Showing posts with label featured. Show all posts
Showing posts with label featured. Show all posts

Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Kill yourself, with your tattoo !

vrit veten

 

Kill yourself, with your tattoo !

Your* welcome !

prova123This is the time for all people, didn't know what is the grammar !

Grammar fail everywhere , everywhere !

Grammar fail everywhere , everywhere !gjithandej

Please no , you are to Nazis !

nazisotrThis happens  when a grammar nazi wants to order others !

Monday, February 4, 2013

The Present Progressive Tense

Talking about dynamic ongoing activities happening at a specific present time only


The Present Progressive tense (or Present Continuous) is a much-used verb tense in English that describes on-going actions at the moment of speaking, stressing that the doer is in the middle of the activity and hasn’t finished yet (the action is incomplete). It is used to refer to a temporary dynamic activity occurring at a specific time in the present, not on a regular basis. To know more, read these sections of our grammar review on the Present Progressive in English.

1. Slogan
2. Usages
3. Form
4. Common time expressions
5. Negative statements and questions types
6. Summary



1. Slogan: “I am in the middle of doing something, please don’t disturb !” or


“It doesn’t happen all the time”



The slogans encapsulate the basic meaning of the Present Progressive, so use it when hesitating about what verb form to choose in your English writing. Remembering one short slogan can help you navigate through all the grammar rules it relates to.

English Vocabulary: Beginnings

There Just Seems to Be No End to It - Part 1


The English language has become the international language of the world. In addition to the 400 million people speaking English as a first language, about 800 million use or study Englishas a second/ foreign language. As English grammar is relatively simple compared to other languages, it is the vast English vocabulary, which poses a real challenge in the quest to master the language.

Almost every word in English seems to have many synonym sets with rough to subtle differences in meaning between members of each set. For example, to name the place where one lives, you can use home, house, quarters, or lodging (standard); residence, domicile, orhabituation (formal); and shack, digs, spot, or pad (informal, slang). A set of words can also be found to describe a person who talks a lot: articulate, eloquent, fluent (positive connotation); vocal, talkative, verbose (neutral connotation); chattering, gossipy, and gabby(negative connotation). There just seems to be no end to English words...

The most complete dictionary of English, the Oxford English Dictionary, or OED (second edition, 20 volumes, 1989) has more than 600,000 word entries (including archaic forms and variant spellings). Nevertheless, English is estimated to have more than a 1,000,000 words, as the second half of the 20th century enriched the language with an abundance of specialist, technical and scientific terms, not to mention slang and contributions from local English varieties (American, British, Australian & New-Zealander English, Indian English, and more). Just for comparison, Arabic has "only" 200,000 words, German 160,000, French 140,000, Japanese 116,000, and Hebrew 100,000 (rough estimates).

How is it that English has such a huge vocabulary, larger than any other language on earth? In addition to various word formation mechanisms existing in other languages, such as onomatopoeia, derivation, affixation, compounding and functional extension, the major source for the large variety of English words is its dramatic history. The 1,600 years of English existence have been witness to massive revolutionary changes in the language as it mixed with and continuously borrowed from other languages, with which it came into contact.

Early English roots trace back to the invasion of the Anglo-Saxons to Britain in the 5th and 6th centuries resulting in Old English being mainly Germanic. 83% of the most common 1000 words in today's English are of Anglo-Saxon origin.









Old English
words


  • nouns: house, mother, father ,cow, God, gold, work, land, winter

  • verbs: be, have, do, say, come, make

  • adjectives: good, new, and long

  • function words: he, of, him, for, and, under, on



Already in this period of Old English, the language began applying its inclination to ravenously borrow words from other languages. From the native Celts, it took clan, bin, gull, and crag, as well as names for places and rivers ( Dover, Kent, Severn, Thames). Latin words arrived even earlier with the Roman conquest of 43 B.C. ( cheese, cup, kitchen, plant, street, wine). A later wave of Latin words was brought with Christian monks and missionaries seeking to convert the Anglo-Saxons, enriching the language with both religious and secular words, such asabbot, altar, acolyte, candle, martyr, Mass, and lily.

