When a student writes "I am frustrating with that class," we recognize it as an error, but the error is not one that makes the writing unintelligible. The message ...

Participial forms of many verbs function as adjectives in phrases and sentences. An adjective is a word that describes a noun or a pronoun. Any word, even if it is associated with a different part of ...

Last night, Joe dreamt of Mary. Or would it be better to say that he dreamed of her? More important: How can you know for sure? Past participles confuse a lot of people. Take it from someone whose ...

I’m a little fussy about past participles. Unjustifiably fussy. It may have to do with the fact that I married someone from small-town Massachusetts, where everything is “I have ate this” and “I ...

A reader from Coimbatore has sent in this query: “Is it possible for a verb to function as an adjective? Please explain it with some examples.” An adjective is a word that describes (modifies) a noun.

I want to follow up on the topic of language evolution that I took up in my previous newsletter about how the word “satisfying” has taken on a new meaning among many of today’s kids. The bigger theme ...

We have two new entries here, both present participles of verbs that might or might not exist. First is “efforting.” YourDictionary.com has one of the few online definitions, which consists entirely ...

If you ever knew what a “participle” was, you may have forgotten. Same with the word “gerund.” And if you ever heard the term “fused participle,” you probably zoned out completely. The concept of a ...