English punctuation and capitalization rules for abbreviations vary widely because those rules frequently change. Moreover, American and British English differ in the use of periods with names and titles of people. Therefore, you should think of the “rules” for abbreviations as guidelines, not absolutes. Always make sure that the abbreviations you use are consistent with…

In this week’s lesson, we’re going to begin examining abbreviations. English punctuation and capitalization rules for abbreviations vary widely because those rules frequently change. Moreover, American and British English differ in the use of periods with names and titles of people. As a general rule, you should avoid abbreviations in formal writing unless you are…

English punctuation and capitalization rules for abbreviations vary widely because those rules frequently change. Moreover, American and British English differ in the use of periods with names and titles of people. Therefore, you should think of the “rules” for abbreviations as guidelines, not absolutes. Always make sure that the abbreviations you use are consistent with…

A time clause is a dependent clause that begins with a “time word” (when, after, as soon as, etc.). Time clauses follow their own special rules for tense combinations. Therefore, the correct verb tense in a time clause may be different from what you expect.   Future Time Clauses A future time clause uses the…

This week we’re going to examine another five commonly-used English contronyms: words with two contradictory meanings. A contronym, sometimes called an auto-antonym or “Janus word” (after the two-faced Greek god), is essentially its own opposite. Accordingly, the meaning that a contronym conveys is entirely context-dependent. If you need more help with contronyms or any other…

In this lesson, we’re going to look at five more fossil words that have been preserved within modern English idioms. These archaic words are rarely, if ever, used outside of the idiomatic expressions in which they are embedded. In fact, an English speaker using an idiom containing a fossil word might not even be aware…

This week, we’re going to look at another five words whose meanings have changed over time. English, like any living language, continues to grow and change. New words are created, old words fall out of use, and existing words take on new meanings. Many common English words have very different meanings now than they did…

Test your knowledge of some of the tricky pairs and groups of words that we’ve covered in previous lessons with this short quiz. For each sentence, choose the correct word or words from those in brackets. Answers and explanations can be found at the end of the quiz. If you need more help with tricky…

This week, we’re going to clarify several more pairs and groups of “tricky words” that both native and non-native speakers have difficulty using correctly. In our commonly-confused words lessons, we’ve focused on words with similar spellings and/or pronunciations but different meanings. Our tricky words lessons, by contrast, focus on words whose uses are confused for…