Hello, it’s been a while, so I finally have a new article! Today, I’m exploring a language problem that is tricky to navigate: computer language assistants giving inaccurate advice. That is, when you have autocorrect or grammar assistant programs that flag things either unnecessarily or incorrectly.

I’ve compiled a short list of what I find to be the most common examples to help you avoid problems with this, so you can use language software tips more effectively.

What’s wrong with language assistant software?

Spellcheck and grammar assistants can be very handy, and I often use them for additional, final proof-reading checks – but I’m very careful about which corrections I accept. For example, this article is about 1,500 words long; I gave it one edit myself and ran it through Grammarly to receive 47 suggestions. Of these, 20 were actually specified “corrections”, and the others just language tips, which are of little interest to me. Of the 20 corrections, I found 5 useful, but only 1 was an objective error (a missing word). The remaining “corrections” were suggestions for commas or for verb or preposition changes. Considering I accepted 4 out of 19 of these, you can see the suggestions weren’t really “correct” for me.

This is about typical with what I find for my documents, though I am a professional writer and editor, so I’d imagine for others there may be a higher rate of useful corrections. If you can tell which ones to accept.

Every extra error I can identify is invaluable, but to get those corrections it’s essential that I’m able to identify how 75% of the suggestions aren’t appropriate. Mostly, the suggestions aren’t wrong, but are just unnecessary, and may slightly change my meaning or personal style. In the worst cases, they could actually introduce errors.

The problem is that language is an ever-changing and flexible thing, as we often discuss on here, whilst computer programs follow strict rules. It’s dangerous to rely on these too much, as they operate on a basis that all writing should be the same – that it should follow a particular, “correct” form. In its most extreme, this can strip writing of its intended effect or meaning.

Mostly, though, this is more of a sentence-level issue, where you have to consider whether or not the computer program’s tweaks are relevant – and consistent. To help keep you vigilant about the suggestions, here are 7 things that I notice often come up.

 1. Commas

By far the most common suggestion I get from computer language assistants is to add or remove commas. This is usually based on specific conjunction rules, pointing to situations where you should always or never have a comma alongside a conjunction. I disagree with using commas this way, as their particular use depends on how we can best present the information of any given sentence (as is true of all these points, actually).

For reference, I have a whole series of articles on commas, which you can find curated here. There is a running theme throughout that a comma’s main purpose is to aid with clarity. Software can’t necessarily decide that for you; sometimes, a reliance on specific structures will mean “correct” comma placement helps, but in most cases I would assess the accuracy of your commas based on your own intended meanings.

2. Prepositions

As with commas, computer software tends to try and fit preposition use into rigid rules, in this case based on expected conjugations. Anyone who has studied English will know, however, that the patterns for preposition use (and by association also particles from phrasal verbs) are terribly complex and often very specific.

Mostly, this is seen with suggestions that you change a preposition to a more appropriate one, or remove it. I frequently get told to correct “look on” to “look at”. This is a minor shift, but it’s telling that the software assumes “at” is always the most appropriate preposition for “look”. The problem with a correction like this is that “look at” may almost always be technically “correct” here, it’s not necessarily conveying the exact connection I want.

I also find these programs like to simplify longer or combined prepositions, such as changing “onto” to “on” or “into” to “in”, again stripping some nuance. Words such as “onto” and “into” exist to provide specific detail, which the computer, concerned only with correctness, does not necessarily appreciate.

3. Isolated Verb Conjugation

Certain structures seem to confuse computer software’s understanding of intended verb uses, and you may see suggestions for changing tenses or subject conjugation that don’t make sense in the wider context. One that I often encounter is where the program expects a particular type of structure to be associated with rules, and suggests a present tense verb, no matter what tense the rest of the document is in. This is more likely to occur where you have shorter, isolated sentences.

On the other hand, correction software can also get confused about subject conjugation when dealing with lists or longer sentences that separate the subject from the verb. Be particularly careful where you have noun phrases for subjects, and especially where you have multiple noun phrases, as this can make it hard to keep track of plurals. This is an area that can be tricky when writing and editing your own work, and computer programs aren’t necessarily any better at it than us!

