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...
Graham's Grammar Posts
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.
Collective nouns
We use collective nouns to refer to a collection of individual people, creatures or objects. Examples: In British English, we can treat a collective noun as either singular or plural, depending on the context....
My foot
When you say “my foot!” you are telling someone that you don’t believe – or strongly disagree with – what someone has told you. It is an idiom used to express disbelief or incredulity....
What is correct: “crave” or “crave for”?
You would normally say “I crave an apple pie”, and not “I crave for an apple pie”. One definition of the verb “to crave” is “to have a great desire for”. If you were...
Can “cherish” be used in the past tense and the future tense?
“To cherish” is a verb meaning to value greatly or to hold in great affection. We can use it in the present, past and future tenses. Here are some examples. Present tense: She was...
What does “split the budget” mean?
You probably know that a budget is a sort of plan for your money. When you make a budget, you decide how much money to allocate to different sorts of expenses such as food,...