In English, tenses indicate the time or state of a particular action. It is always important to always use proper tenses because they help the reader understand what happens at a particular time.

The English language has 12 different tenses in total. The two most common ones are the past and present tenses:

     I live in Vancouver. (Present tense)

     I lived in Vancouver. (Past tense)

The meanings of these tenses are seemingly very self-explanatory, yet many students commonly misuse these tenses in academic writing assignments.

Whenever writing about a historical event or describing any past action, always use the past tense:

     The Second World War began in 1939 and ended in 1945.

     The high temperatures caused the pressure in the container to increase.

On the other hand, when describing events in a fictional work (e.g. a book or a film) or quoting from one, verbs should be in the present tense:

     Charles Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities opens with the line, "It was the best of times. It was the worst of times."

Before we go into our lesson today on adjectives and adverbs, we will first review the answers to questions from the last blog post on subject-verb agreements:

1) Correct

2) Correct

3) Incorrect — Addiction to video games is becoming a problem. (The subject pronoun for "addiction to video games" is "it".

4) Incorrect — A team of firefighters was trying to rescue the trapped persons. (The subject pronoun for "a team of firefighters" is "it".)

5) Correct

Now we will begin our lesson on adjectives and adverbs.

The function of both adjectives and adverbs is to describe. However, adjectives describe nouns while adverbs describe verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs:

     Jill is a quick runner. ("Quick" is an adjective that describes the noun, "runner".)

     Jill runs quickly. ("Quickly" is an adverb that describes the verb, "run".)

     Jill is a very quick runner. ("Very" is an adverb that describes the adjective, "quick".)

     Jill runs very quickly. ("Very is an adverb that describes the adverb, "quickly".)

As you probably noticed, "quickly" is another inflection of "quick". For many adjectives, adding the suffix "-ly" changes it into an adverb. When deciding which inflection to choose, it is important to look at what exactly you are trying to describe — a noun, verb, adjective, or another adverb.

The concept of subject-verb agreement seems to be very self-explanatory once you have learnt how to properly conjugate verbs:

     I write.
     You write.
     He/she/it writes.
     We write.
     They write.

Still, it is not uncommon for people to incorrectly use subject-verb agreements, especially when the subject is a more complicated one:

     Kevin and Jack goes to the same school.

     The number of students increase every year.

It is always important to look carefully at the subject before selecting the correct verb conjugation. "I", "you", "he/she/it", "we", and "they" are all subject pronouns, so which subject pronoun can replace the subject you are using?

     Kevin and Jack go to the same school. (For "Kevin and Jack", the subject pronoun would be "they".)

     The number of students increases every year. (For "number of students", the subject pronoun would be "it".)

Now take a look at these sentences. Which one of these are correct and which ones are not? For the ones that are not correct, how would you correct them?

1) The fundraiser that the grade 12 students ran was successful.

2) An iPhone or Android are both suitable for me.

3) Addiction to video games are becoming a problem.

4) A team of firefighters were trying to rescue the trapped persons.

5) Bench pressing 315 pounds is not difficult for Brian.

The answers will be in the next blog post.

In English, conjunctions are basically words that that serve as connectors between clauses. Examples of these include "and", "so", "but", "or", and "because". Since these words join clauses together, it is not proper to start sentences using these words:

     Incorrect: I am a student. And my favourite subject is English.

In a previous post that I wrote about comma faults, I talked about independent and dependent clauses. Whenever there is a conjunction at the beginning of a clause, the clause is always a dependent one. Notice that the second sentence beginning with "and" is a dependent clause, so it cannot actually stand alone as a sentence.

If we were to fix the example above, we would use a comma instead of a period.

     Correct: I am a student, and my favourite subject is English.

Here is one more example:

     Incorrect: Jack is of Chinese descent. But he does not understand Chinese.

     Correct: Jack is of Chinese descent, but he does not understand Chinese.

We can express ideas suing either in the active voice of the passive voice:

     Active: William Golding wrote Lord of the Flies.

     Passive: Lord of the Flies was written by William Golding.