4. Emphatic and Stylised Language

In general, autocorrect software is always looking to make your language more efficient and simpler, assuming simple is clearest. Whilst there is some merit in this as a starting point for editing, if followed too strictly it can restructure information you want presented in a specific way, and it may affect tone or emphasis.

Modern language use has gone towards an attitude that plain, simple language is best, but there is a time and place for varying from this. Computers cannot decide what those times and places are, so will simply tell you, for example, to remove extra adverbs or shorten long sentences.

You’ll see this in many different ways, but one of the most common is when language assistants suggest removing emphatic adverbs such as “still”, “just”, “really” and “very”. Sometimes these will be filler words that we can do without and sometimes they can completely change the emphasis of a sentence. Be careful to decide for yourself whether they are needed.

5. Dialogue Tags & Punctuation Styles

Computer language assistants sometimes make completely incorrect suggestions for specific bits of punctuation, such as dialogue tags (i.e. when using quote marks). A common example I find is when dealing with interruptions in dialogue, or listed items using quotes (in both cases, not using the expected full sentences enclosed by quotation marks). This is a matter of style which should be consistent within one document but may not easily be called correct or incorrect in general. For example:

• “I might interrupt some dialogue” – using dashes – “like this.”
• “Or you could also show an interruption,” with commas, “like this.”

Computer programs won’t necessarily see what you’re going for here, and can make some very strange suggestions, either to end or combine sentences or use different styles (such as replacing commas with dashes or vice versa).

It’s important in these cases to be aware of your style choices and stick to them.

6. Sentence Fragments & Adaptive Rules

There are times in writing where we reject typical rules to use grammatically incomplete sentences, often because they break rules, drawing attention to themselves. This is always going to depend on specific circumstances and personal nuance, and as such is always going to prove difficult for computers to master. I feel the software is actually getting better at appreciating this, and doesn’t always flag fragments, but for the most part if you venture from the rules, you will get warnings.

With sentence fragments in particular, this could lead to a variety of suggested solutions, including punctuation, verb, noun or preposition tweaks – all of which may detract from or completely change the intended meaning. Beware!

7. Vocabulary

Lastly, but most obviously, computer programs sometimes try to offer “better” words to improve your writing. This is not to be confused with correcting words, where you have a mistaken meaning, but is again a symptom of the rule-based system where certain types of language are considered to be clearer or more appropriate than others. Where software offers you words with similar meaning, I’d tread very carefully over exactly why it wants you to make a change. It may just be a case of the program trying to make language fit expected patterns. As with all the cases above, it can also mistake your intended meaning and try to change the sentence to fit its own ideas. Grammarly once told me to change “her behind” to “her hind legs”, which would’ve taken things in a very unusual direction.

The only good reason I can think of for automated synonym suggestions is where you might’ve used a particularly obscure or complex word that might be clearer simplified, but this is a personal choice to make that can depend on the context.

That’s my list for now, which I hope helps highlight areas for caution with computer language assistants. The software is useful and is definitely improving, but I do encourage you to keep questioning it, and there are plenty of other areas for caution I’m sure you’ve all encountered. Feel free to share your own experiences in the comments!

For the next instalment in my free book series, explained in my recent blog post, for all of November, I’m offering everyone The English Tenses Exercise Book absolutely free.

In case you missed it before, I’m running this series of free books because I’ve had less time to produce new material and the site is getting less visitors anyway, so I wanted to keep giving something back.

Once again, I’ve prepared a introduction to the book and a reflection on its history below, to take a moment to share its story.

The Origins of The English Tenses Exercise Book

The English Tenses Practical Grammar Guide was one of my main original ideas for this site, and as a topic I spent a lot of time developing and discussing, it felt only natural that it should have exercises to accompany it. Over the years, I’d managed to produce quite a few accompanying articles on this site, and I wanted to compile them, and more, into a systematic approach to testing the principles of the grammar guide.

One of the big things that encouraged me to do a full book like this was that my most popular article on this site, even now, was a rather basic future tenses exercise.

