What is the Difference Between ‘Used to Cook,’ ‘Used to Cooking,’ and ‘Got Used to Cooking’?

Guest Post By Akmal Akbarov at EnglishClubPro.com

Have you ever wondered about the difference between “I used to cook every morning,” where we don’t add –ing to the verb ‘cook,’ and “I am used to cooking every morning”?

If you’re confused about the difference, I am going to explain everything in detail. I am sure you will be able to get the hang of it. ��

Let’s go!

‘Used to + verb’ for past events

Whenever you talk about events that happened a long time ago but don’t normally happen now, you should use this formula. For example:

I used to play football all day long when I was a child.

This means that you played football all day long when you were a child, but now you are much busier and you have no time to play football for such a long time. If you do play, it usually lasts for only one or two hours. Here is another example:

I used to smoke when I was in the army.

When you were in the army you smoked, but later you realized that it was very harmful to your health. So you gave up.

If you understood why and when we use the ‘used to + verb’ form, let’s now talk about three different ways to use it.

Positive form: I used to smoke when I was in the army.

Negative form: I didn’t use to smoke when I was in the army. (Pay attention, it is ‘use’ not ‘used’)

Question form: Did I use to smoke when I was in the army? (Pay attention, it is ‘use’ not ‘used’)

‘Used to + verb + ing’ for habits

Next, you use this form whenever you talk about your present habits. For example, you might say:

I am used to getting up early in the morning.

This means that it is your habit to get up early in the morning. You always get up early.

So now let’s discuss the three ways to use this construction.

Positive form: I am used to running every morning. (Notice: to be + used to + verb + ing)

Negative form: I am not used to running every morning. (Notice: to be + not + used to + verb + ing)

Question: Am I used to running every morning? (Notice: to be + subject + used to + verb + ing)

‘Get used to + verb + ing’ for new habits

All right, now let’s talk about this one. This form is almost the same as the previous one. However, if we compare …

I am used to running every morning.

with

I am getting used to running every morning.

…then we can see that ‘I am getting used to running’ means that you are only learning how to run in the morning. It was not your habit before, but now, because you are running every morning, it is becoming normal and habitual for you. Let’s another example.

Imagine that I am in China. I have never used chopsticks to eat my meals. But now I am using them every day and it is becoming a normal thing for me. Actually, now I prefer eating with chopsticks rather than with spoons or forks. So I say:

I am getting used to eating my meal with chopsticks.

Now let’s see the three ways we can use it.

Positive form: I am getting used to listening to music while I read a book.

Negative form: I am not getting used to listening to music while I read a book.

Question form: Am I getting used to listening to music while I read a book?

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Hi, my name is Akmal. I’m an English language enthusiast, blogger, writer, and entrepreneur. In addition to being the founder of EnglishClubPro.com, I’m also a teacher of English with more than ten years of experience. I love helping aspiring English learners to master their English.

Post adapted from original post.

Thru vs. Through—Which Is Right?

• Through can be a preposition, an adjective, and an adverb.
• Through is the only formally accepted spelling of the word.
• Thru is an alternate spelling that should be used only in informal writing or when referring to drive-throughs.

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As if all the confusion over the words through and threw wasn’t enough, modern English has piled on yet another homophone: thru.

Through vs. Thru

Through can be used as a preposition, an adverb, and an adjective. It has several meanings, including “from one side to the other,” “from beginning to end,” and “during an entire period”:

He rode his bicycle through the door and onto the street.

You have to read the book through if you want to be prepared for class.

We were dancing all through the concert.

Through is the only acceptable way to spell the word in a formal situation. In informal situations, and especially when texting or instant messaging, the form thru is becoming increasingly popular:

Did you come thru with the tickets?

Come to my place, we’ll go thru all the episodes of Firefly.

There is one occasion when thru might be an acceptable choice even in formal writing. The word drive-through is commonly spelled with the shortened form of through:

The bank opened its first drive-thru on Monday.

Through vs. Thru: Examples

The management of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra has canceled orchestra concerts through Dec. 5.

Pittsburg Post Gazette

The traffic pattern will be similar to last year and motorists should allow extra time to get through the area during shift changes.

