http://www.grammarmatters.com/ Grammar Matters en Thu, 26 Aug 2010 17:06:00 GMT Thu, 26 Aug 2010 17:06:00 GMT info@grammarmatters.com info@grammarmatters.com http://www.grammarmatters.com/images/grammarmattersheader.jpg http://www.grammarmatters.com/ http://www.grammarmatters.com/using-appositives/ We all use appositives, which are used to clarify and add information to nouns. An appositive is a noun or noun phrase that qualifies a preceding or following noun. Because... http://www.grammarmatters.com/using-appositives/#comments http://www.grammarmatters.com/using-appositives/ Thu, 26 Aug 2010 17:06:00 GMT http://www.grammarmatters.com/adverbial-confusion/ Adverbs are words or phrases that qualify, limit, modify, or otherwise describe the following types of words:* In many cases, an adverb is based on the same form as the... http://www.grammarmatters.com/adverbial-confusion/#comments http://www.grammarmatters.com/adverbial-confusion/ Sat, 31 Jul 2010 21:15:00 GMT http://www.grammarmatters.com/yahoo-style-guide/ Yahoo! has published a style guide for writers who produce web content, such as bloggers, copywriters, and people who maintain their own websites. Even if you already use other style... http://www.grammarmatters.com/yahoo-style-guide/#comments http://www.grammarmatters.com/yahoo-style-guide/ Mon, 19 Jul 2010 16:28:00 GMT http://www.grammarmatters.com/using-can-may-and-might/ Can, may, and might are common modal auxiliary verbs that can be confusing even if you are fluent in English. A modal auxiliary verb is a verb that adds to... http://www.grammarmatters.com/using-can-may-and-might/#comments http://www.grammarmatters.com/using-can-may-and-might/ Sun, 04 Jul 2010 23:43:00 GMT http://www.grammarmatters.com/how-to-use-like-and-as/ People often use the words like and as interchangeably. In speech--especially the informal kind--using like instead of as and vice-versa is generally accepted. For example, if you were to say... http://www.grammarmatters.com/how-to-use-like-and-as/#comments http://www.grammarmatters.com/how-to-use-like-and-as/ Tue, 29 Jun 2010 03:01:00 GMT http://www.grammarmatters.com/lake-superior-state-university-2010-list-of-banished-words/ Every year, an elite group of words and phrases have the dubious honour of making Lake Superior State University's annual Banished Words List. The university selects words that are generally... http://www.grammarmatters.com/lake-superior-state-university-2010-list-of-banished-words/#comments http://www.grammarmatters.com/lake-superior-state-university-2010-list-of-banished-words/ Tue, 22 Jun 2010 23:51:00 GMT http://www.grammarmatters.com/comparatives-and-superlatives/ One can be smarter than a fifth grader, but not stupider than one. That's because stupider isn't considered proper English, even if sources such as Compact Oxford Dictionary contain the... http://www.grammarmatters.com/comparatives-and-superlatives/#comments http://www.grammarmatters.com/comparatives-and-superlatives/ Fri, 18 Jun 2010 03:06:00 GMT http://www.grammarmatters.com/have-you-ever-been-redacted/ One morning I received a curious email from my husband while we were both at work. He asked me what word he could use instead of 'redact' when speaking of... http://www.grammarmatters.com/have-you-ever-been-redacted/#comments http://www.grammarmatters.com/have-you-ever-been-redacted/ Sun, 27 Sep 2009 03:24:00 GMT http://www.grammarmatters.com/different-thanfrom/ In the "than" versus "from" debate, I am firmly on the side of the established usage: "different from" is correct; one need only point to the long established use of... http://www.grammarmatters.com/different-thanfrom/#comments http://www.grammarmatters.com/different-thanfrom/ Tue, 15 Sep 2009 02:59:00 GMT http://www.grammarmatters.com/commonly-misused-words-and-phrases/ I thought I'd take a break from strictly writing about grammar, and post about something else that is dear to my heart: word usage and common misuses of words and... http://www.grammarmatters.com/commonly-misused-words-and-phrases/#comments http://www.grammarmatters.com/commonly-misused-words-and-phrases/ Fri, 17 Jul 2009 03:48:00 GMT http://www.grammarmatters.com/because-this-is-a-sentence-fragment/ Incomplete sentences, or sentence fragments, are relatively common in all sorts of writing, but they're also easy to avoid. The rule is simple: a complete sentence consists of two components--a... http://www.grammarmatters.com/because-this-is-a-sentence-fragment/#comments http://www.grammarmatters.com/because-this-is-a-sentence-fragment/ Wed, 01 Jul 2009 17:31:00 GMT http://www.grammarmatters.com/grammatical-tense-in-english-part-2/ In my previous post, I talked about past and present tenses in English. This post covers future tense as well as conditional and subjunctive tenses. Future tenses Future indicative... http://www.grammarmatters.com/grammatical-tense-in-english-part-2/#comments http://www.grammarmatters.com/grammatical-tense-in-english-part-2/ Thu, 11 Jun 2009 18:01:00 GMT http://www.grammarmatters.com/grammatical-tense-in-english-part-1/ In school I learned to write essays in the present tense. Often, people's essays, articles, reviews, etc., sound like this: "WALL-E was a great movie. I thought that the story... http://www.grammarmatters.com/grammatical-tense-in-english-part-1/#comments http://www.grammarmatters.com/grammatical-tense-in-english-part-1/ Fri, 05 Jun 2009 18:04:00 GMT http://www.grammarmatters.com/capital-letters-when-to-use-them-and-when-to-avoid-them/ Capital letters are used for proper nouns, initialisms (acronyms and so on), and the beginnings of sentences. Discerning between upper- and lower-case letters is one of the first things we... http://www.grammarmatters.com/capital-letters-when-to-use-them-and-when-to-avoid-them/#comments http://www.grammarmatters.com/capital-letters-when-to-use-them-and-when-to-avoid-them/ Wed, 27 May 2009 17:56:00 GMT http://www.grammarmatters.com/the-possessive-apostrophe/ I mentioned the possessive apostrophe in previous posts here at Grammar Matters, but it deserves special attention because it is the source of so much confusion. Most of us are... http://www.grammarmatters.com/the-possessive-apostrophe/#comments http://www.grammarmatters.com/the-possessive-apostrophe/ Sat, 23 May 2009 20:35:00 GMT