It took me a long time to get around to creating enough for a book, however, as a large part of the grammar guide’s point was to make more flexible use of the rules. Other than with really specific tense examples, then, and without wider context, I found it hard to come up with exercises where I wasn’t left considering alternative answers might also be appropriate.

Eventually, I devised a series of more regimented exercises which could test understanding of the rules without leaving answers open up to too much interpretation (although this remained a problem with the many different options available for the future tenses!). It was still tricky to come up with variations of these exercises, though, and in the end there was about a six years gap between me releasing the practical grammar guide and this exercise book!

Making the Book Unique

Like my grammar guides, which have my own personal twist on teaching points of flexible grammar, I wanted to make this different to other exercise books, as there are plenty of excellent ones out there. I also didn’t want to make it too complicated though, sticking to mostly gap-fill and matching exercises.

I’m not sure I was fully successful with creating something that original, but I attempted to make it more unique by (a) following a structure that closely accompanied the grammar guide and (b) adding in some more quirky prose-based exercises, with short stories and even a functioning bread recipe!

Otherwise, my aim was to create drills that were simple and engaging enough to provide a flowing set of exercises that would complement similar books. After all, I think you can never have too many exercises when trying to master a language!

The Challenges that Followed

The English Tenses Exercise Book is by far the longest of the books on this site, as I wanted to give a robust offering of different drills. This meant it took longer to make, and made it the most expensive book to produce, both in editing costs and printing costs. As an exercise book, it’s always been primarily popular in print and not eBook, too, making it less profitable overall.

Its release also, unfortunately, came at a time when the effectiveness of my advertising campaigns started to plummet.

As a result of all this, the Exercise Book was not a runaway success, and it took a lot of work to raise visibility and sales for it. The difficulty I had is partly responsible for me not managing to produce another English book since. It did turn a profit before too long, though, and has proved a hearty book that continues to sell about as well as the others on the site, it just never had a boom period like the other three. As of now, it’s sold about a quarter as many copies as the Practical Grammar Guide.

That remains a fairly significant number, still. For an exercise book, in a sea of other exercise books, I’m happy to have reached a few thousand people across the world, which certainly feels like enough to justify its existence! Hopefully it will continue to reach people over time, especially with this month’s free promotion.

Do have a look and let me know if you find it useful!

If you want to say something with fewer words in English, it’s often possible to choose more specific vocabulary. When it comes to choosing your verbs, this can impact entire phrases.

Today, I’m looking at a common issue in my fiction editing work, where we have verbs that may be accompanied by information like adverbs, prepositional phrases and even object phrases that do not add any additional detail. These can be easily trimmed if you’re working to a word count, or just want to be more efficient in your language use!

How Verbs Attract Extra Words

This can seem like a picky point, but we often see or hear verbs accompanied by information that essentially repeats something already conveyed by the action. For example, ‘shout loudly’ does not tell more than ‘shout’, as a shout is, by definition, loud. We often add such words quite instinctively, I suspect because we intend to express a specific detail without stopping to think about how we’ve already successfully expressed it. Though tricky to tackle when speaking, we can certainly look out for this when editing our writing!

The rich range of vocabulary in English gives us all sorts of nuanced choices for words – but this isn’t necessarily an advanced topic. Sometimes it is just a case of better understanding or paying attention to what verbs really mean. Through this consideration, we can shorten many verb phrases.

I’ve broken this down into three groups of example verbs that we can look out for to trim extra words: verbs which tell us the manner of what is done, verbs which tell us the direction of what is done and verbs which can tell us what is being used (i.e. implied objects). In all these cases, the extra details shown below aren’t incorrect as such, but can draw unwanted attention the verb and phrasing, which might distract your reader or listener by making them question if the additional detail is important. So, unless you want to be specifically emphatic, trimming these unnecessary words can help keep your language clean and clear.

Verbs Describing Manner

When choosing your verbs (as with all vocab!), there are typically simpler/general options and more specific, descriptive options. When you modify a general verb with an adverb, it’s often possible to instead use a different verb.

