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Primary Auxiliaries

The primary auxiliaries are of three kinds: be, do and have. Each of them has different forms. Be The auxiliary be has five forms: is, am, are, was and were. Be also has a present participle (being) and a past participle (been) form. I am writing a novel. He is working on a...

Perhaps | English Usage

Perhaps and maybe have the same meaning. Perhaps is more formal than maybe. Perhaps is used to suggest that you are not certain about something. Perhaps we have met before. Perhaps she missed the train. Perhaps she made a mistake. Perhaps he was angry. She...

Pain vs. Ache

A pain is a feeling you experience when you hurt a part of your body or when you are ill. The noun pain can be countable or uncountable. As a countable noun, it can...

Look Over vs. Overlook | Differences

To look something over is to examine it. You should get an editor to look over this document. Please look over these letters. They might contain spelling or grammar mistakes. I don’t think that you should take these symptoms lightly....

Ought To Have + Past Participle

The structure ought to have + past participle is used to talk about things which were supposed to happen but did not. I ought to have sent the money yesterday, but I forgot. She ought to have been more careful....

Otherwise | English Usage

Otherwise is a transitional adverb. It does not connect two clauses. It merely shows how the idea expressed by one clause is related to what has already been said. Otherwise is usually preceded by...

On Time vs. In Time

On time means ‘at the planned time’. If you are ‘on time’, you are neither late nor early. The opposite is early or late. The train arrived on time. (It was neither early nor late.) We...

Once | English Usage

Once means ‘on one occasion’. I only went once. Once can also mean ‘at some time in the past’. Once (upon a time) there was a princess. Note that to refer to an indefinite time in the...