Broad and Implied Negatives: Negative Sentences Without Negative Words
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,...
What’s the difference between “it’s” and “its”?
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...
What’s the Difference Between “any more” and “anymore”?
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...
ELB Phrasal Verbs Master List: Grammar, Definitions and Examples for 400+ Verbs
Welcome to ELB phrasal master guide. This article explains the purpose and grammar of phrasal verbs, and describes how they fit into sentences (as adapted from the book Word Order In English Sentences). It also provides a list of phrasal verbs with definitions and...
Different Types of Language Varieties
I’ve had a few blog comments lately addressing how English is used or taught differently, and thought it would be a useful exercise to produce an article covering how we discuss varieties of a language. Some of the most active articles I have are ones where people...Want to Master English?
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