For example:

• run fast -> sprint
• talk quietly -> whisper
• liked a lot -> adored

While general verbs and adverbs have their own uses, what’s useful to recognise here is that more specific verbs are less likely to need such descriptors. If you already have a verb that describes a certain manner of action, extra description is not necessary.

For example:

• sprint [quickly]
• whisper [quietly]
• adored [a lot]

By definition, a sprint is fast, a whisper is quiet, and adoration is already extreme, so we don’t need these describing words. You can add such descriptors for emphasis, but it’s best to be aware of when and why you are doing this.

Verbs Describing Directions

Similarly, certain action verbs can by their nature express a directional aspect, making prepositions and prepositional phrases unnecessary. Such verbs might look like phrasal verbs, and fall into common usage, but they’re often just collocations. To look out for verbs that express directions, consider if the action would be unclear without a preposition.

For example:

• rise up
• crouch down
• climb up
• shout out
• dive under

This is not quite as simple as the describing verbs above, as the necessity for prepositions depends on how we’re connecting to a sentence, but without context, of all the verbs above except dive would give us the same information without the preposition. Rise must always go up and crouch down, and a shout always goes out (baring the artistic inward shout of thinking!). Without a specific context, climb generally means up, though we can also climb down. Dive, however, does not suggest a specific direction on its own – while it typically implies down, a dive can also go forward, sideways or up, or in this example under something.

Without objects and obstacles, verbs suggesting a direction can easily be simplified without prepositions. Unless you want to describe such actions in relation to something, e.g. to crouch under a table, we can mostly understand the directions of many verbs on their own.

Note, these extra prepositions don’t just apply to physical directions – more abstract verbs also can work on their own without prepositions, such as ‘add in/on’ = ‘add’.

Verbs Implying An Object

Lastly, there are verbs which by their nature tell us what is used to complete an action. People often add an object or indirect object to such verbs where it is unnecessary. This can be a trickier point to look out, but mostly I find these relate to actions that use body parts, perhaps because the verbs don’t obviously describing a body part, but typically don’t need the extra detail. For example:

• nod his head
• blink her eyes
• kick with his foot
• wave her hand
• shrug his shoulders

Unless there is something surprising or important about the object being used with such verbs, again it can sound strange or long-winded to add them. Again while this may sound picky, consider if you were to say ‘He hammered with a hammer.’ or ‘She spoke with her mouth.’ – someone who’s really paying attention could be distracted by such phrasing. Such verbs only need objects when the action is being specifically directed towards something other than the general meaning.

• She waved a flag.
• He kicked with the toe of his foot.
• She shrugged one shoulder.

Otherwise, I’d suggest keeping those verbs clean!

As I always say, this all depends on context and there are no absolutes in language, but I hope this gives some starting points for thinking about we can be more efficient in our phrasing of verbs, cutting out unnecessary words for a crisper, clearer meaning. And if you can think of other similar examples, feel free to share them in the comments below!

I often discuss breaking down sentence structure and word order to demonstrate how understanding sentence components helps provide flexibility with structure. You can use the full word order guide to help with this here.

Today, though, I’d like to discuss cases when it makes sense to choose a particular order based on a logical flow of information, where standard word order is maybe not the best choice, or reordering sentences could impact your intended meaning. This is not a question of grammar, but effective communication, and I’ll mostly focus on narrative timing to demonstrate this.

When “Correct” Sentence Structure is Problematic

A common issue I encounter in editing books is where something is described followed by information that would have been more effective coming first. This can be in descriptions of people and objects or the order of actions. It can also occur on a structural level, in paragraphs of chapters, but I’m going to be focusing on the sentence level here.

There are countless ways this can occur and it will always depend on the context (as does everything!), but most simply I see this as an issue where framing details come after the information they should frame. For example:

• There was an armchair in his living room, in his home, which was a castle.

There’s nothing essentially wrong with this sentence, except that we’re describing things in reverse order, from small to big, instead of setting the scene before placing things in it. The impact here is that it gives a rather scattered impression, with the reader having to reassess what they are seeing as they go (this works well in humour, but less effectively if you want to build a clear impression).