WRIC

Over 100 people got married or renewed their vows in “run-thru” weddings on Sunday during the Rock ’n’ Roll Las Vegas Marathon.

New York Daily News

On Tuesday afternoon, she is the second person to pull into Drive-Thru Prayer at Tyner, an event that has taken place on the first Tuesday of each month since September.

Times Free Press

Restrictive and Nonrestrictive Clauses—What’s the Difference?

A restrictive clause modifies the noun that precedes it in an essential way. Restrictive clauses limit or identify such nouns and cannot be removed from a sentence without changing the sentence’s meaning. A nonrestrictive clause, on the other hand, describes a noun in a nonessential way.

The terminology in this area of grammar can be confusing, so let’s get that out of the way. Because restrictive clauses provide key, identifying information, they are often referred to as essential clauses, and nonrestrictive clauses are also called nonessential clauses for the opposite reason. They are both types of relative clauses because the information they provide relates to the subject of another clause.

As if that weren’t enough, both function as adjective clauses, because they describe their noun antecedents.

Aren’t you glad we cleared that up?

Restrictive Clauses Narrow Things Down

Restrictive clauses are usually introduced by the relative pronouns that, who, whom, or whose. A restrictive clause can have an identifying function.

The astronaut who first stepped on the moon was Neil Armstrong.

The restrictive clause in this sentence is who first stepped on the moon. If we stripped it from the sentence, we would be left with this:

The astronaut was Neil Armstrong.

There is nothing grammatically wrong with this Spartan sentence. However, it does not have the same intent as the former example, which was to identify the person who first set foot on the moon’s surface.

A restrictive clause can also have a limiting function.

Children who eat vegetables are likely to be healthy.

If the restrictive clause who eat vegetables were removed from this sentence, the intended limits on the noun children would be no more.

Children are likely to be healthy.

Obviously, our intention with the first sentence was to point out which children, from among the world’s multitudes, perform a behavior likely to sustain their health. Thus, who eat vegetables is an essential element of that sentence.

Nonrestrictive Clauses Give Bonus Info

Nonrestrictive clauses provide additional but optional descriptions that can be excised from a sentence without altering its meaning or structure.

Kaylee, who just graduated from high school, is an accomplished figure skater.

While the nonrestrictive clause who just graduated from high school offers a good description of the subject of this sentence, Kaylee, the sentence retains its meaning without it.

Kaylee is an accomplished figure skater.

Commas and Relative Clauses

A broad rule you can apply to relative clauses in order to punctuate them correctly is that restrictive clauses are never offset by commas, whereas nonrestrictive clauses are. One way to remember this is that nonrestrictive clauses are removable, and commas mark the removable part of the sentence. Restrictive clauses, on the other hand, are essential; they need to blend with their sentences seamlessly, without commas.

Would you lend me the book, that you recommended last week?

Would you lend me the book that you recommended last week?

Oliver Twist which was Dickens’s second novel is a classic.

Oliver Twist, which was Dickens’s second novel, is a classic.

Deciding between That and Which

Confusion about when to use that and which has arisen for good reason: British and American English have different rules for them. In American English, that is used to introduce restrictive clauses, and which introduces nonrestrictive clauses.

The lamp, which was given to me by Aunt Betsy, is on the bedside table.

The lamp that Aunt Betsy gave me is on the bedside table.

In British English, it is often acceptable to substitute which in restrictive clauses.

The lamp which Aunt Betsy gave me is on the bedside table.

Of course, that could also be used acceptably in British English, which makes it safer, by default, to follow the American rule when in doubt. It also makes it easier to decide whether to insert commas, because if you follow the American rules, you can remember that commas should not precede that, but they should precede which.

A third option for the last example would be to rewrite it to omit all relative pronouns. If you can do that successfully, the clause is definitely restrictive.

The lamp Aunt Betsy gave me is on the bedside table.

Now that you have taken the time to learn these important rules, one thing has no restrictions at all: the limits of your writing.

Sequence of Tenses–Grammar Rules

The rules governing verb tenses are dictated by logic; an action in the future obviously cannot happen before an action in the past. In writing, it’s a matter of looking at your clauses and sentences and determining when each action is happening relative to everything else. The past must come before the present, and the present before the future, etc. Pay particular attention to the verb sequence when you have a dependent clause before an independent clause, or a result clause before the if-clause.

