Trouble With Tenses – Unnecessary Perfects.
Perfect infinitives – (to) have done – are sometimes used unnecessarily after a past tense: ? I expected to have…
Category: English Editing
Trouble With Tenses- Sequence of Tenses.
Which should you say? Margaret said I owe her 100 dollars. Margaret said I owed her 100 dollars. Traditional grammar,…
Problems With Verbs – Lay, Lie.
Do you lie in on Saturday mornings, or lay in? Do you lay the rug on the floor, or lie…
Pronouns and Case – Ambiguity- Whose is His?
Consider this sentence: ? A supermarket supervisor has been charged with the attempted murder of his boss at a New…
Origins – Swing and Sway.
Vacillate – note the single c, double l – derives from Latin vacillo, swing back and forth. People who swing…
Pronouns and Case – Just Like Me.
Traditionally, like is a preposition not a conjunction: My son looks just like me; ?? My son walks just like…
Origins – Saying ‘No!’ to Oneself.
Abnegate is derived from Latin ab-, away (as in absent), plus nego, to deny – self-abnegation, then, is self-denial. Nego…
Pronouns and Case – Myself and Other Selves.
The -self words have various more or less acceptable uses in English, including these: X. as emphatic pronouns, as in…