The key is to pay attention to what information you’d like someone to understand first to set a scene, before placing finer details in it. How important this is depends on what you are describing – essentially I’d warn that if there is anything a reader might find surprising, and you don’t want it to be a surprising twist (such as that castle detail), put it sooner.

In describing actions, the nuances of this can be more subtle. Particularly with shorter sentences, we don’t always need things to be in a simple linear order, as is clear by the fact that regular word order typically puts time phrases in a later position:

• She ate a cake after coming home.

It becomes more of an issue with longer sentences. When actions are described in detail before something else that already happened, it can create a narrative that feels like it’s jumping around. For example:

• He took the teabag out after brewing it for five minutes, once the kettle had boiled.

This sentence essentially tells us the events in reverse. It is grammatically correct and fairly clear, so I wouldn’t necessarily stop and say we must change it, but you can decide for yourself if a more logical sequence, presenting the action in the order that it happens, creates a better flow:

• Once the kettle had boiled, he brewed the tea for five minutes and took the teabag out.

This is a fairly innocuous example though. It matters more when you have details that could jar a reader out of the moment – again, if something might surprise them or might have helped establish the current scene. With events out of order, the timing itself may also become confusing:

• Sheila booked herself a cruise in the Pacific and enjoyed three months in the sun, away from everything, before settling down in a nice cottage in the countryside, after she retired.

Hopefully it’s clear here why the “after she retired” detail feels out of place at the end, as a detail that is tagged on, when in fact it is the detail that enables everything else. On its own, with this order, this sentence isn’t fully clear – did she retire before the cruise, or between the cruise and settling down in the cottage?

Again, I’d recommend presenting longer sentences in the order that events happen, so we can follow the action logically. And this is especially true, and apparent, when we include dialogue. With dialogue, we are creating a moment for the reader to experience, and if something is quoted followed by an action that preceded it, that moment is broken. For example:

• “Can I have some tea?” Winona asked, after she came into the room.

This is a backwards way of presenting the action as we’re already hearing the dialogue, picturing her saying it, only to then be shown her entering the room, which has already happened. If you want a reader to clearly picture a scene, it helps to keep things in order.

This doesn’t just apply to issues of clarity, though – mixing up the sequence of your sentences can affect tension, emphasis and other areas. There are reasons that we might specifically want to frame things differently (more on that below), but without one of those reasons, I’d suggest making things clearest for the reader by presenting actions in a logical order.

How to Keep Things Logical

There are two key tricks I’d look out for here in structuring your sentences to follow a logical/linear progression:

• Present details in a deliberate order, typically starting with the bigger picture and anything surprising or notable before getting into finer details.
• Present actions in the order that they occur, avoiding telling us about something that happened after we’ve already seen an action that followed it.

Two words you can look out for when considering the sequence of actions are “after” and “before” (and any similar phrases). For the most part, it makes sense to front-load adverbials that start with “after” (as these are events that came first) and to have adverbials that start with “before” later (as these are events that follow). The examples below illustrate this:

• After getting his car, he drove to the market. NOT He drove to the market after getting in his car.
• She bought the cheesecake in the market before she ate it all. NOT Before she ate it all, she bought the cheesecake in the market.

Again, though, there’s nothing necessarily wrong with these sentences on their own, but it’s a good practice to follow/be aware of for the times when it will matter.

When to Disregard Logical Order

As I said above, there are plenty of reasons we might not want to stick to a logical order. English sentence structure is, after all, flexible, and sentences can make sense in various orders. This is another case though where I would say whatever order you present your information, you should be aware of it, and have a reason for your sentence structure choices. This equally applies to both deviating from standard word order, where the time usually comes later (e.g. because we want to show a preceding event first), and in sticking to standard word order (e.g. because it is a short sentence or the sequence of events itself isn’t important/likely to cause confusion).

When we don’t use a linear order for presenting details or timed events, it’s usually because that information is less important and the order won’t affect understanding, or it’s because information presented out of sequence is more notable. Standard sentence order places time adverbials later in the sentence, which puts the emphasis on the active verb/subject, rather than the sequence of events itself. For example:

• She passed her driving test after only five lessons. (This puts more emphasis on the result, passing.)

