Got and Gotten are often considered to be synonyms in British English & American English. However, this is not so and there are a number of differences between their usage. In British English the past participle of the verb, to get, is got. I have got 3 parking tickets this […]
Continue ReadingFillers
In linguistics, a filler is a sound or word in speaking used by someone to show that they haven’t finished speaking yet but are either forming their thoughts into speech or mentally searching for the right word. Common fillers in English are: um – /um/ er – /ə/ However, we […]
Continue ReadingFewer vs Less
The debate about using fewer or less when referring to quantity still rages. It is related to the concept of descriptive vs prescriptive grammars. In terms of historical origin, less has been used continuously in English for hundreds of years to refer to comparative quantity with all nouns whilst the […]
Continue ReadingDescriptive vs Prescriptive Grammars
Grammar books can generally be divided into two different types: Descriptive or Prescriptive. This article looks at the difference between them. Very simply, a descriptive grammar looks at what people actually say in real life and then lays out a series of statements describing what is said. With modern technology […]
Continue ReadingData Is or Data Are?
The Wall Street Journal published a blog post in which it decided to class data as a singular noun which, according to the rules of subject-verb agreement goes with a singular verb, much like information. For the WSJ this is good English: the data is collected However, many traditionalists contend […]
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