CONTENTS
Books by Angela Lansbury
a Adjectives and adverbs Avoid and prevent Americanisms A and The Anaphora anyway Australian words Aesop encyclopedia
b Silent B comb
c Can and may Capitalization Chinese intonation Commas Colons Comparatives Conditional CE pronounced S palace
d ed past did, said, walked, talked
e ed, past eraser every day and everyday
f First floor fortnight French accents and intonation French words Full stops Future
G German words and names German sentence structure Grammar Greek silent g gnome
h silent h night homophones He, she and it
i I before E Indian Intonation Irish accents I in the middle of a word sailor
j Japanese intonation
k silent k know King's English kids
l Latin singular and plural medium media Single l in American spelling looking forward, looking forwards lay and lie
m May and can Many and few metaphor Me and mine More or less Momentarily Might and may My one
n silent n damn
o one, done clone Oxford English
p Pants, underpants Past and present Past participle Positive words Prevent and avoid pants Pronunciation success tortoise Proper Names The USA
q Queens English Questions QU
r Rhetoric rubber
s Self Sentence structure SVO SOV She Shells Silent letters Simile Singlish Slang Spelling Spoonerisms She sells s in 3rd person singular
t The and A The office, pen, president, queen Thongs Toastmaster toastmaster's Toastmasters twice
u Us and we underpants
v Berbs v in plurals (scarf, scarves)
w We and us Who What When Where Why Welcome
x X-ray Xmas
y You and me and you and I End of a word honey
z Zed and zoo Z and s in spelling
1 Avoid and prevent grammar errors
2 I did it myself.
3 You, me, him, and us
4 Me and me, His, hers and theirs, him and them
5 Mine and yours
6 If I were you, I'd check the grammar.
7 Owing to a lot of mistakes, which are due to ...
8 Numbers of errors have been counted
9 You might have made an error. You may improve.
10 You can leave but you may not.
1 Avoid and Prevent
Avoid people who make mistakes and try to prevent them doing so.
You avoid physical things which are already there such as obstacles in the road by driving around them. Pre means before. To prevent is to go before, to stop something happening.
A policeman who avoids the accident when somebody is trying to wave him down will not be popular. A policeman who prevents accidents will be very popular and might get a medal.
2 I and Myself
Myself is used when the word I has already been used. I did it myself. I did it to myself. I wanted him to give it to me.
You should not need to say I, personally, or I myself. That just sounds clumsy and longwinded. I myself is used for emphasis. However, you are using words unnecessarily, to delay.
3 You and I
I is the subject. Me is the object (usually ending the sentence).
A sentence will start with I or you, or you and I.
Sentences start with the subject I you (singular) he she it we you (plural) they.
A sentence can end with me.
Sentences end with the object which starts or ends with the letter m - him, them, me - or us.
I give a book to them. He will do it for you and me, but not for them.
Strictly speaking, you should say, he is better than I am at running, not he is better than me.
US
They give a book to us. You never start a sentence with the word us.
The queen starts a speech with the words My husband and I. She never starts me and my husband.
4 I shall tell you about Me and My Book
Me refers to a person. My means the possession of something. Give my book to me. (You would not say give me book to me.)
Objects of sentences: him, them. Give it to him. Give it to them. Start a sentence with Those girls (not them girls). These are here near me and those are over there.
5 Mine
Mine, not my one. Yours not your one. Why waste words? Don't use two when one will do.
6 If I were you ...
If I were rich. 'I was' is past tense. If I were is future possible.
7 Owing starts a sentence. It means because of.
Due to means caused by and always appears in the middle of a sentence linking two phrases or sentences. Event a is caused by event b. You cannot started a sentence with caused by.
8 The bible says many are called but few are chosen. Many and few apply to countable numbers.
Amounts are piles of uncountable things such as sugar and sand. Amounts have to be weighed.
You have many books. But a large amount of sugar.
9 Might implies lower chance than may (I might go), or past uncertainty (he might have done it), or no chance at all (Pigs might fly).
Might is also the past tense of may. I may go if it’s sunny, I might have gone but it rained.
Some good sources:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/grammar/learnit/learnitv162.shtml
http://wsu.edu/~brians/errors/may.html
http://forum.wordreference.com/showthread.php?t=19873
Google will give you many more of interest.
For authoritative answers try the main dictionaries. Some dictionaries give uses of words under the entry for that word. Others have a grammar section at the front or back of the book.
10 Can and may
You can leave but you may not.
Can means it is physically possible. May grants you permission.
Please may I leave the table.
In legal documents such as contracts and by-laws on notice boards you will see may used correctly.
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