When an independent clause is in the past tense, any dependent clauses must also be written in the past tense, not the present tense or the future tense. Consider the example below for an illustration of this rule:

The cat was bathing because his feet are dirty.

The cat was bathing because his feet will be dirty.

Because the tense of the independent clause is in the past (was bathing), the verb in the dependent clause should also be in the past, as illustrated in the sentence below:

The cat was bathing because his feet were dirty.

As with many rules in English, however, there is an exception. In cases where a universal truth is conveyed, the present tense may be used after the past tense. Consider this example:

Even the early doctors knew that washing hands prevents infection.

The fact that handwashing prevents infection is a universal truth that doesn’t change with time, so it can be expressed in the present tense. Of course, the rule regarding the sequence of tenses doesn’t mean that the actual verbs have to be in chronological order, just the actions. We can put the dependent clause at the beginning of the sentence, as illustrated below:

Athena will continue to learn English when she gets to the States.

It’s alright to have the future tense (will continue) before the present tense (gets) because the temporal conjunction (when) shows that the second action actually happens first.

Surprise, Suprise or Surprize —Which Is Correct?

• Surprise is the correct way to spell the word.
• Surprize was once an alternative spelling, but it’s very rarely used today.
• Suprise is not an acceptable way to spell surprise.

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Once upon a time, it was possible to choose between two spellings of surprise, but nowadays there’s only one.

How to Spell Surprise

There is only one generally accepted spelling of surprise: two r’s and two s’s in total. Spelling the word without the first r—suprise—is an easy mistake to make. We often don’t pronounce the first r, suh-prize, which might lead you to think that there’s no r there at all. But there is:

Sylvia surprised us when she came home for the holidays.

He came home to find an unpleasant suprise—his dog had chewed up all of his shoes.

I’m throwing my sister a big surprise party for her birthday.

It’s not a suprise if you knew it was going to happen.

Surprize was once a common alternative spelling of surprise, but it’s now considered archaic, so you should avoid it.

It was a surprisingly comfortable flight.

The surprize came too late.

Examples

These screaming children were so excited when Iron Man made a surprise appearance at a birthday party.

The Daily Mirror

So, there was plenty of surprise when an email from the iPhone maker dropped into inboxes earlier in the week.

Irish Examiner

What can you do if you’re on the receiving end of surprise billing?

CBS News

In some cases, learning a couple of very helpful spelling rules can help you avoid making a spelling mistake, but with surprise, you need to remember that there are two r’s and two s’s. This one isn’t a matter of choice like apologise-apologize or realise-realize.

Truly or Truely —Which Is Correct?

• Truly is the only acceptable way to spell the adverbial form of the adjective true.
• Truely is not an alternative spelling; it’s a common mistake.

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Some adjectives like nice, fine, and blue retain their final e when adding the adverb suffix -ly: nicely, finely, and bluely. With truly, this is not the case.

Is It Truly or Truely?

Although some monosyllabic adjectives ending with “e” retain it when they adopt the -ly suffix to become adverbs, true isn’t one of them. This might be the reason some people mistakenly think that truely is the way to spell the word. It’s not. Truly is the only accepted spelling:

We would truly like to see you back next summer.

You have to end your letters with “yours truely“.

It was a truly wonderful performance.

I truely made an effort to finish the essay on time.

That girl can truly sing like an angel.

This is not what we truely wanted for Christmas.

Examples

The study is crammed full with old books, scattered manuscripts and mysterious potions, and the beasts as well as their individual habitats themselves are truly impressive.

Variety

Most of the time, the parents mean well and truly want to help.

CNBC

First of all, you need to truly understand the amount of work that is required.

Forbes

Most of us make spelling mistakes from time to time. Some words seem to almost invite us to make mistakes. “Forty” and “fourty” are such a pair, “preferably” and “preferrably” are another, and there is always “foolproof” and “fullproof” to keep us on our toes.

7 Things You Write Every Day That You Probably Forgot About

In some ways, everyone is a writer. Have you thought about how much writing you do in one day? Don’t overlook these seven daily writing tasks!

