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Gateway to English content begins
This collection of articles deals with the finer points of English grammar and style: grammar rules, spelling, punctuation, syntax and usage, typography, and much more. Other tools for writers are available in the Discover section.
Categories
- Grammar and Syntax
- History and Language
- Proverbs and Sayings
- Punctuation
- Spelling
- Style
- Typography
- Vocabulary
List of Articles
Grammar and Syntax
- Adjectives
- Adverbs
- Agreement
- Basic subject-verb agreement
- Pronoun agreement with collective nouns
- Pronoun agreement with compound antecedents
- Pronoun agreement with indefinite pronouns
- Pronouns have to agree
- Subject-verb agreement in questions
- Subject-verb agreement in there sentences
- Subject-verb agreement with collective nouns
- Subject-verb agreement with compound subjects
- Subject-verb agreement with couple
- Subject-verb agreement with indefinite pronoun subjects
- Subject-verb agreement with interrupting words
- Verb agreement with none
- Verb agreement with total, number and range
- Articles (a, an, the)
- Clauses and phrases
- Compounds
- Conjunctions
- Dangling modifiers
- Definitions
- Nouns
- Parallel structure
- Parts of a sentence
- Parts of a Sentence: Absolute Phrases
- Parts of a Sentence: Appositives
- Parts of a Sentence: Gerund Phrases
- Parts of a Sentence: Infinitive Phrases
- Parts of a Sentence: Participle Phrases
- Parts of a Sentence: Prepositional Phrases
- Parts of a Sentence: Subject and Predicate
- Parts of a Sentence: The Adjective Clause
- Parts of a Sentence: The Adverb Clause
- Parts of a Sentence: The Direct Object
- Parts of a Sentence: The Indirect Object
- Parts of a Sentence: The Noun Clause
- Parts of a Sentence: The Noun Phrase
- Parts of a Sentence: The Subject Complement
- Parts of a Sentence: Verb Phrases
- Parts of Speech
- Parts of Speech: Adjectives
- Parts of Speech: Adverbs
- Parts of Speech: Conjunctive Adverbs
- Parts of Speech: Coordinating Conjunctions
- Parts of Speech: Correlative Conjunctions
- Parts of Speech: Demonstrative Pronouns
- Parts of Speech: Indefinite Pronouns
- Parts of Speech: Interjections
- Parts of Speech: Nouns
- Parts of Speech: Personal Pronouns
- Parts of Speech: Prepositions
- Parts of Speech: Relative Pronouns
- Parts of Speech: Subordinating Conjunctions
- Parts of Speech: Verbs
- Prepositions
- Pronouns
- Sentences
- Verbs
History and Language
- Dialects
- Heritage languages
Proverbs and Sayings
- English expressions
- Translating French expressions
- À bâtons rompus
- Accorder la parole
- Accorder ses violons
- En catimini
- Faire boule de neige
- Faire découvrir
- Faire œuvre de pionnier
- Faire table rase
- J'ai besoin de vos lumières
- Montrer patte blanche
- Qui l'eût cru?
- Remporter la palme
- Renvoyer aux calendes grecques
- Tout baigne dans l'huile
- Translation of Mesdames, Messieurs
Punctuation
- Apostrophes
- Asterisks
- Brackets, braces, parentheses
- Colons
- Commas
- Cancelling Commas: Unnecessary Commas
- Comma after a clause acting as a subject
- Comma after the year
- Comma with a concluding adverb clause
- Commas with tag questions
- Comma with the conjunction but
- Commas 101
- Commas with an adjective clause
- Commas with direct address
- Commas with such as
- Comma use with interjections
- Serial comma
- When to use a comma before because
- Dashes
- Ellipses
- Hyphens
- Obliques (slashes)
- Periods
- Question marks
- Quotation marks
- Semicolons
Spelling
- Accents, tilde
- Frequently misspelled words
- Homonyms (like-sounding and similarly spelled words)
- Plurals
- Prefixes and suffixes
- Combining forms indicating nationality—A to G
- Combining forms indicating nationality—H to T
- Hyphen in megacity
- Prefixes and combining forms—A to B
- Prefixes and combining forms—C to D
- Prefixes and combining forms—E to F
- Prefixes and combining forms—G to H
- Prefixes and combining forms—I to L
- Prefixes and combining forms—M to N
- Prefixes and combining forms—O
- Prefixes and combining forms—P
- Prefixes and combining forms—Q to S
- Prefixes and combining forms—T to Z
Style
- Coherence
- Effective Writing
- Figures of speech
- Inclusive language
- Logic errors
Typography
- Abbreviations
- Abbreviating street, avenue and road
- Abbreviating the months
- Do you know how to netspeak?
- Format for telephone extensions
- Forms of address: PhD or Dr.
- For or against abbreviations?
- Italicizing abbreviations
- Ph.D. or PhD?
- Plural of Mrs. and Ms.
- RCMP—initialism or acronym?
- Use of the definite article with initialisms
- Use of http in Web site addresses
- Use of the period and comma with etc.
- Boldface and Italics
- Capitalization
- Capitalization in headings
- Capitalization of logos
- Capitalizing short titles: the Act
- Capitalizing short titles: the policy
- Chemical elements: capitalized or not?
- Internet: capitalized or not?
- Should I use capital letters for emphasis?
- Use of capitals with Atlantic provinces
- When to capitalize birthday and anniversary
- When to capitalize government
- When to capitalize member of Parliament
- When to capitalize the seasons
- Fonts
- Numerical expressions
- Spacing (for punctuation)
- Symbols
- Word division
Vocabulary
- Foreign words
- Vocabulary builder
- Word choice
- Word origin
- Celebrate Kwanzaa!
- Co-locate vs. collocate
- Exploring Etymology—A to D
- Exploring Etymology—E to H
- Exploring Etymology—I to L
- Exploring Etymology—M to P
- Exploring Etymology—Q to T
- Exploring Etymology—U to Z
- Fall or autumn: the Canadian dilemma
- Flower Meanings
- From Dominion Day to Canada Day
- Get your toboggan!
- Hallowe'en or Halloween?
- Hanukkah
- How Kanata became Canada
- La Saint-Jean-Baptiste: celebrating cultural identity
- Origin of the whole nine yards
- Origin of the word Easter
- Remembrance Day
- Salish Sea
- Segway vs. segue
- Spring
- The Language of Flowers
- Valentine’s Day: from Lupercalia to Goldfinches to Candy Hearts
- Whisky
- Why is May 24th known as Victoria Day?
- Words That Were: 1900–1919
- Words That Were: 1920–1929
- Words That Were: 1930–1939
- Words That Were: 1940–1949
- Words That Were: 1950–1959
- Words That Were: 1960–1969
