Which Is Correct: “Lot’s” or “Lots”?
Lots is the plural and informal form of a lot. So if you’re when referring to “a large amount of something,” lot’s is incorrect.
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What Is the Past Tense of “Dream”?
Dreamed and dreamt are both the past tense and past participle of the verb dream.
Dreamt is often considered the British version, but dreamed is actually the most commonly used variant in both British and American English.
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Was vs. Were—How To Use These Words Correctly
Was and were are the past tense of the verb (to) be. Was is used for first-person singular and third-person singular.
It was a beautiful day.
Were is used for second-person singular and all plural forms:
We were worried something was wrong.
They were going to give you a few days off to recover.
When writing in the subjunctive mood, use were. Use was if what you’re writing is a statement of fact.
I was hitting home runs by the age of five.
Use there was if the subject is singular, and there were if the subject is plural.
There were hundreds of balloons at the party.
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When To Use “Too” and “Either”
Use too when you want to agree with a positive statement.
Me too!
Use either to agree with a negative statement.
Me either.
Too and either have a few different uses. Both of these words work perfectly when you want to make a statement of agreement. However, one is used to agree with a positive statement and the other is used to agree with negative statements. We’ll explain more below.
LanguageTool’s Grammar Checker can fix mistakes in sentences containing too and either.
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To Be, or Not To Be
We explain what makes the verb “to be” so special, and go over the many forms it takes, including its conjugations and some examples.
- The verb to be indicates a state of being or existence.
- To be is an irregular verb.
- There are eight forms of the verb to be:
- ○Present: am, is, are
- ○Simple past: was, were
- ○Infinitive:mbe
- ○Present participle: being
- ○Past participle:been
As far as irregular verbs go, to be is definitely the most irregular. It’s unique in that it’s the only verb that has eight forms. Even with all of its complexities, it’s still one of the most important (and most used) verbs in English. That being said, it may be a good idea to be familiarized with all the forms of this verb.
The LanguageTool Grammar Checker can help you use verbs like to be correctly in your writing.
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Using “Who,” “That,” and “Which” Correctly
Use who when introducing a clause that describes or modifies people.
Use that when introducing a clause that describes or modifies objects or non-human things.
Use which when introducing a clause that describes or modifies objects.
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Using the Prepositions “In” vs. “On” vs. “At”
Prepositions connect nouns or pronouns to other information in a sentence. There are several types of prepositions, including prepositions of time, place, direction, and location.
In, on, and at are prepositions of both place and time.
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Adverbs Are Incredibly Helpful
“Adverbs” modify other words in a sentence by answering the questions “when?”, “where?”, “how?”, or “how much?”
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A Quick Guide on “Less” vs. “Least”
“Less” is the irregular comparative and “least” is the corresponding superlative. We’ll explain what makes them irregular and how to use these words correctly.
- Less is the comparative form of little and refers to “a smaller amount of.” Least is the superlative form of little and refers to “the smallest amount of.”
James had little energy left, and Erica had even less.Jordan, however, had the least amount of energy after the birthday party and went straight to sleep.
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What’s the Difference Between “Transitive” and “Intransitive” Verbs?
Verbs can be transitive, intransitive, or both. We’ll go over what this means and provide examples.
- The difference between transitive and intransitive verbs is that transitive verbs require a direct object to express a complete thought, whereas intransitive verbs do not.
- A direct object is a noun or pronoun that is acted on by the verb and answers the questions “whom?” or “what?”
- In the following sentence, conveyed is an example of a transitive verb and a message is the direct object.
She conveyed a message
- Rise is an example of an intransitive verb.
The sun rises every morning and sets every night
- Some verbs can be both transitive and intransitive.
She opened the door. (Transitive)
The door opened abruptly. (Intransitive)
Verbs are a complex and vital part of speech. There are several categories of verbs, but we’ll be going over two in particular: transitive and intransitive verbs.
You can check whether you’re using transitive and intransitive verbs correctly with LanguageTool’s Grammar Checker.
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