When is "some" used as plural and when is it used as singular?
Feb 14, 2024 · I am trying to explain to an ESL student how to understand when to treat "some" as plural and when to treat it as singular. One clear rule is when "some" is the subject followed...
What's the negation of "I used to be"? Surely not "I didn't used to be"?
Jun 13, 2019 · What is the negative form of "I used to be"? I often hear "I didn't used to be" but that sounds awfully wrong in my ears.
use vs. used what is the correct usage? [duplicate]
Oct 27, 2015 · I am trying to find out if this question is correct. Did Wang Bo used to be awkward? Should I write "use to be" instead of "used to be," or is "used to be" correct in this sentence?
How does the phrase "used to" work, grammatically?
Jul 28, 2017 · If "used to" is a set idiomatic phrase (i.e. not a tense), then why would it change its form from "use to" to "used to" for the sentence as it does in the positive?
Should infinitive or ing-form be used after "help"?
Jul 29, 2024 · These make up the vast majority of hits for 'can help doing something' in the Corpus of Contemporary American English. In the sentence given though, help is quite definitely a verb, and …
word usage - Can "née" be used for entities other than people ...
Used to indicate the maiden name of a married woman. (2) Formerly known as. From definition (2) of the both of the above, I found the word, ‘née’ can be used both for person and other than person.
nouns - Is the hyphenated form "teen-ager" correct? Still used ...
Dec 1, 2013 · However, the next occurrence (from Ohio/Missouri in 1917) used the hyphenated form, teen-agers, and for the entire period, teen-ager [s] (12) and teen agers (11) appeared in almost …
"Compared with" vs "Compared to"—which is used when?
Apr 12, 2011 · Bryan Garner, Garner's Modern American Usage, fourth edition (2016) provides what I take to be the current (and traditional) formal prescriptivist view among U.S. usage authorities of …
Why was "Spook" a slur used to refer to African Americans?
Jul 29, 2023 · Spook was actually used by black people to refer to white people, presumably on the notion of “white” ghosts. spook n. [SE spook, a ghost] (US black) a white person. 1939 [US] P.E. …
A word for something that used to be unique but is now so …
Dec 28, 2016 · Giving the used to be unique constraint more consideration (prompted by Edwin's comment), yet another -ous word occurred to me: insidious. For the specific example of metal …