2. Confusing Pronouns
What are pronouns?
• Pronouns are words that replace or refer to nouns.
• For instance, we can say, Maria is a veterinarian. Maria is an animal
doctor. But instead of saying Maria twice, which is repetitive, we can
say She. She is an animal doctor and she refers to Maria.
3. Confusing Pronouns
- Which sentences are correct?
• I and Charon are good friends. Charon and and I
are good friends.
• You know Charon and me. You know me and
Charon.
• It's more polite to put yourself after others. Also,
if you have more nouns, it's the same thing.
• You would say, Steven, Charon, and I are good
friends, and you know, Steven, Charon, and me.
4. Confusing
Pronouns
• This is my company. My is an
adjective form, it describes
company.
• This company is mine. Mine is a
pronoun, so it replaces a
noun. It acts as the noun.
5. Confusing Pronouns
• Your flight leaves at 3PM.
• You're leaving at 3PM which means
the same as, you are leaving at 3PM.
• . It's called the Eiffel Tower, which means
the same as it is called. The Eiffel Tower.
• For the second sentence, we want to use
the possessive adjective. Its total height is
1063 feet, great!
9. Confusing Pronouns
• Some are ready to hatch, when referring to a count noun, like eggs,
you would use are. Some are ready to hatch.
• But in the case of tea, which is a non-count noun, then it would be
appropriate to use is.
11. Confusing Adjectives and Adverbs
for example,
• every student purchased a textbook focuses on the whole class
of students purchased a textbook.
• With each, we could say, it is important to read each question
on the test carefully.
- So, what do you want to focus on? The group or the individual? That
is up to you when you are speaking or writing, just keep in mind that
every emphasizes the whole group and each emphasizes the
individual.
18. Confusing Adjectives and Adverbs
• Late is an adjective and means arriving after a specific time. But lately
is a synonym for recently, meaning near in time.
• So in a sentence, the meeting was supposed to start at 9, but it
started at 9:15 because John was late.
• Means 9 was the start time, but the meeting started after that time.
• But with lately, as in Jane must be busy. I haven't seen her lately.
• I mean to say that in recent days, weeks, or months, I haven't seen
her.
19. Confusing Adjectives and Adverbs
• With hard and hardly, there are actually forms of hard. One is an adjective and
one is an adverb. The adjective hard means difficult, or it could mean solid. The
adverb hard means productive, or with force.
• Hardly is a negative adverb meaning almost not.
- learning English is hard uses hard as an adjective meaning difficult.
- glass is liquid when hot, but when it cools becomes hard, means a solid or non-
liquid state.
• With hard as an adverb meaning productive, we can say Walter worked hard in
the garden.
• With the meaning of with force, we could say the door sticks closed. Sometimes
you have to push hard.
• In the sentence using hardly, I've hardly seen my roommate all week. She's been
working on a big project for class. Means I have seen her almost not at all.
20. Confusing Adjectives and Adverbs
• Dead and deadly are both adjectives, but dead means no longer living
and is the opposite of alive. But deadly means might cause death.
• In the sentence, a dead body was found in the car, describes the body
as not living.
• But in the sentence, Cobras have deadly venom in their fangs,
describes venom, and the venom could cause death.
• We often describe things that can cause death in expressions such as
deadly weapon, deadly poison, deadly crash, and deadly accident.
21. Confusing Adjectives and Adverbs
• Similarly alive and live are both adjectives. But alive means still living
or energetic, the opposite of dead. And live means not artificial, or
currently active.
• In the sentence, both my grandparents are still alive and well in
Florida, means that my grandparents aren't dead.
• But we wanted to say both my grandparents are still live and well in
Florida.
• In the sentence, this product was not tested on live animals, means
the animals are actively living. We wouldn't use the sentence, this
product was not tested on alive animals.
22. Confusing Adjectives and Adverbs
• Now free is an adjective meaning not costing money, and freely is an
adverb, but it means without limit.
