When the subject of a sentence isn't doing something, the verb is passive. On the other hand, a sentence is active when the subject performs the verb (action). For example, in this sentence the verb ...

Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. A note on verbs. In the Art of Persuasion column a fortnight ago I discussed how you make the reader’s (or ...

MOST of us feel comfortable with the form "used to + verb" when used to mean a past condition or habitual practice, as in "They used to be very close friends" and "She used to jog early in the morning ...

The preceding chapter showed how sentences can be streamlined by reducing their adjective clauses to adjective phrases — a simple process that omits the relative pronouns “that,” “which,” “who,” “whom ...

‘The’ is the most commonly used word in English. ‘The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog’ uses all 26 letters of the English alphabet and is called a pangram. Most average adult English speakers ...