English can be confusing. Thanks to the language’s many different origins, the vocabulary alone is enough to make anyone’s head spin. You have words that should rhyme but don’t, you have nouns that give you irregular plurals that seem arbitrary, and you have some words whose spelling will confound even the most practiced native speakers. …
English
Table of Contents What is a Participial Phrase? What is a Participle? What is an Adjective? Present Participial Phrases The Difference Between Present Participles and Gerunds Past Participial Phrases Participial Phrases Exceptions: Irregular Verbs Perfect Participial Phrases Punctuation for Participial Phrases Mistakes to Avoid When …
Showing gratitude is of the utmost importance in both our personal and our professional lives. It makes us feel like we are part of something bigger than ourselves, like we belong. And, this sense of belonging can give tremendous meaning to our actions. Additionally, showing gratitude can make others feel validated and respected, propelling them …
Every time we investigate a certain word, we invariably look at the culture that spawned it. For instance, the term “crow tit” forced us to take a closer look at Korean culture as well as the disparity between different generations. Lately, we have been fascinated by a particular online subculture, that of Twitch. Not only …
Affect vs. effect is a commonly discussed problem; people often still struggle to choose the right one. Which one you should go for, obviously, always depends on the context and the very meaning of the sentence. But is that the same for “no effect vs. no affect?” Well, not exactly, because one of these two …
What is an appositive phrase? An appositive phrase is a special kind of noun phrase that explains or identifies another noun or pronoun. There are two kinds of appositive phrases: Essential appositive phrases (also called restrictive appositive phrases) and non-essential appositive phrases (also called nonrestrictive appositive phrases). How to find out if an …
If you’ve been following my blog, then you’ve heard me talk about how language and culture intertwine. For instance, when discussing what the phrase “crow tit” meant, we delved into Korean culture, analyzed one of their proverbs, and saw how the culture of one generation influenced the culture of the next one. We even saw …
Language is an ever-changing, evolving creature; not only do grammatical rules change with time (just take a look at Shakespearean English to get an idea of how different things are today), but words also change meaning all the time. Some words that were known for their literal meaning develop a figurative meaning, one that becomes …
English is a weird language: It is a Germanic language, meaning that its grammatical rules and main vocabulary come from Proto-Germanic. Its first origins can be traced back to when the Angles and Saxons arrived at Britain sometime during the 5th century. Once they had settled there, their isolation from their original group meant that …