Emails

According to Lifewire.com, people around the world send more than two billion emails per day. That’s 2.4 million emails every second! The format of some emails closely resembles that of physical letters. For example, business emails contain the salutation, body, and closing that you would find in a business letter. Other emails are like articles or bulletins, providing news and information. How do you use email?

Instant Messages

Even if you are reminding your husband to pick up some mustard on his way home from work, an instant message counts as writing! Some people don’t mind writing out whole phrases. Others try to keep messages as short as possible. IMs (instant messages) often contain slang, abbreviations, and shorthand. For example, ROFL means “rolling on the floor laughing.” Can you guess what LMK means?

Lists

Lists are also writing exercises. One of the most common types is the grocery list, which enumerates all the things someone needs to buy at the store. However, people make lists for all kinds of reasons. A to-do list details what someone plans to accomplish in a given period of time. If you are moving, you may make an inventory, a list of all the items included in an individual box. This article itself is a listicle, an article that provides brief explanations of topics in a list form. Lists are all around you if you look. Can you think of some other types of lists?

Forms

A trip to the bank or the driver’s license bureau may involve some writing. You might have to fill out forms with account details to receive service. If you are applying for a job, you may even have to include some short answer responses to questions.

Journaling

Writing doesn’t have to be for the public. Do you sometimes record your daily affairs in a journal or private blog? Most people already know that journaling improves mental health, but did you realize it can also be good for your body? James Pennebaker, a researcher at the University of Texas at Austin has found that journaling strengthens the immune system and decreases the severity of asthma and rheumatoid arthritis. How’s that for motivation to pick up your journal tonight?

Agendas

When you jot down the time and date of an appointment in a datebook, accurate writing is more important than ever. One mistake could cost you, so this form of writing needs your full attention. Putting things down in writing does more than help you remember them. Seeing all your appointments and due dates in one place can help you to manage your time wisely and avoid scheduling conflicts.

Captions

When you post a picture to social media, do you provide a little explanation of what it is? Often, these descriptions are informative or amusing ways to share your memories. If you haven’t tried adding a caption, visit the Frequently Asked Questions section of your social media site to find out how.

Now, do you agree? Everyone is a writer! Surely, though, this list is not exhaustive. What other ways do you use writing every day?

Grammar Basics: What is the correct word order in English?

Word order in English is fixed for most speaking and writing.

In English, sentences start with a subject and are immediately followed by a verb. In questions, this order is switched.

She is a friend.

Is she a friend?

To learn more about grammar and to help us celebrate National Grammar Day this March, visit our new resource page.

What Does Ikr Mean?

• Ikr stands for I know, right.
• Use ikr to agree with something someone said.

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While some of the phrases used in text speak originated in that medium, others, like ikr, are adopted from everyday life.

The Meaning of Ikr

Ikr is an abbreviation for the phrase “I know, right.” The phrase first appeared during the early 1990s, and its first uses in electronic communication can be traced back to at least 2004.

The phrase itself has been a pet peeve for some language commentators. The phrase “I know,” on its own, signals that we are aware of something another person is saying, or that we agree with it. According to some critics, adding the word “right” turns the phrase into a question. However, the “right” in “I know, right” is actually just a way of adding emphasis. Using “isn’t it” instead of “right” can also work in a similar way.

How to Use Ikr

Ikr is a little different from I know or yes because it can show that you strongly agree, or that you agree with someone’s disbelief. It can also convey a feeling of relief that someone else shares your feelings about something.

The abbreviation ikr is mostly used in informal communication, especially online or through texting. There’s no need to write it in all caps, although you can if you want to. It’s not written with a comma between the k and the r.

Examples

Jane looks better with shorter hair. Ikr, and the new color suits her well, too.

There’s no chance I’m going to be ready for tomorrow’s quiz. Ikr, Ms. Stevens is too demanding.

He’s such a snob. IKR?!

People shouldn’t be saying “right” after “I know.” Ikr ��

Humanity’s Best Eggcorn Examples

When singers use backing tracks to sing less (or not at all) during a performance, they have to do what is called “lip singing”—mouthing the words without actually making sound. Old-timer’s disease is a terrible illness that affects people’s ability to think, remember, and control their behavior. A mute point is an issue that could be argued, but could also have very little consequence. To eardrop is to listen in on someone’s conversation.

