Last week’s column discussed the two general forms of noun clauses in English, namely finite noun clauses and nonfinite noun clauses. A finite noun clause is a subordinate clause in which the ...

Of all the grammar concepts we have, "plural" seems to be one of the most straightforward. You got one thing? It's singular. Got more than one thing? It's plural. But alas, language is always less ...

Apostrophes are equal opportunity humiliators. As I wrote recently, apostrophes incriminate less-word-savvy types by popping up in plurals like “We play bridge with the Smith’s” and “He had two ...

Definiteness is an operator that referring to discourse and pragmatic situations. In a nutshell definiteness is a referent whose existence is commonly understood to both the speaker and the addressee.

How many kinds of noun clauses are there in English? A Russian member of Jose Carillo’s English Forum who goes by the username Ivan Ivanov asked me this question recently, observing that as far as he ...