Grammar

What Are Idioms? Idioms are figurative phrases that are a part of written and colloquial English. While a majority of them are figurative, some idioms are literal in their meaning. Idioms are used to embellish speech or a piece of writing and are considered a part of informal language. Therefore, they should not be used […]

Regular Verbs vs. Irregular Verbs When “-ed” or “-d” is added to a verb to form its past tense or past participle, then such verbs are called regular verbs. The past tense and the past participle of regular verbs are usually identical to the verb itself.  Below are some examples of regular verbs:  Regular Verb […]

Any element that makes a piece of writing meaningful and engaging is called a literary device. Be it poetic devices or devices used in prose, these literary techniques transform a simple piece of writing into a piece evoking emotion.  Anthropomorphism Anthropomorphism is a literary device used by writers to attribute human characteristics to animals and […]

Be it prose or poetry, writers often use literary devices, which are techniques that help make a piece of writing interesting, poignant, and engrossing. Several literary devices are commonly used in writing. While some can be used in both prose and poetry, those used specifically in poetry are known as poetic devices.  Various poetic devices […]

What Are Ordinal and Cardinal Numbers?  Be it indicating the order in a sequence or the ranking of someone’s favorite sports team, numbers are used for different purposes. To make them easier to use, numbers are divided into two categories, ordinal numbers and cardinal numbers.  Ordinal numbers show the place value of something. They can […]

What Are Quantifiers? Quantifiers are adjectives or adjectival phrases that indicate the quantity of the nouns they precede. They are also a class of determiners.  Examples:  There are two cats (noun) and five dogs (noun) available for adoption at the shelter Quantifiers Used with Countable Nouns Quantifiers used with countable nouns pertain to the number […]

Meaning of Causative Verbs Causative verbs are verbs used to indicate any action being performed by someone for someone else. They are also known as causal verbs or causatives.  Causative verbs can be in the past, present, or future tense, indicating action that has already happened, is happening, or is yet to happen. Causative Verbs […]

What Is Imagery? “Show, don’t tell” is one of the most common pieces of advice novice writers get. Showing, instead of telling, requires writers to paint a picture with words. One of the ways to achieve this is to use literary devices like imagery, which can help writers take their writing to the next level. […]

One of the most important parts of speech, adjectives describe or modify nouns (persons, places, things, ideas) and pronouns (he, she, it, they, us.) Adjectives provide pertinent information about the nouns or pronouns they describe by answering questions like: What kind? How much/many? Which one? Adjectives are critical because they add a touch of originality […]

Meaning of Irony Irony is a literary device that is used to show the contrast between what something seems to be and what it actually is. Irony is used in different genres of literature to convey something that is in stark contrast to what is expected, which in turn creates a certain level of complexity. The […]

What Are Sentence Connectors? Sentence connectors are words, phrases, clauses, or symbols that are used to ensure a sentence transitions smoothly. Moving from one sentence to the next without using proper words to connect them makes a piece of writing seem abrupt. To ensure seamless sentence transitions, different types of sentence connectors are used in […]

What Are Brackets?  From periods to colons and hyphens, punctuation marks play an important role in writing. Brackets are commonly used punctuation marks that appear in pairs. The first bracket in a pair is called an opening bracket, and the second one is called a closing bracket. There are different types of brackets used in […]