Otherwise, giving us descriptive details or narrative sequences that don’t follow the expected, logical order, can also be good for deliberately adding emphasis or creating a surprise, which might be useful in creating either humour or tension. As with the castle example we started with, this can be a hallmark of absurdist humour:

• She rode to work instead of taking her car, but couldn’t find anywhere to stable her camel.

This sentence deliberately holds back the crucial detail, that she rode on a camel, to deliver it as a surprise. But if you merely wanted to paint a picture, where the point is anything but providing a surprise, it makes more sense to be clear:

• She rode her camel to work instead of her car, but the stables were full.

If in doubt, and you just want to be clear, consider what the most logical order is for a reader to receive the information you’re presenting, and how learning things in a different order will affect their understanding or reaction.

It’s October, which means it’s time for another Halloween-themed article!

This year, I’ve gone with a tenses/reading exercise again; you can enjoy this just for the reading practice, to see some Halloween English in use, or you can test yourself on the most appropriate tenses to complete the story.

The Brown House Ghoul – English Tenses Exercise

Complete the story by choosing the most appropriate tenses form for the verbs, in the spaces provided. The answers are given below.

They say that Brown House is haunted. It (1) __________ (to stand) on top of a tall hill at the edge of town. No one (2) __________ (to live) there for forty years. But last week, on Halloween, Timmy decided to go and see for himself.

Before going out, Timmy told his parents he (3) __________ (to go) trick or treating. He used a white sheet to dress up as a ghost. After going down the main street (where he did pick up some treats), he took a side street out of town. He quickly climbed the hill and observed the house.

Brown House (4) __________ (to look) very tall, with lots of broken windows and uneven turrets. The wind was blowing, so the trees nearby swayed against it. They (5) __________ (to make) scratching noises while he watched. Timmy was scared, but pretended not to be.

Timmy climbed over the small fence and found a window that had been boarded up long ago. Now, the boards were partly broken, so he could sneak in. He climbed through and found himself in a dark, dusty room with old furniture covered in cobwebs. There was a terrible smell of something rotten. Timmy (6) __________ (to think) maybe he should leave, as this was a bad idea, but before he could go a loud groan came from somewhere deep in the house. He jumped in fear.

When the groan came again, he paused and listened more carefully. (7) __________ (to be / it) just a pipe? He could not leave without more evidence of the supernatural.

Timmy continued through a chilly hallway to an open cellar doorway. He flinched at the sound of another groan, but continued. In the doorway, he looked down a tall flight of stairs which descended into darkness. Whatever was making the noise, it (8) __________ (to come) from down there.

He waited, to be sure it was quiet again, then trod down the stairs, cringing at the sound of the steps. He saw a flicker of light, deep in the cellar, and (9) __________ (to freeze). There was a figure, hunched over a fire, dark and knobbly. A ghoul!

“Ah!” Timmy cried in fear and the figure turned towards him. He saw a terrible gnarled face, old and warty, and he ran. He tripped over the steps but kept going. He charged through the house and threw himself through the boarded window. Outside, he sprinted towards the fence, and tried to jump it – but was stuck! His ghost outfit was caught and he couldn’t get free. He looked back and shrieked.

The big, creepy figure (10) __________ (to come) out of the house, very tall, very dark!

Timmy tore at his ghost costume, almost free, and fell off the fence with a bump. His knee hurt, so he was slow to get up, and suddenly a shadow swept over him. The ghoul was right there!

“Don’t eat me!” Timmy pleaded and the monster laughed. Not a mean laugh, nor monstrous. Timmy looked up again, uncertainly. The thing standing over him was not a monster but a man, he saw, wrapped in many layers of clothing. The person held out a hand, and in it was Timmy’s trick-or-treat bucket, which he (11) __________ (to drop). Timmy carefully took it back and the man smiled.

He understood then, that this person was merely living in the house, hidden, where no one went because they were scared it was haunted. But Timmy asked, quietly, “Why (12) __________ (you / to groan)? Are you hurt?”

