WHEN we were children and just beginning to learn English grammar, many of us were taken aback by the strange failure of some verbs to work in certain sentence constructions. For instance, perhaps ...

A verb is a word used to describe an action. That’s doing something. Or, a verb can be used to describe a state. That’s feeling something. Or, a verb can be used to describe an occurrence. That’s ...

Oh, cut that out! Quieten down! Command sentences give instructions and tell someone to do something. They use imperative or bossy verbs, like 'jog on the spot'. If you put a bossy verb at the ...

Reporting verbs help you introduce the ideas or words of others as paraphrase or quotation from scholarly literature. Always accompanied by a reference, they indicate where you’re drawing on other ...