What do lip singing, old-timer’s disease, mute points, and eardropping have in common? Not much, except that each of these phrases is incorrect. Lip singing is in fact lip syncing, mute points are moot points, old-timer’s disease is Alzheimer’s disease, and eardropping is eavesdropping. We call this particular type of erroneous word usage an eggcorn.

Eggcorns are called eggcorns because “eggcorn” itself is an eggcorn—a word that sounds similar to and has a meaning that sort of works in place of the original. In this case, the original is “acorn.” In September 2003, the linguist Mark Liberman posted an article to the blog Language Log. In the article, he described the case of a woman who used the term “eggcorn” instead of “acorn.” His fellow linguist Geoffrey Pullum noted that, if there’s no other name for this type of mistake, it might as well be called “eggcorn.” Lo and behold, seven years later, the term “eggcorn” found its way into The Oxford English Dictionary. Merriam-Webster recognized it five years after that.

To qualify as an eggcorn, the substituted sound must preserve at least some sense of the original word. Lip singing is an eggcorn because it involves people move their lips as if they were singing. Old-timer’s disease is an eggcorn because the disease mostly affects the elderly. There are a few types of errors related to eggcorns—a mondegreen is almost like an eggcorn, but it involves misconstruing the lyrics of a song or other type of performance. A malapropism also features a similar substitution of sounds, but it results in a word or phrase that doesn’t make sense within the context.

However, eggcorns, just like malapropisms and mondegreens, have an abundant comedic potential. Case in point: the character Virginia, played by Martha Plimpton in the television show Raising Hope. Virginia was a very potent distributor of malapropisms, eggcorns, and other errors, linguistic or otherwise. She gave the world Obama-Car, an affordable car insurance program devised by President Obama. She also gave us self-refilling prophecies, infusiating into other people’s lives, and many other mistakes that made her a great character and made us laugh.

But if you think about it, eggcorns are often surprisingly witty as well. If you hear a word imperfectly, you have to make an educated guess in order to pronounce it yourself. Sometimes you’re right, but sometimes you come up with another word that sounds almost the same and seems to describe the same thing as the original word. All of this happens under the hood, without you even knowing it’s happening, and it demonstrates how great and flexible human brains are. And in a doggie-dog world, we need to be witty.

What are your favorite eggcorns? Let us know in the comments!

6 Cool Ways to Overcome Writer’s Block

Want to write a bestselling novel? Or maybe you’re more the screenplay type who wants to go straight to Hollywood. Whatever your writing goals are, sometimes the biggest obstacle between them and you is a nasty case of writer’s block. How can you free up your creative juices and write a story worth telling? Here are some ideas to get you started.

Go Wild for Words

Stephen King holds thesauruses (thesauri for you prescriptive Latin-lovers) in disdain, but don’t be afraid to rebel against his viewpoint. Learning new and archaic words can help you think from a different angle; those new words can serve as the seed for your story.

One way to approach this is to find a word you like and write it in the center of a piece of paper. Use word association to create an entire web on that paper; you might be pleasantly surprised at where your thoughts take you.

Foreign language words might also give you a nudge in the right direction. For example, German has a word that refers specifically to the “glad it wasn’t me” attitude that some people take up when something bad happens to someone else. Chinese has a word that literally means “horse horse tiger tiger” and means “so-so.”

Collaborate

Sometimes writers go too deep into the “me zone” and end up isolated. Whether you get in touch with fellow writers online, on campus, or in a local writing group, your peers might be able to give you the boost that you need. Listen to their ideas and contribute your own; you’ll come up with something that neither of you could have concocted on your own. Collaborative writing is a challenge, but the rewards can be beautiful.

Check out some information on Grammarly’s annual collaborative novel, GrammoWriMo, here.

Write Poorly

Grammarly is all about helping you to improve your writing, but bad writing also has its benefits. Bad writing isn’t constrained by your inner editor’s madness. When you accept that you’re not at your best, the words flow freely. Sure, you might throw away what you work on, but you’ll have a fresh mindset.

NaNoWriMo is a fantastic opportunity to write poorly. Writing 50,000 words in 30 days is tough, but if you commit yourself to the goal, you’ll end up with something you can take pride in—even if it needs a major rewrite to make it presentable.

