Sentence Fragments; Definition & Examples

What is a sentence fragment?

A sentence fragment is a group of words punctuated improperly as if it were a complete sentence, starting with a capital letter and ending with a period or other end punctuation. A sentence fragment may appear to be a complete sentence, but it is not. Sentence fragments usually lack a subject or verb, or they … Read more

What Is a Noun?

What is a noun?

What is a noun?What are all types of nouns?How is a noun used in a sentence? A noun is referred to any word that names something. This could be a person, place, thing, or idea. Nouns play different roles in sentences. A noun could be a subject, direct object, indirect object, subject complement, object complement, … Read more

What Is an Adjective?

What is an adjective?

What is an adjective? How is an adjective used in a sentence? What are all types of adjectives? Need answers? Stay tuned and keep reading this article! Adjectives are one of the nine parts of speech that improve your writing and speaking to make it more specific and more interesting. Adjectives are descriptive words used … Read more

What Is a Preposition?

What is a preposition?

Introduction When it comes to dealing with the English language, especially for non-English speakers, its numerous little rules can feel confusing to say the least. For example, many people struggle with prepositions. Despite being a crucial part of the language itself, English speaking people tend to have a very limited number of prepositions that they … Read more

All You Need to Know about Apostrophe Rules

Apostrophe rules

Introduction Apostrophe happens to be one punctuation mark that has been abused and misused as far as the English language is concerned. Most people feel the English language is complicated because It has various rules that need to be followed. Punctuation marks were created to help us read easier but since their creation there has … Read more

Ellipsis – All You Need to Know about It

Where to use ellipsis

The ellipsis (. . ., …)  also known as dot-dot-dot is a grammatical term (usually three dots) that’s used to indicate an intentional omission of a sentence, word or whole section from a text without changing its original meaning. The word “ellipsis” originates from the Greek word élleipsis, and it means, leave out. When it comes to how … Read more

Where to Use a Hyphen

Where to use a hyphen

The hyphen is used to join words together and also to separate syllables of a single word. Hyphenation is the use of hyphens. The punctuation mark should not be confused with dashes (en dash  –, figure dash ‒,  horizontal dash —, and em dash  —), which are longer and have their own different use. The … Read more

Where to Use Periods/Full Stops

full stop or period

The period is one of the first punctuation marks we learn when at the start of our reading and writing years. In comparison to other punctuation marks such as the semicolons or commas, the use of the period is easy to learn and understand. The period is known as the “full stop” in British English … Read more

Where to Use Commas

Where to use commas

The comma is one of the most used punctuation marks there is, and perhaps the most misused and abused punctuation mark in the English language. The comma is used in various languages and context, mainly to separate parts of a sentence such as items in lists or clauses. The word comma is derived from the … Read more

What Is Syntax? Definition and Examples

What is syntax?

Syntax, in linguistic, pertains to the set of rules, principles and processes that govern how words are combined to form clauses, phrases, and sentences. The goal of most syntacticians around the world is to discover the syntactic rules common to all languages. The word “syntax” is derived from the Greek, meaning “arrange together.” The term … Read more

Where to Use Colon and Semicolon

Where to use colon and semicolon?

Not everyone understands the importance of using the right punctuation during writing. Just like with speaking, where the use of intonation helps your listeners understand you better. That’s what these symbols do to your writing. They help you communicate your writing to readers. People rarely have issues using the full stop, comma, bracket, exclamation, and … Read more

Brackets, Braces, and Parentheses – Where to Use Them

Braces, brackets, and parentheses

Has anyone ever sent you a message that you wanted to read, but it wasn’t well-punctuated, and it just wasn’t coming together? If you have, you already know what punctuation do- Make texts easy to read and understand. The absence of punctuation can wreak a lot of havoc in writing because punctuation give the written … Read more

Stages of Language Acquisition

Stages of language acquisition

Introduction Language acquisition is a process that can happen at any point in human life. However, when we talk about the first language acquisition by a child, we refer to the process or way by which children learn their native language. (Learn about the nativist theory of language acquisition) Learning a new language can be … Read more

What Is Discourse Analysis?

What is discourse analysis?

The qualitative research method is a branch of research that focuses on the use of conversational methods to collect data. It boasts a plethora of tools at its disposal, and discourse analysis is one of its most popular instruments for research and data collection. Discourse analysis is utilized in several disciplines, including the humanities and … Read more

The Nativist Theory – Quick and Clear Guide

The nativist theory

The nativist theory of language acquisition became very popular in the late 20th century through Noam Chomsky who claimed that language is an innate faculty. The theory holds that children learn their mother’s tongue through their natural ability to organize the laws of language, but are only able to fully utilize this talent with the … Read more

Language Development Theories

Language Development Theories

In short: Language development theories explain how we learn languages, including grammar rules, words, and expressions. When we talk about language development, what we mean by it is the process by which children come to understand and communicate language during infancy and through their early childhood. The word or term language itself has many definitions. … Read more

The Firsts In English

The firsts in English

The English language has a beautiful history behind it. In this article, we will look at the first events that marked the beginning of a great moment in the language. The most iconic pioneer moments, or as we call them the firsts in English, are below: The First Book Printed In English: The book, The … Read more

Development of the English Language – A Short But Comprehensive Guide

Development of the English language

You may have been writing and speaking in the English language, but you probably don’t know that the English language, which was preceded by Celtic, belongs to the Germanic languages. The development of the English language started with the invasion of Britain by three Germanic tribes (the Saxons, Angles and Jutes) during the 5th century. … Read more

Lindley Murray: The Father of English Grammar

Lindley Murray: The Fathe of English Grammar

The English we speak today is a result of the several influences of cultures and individuals. English grammar – most importantly has seen different changes over the centuries (Learn about outdated grammar rules). One of the most iconic figures associated with English grammar is Lindley Murray, a Quaker lawyer, writer, and grammarian. Today, Lindley Murray … Read more