Due To vs. Owing To vs. Because Of vs. On Account Of
Due to and owing to both mean because of. Phrases beginning with due/owing to are often separated from the rest of their sentence by a comma. The flight was delayed, due/owing to bad weather....
Author: Manjusha Nambiar
Dress
The countable noun dress means the long outer garment worn by a woman or a girl. It is used with the article a/an. I have never seen her wearing a dress. The uncountable noun...
Double Negatives And Double Possessives
Never use a negative verb and a negative qualifier (e.g. nothing, hardly, scarcely, nobody etc.) together. Incorrect: I haven’t nothing to prove. Correct: I have nothing to prove. OR I haven’t got anything to...
Different To vs. Different From vs. Different Than
Different is an adjective. It can be modified by any and no, little and not much. ‘How is the patient doctor?’ ‘No different.’ His ideas are little different from those of his friends. Quite...
When To Use A and When To Use The
In some situations, you can use either the indefinite article (a/an) or the definite article (the). Note that there is a difference of meaning between the two structures. The definite article is used when...
Dare As An Ordinary Verb And An Auxiliary Verb
Dare as an ordinary verb As an ordinary verb, dare is followed by the infinitive with to. She doesn’t dare to go out at night. I dare you to hit me! She didn’t dare...
Could Have + Past Participle
The structure could have + past participle is used to say that somebody was capable of doing something, but didn’t try to do it. He could have become the President if he had contested...
Correlative Conjunctions
When the correlatives either—or, neither—nor, both—and, not only—but also are used, you must see that they are placed before words of the same part of speech. Read the sentence given below. The car either...
The Pronunciation Of Article The
The word the has three pronunciations. When it is followed by a word that begins with a vowel sound, the e in the is pronounced like the I in words like pit and sit....
Cool Down vs. Cool Off
There is little difference between the expressions cool down and cool off. When things cool down / cool off, their temperature drops a bit. When your interest in something / someone cools down /...