Reflexive pronouns
A reflexive pronoun refers back to a noun or pronoun elsewhere in a sentence. Singular Plural First person Second person Third person First person Second person Third person myself yourself himself, herself, itself ourselves...
Graham's Grammar Posts
Personal pronouns
A personal pronoun is a word that is used instead of the noun or noun phrase indicating a person or thing. Personal pronouns can be first person, second person or third person and singular...
What is the difference between “comfortable” and “convenient”?
In English there is quite a big difference between “comfortable” and “convenient”, but in some other languages, the difference might not be quite so clear. In Russian, for example, the word “Удобный” (udobnyy) can...
Unperturbed or imperturbable?
To understand the difference between unperturbed and imperturbable, let’s start with the meaning of “perturbed”, which is something like upset or troubled. We say that someone is “unperturbed” when they are not perturbed –...
Conscience
“Conscience” is pronounced something like “konshuns” ( /ˈkɑn·ʃəns/ ). If you would like to hear it pronounced by a speaker of British English, click here. We use it to mean knowing what is right...
Auxiliary verbs
“Auxiliary” is an adjective meaning “helping” or “supporting”. So, an auxiliary verb is one that helps or supports other verbs. We use auxiliary verbs to help other verbs form the various tenses, moods, and...
What is a Joke?
As a noun, “a joke” is something that is said to make people laugh. And as a verb, “to joke” is to say something to make people laugh. Some examples: (In English there is...
Namesake
We mostly use “namesake” when two people have both the same first name and the same last name. The idea really originates from the custom (not as common now as it used to be)...
What does erroneous mean?
We use “erroneous” to mean “mistaken”, “false” or “containing errors”. It’s an adjective related to the noun “error”. We often use it with “information” (“erroneous information”) but can be used with many other nouns...
Christmas Traditions
Christmas is celebrated in many countries around the world. Different countries have different traditions. Here are some British traditions.
In the United Kingdom, ‘Christmas Day’ is celebrated on 25th December. Traditionally families gather together to exchange presents, to eat and to drink.