Play Games

There are endless games out there that can stimulate your thinking and get you into story mode. You can participate in interactive creative writing games online, or you can just sit down with some Mad Libs and see what happens. Board games are a good way to get you thinking, too. Games like Scrabble, Quelf, and Cranium will have you thinking about words—and perhaps the world in general—in a different light.

Go to Boot Camp

Writing boot camps are structured events wherein there is designated time to write and be productive. There may also be lectures and other encouragement. Participating in a boot camp can help you become more goal-oriented in your writing. The people you meet at a camp will inspire you to stay focused on improving your storytelling skills.

Veg Out With Media

Steal some ideas! Watch movies and TV shows, dive into a new book, or look at photography and other artwork. Pick out the elements that touch you and adapt them; make them your own in your next project. If you’re really in love with a particular book or show, you might even try your hand at fan fiction just for the fun of it.

Sometimes words might pour out of you like water out of a broken faucet. At other times, you might feel like you need to call a plumber to come unclog the pipes. When the latter happens, use the above tips to find inspiration for your writing and get the ideas flowing. Do you have any special techniques you use to give your storytelling a kick?

Good Grammar Can Keep You Out of Trouble. Here’s How.

We’ve all heard the bad grammar horror stories: gory rumors of a brilliant job candidate missing out on an opportunity because of a misplaced comma or frighteningly funny-not-funny tales of a political candidate mangling a perfectly good one-liner (making it mean even less than it did originally).

Then, of course, there’s the seemingly never-ending barrage of listicles recounting the 10 Most Hilarious Grammar Mistakes You Have To See Before You Die or waxing lyrical about #Grammarfails That Only Grammar Lovers Will Understand.

Rarer, though, are noble accounts of grammar saves: those times when knowing your grammar has neutralized a dangerous (if not quite near-death) experience that could have cost you your money, reputation, and love life.

This may sound far-fetched. After all, good grammar’s usual MO is that it’s a tool for improving communication and writing skills, which can have all kinds of awesome (but not superhero-level) consequences.

To prove the point, we found some pretty cool situations where grammar has swooped in and rescued a poor damsel or dude (or company) in distress.

Good Grammar Can Keep You Out of the Can

When Ohio resident Andrea Cammelleri received a parking ticket for leaving her pickup truck parked in an area for more than twenty-four hours, she could have paid it without question, pleaded her case before a judge, or even (if she was feeling particularly irresponsible) ignored it until she was held in contempt of court and thrown in jail.

Instead, she called Grammar Man! Or rather, she just relied on her knowledge of punctuation to point out that based on comma placement, her vehicle was not in violation of the law. Here are the autos that the village of West Jefferson would not allow to be parked for more than a day:

“Any motor vehicle camper, trailer, farm implement and/or non-motorized vehicle.”

As she so astutely argued, her motor vehicle was not the same thing as a motor vehicle camper. The prosecutors rebutted that the law was clear enough thanks to context, but the appeals court sided with Cammelleri and advised lawmakers to revise the sentence to include a comma between vehicle and camper if they wanted it to apply to standard autos too.

Grammar, one; city of West Jefferson, zero!

Good Grammar Can Save You a Million Bucks

If you’re not so easily won over by a mere parking ticket victory, perhaps you’ll be more convinced of the power of good grammar when there’s a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

That was the case for Canadian telephone company Bell Aliant, and they came out of things one million Canadian dollars richer. How? Thanks to one tiny comma, they were able to cancel a contract with the country’s largest television cable provider just a year after signing (instead of after five, as the cable company intended). An unanticipated increase in third-party usage fees meant that Bell Aliant would have lost a lot of money by staying in the contract. Here’s the phrase responsible for their good fortune:

“This agreement shall be effective from the date it is made and shall continue in force for a period of five (5) years from the date it is made, and thereafter for successive five (5) year terms, unless and until terminated by one year prior notice in writing by either party.”

Bell Aliant argued that the comma after terms and before unless applied to the entirety of the sentence, which meant the company could cut ties after as little as twelve months. The cable provider, on the other hand, meant for the termination period to apply only to the clause and thereafter for successive five-year terms.

A regulator supported Bell Aliant’s claim and sent the cable mogul back to Toronto with its tail between its legs.

