by Phil Williams | Jun 10, 2021 | Grammar
I had a question recently asking about how to use the present perfect without durational adverbs, such as “for” or “since”. There are some examples of this in The English Tenses Practical Grammar Guide, but I thought it would be useful to expand on the concept....
by Phil Williams | May 11, 2021 | Definitions, Grammar
I’ve had an interesting correspondence with a reader who identified an implied negative which is rarely explored in grammar guides – where a negative sentence is created without any explicitly negative words. These can be more difficult to spot than regular negatives,...
by Phil Williams | Apr 13, 2021 | Definitions, Exercises, General English, Grammar, Words
Here’s an issue that confuses native English speakers: when and where to use an apostrophe with it. This has been covered a lot online, because these two words are very commonly confused, but I still get asked about it so hope my own explanation might reach a few more...
by Phil Williams | Mar 9, 2021 | General English
Today, we’re taking another look at the tenses with a short mixed past tenses exercise. This one’s a little different to the usual gap-fills or scrambles that I’ve posted in the past, as it uses a sentence pairing style. It’s taken from The...
by Phil Williams | Feb 9, 2021 | Definitions, Grammar, Vocabulary
It’s been a while since I did a comparisons / common mistakes post, but the difference between “any more” and “anymore” is one that I’ve seen quite a lot lately. In fact, I sometimes stop and think about it myself when writing, because their meanings are closely...