Use fewer when comparing the number of individual things and less when comparing an amount or degree. Compare: The revised timetable includes fewer evening services. The revised timetable leaves passengers…
Lay means to put or place someone or something somewhere. Lie means to recline, rest, or remain in a particular position. Compare: Please lay the architectural drawings flat on the…
Comparative adverbs compare how actions are performed or how an action changes. Superlative adverbs express the highest or lowest degree within a group or across different situations. The second technician…
The position of an adverb depends on what it modifies and the meaning you want to express. An adverb may appear at the beginning, in the middle, or at the…
A room can be cold, or it can be freezing. You can feel tired, or you can be exhausted after a long journey. Words such as freezing and exhausted do…
A meeting can be slightly tense, quite tense, or extremely tense. The adjective tense allows different degrees of the same quality. Other adjectives behave differently. Something described as identical, medical,…
A quiet neighborhood, a former colleague, and an unexpected delay all use adjectives before nouns. When an adjective is used this way, it is in attributive position. Many English adjectives…
AM and PM are used with the 12-hour clock to show which half of the day a time belongs to. AM refers to times before midday, while PM refers to…
Etc. is short for et cetera and is used to show that a list could continue with other similar items. We bought notebooks, pens, folders, etc. The abbreviation is useful…
E.g. and i.e. are both Latin abbreviations, but they do different jobs. Use e.g. to introduce one or more examples. Use i.e. to clarify, define, or restate exactly what you…
May, might, and could can all express possibility. That does not mean they follow a fixed scale such as may = more likely, might = less likely, and could =…
Many people first learn that can is for ability and may is for permission. That is a useful starting point, but it is not the whole picture. Both words are…