I recently was asked when to use neither/nor instead of either/or.  The rule is pretty simple.  You use either/or when you are talking about something in a positive sense.  You use neither/nor when you are talking about something in a negative sense. Remember either must be paired with or and neither must be paired with […]

Who and whom are 2 words that many native English speakers confuse. Where I live it doesn’t matter if you say ‘whom’ when you are supposed to say it. People of all backgrounds use ‘who’ many (if not all) of the times when you should use ‘whom’. But, it is still useful to know when […]

Someone from twitter recently asked me what the difference between near and nearby is. I thought I would post my answer in case others had the same question. Near adverb –in close relationship, within a short distance. Christmas is drawing near. adjective – close in time, space or position, short and direction, barely avoided, close […]

Do you know the difference between ‘do’ and ‘make’? Here are some pointers that could help you to know which one to use. Do You can use ‘do’ when you are talking about daily activities. Usually these activities do not produce something physical. Today I’m going to do the housework. Ugh, I hate doing homework. […]

Here are 2 words that have almost the same meanings, but you cannot always use either one. Below are some rules for their uses. Each – both (2 or more objects or people) Every – all (3 or more objects or people) Here is an example of when they have almost the same meaning: I […]

Is the plural of moose, meese? No. Moose is the same in its singular and plural forms. Here are 6 words I wanted to mention today, where the singular and the plural forms are the same: deer – I see 1 deer. There are 20 deer grazing in that pasture. moose – There are lots […]

Here are 6 verbs that have 2 past tenses which are both accepted as correct in English. learned/learnt burned/burnt smelled/smelt spelled/spelt spilled/spilt spoiled/spoilt Does it matter if you use one word over another? It doesn’t matter as they are both correct; however, the ‘ed’ form is used in American English and the ‘t’ form is […]

Do you know what the plural of fish is? Is it fish or fishes? The answer is, it is both. We usually use “fish” as the plural of fish when we are talking about 1 kind of fish. I saw many spotted fish today in the lake. (They were all the same kind of fish.) […]

Lots of past students have asked me this question: When do I use ‘a’ and when do I use ‘an’? You use ‘a’ when the word following it starts with a consonant. a cat a book a big house a yellow pair of pants You use ‘an’ when the word following it starts with a […]

The word ‘can’ is used a lot in the English language. Here are some of the uses: You can use ‘can’ to talk about possibility of something happening. (You can also use ‘could’ here.) Can I do that? I cannot run a marathon. You can park your car right here. ‘Can’ has 2 negative forms. […]