DICTIONARY
Memidex recently announced "the Internet's first definition, audio, and
etymology index of its kind". It's an excellent online dictionary.
etymology index of its kind". It's an excellent online dictionary.
GRAMMAR
1. For a humourous look at grammar and some of the stickier grammatical situations, check out Grammar Girl. There is a site called Quick and Dirty Tips, and there is also a series of podcasts available. A book on the same topic has just been published. For those of you who are on Facebook, you might like to become a fan of Grammar Girl.
2. There are some adverbs that just don’t look much like other adverbs because they don’t end in-ly; find out about flat adverbs.
3. Adjective word order --evaluation or opinion, appearance, age, colour, origin.
4. Parallel structure--This is an item that tutors often comment on in writing assignments.
5. Where should you use contractions?
6. Ending a sentence with a preposition.
7. Back formation: what does this mean?
8. The expletive--it may not be what you think it is!
9. Understanding possessive nouns and gerunds
PUNCTUATION 10. Who or whom? Should it be who or whom? whoever or whomever--here's the answer!
11. Is it me or I? What is the correct grammar?
12. Check your grammar: On this site, you get to choose between two alternatives that you type in: if one of the alternatives has “no hits” and the other one has more, then you should assume that the answer with more hits is the correct one, or at least, more people thing it is correct.
13. Should of or should’ve: The problem here is that they sound the same, so people assume the spelling is the same. However, the grammar is quite different.
14. Regular and irregular verbs: Why are some verbs irregular in past tenses?
11. Is it me or I? What is the correct grammar?
12. Check your grammar: On this site, you get to choose between two alternatives that you type in: if one of the alternatives has “no hits” and the other one has more, then you should assume that the answer with more hits is the correct one, or at least, more people thing it is correct.
13. Should of or should’ve: The problem here is that they sound the same, so people assume the spelling is the same. However, the grammar is quite different.
14. Regular and irregular verbs: Why are some verbs irregular in past tenses?
15. Becoming a noun: how to live forever!
16. Attributive nouns--or how nouns become adjectives.
17. Consistency mistakes: the most common errors in consistency.
17. Consistency mistakes: the most common errors in consistency.
18. The generic pronoun—avoiding sexism in pronoun usage!
19. Double negatives prove to be a difficult topic for many people; for non-native English speakers who can use double negatives in their first language, this can prove particularly troublesome.
19. Double negatives prove to be a difficult topic for many people; for non-native English speakers who can use double negatives in their first language, this can prove particularly troublesome.
semicolon usage
Capitalization of proper nouns.
There is often confusion about when to use capital letters in names for food and drinks; here is the answer.
Where Do Periods Go in Quotations?
Here is a useful information on how to use punctuation with parentheses.
How to use commas with participial clauses (restrictive and non-restrictive/essential and non-essential)
How to capitalize titles--information from Grammar Girl.
Emoticons and grammar: Just where should the punctuation go if you use a smiley face?
Check these strange apostrophe situations in Apostrophe Disaster!
Why punctuation is important--beating a parking ticket.
The future, and past, of punctuation: Where is our punctuation going, and where has it been?
Phonetic punctuation--if punctuation were phonetic, this is what it might sound like!
Capitalization of directions can be tricky. Read some of the tricks and rules from Grammar Girl to help you.
Capitalization of directions can be tricky. Read some of the tricks and rules from Grammar Girl to help you.
WORD USAGE
I could care less Find out the history behind the common expression OK.
former and latter
if and whether
An example of how language can change over time.
Moot vs. Mute--two words that cause a lot of confusion. Here's the answer.
An example of how language can change over time.
Moot vs. Mute--two words that cause a lot of confusion. Here's the answer.
Word confusion: Here is a a tongue-in-cheek look at the issue of word confusion.
Made-up words:English is a very creative language; here is a list of the top 10 made-up words.
PODCASTS--LISTENING
Try these various podcasting sites for English Language listening materials. The podcasts are Canadian; some of them have exercises to help you with listening skills.
CBC--with questions for listening and understanding
CBC Manitoba
English as a Second Language Podcasts
Podbean
If English is not your first language, practice your listening comprehension with news and general interest stories from CBC Edmonton.
VOCABULARY
Vocabulary site—start with an initial test, so that you can learn the vocabulary you need to learn.
Vocabulary for Business
The business world uses specialist vocabulary--check out this video:Made-up words: check out some made-up words that have made it into the language.
What is metathesis? Find out this interesting information on pronunciation.
Correct pronounciation: is it ESPresso or EXpresso?
WRITING
Writer's Block: Everyone experiences Writer’s Block at one time or another; here are suggestions for overcoming the problem.
Abbreviations: Make sure you use abbreviations correctly in your writing.
SPELLING
- English spelling is always a contentious issue; here is an interesting article on the subject of spelling reform.
- Canadians in particular have a problem with inconsistent spelling; we’re exposed to both British and American spelling. Here’s an article about the most common words that suffer from inconsistent spelling.
