(e-g-, ll), s,
st, some d
sounds and soft c
("s"
sound) e.g. infallible, plausible, edible,
forcible
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