The man shrugged and shook his head. “Just having a groan. (13) __________ (you / to tell) anyone I’m here?”

Timmy considered this. He (14) __________ (to brave) the haunted house and revealed its secret, but this man did not seem to be doing any harm. And it would be a better story if he told everyone there was a ghoul. He shook his head and held up his trick-or-treat bucket again, to offer a sweet. The man smiled and took a treat.

They still say that Brown House is haunted.

The Brown House Ghoul Answers

Below is the complete passage with the verbs in their correct forms. Some of these are flexible, but these are what I considered the most appropriate forms, considering the context and where verbs might be ongoing/interrupted.

They say that Brown House is haunted. It (1) stands on top of a tall hill at the edge of town. No one (2) has lived there for forty years. But last week, on Halloween, Timmy decided to go and see for himself.

Before going out, Timmy told his parents he (3) was going trick or treating. He used a white sheet to dress up as a ghost. After going down the main street (where he did pick up some treats), he took a side street out of town. He quickly climbed the hill and observed the house.

Brown House (4) looked very tall, with lots of broken windows and uneven turrets. The wind was blowing, so the trees nearby swayed against it. They (5) were making scratching noises while he watched. Timmy was scared, but pretended not to be.

Timmy climbed over the small fence and found a window that had been boarded up long ago. Now, the boards were partly broken, so he could sneak in. He climbed through and found himself in a dark, dusty room with old furniture covered in cobwebs. There was a terrible smell of something rotten. Timmy (6) thought maybe he should leave, as this was a bad idea, but before he could go a loud groan came from somewhere deep in the house. He jumped in fear.

When the groan came again, he paused and listened more carefully. (7) Was it just a pipe? He could not leave without more evidence of the supernatural.

Timmy continued through a chilly hallway to an open cellar doorway. He flinched at the sound of another groan, but continued. In the doorway, he looked down a tall flight of stairs which descended into darkness. Whatever was making the noise, it (8) was coming from down there.

He waited, to be sure it was quiet again, then trod down the stairs, cringing at the sound of the steps. He saw a flicker of light, deep in the cellar, and (9) froze. There was a figure, hunched over a fire, dark and knobbly. A ghoul!

“Ah!” Timmy cried in fear and the figure turned towards him. He saw a terrible gnarled face, old and warty, and he ran. He tripped over the steps but kept going. He charged through the house and threw himself through the boarded window. Outside, he sprinted towards the fence, and tried to jump it – but was stuck! His ghost outfit was caught and he couldn’t get free. He looked back and shrieked.

The big, creepy figure (10) was coming out of the house, very tall, very dark!

Timmy tore at his ghost costume, almost free, and fell off the fence with a bump. His knee hurt, so he was slow to get up, and suddenly a shadow swept over him. The ghoul was right there!

“Don’t eat me!” Timmy pleaded and the monster laughed. Not a mean laugh, nor monstrous. Timmy looked up again, uncertainly. The thing standing over him was not a monster but a man, he saw, wrapped in many layers of clothing. The person held out a hand, and in it was Timmy’s trick-or-treat bucket, which he (11) had dropped. Timmy carefully took it back and the man smiled.

He understood then, that this person was merely living in the house, hidden, where no one went because they were scared it was haunted. But Timmy asked, quietly, “Why (12) were you groaning? Are you hurt?”

The man shrugged and shook his head. “Just having a groan. (13) Are you going to tell anyone I’m here?”

Timmy considered this. He (14) had braved the haunted house and revealed its secret, but this man did not seem to be doing any harm. And it would be a better story if he told everyone there was a ghoul. He shook his head and held up his trick-or-treat bucket again, to offer a sweet. The man smiled and took a treat.

They still say that Brown House is haunted.

As always let me know if you have any thoughts or questions!

It’s October, so Halloween is coming and it’s Spooky Season, which we are a fan of here on ELB. I’ve got lots of seasonal articles on the website, and you can find all my Halloween features here. Today I’m going to share a new mixed tenses exercise using Halloween-themed language, so we can combine a bit of vocabulary and grammar! You might particularly want to look at the nasty nouns and abysmal adjectives lists for reference.

