Recently Added Articles Page #26

Casual vs. Causal

Casual – ·        to not take something very seriously. Example – he has a very casual attitude towards work. ·        Something thats not permanent – example, a relation...

Imitate, Intimate & Intimidate

Imitate (verb) – simply put, imitate is to copy someone or something, do same things as someone else. For example, ·        Monkeys imitate what humans do ·        Children i...

Effect vs. Affect

The cause and effect story Well, the #metoo movement started with some genuinely affected ladies coming forward and sharing their horrifying experiences. However, the negative effect of the movement was that some people misjudged them and started pok...

Restrict vs. Constrict

Overview Just to give a general idea, let us understand the basic meaning with an example. What is restrict? – To restrict someone from doing something is to control them. For example, you would have seen boards like ‘entry restricted’ outside ...

Much, Many, More...

Much A typical example of much is ‘how much?’ which tells about an uncountable quantity. No one knows how to count the ‘much’. For example ‘Much has been spoken about the topic but without any conclusion.’ How much money do we need? I f...

Distrustful vs. Mistrustful

Origin of the words Distrustful Distrustful is an adjective of the word distrust, which is the opposite of trust and simply means absence of trust. The word first originated in 1505-15 and is in the same lines as some other words like disappoint, di...

Auxiliary verbs

BE ‘To be’ means to exist. ‘Be’ can be used in many ways. ·    To form continuous tenses – present, past, future – be takes the form of am, is, are, was, were, will be – o   I am going to the park. o &nbs...

6 most commonly confused words

1. Complimentary vs complementary The word with the ‘I’ means getting good comments and feedback from someone. For e.g., I got a compliment today for my dress. This word with ‘I’ is associated with feelings/remarks and not any material things...

Interested vs. Interesting

Now let’s try to understand when to use which one. Use interesting to talk about a ‘thing’. Something is interesting. But, you/I/we (people) are interested in something i.e. use interested to talk about someone’s feelings, likes or dislikes....

List of Homonyms

Note: Some references use the term Homonyms more broadly, to refer to homographs (words spelled the same as each other but pronounced differently) or homophones (words spelled differently but pronounced the same).addressfallglowerkenremotearmfatgobke...

The verb GO

Go -ing (not a phrasal verb) This is not a phrasal verb but I am discussing it to clear doubts in forming sentences using ‘going’ When you use going, you need not use any prepositions afterwards. For example – “I am going for skating” is no...

When to use “When”

When as an interrogative pronoun Quite simply, when is used to ask questions related to time. For example, When are you planning to come? When will Tony reach London? When was the last time you met your parents?   Contraction of “when is” Wh...

Present perfect tense

First let’s understand the syntax – Use has/have and 3rd form of verb to form present perfect sentence. For example – We have seen this movie. (see(1) saw(2) seen(3)) She has cleaned her room. (clean(1) cleaned(2) cleaned(3)) For some verbs (...

Passive voice and why we need it

Here are some more practical examples of passive voice usage - 1.      The cameras are watching you – it doesn't make much sense to say this. Instead, “You are being watched” conveys the message in a better way. 2. ...

Either-Neither-Both

1. With too and so respectively Differences between Either and too (both either and too are used at the end of a sentence) – Consider this example – Person 1 – I got good marks. Person 2 – I got good marks too. We use either as a negative&n...

Prepositions – At vs. In vs. On

In, at and on are commonly used prepositions and are used in different situations – be it telling adate, or time, or about a place and so on. Let’s discuss these prepositions and their uses in detailwith reference to time.Useat – for telling ex...

shall vs. will vs. going to

A lot of people get confused on correct usage of will, going to & shall. Let’s take this example to start with – Will you go to school tomorrow? Shall we go to school tomorrow? Did you spot the difference? While asking a question, will is u...

When to use “Would” instead of “Will”

Many non-native English learners find it confusing when it comes to the uses of “would”. The word “would” has miscellaneous uses, so confusion is not unlikely. This post aims to clear the confusion. Most of the times, the source of the confus...

How to form embedded questions?

What is your favorite color? I guess the answer isn’t black. If it is black, then fine because I love black too. Let’s ask this question a bit differently. Would you tell me what your favorite color is? See the difference. It asks the same thing ...

Homophones

The most common example is the colour “red” and the past tense of the verb “read” which is also pronounced as “red” but the spelling is same as the base verb – read. E.g. I have read all the words marked in red. Maid/made – maid is a...

List of Adverbs

abnormally absentmindedly accidentally actually adventurously afterwards almost always annually anxiously arrogantly awkwardly bashfully beautifully bitterly bleakly blindly blissfully boastfully boldly bravely briefly brightl...

Most Common British/American English Spelling Mistakes

While both countries speak the same language, no one can deny that there are quite a few differences in the way that some words are spelled. In many cases, people often confuse the spelling of many words and they can’t tell which is correct and end...

On Board vs. Onboard

Have you ever wondered if you are on board or onboard a train or a plane? What about the time you agreed to help your friend carry out a crazy plan? Are you on board with his crazy idea or onboard? The answer is same for both questions as even though...

Oneself vs. One’s Self

Oneself vs. One's self Some English words can be very tricky, because they sound and are spelled almost identically. You can often meet this problem with "oneself" and "one's self", for example, even though they should be used in completely diff...

On Accident vs. By Accident

By accident...The correct phrase (adverb) to use traditionally, is: ‘by accident’. It means by mistake or something that’s done without the intention of doing it. For example, “she spilled the milk by accident.” We can also use the word ‘...