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Both indicates that the action or state denoted by the verb applies individually to each of two entities. Both books weigh more than five pounds, for example, means that each book weighs more than five pounds by itself, not that the two books weighed together come to more than five pounds. Both is inappropriate where [...]
These words are both past participles of bear. Here’s how to sort them out. Use born only in passive constructions referring to birth: I was born in Chicago. For all other uses, including active constructions referring to birth, use borne: She has borne both her children at home. I have borne his insolence with the [...]
Some have objected to the use of boast as a transitive verb meaning “to possess or own a desirable feature,” as in This network boasts an audience with a greater concentration of professionals and managers than any other network
If your therapy group has semimonthly meetings, how often should you expect to show up? A bimonthly meeting should take place “once every two months”; a biweekly, “once every two weeks.” A semimonthly meeting should be held “twice a month” and a semiweekly “twice a week.” That’s should. These words are often confused, and to [...]
Between is used for two, and among for more than two.” This decree of grammar may still echo in your old classroom, but you would be wise to consider other reverberations as well. It is true that between is the only choice when exactly two entities are specified. For example, you must say the choice [...]
Which do you think is best? The chocolate chip or the mocha supreme?
Some people argue that these two words should be kept distinct when they are used as prepositions. By this thinking, you should use beside only to mean “at the side of,” as in There was no one in the seat beside me. For the meanings “in addition to” and “except for” you should use besides: [...]
Bad is often used as an adverb in sentences such as The house was shaken up pretty bad or We need water bad. This usage is common in informal speech but is widely regarded as unacceptable in formal writing. In an earlier survey, 92 percent of the Usage Panel rejected the sentence His tooth ached [...]
You can spell the adverb backward or backwards. The forms are interchangeable: stepped backward, a mirror facing backwards. But in Standard English the adjective has no -s: a backward view.
People often confuse the adverb awhile with the noun phrase a while. This is hardly surprising because they sound the same and the noun phrase can function like an adverb. In many cases both forms are acceptable. You can say It took a while to get down the hill, where a while functions like other [...]