Etymology is the origin of a word and the study of how its use and meaning have changed over time. For instance, some words with a Latin origin have variations to their plurals. Instead of adding -s, the following four words change form. Some of these uses have faded out almost completely during this century,…

In Writing Ellipsis (plural, ellipses) is a technique in grammar, also called elliptical construction, that is used to avoid unnecessary repetition or to avoid stating information that the reader already knows. Just as a pronoun aids when referring to a known subject, the ellipsis omits known information that would make writing and conversation long-winded and…

Words that introduce a noun are called determiners. There are various types which perform various tasks, including articles, quantifiers, demonstratives and possessives. Articles Definite article: the Indefinite articles: a, an. “A” is used before a consonant; “an” is used before a vowel. “The ducks flew away.” “If I had a hammer, I probably wouldn’t hammer…

A phoneme is the smallest unit of sound in speech that can be used to make one word different from another, such as -p, -d, -m or -v. Phonemes are divided into two major categories: consonants and vowels. Bid, bit; vat, van; tap, nap; hit, hip; ton, tan; vat, vet A digraph is a type…