English is rule-based. I repeat: Like all languages, English is rule-based. A tweet recently appeared in my Twitter feed in which Merriam-Webster, the dictionary, touted the nonsense that English rejects order. “Because English rejects order. It actively opposes it. It lures order into an empty house and sets a series of Home Alone-style traps to […] More
The other day I read a tweet that made some claims about adverbs: “The -s in “unawares,” as in “they were caught unawares,” is completely distinct from the pluralizing -s. It’s an adverb suffix, and it’s also in “always” and “nowadays,” and in “nights,” “weekends,” etc., as in “they work nights/weekends.” #FunWithMorphology” The -s in […] More
Are the words yesterday, today, and tomorrow adverbs or nouns? Oxford Living Dictionaries identifies all three words as an adverb first and a noun second. Etymonline lists yesterday as a noun and adverb but today and tomorrow as only adverbs. Wiktionary defines today and tomorrow as adverbs first and nouns second but yesterday as a […] More
I recently shared a photo across my social media accounts of the grammar textbook that I currently use with my oldest. I included the following caption: “I always have to fix my kids’ grammar books. Plural means “not one.” If you have zero or less than zero of something, you use the plural form: ‘I […] More
Notional grammars define adjectives as “words that describe nouns.” Big, cute, green, small, and wonky are prototypical adjectives. In big bully, The baby is cute, and I painted the wall green, each adjective describes a noun. Big describes the noun bully, cute describes the noun baby, and green describes the noun wall. However, stating that […] More
One way in which nouns differ from other grammatical forms in the English language is grammatical number. Prototypical English nouns have both singular and plural forms. The holiday season often causes problems for English users when mailing out seasonal cards. While some last names are easy to pluralize (Johnson becomes Johnsons), others are trickier (Does […] More
Traditional grammars define nouns as “words that name people, places, things, and ideas.” Prototypical nouns express grammatical number, singular and plural, as well as possession. English nouns may be further classified into more specific categories: common versus proper, collective, compound, and count versus noncount. Common and Proper Nouns The first types of nouns are common […] More
Traditional grammars define nouns as “words that refer to people, places, things, and ideas.” Pronouns are a subcategory of nouns. Noun phrases are phrases formed by a noun functioning as the phrase head plus any determinatives, modifiers, and complements. In English, prototypical nouns and noun phrases perform eleven grammatical functions: Noun phrase head Subject Subject […] More
Prototypical English nouns have both singular and plural forms. Singular nouns refer to one “person, place, thing, or idea” while plural nouns refer to “not one” (two or more or less than one) “people, places, things, or ideas.” Regular nouns are predictable, taking an -s suffix to form the plural. Irregular nouns are unpredictable, following […] More
Prototypical English nouns have both singular and plural forms. Singular nouns refer to one “person, place, thing, or idea” while plural nouns refer to “not one” (two or more or less than one) “people, places, things, or ideas.” Regular nouns are predictable, taking an -s suffix to form the plural. Irregular nouns are unpredictable, following […] More
Notional grammars define nouns as “words that name people, places, things, and ideas.” Noun phrases are phrases that consist of a noun or pronoun plus any modifiers, complements, and determiners. Grammatical Forms Grammatical Form of English Nouns explains the internal structures that distinguish nouns from other grammatical forms, which include number and possession. Types of […] More