All You Need To Know About Essential Clauses and Nonessential Clauses
Clauses are often called the building blocks of sentences, and like most building materials, they aren’t all created equal. Some…
Grammar Tips
-
-
Clearing Up Common Issues With Compound Subjects
Compared to many grammar concepts, sentence subjects are fairly straightforward, which is something I felt incredibly grateful for after starting…
-
What Is a Linking Verb?
In elementary school, I learned that verbs were the action of a sentence. They are what a person, animal or…
-
What Is — and Where Is — the Direct Object in a Sentence?
What’s the best Christmas or Chanukah gift you’ve ever received? For me, it was Captain Power, Christmas 1987. Sure, the PowerJet…
-
What Is a Dependent Clause and How Is It Used?
Without you, a dependent clause would be out there in the world, lost and alone. Sentences would lack much-needed descriptions,…
-
Appositives: What Is an Appositive Phrase?
When I taught English grammar to college freshmen, one of my favorite lessons was on the appositive and the appositive…
-
What Is a Prepositional Phrase? An Explanation With Examples
I like to imagine prepositions as little grammatical bridges; they are the structures that connect one element of a sentence…
-
Breaking Down Relative Pronouns (with Examples)
You know how your relatives can be, well, complicated? Maybe you have an uncle to whom you would rather not…
-
Identifying and Fixing Sentence Fragments
Most writers are familiar with the rule that every sentence should contain a subject, verb and complete thought. Look around,…