The next addition to the vocabulary to close the Old English period resulted from the Viking invasions to Britain during the 8th and 9th centuries. These newcomers, who had settled alongside the Anglo-Saxons, contributed Old Norse vocabulary such as the following:









from Old Norse



  • flat, cake, take, get, call, husband, want, cut, both, ugly, fellow, hit, odd, egg, sister, law, leg, rag, window, die, are (form of the verb be)

  • words beginning with sk: scorch, scrape, scrub, skill, and sky

  • The personal pronouns: they, their, them



Synonymous word sets such as those presented above already show up in this period: sick vs.ill, shirt vs. skirt, wrath vs. anger, rear vs. raise, hide vs. skin, the first Anglo-Saxon, the second Old Norse, respectively. The all-in-all contribution of words from Germanic origins (Anglo-Saxon, Old Norse etc.) amounts to about 23% of the current English vocabulary.

The year 1066 marked the dramatic transition to Middle English, with William the Conqueror, king of Normandy in Western France, drawing his army into Britain. Old French thus became the spoken language of the ruling classes: the nobles, bankers, lawmakers, and scholars; the peasants and lower classes spoke Anglo-Saxon and some surviving Celtic dialects; the clergy used Latin. In the coming 400 years, Middle English gradually overthrew French and became the language of all classes, but words for government, religion, food, law, art, literature, and medicine are originally French.









from
Norman French
parliament, justice, crime, marriage, money, ornament, art, pleasure, joy, rent



The parallel usage of several languages has resulted in some famous duplicate and triplicate synonym sets. For instance, kingly (from Old English), royal (from French), and regal (from Latin). As well as house-mansion, wood-forest, answer-reply, yearly-annual, room-chamber, wish-desire, might-power, worthy-honorable, and bold-courageous (the former from Old-English, the latter from French, respectively).images (2)

Another fascinating example of the social divide between language users of Middle English is shown in nouns denoting different kinds of meats. The English speaking peasants who raised the animals used the Anglo-Saxon words ( swine/pig, sheep, ox, cow, calf, deer), whereas the French speaking elite, who could afford eating these meats regularly, used the French equivalents ( pork, bacon, mutton, beef, veal, venison, respectively). Today, these duplicates remain in common use in modern English, using different words for the animals and the meats produced from them. The contribution of both Norman and Modern French to English is estimated in about 29% of the current vocabulary.

English Vocabulary Guide - Vocabulary Check / Vocabulary Checker

English Vocabulary Guide - Vocabulary Check / Vocabulary Checker

Welcome to the English Vocabulary Guide. The English Vocabulary Guide has articles about key topics on English vocabulary and semantics (the meaning of words) that will teach you about writing more correctly. Remember that even experienced writers always have their writing edited for vocabulary (word replacement with synonyms, enrichment, register, collocations or word appropriateness).

As English has the largest vocabulary compared to other languages, with estimates running between 500,000 and one million word items, it is important to know how to enrich your vocabulary. Words together form phrases, figures of speech and idioms which enrich one's language figuratively and symbolically. In addition to tips on memorizing words, our vocabulary guide allows you to access information on word formation and derivation (roots, prefixes and suffixes), phrasal verbs, synonyms, antonyms, word origins in English, dictionary use, cliches, jargon, and words commonly confused.
images (1)

The Past Simple Tense

Talking about finished actions, facts, and habits in the past


The Past Simple tense (or Simple Past), sometimes called the preterit in English grammar, is a highly used verb tense for referring to finished past activities. At its core, the Past Simple is used to refer to isolated actions that started and were completed at a well-defined time in the past. To know more, read these sections of our review on the Past Simple in English.

1. Slogan
2. Usages
3. Form
4. Common time expressions
5. Negative sentences and question types
6. Summary

 

1. Slogan: “It happened, I know when, and that’s it !”



The slogan encapsulates the basic meaning of the Past Simple, so use it when hesitating about what verb form to choose in your English writing. Remembering one short slogan can help you navigate through all the grammar rules it relates to.past simple

Grammar Rules

Grammar rules – although the term may evoke memories of endless memorization of dry rules with no apparent use, grammar can actually be a fascinating subject. Englishgrammar rules are actually very useful if not vital for English usage and English writing, if one wants to get messages across confidently and effectively. The rules of grammar tell us how we should form words and sentences in a way that is accepted as "grammatical" or correct, as the rules reflect the inherent structure of a language. Some linguists also include orthography (spelling, capitalization, and punctuation), semantics (word meaning) and pragmatics (language use in context) under a wider definition of grammar.

