🍃 Eco English

2016-12-03 02:21:46 Word Fact: It’s Versus Its

English contains so many confusing words and punctuation marks you’d be forgiven for imagining some diabolical grammarian put them there to torture us. You’d be wrong, but it’s a reasonable assumption. One confusing pair that unites tricky words with slippery punctuation is its and it’s. This confusion is exacerbated by the fact that its is one of the top 100 most frequently used words in English. It appears all the time—giving us oodles of opportunities for error.

Its is the possessive form of it. This is particularly confusing because many possessive forms have an apostrophe, like Mary’s cat, but the possessive its is a pronoun, and, like other possessive pronouns (his, hers, yours, and theirs), is written without that particular bit of punctuation: “I have to fix my bike. Its front wheel came off.”

It’s is a contraction of the words it and is, just as what’s, how’s, and she’s are contractions of what is, how is, and she is. It’s is used correctly in the sentence: “It’s starting to rain.”

To help figure out which form you should use, try this trick : switch out the word in your sentence for it is. If the sentence grammatically works with it is, use it’s. If the resulting sentence doesn’t make sense, go for its. In the sentence “It’s unclear what he meant,” it’s can be swapped with it is and it will read: “It is unclear what he meant.” Now that’s a full and proper sentence. In the sentence, “The book has lost its jacket,” “If you replace its with it is, it will read: “The book has lost it is jacket.” That sounds funny.

Another rule to keep in mind: the word its’ is always wrong. The apostrophe never follows the s. It’s nice to be able to say never in a rule concerning English grammar; it doesn’t happen very often.

@ecoenglish Open / Comment

2016-12-03 02:06:59 Word Fact: It’s Versus Its Open / Comment

2016-12-02 20:20:03 @ecoenglish Open / Comment

2016-11-30 18:37:12 Dearest creature in creation,
Study English pronunciation.
I will teach you in my verse
Sounds like corpse, corps, horse, and worse.
I will keep you, Suzy, busy,
Make your head with heat grow dizzy.
Tear in eye, your dress will tear.
So shall I! Oh hear my prayer.

Just compare heart, beard, and heard,
Dies and diet, lord and word,
Sword and sward, retain and Britain.
(Mind the latter, how it's written.)
Now I surely will not plague you
With such words as plaque and ague.
But be careful how you speak:
Say break and steak, but bleak and streak;
Cloven, oven, how and low,
Script, receipt, show, poem, and toe.

Hear me say, devoid of trickery,
Daughter, laughter, and Terpsichore,
Typhoid, measles, topsails, aisles,
Exiles, similes, and reviles;
Scholar, vicar, and cigar,
Solar, mica, war and far;
One, anemone, Balmoral,
Kitchen, lichen, laundry, laurel;
Gertrude, German, wind and mind,
Scene, Melpomene, mankind.

Billet does not rhyme with ballet,
Bouquet, wallet, mallet, chalet.
Blood and flood are not like food,
Nor is mould like should and would.
Viscous, viscount, load and broad,
Toward, to forward, to reward.
And your pronunciation's OK
When you correctly say croquet,
Rounded, wounded, grieve and sieve,
Friend and fiend, alive and live.

Ivy, privy, famous; clamour
And enamour rhymes with hammer.
River, rival, tomb, bomb, comb,
Doll and roll and some and home.
Stranger does not rhyme with anger,
Neither does devour with clangour.
Souls but foul, haunt but aunt,
Font, front, wont, want, grand, and grant,
Shoes, goes, does. Now first say finger,
And then singer, ginger, linger,
Real, zeal, mauve, gauze, gouge and gauge,
Marriage, foliage, mirage, and age.

Query does not rhyme with very,
Nor does fury sound like bury.
Dost, lost, post and doth, cloth, loth.
Job, nob, bosom, transom, oath.
Though the differences seem little,
We say actual but victual.
Refer does not rhyme with deafer.
Foeffer does, and zephyr, heifer.
Mint, pint, senate and sedate;
Dull, bull, and George ate late.
Scenic, Arabic, Pacific,
Science, conscience, scientific.

Liberty, library, heave and heaven,
Rachel, ache, moustache, eleven.
We say hallowed, but allowed,
People, leopard, towed, but vowed.
Mark the differences, moreover,
Between mover, cover, clover;
Leeches, breeches, wise, precise,
Chalice, but police and lice;
Camel, constable, unstable,
Principle, disciple, label.

Petal, panel, and canal,
Wait, surprise, plait, promise, pal.
Worm and storm, chaise, chaos, chair,
Senator, spectator, mayor.
Tour, but our and succour, four.
Gas, alas, and Arkansas.
Sea, idea, Korea, area,
Psalm, Maria, but malaria.
Youth, south, southern, cleanse and clean.
Doctrine, turpentine, marine.

