Search results
Mar 7, 2019 · In Shakespeare’s time, double negatives such as can’t hardly were common, but in current standard usage (and by current, I don’t mean that I just made it up this week!), double negatives are substandard grammar. Hardly means scarcely or barely, as in almost never or almost not capable of, so to say I can hardly understand grammar rules ...
- The Past of -Cast
Some verbs are regular verbs, which means that they follow a...
- What Would Have Been
Here, you have would and the perfect infinitive, which is...
- English
Verbs can have one of three moods: indicative, imperative,...
- Writing
Can’t Hardly or Can Hardly: I Can Hardly Stand It Posted on...
- Off Topic
By Paul Yeager, author of Weather Whys: Facts, Myths, and...
- Words to Live By
If at First You Don’t Succeed… If you don’t have … Continue...
- Paul's Books
Paul Yeager's books, Literally, the Best Language Book Ever:...
- Using Had: The Past Perfect Tense
A reader wanted to know how to use the word had in relation...
- The Past of -Cast
While "cannot hardly" is grammatically correct, it is effectively a double negative, and thus its meaning is confusing at best, plain wrong at worst. Translate it as "I am nearly unable to do ..." and you should see why its meaning is not the same. Sure, it could be used correctly in some contexts (the exact opposite of "can hardly"), but I'd ...
Jan 14, 2021 · 2 A double negative is a non-standard sentence construction that uses two negative forms. Double negatives are created by adding a negation to the verb and to the modifier of the noun (adjectives, adverbs, etc.) or to the object of the verb. I won’t (will not) bake no cake. I can’t (cannot) go nowhere tonight.
Sep 19, 2022 · Essentially, a double negative creates a positive and can muddle the meaning of a sentence in the process. Let’s look at a double negative example: I don’t have no money. This sentence really means “I have money.”. If you want to talk about a lack of money, use only one of the two negatives. I don’t have money.
- 1 Its and It’S
- 2 Whom and Who
- 3 I were?
- 4 An -Ed Ending Does Not Always Signify The Past Tense
- 5 Is Or Are For Teams and Groups
- 6 Few vs A Few
- 7 Adjective Order
- 8 There Are No Grammar Rules in English
Do you want to have better grammar than many native speakers? Here’s one area where you can, because many native speakers get this point wrong. ‘Its’ without an apostrophe is the possessiveform. We see it in sentences like this: The tail belongs to the cat. The docking station belongs to the phone. That’s why we call it possessive. ‘It’s’ with an a...
My students told me that their teachers tortured them at school with exercises on who and whom. But out in the real world, they never hear people using whom. Why is that? It’s true that words can fall out of fashion and no longer be used. Whom is one of those words. Shall is another good example. And yet, according to the grammar rule, we must use ...
Conditional sentences are sentences that state a possible condition, usually with the word IF. Conditional sentences in English are unnecessarily complex. We have the first conditional, the second conditional, the third conditional and even something called the zero conditional! And many ‘if’ sentences in real lifedon’t fit neatly into any of these...
I was surprised at how many of my students were confused by this point. Yes, -ED can signify the past tense, but it has other uses too. Many past participlesend in -ED, and we use these with perfect tenses and passive voice: We also spell some adjectives with -ed, especially adjectives describing feelings:
I often tell my students to think about whether a subject is equivalent to IT or THEY. For example: We use IS in the first example, because “the cat” is equivalent to IT (it is…). We use ARE in the second example because “the cats” is equivalent to THEY (they are…). But what about this sentence? Well…my students are always happy when I tell them th...
Here is an example where, if you get the grammar wrong, you may end up saying the opposite of what you mean! “A few” means “some”. “Few” means “not many”. You might still think the two meanings are pretty much the same, but look closer. One is positive and the other is negative. Let’s see an example: The first sentence is positive. It’s a good thin...
Yes, English is such a crazy language that we even have rules for the order of adjectives. They go like this: 1 opinion 2 size 3 physical quality 4 shape 5 age 6 colour 7 origin 8 material 9 type 10 purpose So, it is wrong to say, “a round, big, pink, Turkish table” because size should come before shape. It should be “a big, round, pink, Turkish ta...
Wait… what? We’ve just been looking at confusing grammar rules and now you say “there are no grammar rules in English”. Hear me out. For French, there is an organisation called the Académie Française. This organisation sets the rules for the French language. Its role is to make sure that people speak French correctly… the way the Académie wants the...
Sep 8, 2024 · Twelve basic English grammar rules. Let’s explore the twelve essential grammar rules that will elevate your English proficiency: 1. Make your Subjects and verbs match. Ensure that the subject of your sentence matches the verb in number. For example: Correct: The dog barks loudly. Incorrect: The dogs barks loudly.
People also ask
What does it mean if you can hardly understand grammar rules?
Is 'cannot hardly' grammatically correct?
What grammar rules do you need to learn English?
Is studying grammar rules necessary?
What happens if you get the grammar wrong?
Is it good to learn English by learning grammar rules?
Sep 23, 2022 · There are 11 basic grammar rules that can assure what you write sounds less like gibberish and more like English. We break them down for you.