Grammar rules help us for many communicative purposes. For example, to talk about our past job experience at a job interview, we apply the rules for the present perfect tense. The rules for forming conditional sentences help us to express contrary to fact wishes, assumptions or regrets about missed opportunities, whereas the present simple tense is used to talk about hard facts and regular habits. In English writing, 
adjective clauses and verbal clauses help us add more information and enrich our sentences, while the rules governing conjunctions and transitional adverbs are vital when we want our text to appear coherent with logically related parts.

Knowing basic grammar terms such as verb, noun, adjective, adverb, phrase and clause is important in order to be able to analyze and improve your language performance, whether in your native language or even more so in a new language you are learning. Even though English grammar rules are considered simpler than those of French, German, Russian, Hindi or Arabic, many questions about the correctness and clarity of your sentences should arise while writing. In addition, as writing is a process demanding a considerable mental effort, most writers tend to inadvertently misuse the grammar rules and make mistakes, some of which have been found to be of common practice.

565
The attentive writer, however experienced, should always look for potential problem areas when applying the grammar rules of verb tenses (e.g. did Vs. have done), subject-verb agreement (e.g. The results show Vs. The result show), pronoun usage (e.g. he, his, him, himself), 
word order (e.g. subject-verb-object), sentence fragments and run-ons, sentence variety and the use of determiners (e.g. a, the, this, my), prepositions (e.g. in, on, at, during), gerunds and many more. Should isn't or doesn't be used? When is an s with apostrophe really necessary? All these are issues which good writing has to address in order to appear professional, confident and persuasive.

Sunday, February 3, 2013

TV Doesn’t Help Your Spelling!

All those TV commercials aren’t helping Billy with his spelling!

Some of the alternative spellings (“creme” for “cream” when a company isn’t using the real thing) are necessary. Others are attempts to be cute or different.

Luckily Billy (and the rest of us) can use spellcheck for most writing projects. And we can remember that spelling doesn’t correlate with writing ability (FDR couldn’t spell many simple words).ww

Top ten grammar Peeves

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10) Irregardless is not a word

9) An apostrophe is never used to form a plural

8 ) “Literally” means it actually happened. Not that it figuratively happened.

7) Loose and Lose are two different words

6) Your and You’re are two different words

5) Their, They’re, and Their are actually three different words

4) Nonplus does not mean what you think it means.

3) Affect is a verb. Effect is a noun

2) It’s “I couldn’t care less.” “I could care less” actually means you care

1) “It’s” is short for “it is” and “its” means “belonging to it”

Saturday, February 2, 2013

11 Rules of Writing, Grammar, and Punctuation

1. To join two independent clauses, use a comma followed by a conjunction, a semicolon alone, or a semicolon followed by a sentence modifier.

2. Use commas to bracket nonrestrictive phrases, which are not essential to the sentence's meaning.

3. Do not use commas to bracket phrases that are essential to a sentence's meaning.

4. When beginning a sentence with an introductory phrase or an introductory (dependent) clause, include a comma.

5. To indicate possession, end a singular noun with an apostrophe followed by an "s". Otherwise, the noun's form seems plural.

6. Use proper punctuation to integrate a quotation into a sentence. If the introductory material is an independent clause, add the quotation after a colon. If the introductory material ends in "thinks," "saying," or some other verb indicating expression, use a comma.

