by Phil Williams | Mar 8, 2013 | Books, Grammar, Writing skills
This book is not as well known in the UK as in America, so I discovered it quite late. But it summarises many of my personal views on good written English. In America, it is incredibly famous. It was labelled one of the All-Time 100 Nonfiction Books, the most...
by Phil Williams | Mar 6, 2013 | Definitions, Words
Contractions are very common in colloquial English. They are formed by combining two words, using an apostrophe (‘) to join them. The apostrophe replaces any missing letters. For instance, I am becomes I’m. Contractions are essential if you want to sound...
by Phil Williams | Mar 1, 2013 | Definitions, Exercises, Grammar
Let, get, have and make are what we call causative verbs. This is because they lead to results. You can let, have, make or get someone to do something. They vary in firmness – let is the least firm, make is the most firm. Below is a simple demonstration of the...
by Phil Williams | Feb 26, 2013 | Definitions, Grammar, Words
To understand English rules, it is important to know the names of the English words that make up the language. Every word, phrase or component of a sentence can be defined by names and grammatical terms. The following is a list of the most common technical names for...
by Phil Williams | Feb 20, 2013 | Grammar
As explained in full in The English Tenses Practical Grammar Guide, the perfect forms (including simple perfect and continuous perfect forms) can be used with a future meaning in English. The simple perfect tense with future meaning shows something has not been...