Category: Grammar

They’re vs. Their vs. There

They’re They’re is the contracted form of They are. They’re playing. (= They are playing.) They’re running. (= They are running.) There There is a kind of preparatory subject. It is used in sentences which say that something exists...

Therefore | How To Use Therefore Correctly

The word therefore is not a conjunction, and therefore you cannot use it to connect two clauses. Read the sentence given below. It is an example of the incorrect use of therefore. He is clever therefore he gets good marks....

Introductory There

There In English, the most common way of indicating existence is by using the structure there + to be. Normally there is an adverb of place. But the introductory there has no adverbial sense and is just used to...

That-Clauses

That is simply a connector. It shows that a declarative clause forms part of a larger sentence. Compare: I understand. You are right. (two separate sentences) I understand that you are right. (The clause you are right has become...

Talk To vs. Talk With vs. Talk At

There is hardly any difference between talk to and talk with. I think the form talk with is more common in American English. Can I talk with Alice, please? OR Can I talk to Alice, please? I want to talk to you. OR I want...

Take | English Usage

We can use take to say how much time we need to do something. Different structures are possible. Person + take + time + infinitive When the person is the subject, we use the structure person +...

Surely | English Usage

Surely does not mean the same as certainly. There is usually a difference. Compare: That is certainly Jane’s boyfriend. (= I know that is Jane’s boyfriend.) Surely that is Jane’s boyfriend? (That really seems to be Jane’s boyfriend. How...

Such … That

The structure such + noun can be used to mean ‘like this/that’. Note that such comes before the article a/an. The management is planning to hire more people. I would oppose such a decision. (= I would oppose a decision...

Subject Verb Agreement Rules

The basic principle of subject – verb agreement is simple. The verb has to agree with the subject in number and person. That means if the subject is a singular noun, the verb has to be singular...

So That vs. In Order That

These structures are used to talk about purpose. So that is more common in informal speech and writing. Both these expressions are normally followed by modal auxiliary verbs such as can or will. I waited for an hour so that I...