7. Make the subject and verb agree with each other, not with a word that comes between them.

8. Be sure that a pronoun, a participial phrase, or an appositive refers clearly to the proper subject.

9. Use parallel construction to make a strong point and create a smooth flow.

10. Use the active voice unless you specifically need to use the passive.

11. Omit unnecessary words.

Commonly Misspelled Words




































































Week #1
1. innocuous
2. shriek
3. yield
4. disappear
5. seizure
6. conceited
7. revise
8. accidental
9. caffeine
10. exercise
11. reign
12. weird
13. equipped
14. suddenness
15. misstate
16. worshiper
17. referred
18. advertise
19. quizzed
20. retained
21. annulled
22. misspelling
23. coolly
24. receive
25. shield
Week #2
1. deficient
2. prohibited
3. criticize
4. acquitted
5. referred
6. sincerely
7. bookkeeper
8. newsstand
9. vacillate
10. villain
11. unskillful
12. parallel
13. all right
14. leisure
15. forfeit
16. sieve
17. collaborate
18. mischievous
19. omniscient
20. hierarchy
2l. mischief
22. surprise
23. sovereign
24. perceive
25. feign
Week #3
1. inflexible
2. satellite
3. appearance
4. parallel
5. accelerate
6. occurrence
7. supersede
8. manageable
9. dissimilar
10. relevance
11. traceable
12. antecedent
13. enforceable
14. judgment
15. preference
16. abundance
17. rarefy
18. anoint
19. battalion
20. assess
21. grievous
22. innuendo
23. valuable
24. specify
25. eligible
Week #4
1. passable
2. admirable
3. forfeit
4. decisively
5. arguable
6. commitment
7. preferred
8. argument
9. consensus
10. sustenance
11. occasional
12. energy
13. quotient
14. gullible
15. discernible
16. desirable
17. sufficient
18. movable
19. irresistible
20. livable
2l. embarrassed
22. demagogue
33. deterrence
24. sheriff
25. miscellaneous
Week #5
1. privilege
2. exhilarate
3. colossal
4. numskull
5. superintendent
6. merchandise
7. khaki
8. sacrilegious
9. trespass
10. resuscitate
11. absence
12. allege
13. supersede
14. concede
15. conscience
16. disagree
17. insistence
18. rhythm
19. minimize
20. occurrence
2l. adolescent
22. abscess
23. pastime
24. analyze
25. precede
Week #6
1. synagogue
2. repetition
3. hypocrisy
4. sensitive.
5. obsession
6. arrival
7. harass
8. proceed
9. ecstasy
10. relief
11. compelled
12. forty
13. tobacco
14. threshold
15. ancient
16. separate
17. committee
18. presumptuous
19. agreeable
20. exceed
2l. disheveled
22. heresy
23. concurred
24. tariff
25. accommodate
Week #7
1. complement
2. counterfeit
3. dilemma
4. broccoli
5. corroborate
6. negligible
7. financier
8. conscientious
9. contemptible
10. bachelor
11. appalling
12. necessary
13. obscene
14. excise
15. loneliness
16. usable
17. governor
18. foreign
19. susceptible
20. fierce
21. indispensable
22. vacancy
31. succumb
24. copyright
25. secession
Week #8
1. suppress
2. irascible
3. wield
4. stationery
5. believe6. besiege
7. orator
8. anonymous
9. adamant
10. wholly
11. hemorrhage
12. withhold
13. profited
14. oppressive
15. plausible
16. thoroughly
17. facetious
18. repressible
19. maneuver
20. brief
21. skepticism
22. dumbfound
23. sergeant
24. omitted
25. occurred

ADVERBS: How adverbs are formed


Rules


1. In most cases, an adverb is formed by adding '-ly' to an adjective:











AdjectiveAdverb
cheap
quick
slow
cheaply
quickly
slowly



Examples:



  • Time goes quickly.

  • He walked slowly to the door.

  • She certainly had an interesting life.

  • He carefully picked up the sleeping child.




Rules


If the adjective ends in '-y', replace the 'y' with 'i' and add '-ly':











AdjectiveAdverb
easy
angry
happy
lucky
easily
angrily
happily
luckily

If the adjective ends in -'able', '-ible', or '-le', replace the '-e' with '-y':











AdjectiveAdverb
probable
terrible
gentle
probably
terribly
gently

If the adjective ends in '-ic', add '-ally':











AdjectiveAdverb
basic
economic
tragic
basically
economically
tragically

Note: Exception: public - publicly

2. Some adverbs have the same form as the adjective:










Adjective and Adverb
early
fast
hard
high
late
near
straight
wrong

Compare:

  • It is a fast car.

  • He drives very fast.

  • This is a hard exercise.

  • He works hard.

  • We saw many high buildings.

  • The bird flew high in the sky.


3. 'Well' and 'good'

'Well' is the adverb that corresponds to the adjective 'good'.



Examples:



  • He is a good student.

  • He studies well.

  • She is a good pianist.

  • She plays the piano well.

  • They are good swimmers.

  • They swim well.