Only

The word only has many uses.
If only people would put 'only' in the right place.

Only in America
Book title and common phrase or catchphrase.

An only child
I am an only child. I have no brothers nor sisters. I am the only one. I admit I am sometimes 'lonely only'.

The word only also has many misuses.

"I only go shopping at weekends.' Does the word only apply to the shopping or the weekends? You might have said:
I go shopping only at weekends.
At weekends I do shopping only, nothing else.

Only read my rules on grammar, and I shall be happy.

Person that or person who?

On Facebook somebody commented that surely that refers to objects, but who refers to people. So why do so many writers speak of a person that ... ?

Here is what I wrote in reply:

That refers to one quality which defines the person. A famous newspaper headline about a murderer's girlfriend called her' The One That Got Away'. ' The woman who wore a red dress and black shoes was the one that got away.' totally different because who is followed by a clause of less significance. However, many people don't know the distinction. (See Fowler's or any grammar guide, including the biggest dictionary in a public library.)

You can see that wearing a red dress only applied as a description of the person on this one occasion. However, getting away applied to her for all time and was a unique quality attributed to her forever.

Angela Lansbury, English teacher and tutor, A A Hons, UCL

Comparatives Good, great, better, best

My colleague and friend Massimo (Italian for greatest) tells me my blog should be called Good, great, better and best.

Little or a little?

A little child.

I am making a little progress - a small amount of progress. Positive. At least I'm making a little progress.
I am making little progress. Negative. However hard I try, I'm making little progress. Not much. Only a little.

How do I explain the difference?

A little is a short for one, an amount.

In the second sentence little modifies or reduces
Glass half full and glass half empty.

Little or small?

 Small and large.

Little and big.

Short and tall.

Large size.

Small size clothes, small, medium, large.

You can say a tiny little, but not a small little.

Span or Spun, and did and done, said and had said - how to check on past tenses

Angela Lansbury

She says. She knows. We know.

She said so. She knows it. We know her.

The past tense is often a problem. But it has simple solutions.

A friend on Facebook asked whether to use span out of control or spun.

My first reaction is definitely span, past definitive action. It span once yesterday. 

Past Participles - have and had
Spun is the past participle, and passive. What is a past participle? A participle is a part of a verb which has two words, usually has or had as the first word to indicate previous to another past event. For example,

 I did it yesterday. I had done it the day before, in fact I had done it every day of my life. 

Therefore, I would say, I span it yesterday but it had spun the day before yesterday and prior to that it had been spun for years.

 He had spun it around, and it had been spun by several people. 

Many verbs don't have a past participle. But the verb to do has this distinction, because you often need to know when an action had been done (wow - three words for that tense). 

I do.

I did

I had done

CHECKING DICTIONARIES

However, I could be wrong. However sure you are, still check three classic references. I haven't time to check, but any big dictionary such as the Oxford Dictionary, one of the larger versions. 

When I was a sub-editor we checked three dictionaries and usually then picked our house style dictionary.  If still not sure - we sub-editors all held adamant views, we picked the majority of the sources, that is if two out of three dictionaries gave one answer, we took that as the most popular. 

Alternatively, check a dictionary of English grammar, or a German-English and English-German dictionary with a list of past participles will show you lists of all the verbs. 

Nowadays you should be able to get major dictionaries on line. American Webster simplified spelling and grammar to speed things up and make them easy for immigrants. 

WEBSTER'S House

If in the USA visit Webster's house. 

Angela Lansbury, former sub-editor and teacher of English O level and A level and EFL, travel writer.

The word the in The Bus, Train, Plane, The Office and The North West

An ordinary, one of many

The - THE VIP

Catch a plane - any one

the plane / the five o'clock plane 

An office - one of that type

The office - important office, the one where I work, the one mentioned earlier.

The word 'the' turns a word into a noun, when it might otherwise be an adjective. For example, 'north west of South America' could mean out to sea. But 'the north west of south America' means within South America, on land, the north west area.

The word 'the' adds importance. 'A man' means any man. But 'the man' means a particular man.

The following conversation shows how this words.

'The' alerts you to an important person or object ahead. This alerts you to one already mentioned, or nearby. 'That' refers back to an earlier fact, or far off object. Notice the use of the and this and that in the following conversation which I have constructed to show importance and place.

'Do we have any baby birds in the garden this Spring? Last Spring we had lots of birds.'

'No. Not this year. You know the culprit.'

'I don't. Show me.'

'See this egg broken, on the ground under the tree, by the kitchen window?'

'Yes.'

'Do you see that cat at the end of the garden?'

'We need more plants to brighten up the garden. Let's go out to a garden centre. The garden centre a mile away is the nearest.'

Less and fewer

If you can count them fewer - fewer than five people volunteered
Less is for amounts and abstract ideas - we have less time than we thought

More or less

many and few

The bible says: many were called but few were chosen.

(I bet they chose those with a good knowledge of grammar.)