“Approve” or “approve of”?
“Approve” can mean something different from “approve of”. “Approve” changes its meaning depending on whether or not we follow it with “of”. We use approve without “of” to show that someone agrees to –...
Graham's Grammar Posts
Out of order
When we say that something is out of order, we might mean that it isn’t working properly and can therefore not be used. Some examples: Similar expressions include: We also use “out of order”...
Don’t Count Your Chickens
“Don’t count your chickens” is a shortened version of “Don’t count your chickens before they’re hatched”. It is an English proverb that has been used for over 500 years. In fact, though, its first...
Superlative adverbs
Superlative adverbs. Let’s think first about adverbs that form their comparative form with _er and their superlative with _est. Such adverbs include loud, louder, loudest or quick, quicker, quickest. For such adverbs: We don’t...
You can’t make an omelette without breaking eggs
When we say that you can’t make an omelette without breaking eggs we mean that it’s impossible to do something good without damaging something else. It’s an idiom that we often use – sometimes...
The Subjunctive Mood
Let’s start with a warning: the subjective mood isn’t something that most people need to be concerned with. It’s difficult to learn and, anyway, isn’t often used in everyday speech. You only really need...
Adverbs
Adverbs are words that modify a verb. They explain how, when, where or why something is done. Adverbs of manner Adverbs of manner explain the manner in which (how) an action is carried out....
Bee in your bonnet
We say that someone has a bee in their bonnet when they can’t stop talking or thinking about something. This might be because they are worried or angry about it. Or it might be...
Possessive case
This post is about the possessive case of nouns. The case of a noun is the form that shows its relation to other words in a sentence. Grammarians disagree about how many cases there...