Good Grammar Can Get You Out of Dating Trouble

Turns out it’s not who you’re wearing or what you drive that can make you more successful on the dating scene; it’s your grasp of grammar (well, that and good teeth).

According to an online survey of nearly 5,500 singles over the age of 21, 55 percent of men and 69 percent of women judge their potential partners on how well they can cross their t’s and dot their i’s. Good grammar trumped clothes, hair, accent, and even brand of electronic device as an essential.

Needless to say, if you don’t want to strike out on the relationship front, it’s worth brushing up on your sentence structure, vocabulary, and writing skills.

Know another cool example where grammar was used as a superpower? Tell us about it in the comment feed below or via our Facebook or Twitter pages.

How to Avoid Overusing Adverbs

Overuse of adverbs

The boy ran really fast to catch the runaway ball.

The boy sprinted to catch the runaway ball.

Adverbs—those words that often end in -ly—modify verbs. They’re okay once in a while, but in excess they’re an indicator of weak verb choices. In our example, the adverb “really fast” modifies the verb “ran.” But does “really fast” paint a more vivid word-picture for the reader? Use a juicier verb like “sprinted” instead.

What Does Bff Mean?

• Bff is an initialism of the phrase best friends forever.
• Bff has evolved into a noun that refers to a close friend.

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Being someone’s bff does not mean you’re part of a club with only two members. It does, however, mean that you have a very close friend.

The Meaning of Bff

Bff is an initialism of the phrase best friend(s) forever, and it’s a term of endearment used for selected close friends. It’s been in use since at least 1996, although the concept of having a “best friend” predates the phrase.

How to Use Bff

Bff is mostly used by younger people, especially girls, in informal communication. Bff can be written in uppercase and in lowercase letters, and since it’s usually not used in formal communication, you can write it either way. If you have to use it in formal communication, however, you should remember to pick one of the two capitalization options and use it consistently.

Examples

Janelle and I became bffs after our families went on a vacation together.

We were bffs in high school, but we drifted apart when we went to college.

Dude, we’re like bffs!

Separate vs. Seperate

Along with loose and definitely, separate is one of the most commonly misspelled words in the English language. Separate can be an adjective or a verb. As an adjective, it means set apart, distinct, or not related. As a verb, it means to to set apart, to distinguish, or to divide. Separate is often misspelled as seperate, a word that has no meaning and is simply a misspelling:

They took two separate rooms.

They took two seperate rooms.

It took time to separate the dog from its favorite toy.

It took time to seperate the dog from its favorite toy.

Words related to separate, such as separately, separated, and separation, are often misspelled in the same fashion by turning the first a into an e:

They didn’t want to go to the party separately.

They didn’t want to go to the party seperately.

They remained best friends even though they were separated by war.

They remained best friends even though they were seperated by war.

How to Remember the Correct Spelling of Separate

There are a couple of ways to remember the correct spelling of separate. You can remember that the order of the vowels in the word is symmetrical: e-a-a-e. It might be easier to remember that there’s a rat in separate (sep-A-RAT-e).

Examples

Annapolis police recovered two handguns in separate incidents over the past few days.

The Baltimore Sun

One, they would get a separate queue at bank branches, along with differently abled persons.

The Times of India

On Thursday, Duterte sparked alarm by threatening to separate with the U.S. and ally instead with China.

CNBC

It was a hug nearly five decades in the making as two sisters separated by the Sixties Scoop reunited in Winnipeg on Tuesday.

CBC News

Stop saying St. Patty’s Day!

Happy St. Patrick’s Day! While you’re drinking green beer and counting shamrock leaves, you might end up debating a popular St. Patrick’s Day question: is it St. Patty’s Day or St. Paddy’s Day?

It’s easy to think that Patrick ought to be shortened to “Patty.” The name contains a T rather than a D, after all. However, “Paddy” comes from the Irish name Padraig, which is the reason St. Paddy’s Day is spelled with a D instead of a T.

The “Patty” vs. “Paddy” debate is so hot that there’s even a website and Twitter account dedicated to promoting the correct spelling.

Cheers to knowing the correct spelling of St. Paddy’s Day! We’ll tackle the meaning of Erin go bragh another time.