The meaning of the two sentences above are exactly the same, but the difference is in the format of the sentence. In the active construction, the sentence follows the conventional subject-verb-object format. In the passive construction, the sentence begins with the object, followed by was/were, the past participle, and then the subject.

In come cases, there is no identifiable subject in the passive voice:

     My house was broken into. (In this case, the subject is not known.)

In formal writing assignments, it is best to avoid using the passive voice if at all possible. Even in the example above, where the subject is unknown, we can still say, Somebody broke into my office.

Whenever we use the expression "different" in front of a noun, we are trying to compare two or more different subjects. Therefore, the noun that follows "different" is always plural:

     Incorrect: Different writer expresses ideas differently.

     Correct: Different writers express ideas differently.

Of course, if we add "a" or "one" in front of "different", then the noun following would be singular:

     A different person

     A different colour

     One different opinion

     One different problem

If we do not use "a" or "one" in front of "different", then the noun that follows will be plural just like in example one.

"A lot of..." is another common expression that we use in the English language. Whenever we use this expression, the noun that follows always needs to be plural. For example:

     A lot of student will go to the football game. (Incorrect)

     A lot of students will go to the football game. (Correct)

Of course, not all nouns are countable. In these case, pluralization will not apply:

     A lot of people

     A lot of time ("Time" here means a duration, not a particular period or moment.)

     A lot of air

     A lot of happiness

It is still acceptable to use "a lot of..." in front of these nouns, but there would just be no pluralization.

"One of..." is a common expression that we use in English.

Whenever you use "one of...", you always need to pluralize the noun that follows the expression.

     Incorrect: One of my classmate

     Correct: One of my classmates

However, for the verb that follows the noun, you are supposed to use the same conjugation as for the pronouns, "he", "she", or "it":

     Incorrect: One of my classmates are from Russia.

     Correct: One of my classmates is from Russia. 

If you had to choose a subject pronoun for "one of my classmates", then it would be "he" or she". In that case, the sentence would read as either, "He is from Russia" or "She is from Russia".

Remember these rules when you are writing from now on.

A comma fault (also known as a comma splice) is a grammatical error where there is a comma in between two independent clauses:

     It is almost eight o'clock, I cannot make it to school on time.

The sentence above has two clauses:

     Clause 1: It is almost eight o'clock.

     Clause 2: I cannot make it to school on time.

Both clauses are independent clauses, which means that they can stand alone as sentences. Therefore, using a comma between these clauses would be a comma fault. To fix this problem, we can do the following:

     Solution 1 — Use a semicolon:

          It is almost eight o'clock; I cannot make it to school on time.

     Solution 2 — Write the two clauses as separate sentences: 

          It is almost eight o'clock. I cannot make it to school on time.

     Solution 3 — Use a conjunction:

          It is almost eight o'clock and I cannot make it to school on time.

Whenever you decide whether you can use a comma or not, you need to first look at the clauses before and after the comma. If both can stand alone as sentences like the example above, then it is not proper to use a comma. If one or both clauses are dependent (meaning they cannot stand alone as sentences), then you need to use a comma:

     When it was almost eight o'clock, I realized I could not make it on time. (Clause 1 is dependent)

"Don't", "I'd", "I'm", "couldn't", and "can't" are a few of many examples of contractions in the English language. In their original form, these contractions would be, "do not", "I had", "I am", "could not", and "can not". Any word that has an apostrophe in it and that is not a possessive (e.g. the dog's, Paul's, etc.) is a contraction. Everyone uses contractions on a regular basis, but in formal writing assignments, it is best that we avoid them.

Look at the following sentence:

     I didn't go to school today. ("Didn't" is a contraction and therefore should be avoided)

Instead, write the sentence as such:

     I did not go to school today.

​Contractions in reality are a form of laziness and therefore, you should not ever use them in formal writing, which includes work that you hand in to your teachers. It is perfectly acceptable to use contractions when you are speaking, but start getting into the habit of taking them out of your writing.

Now that you have read this, from now on, remember to look over your writing and see if you have used any contractions before submitting your assignment.