• So sometimes you might hear in advertising, when you buy two, you
get the third one free. Meaning you do not have to pay for the third
item.
• But in the sentence, in the United States, you can travel freely from
one state to another using the interstate freeway system means you
can move easily across state borders.
23. Confusing Adjectives and Adverbs
• However, there are several frequently used adverbs that don't follow
this pattern.
• For instance, several adverbs of frequency, such as always, often, et
cetera, do not follow the usual -ly pattern.
• Also, words like no, not, never, nowhere, are negative adverbs
without the -ly ending
• A lot of the transitions used in writing are adverbs, such as
furthermore, also, next etc.
• Other adverbs don't follow any kind of pattern, like very, well, far, and
others.
24. Confusing Nouns and Verbs
• Notice that desert has one S, while dessert has two Ss. How can you
remember which is which?
• I would like some more dessert, right? Well, just remember, you want
more dessert and dessert has more s's.
• site and sight. These words are pronounced the same way, but as you
can see, they're spelled differently and they also mean very different
things. Site here means a place or location.
• website is a place on the web, so, site in website is also spelled S-I-T-
E. S-I-G-H-T means something totally different. There is no one in
sight. Sight here, has to do with vision or something that you can see.
25. Confusing Nouns and Verbs
• What about residence and resident? Both of these words have to do
with where you live. Residence has to do with the location, the place
where someone lives.
• The residents of this city mostly walk. Residents Refers to the people,
the people who live in a certain place.
26. Confusing Nouns and Verbs
• You can borrow books from the library. Notice the subject is you. You
would be doing the action of borrowing. But what about the library.
The library will lend. The library will lend books to you.
• Some people can blank money from banks. Pay attention to the
subject to help you. Some people can borrow money from banks.
• What do the banks do? They lend the money in the form of loans.
27. Confusing Nouns and Verbs
• lie and lay. Remember that lie does not take a direct object but after
lay, you must have a direct object.
• Borus is lying on the floor. There's no direct object after lie. On the
floor is a prepositional phrase. Borus is lying on the floor.
28. Confusing Nouns and Verbs
• Complement and compliment. These two words are pronounced the
same way, but one is spelled with an e, and the other with an i.
• They complement each other well, which basically means that they
go well together or they complete each other.
• Now compliment with an i means saying something that is really nice
about another person.
• complement with an e and compliment with an i are both verbs but
actually they can also be nouns.
29. Confusing Nouns and Verbs
• When Pete goes to his friends for advice, they try to advise him the
best they can, good
30. Confusing Nouns and Verbs
• Choose carefully or you may regret the choice you make.
31. Confusing Nouns and Verbs
• When you finally succeed you will taste the sweet taste of success
32. Confusing Nouns and Verbs
• Breathe slowly, taking each breath in through your nose and out
through your mouth.
33. Confusing Prepositions
• With on, we use it with open spaces and platforms. But with in, we
use it for closed spaces.
• I traveled on a bus or on a plane. On a horse or on a bike and on a
moped.
• using in closed spaces.
• We can say, in a car or in a taxi or in a van. In a rocket.
• In a small boat, smaller than a ship.
• In a hot air balloon. In a plane, like a small old fashioned plan and in a
helicopter.
35. Confusing Prepositions
• Meaning, hours here, then the middle part is the larger unit of
days. And the largest piece is the largest unit of weeks, months and so
on.
• For example, we might say at 2 o'clock, at 5 PM, at noon and at
midnight.
• Or on Tuesday, on my birthday, on Thanksgiving, On December 7th,
1941. And in four weeks, in June., in 2020 and in the 1800s.
36. Confusing Prepositions
• Prepositional phrases are prepositions with the nouns that go with
them. Prepositional phrases can be adjectives describing a noun or an
adverb describing a verb.
• we have a simple sentence the girl walked, but we want to add some
information to it. We can add in a red dress and in the morning.
• In a red dress describes the girl and in the morning describes when
she walked. To be clear, place the prepositional phrase next to its
noun or verb.