http://onlinegrammar.com.au/blog Just another WordPress weblog Sat, 03 Jul 2010 04:32:14 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Reader's question: What is the rule for distinguishing between 'used to do' and 'be used to'? My answer: 'Used to do' means something that you did in the past, possibly on a regular basis, and no longer do.      I used to knit when my children were little. 'Be used to' means to ... http://onlinegrammar.com.au/blog/?p=67 I have often wondered why we say won't instead of willn't. Willn't sounds ugly, but it is a logical contraction for will not. A reader of my e-newsletter sent me a link that explained why we say won't, not willn't. In brief, won’t doesn’t come from will not but from woll ... http://onlinegrammar.com.au/blog/?p=64 Here’s an extract from an email a Factorial reader sent me about the curiosities of the English language. The bandage was wound around the wound. The farm was used to produce produce. The dump was so full that it had to refuse more refuse. The soldier decided to desert his dessert in the ... http://onlinegrammar.com.au/blog/?p=57 Reflexive pronouns are myself, yourself, himself, herself, itself, ourselves, yourselves, themselves. We use a reflexive pronoun when the subject and object are the same person or thing.      I cut myself.      He looked at himself in the mirror. You can also use a reflexive pronoun occasionally as an intensifier.     I myself hate knitting. It ... http://onlinegrammar.com.au/blog/?p=54 First impressions count and we usually judge a piece of business writing on its visual appearance before we’ve even read a word. Many visual aspects are taken care of in a well-written document, as good writing makes use of attractive white space from subheadings and short paragraphs. Using modern business writing ... http://onlinegrammar.com.au/blog/?p=48 When I think about parts of speech, I go back to my childhood definitions, such as a 'noun is a naming word'. I had never come across grammatical poems until someone sent me the following one. Every name is called a noun as field and fountain, street and town. In place of a ... http://onlinegrammar.com.au/blog/?p=44 The history of our spelling is responsible for such peculiar sentences as: 'Because there was no time like the present, he thought it was time to present the present.' Standard spelling was not regarded as important until the 1700s, by which time many irrational spellings had become accepted as 'normal'. As Larry ... http://onlinegrammar.com.au/blog/?p=40 Do you want to express yourself better in your business writing? Then tidy up your sentences. Looking closely at sentence length and structure will help make your words work for you. Thinking about content and style at the same time is difficult, so concentrate on content in your first draft and ... http://onlinegrammar.com.au/blog/?p=24 Reader's question: Do you put Latin expressions in italics? Online grammar answer: Most Latin expressions and abbreviations are now so commonplace that there is no need to use italics — for example, bona fide, ad nauseam, e.g., etc. The exception is sic, which is used to show that an incorrect or archaic ... http://onlinegrammar.com.au/blog/?p=18 I try not to be a pedant after hours as proofreading everything takes some of the pleasure out of reading.  Also, I don't want to judge other people's writing too harshly as I often make careless mistakes myself. So I was amused by a conversation with my 20-year-old daughter. She was telling me ... http://onlinegrammar.com.au/blog/?p=6