This is quite a tricky exercise, combining and contrasting the different tenses, but I’ve given explanations with the answers.

Spooky Halloween Mixed Tenses Exercise

Complete the creepy sentences below by filling in the gaps with the correct English tense form, using the verb in brackets. I went for a broad range, testing all the main aspects of the English tenses, so we have the past, present and future listed below. This can lead to some flexibility but I’ve tried to provide sentences that make one answer most appropriate. (Note some sentences have additional words in brackets to indicate negatives or question forms.)

1. I did not sleep well because a wolf __________ at the moon. (to howl)
2. Sandy always __________ that there is a bogeyman under her bed. (to worry)
3. We __________ a pumpkin into a jack-o’-lantern next week. (to carve)
4. She had a dreadful feeling that she __________ to lock the cellar door. (to forget)
5. Tony __________ a poltergeist has been moving his furniture every night. (to suspect)
6. The witch __________ in that eerie shed for almost sixteen years now. (to live)
7. When she saw her own name on a gravestone, Janice __________. (to faint)
8. I __________ in vampires, but that man looks like one. (to believe / not)
9. The children found a grisly corpse while they __________ in the park. (to play)
10. Many bizarre things __________ at the lake recently. (to happen)
11. Rupert shrieked when the clock __________ on the floor. (to fall)
12. The police __________ the otherworldly goo tomorrow morning. (to investigate)
13. Hilary and Erin are not coming to the party because they __________ two nights in a haunted house for charity. (to spend)
14. Can you close the curtains? The moonlight __________ an unnerving shadow on the wall. (to cast)
15. My biggest fear is that zombies __________ my home. (to attack)
16. Denny opened the door, thinking the pizza __________. It hadn’t. (to arrive)
17. She said she __________ afraid of spiders, but she gave a bloodcurdling scream when the tarantula appeared. (to be / not)
18. Wendy keeps waking me up; she __________ nightmares about fairies again. (to have)
19. Please take this box outside. Whatever you do, __________ inside. (to look / not)
20. I don’t remember inviting that creepy tall man. __________ him before? (to see / you)

Answers

1. I did not sleep well because a wolf was howling at the moon. (continuously)
2. Sandy always worries that there is a bogeyman under her bed. (a general rule)
3. We are going to carve / will carve a pumpkin into a jack-o’-lantern next week. (a future determination; “are carving” could also work as a scheduled plan)
4. She had a dreadful feeling that she had forgotten to lock the cellar door. (a past action that happened before the feeling)
5. Tony suspects a poltergeist has been moving his furniture every night. (a current feeling)
6. The witch has been living in that eerie shed for almost sixteen years now. (an ongoing state with a start point in the past; “has lived” can also work but the continuous is more appropriate for a duration)
7. When she saw her own name on a gravestone, Janice fainted. (simple past action)
8. I don’t / do not believe in vampires, but that man looks like one. (simple present belief)
9. The children found a grisly corpse while they were playing in the park. (interrupted continuous past action)
10. Many bizarre things have happened / have been happening at the lake recently. (ongoing current events which started in the past)
11. Rupert shrieked when the clock fell on the floor. (simple complete past)
12. The police will investigate / are going to investigate the otherworldly goo tomorrow morning. (future determined action)
13. Hilary and Erin are not coming to the party because they are spending two nights in a haunted house for charity. (ongoing present action)
14. Can you close the curtains? The moonlight is casting an unnerving shadow on the wall. (ongoing present action)
15. My biggest fear is that zombies will attack my home. (future/imagined fear)
16. Denny opened the door, thinking the pizza had arrived. It hadn’t. (past event complete before he “opened” the door)
17. She said she wasn’t / was not afraid of spiders, but she gave a bloodcurdling scream when the tarantula appeared. (reported past speech)
18. Wendy keeps waking me up; she is having nightmares about fairies again. (ongoing current action)
19. Please take this box outside. Whatever you do, do not look (present rule)
20. I don’t remember inviting that creepy tall man. Have you seen him before? (past experience with present impact)