Compare alien with Italian,
Dandelion and battalion.
Sally with ally, yea, ye,
Eye, I, ay, aye, whey, and key.
Say aver, but ever, fever,
Neither, leisure, skein, deceiver.
Heron, granary, canary.
Crevice and device and aerie.

Face, but preface, not efface.
Phlegm, phlegmatic, ass, glass, bass.
Large, but target, gin, give, verging,
Ought, out, joust and scour, scourging.
Ear, but earn and wear and tear
Do not rhyme with here but ere.
Seven is right, but so is even,
Hyphen, roughen, nephew Stephen,
Monkey, donkey, Turk and jerk,
Ask, grasp, wasp, and cork and work.

Pronunciation -- think of Psyche!
Is a paling stout and spikey?
Won't it make you lose your wits,
Writing groats and saying grits?
It's a dark abyss or tunnel:
Strewn with stones, stowed, solace, gunwale,
Islington and Isle of Wight,
Housewife, verdict and indict.

Finally, which rhymes with enough?
Though, through, plough, or dough, or cough?
Hiccough has the sound of cup.
My advice is give it up! Open / Comment

2016-11-30 17:06:41 Six words that can ruin your sentence

Actually
ak-choo-uh-lee

Crutch words are words that we slip into sentences in order to give ourselves more time to think, or to emphasize a statement. Over time, they become unconscious verbal tics. Most often, crutch words do not add meaning of a statement. Actually is the perfect example of a crutch word. It is meant to signify something that exists in reality, but it is more often used as a way to add punch to a statement (as in, "I actually have no idea"). The next word is one of the most chronically misused crutch words in English.

Literally
lit-er-uh-lee

This adverb should be used to describe an action that occurs in a strict sense. Often, however, it is used inversely to emphasize a hyperbolic or figurative statement: "I literally ran 300 miles today." Literally is one of the most famously used crutch words in English. The next one, however, may surprise you.

Basically
bey-sik-lee

This word is used to signal truth, simplicity, and confidence, like in "Basically, he made a bad decision." It should signify something that is fundamental or elementary, but too often this word is used in the context of things that are far from basic in order to create a sense of authority and finality. What's our next adverb offender?

Honestly
on-ist-lee

This crutch word is used to assert authority or express incredulity, as in, " Honestly, I have no idea why he said that." However, it very rarely adds honesty to a statement. The next crutch word is perhaps the most famous one out there.

Like
lahyk

The cardinal sinner of lazy words like is interspersed in dialogue to give a speaker more time to think or because the speaker cannot shake the habit of using the word. Like should describe something of the same form, appearance, kind, character, or amount. But, very often, it is used involuntarily in conversation, just like um. Our next and final word is not so obvious.

Obviously
ob-vee-uhs

This word should signify an action which is readily observable, recognized, or understood. Speakers tend to use it, however, to emphasize their point with regards to things that aren't necessarily obvious: " Obviously he should have thrown the ball to first base." What crutch words do you rely on?

Join us:
@Ecoenglish Open / Comment

2016-11-30 14:39:07 Learn Persian with us.

We provide 'learning resources' in different languages.

Join us:
@Persianresources Open / Comment

2016-11-28 22:16:29 Should You Say Between You and I or Between You and Me ?


Grammar is a combination of rules and conventions. What is the difference? Well, there are the rules, like a verb must agree with its subject. By that rule, he say is incorrect. Then there are conventions, which are uses of language that are common enough that even though they break the rules they become correct simply through repeated usage. Additionally, there are other conventions that vary from place to place, but that’s a much bigger discussion.

In the introduction to the 2003 edition of The King’s English, Matthew Parris reminds us that, “There is no authority. English is not a managed language. Nobody is in charge.” Over time, English speakers themselves become the authority. Some accepted conventions sound very natural, like saying I’m good instead of I’m well Through their ubiquity, they’ve become an accepted part of the language.

Now what about between you and I ? Technically, it should be between you and me However, the phrase “between you and I” has become accepted as an idiom of its own. Even Shakespeare used it! Confusing me and I is one of the most common grammar problems. Using the word I can sound learned and elite; however this leads to it being overused when it’s actually incorrect. This problem is called hypercorrect incorrectness . The you and me problem is confusing when there are two objects, as in the sentence Thanks for inviting my husband and I to dinner If you are ever unsure, here’s a simple trick. Omit the first person and see how it sounds. If you said, “Thanks for inviting I to dinner,” it sounds wrong. Without two people, it is easier to use your ear to hear if I or me is grammatically correct.

Join us:
@Ecoenglish Open / Comment

2016-11-28 22:04:11 Word Fact: Should You Say “Between You and I” or “Between You and Me”? Open / Comment

2016-11-04 13:39:32 Open / Comment

2016-11-04 09:32:21 Open / Comment