by Phil Williams | Feb 13, 2024 | Vocabulary
I’ve touched on prefixes and suffixes a little in the past, and when I was asked if it’s possible to form adjectives from verbs it made me think of a suffix that deserves an article of its own: -y. The letter -y appears at the end of many words in English, but can...
by Phil Williams | Feb 5, 2019 | Definitions, General English, Words
The phrase “to be of help” is a construction roughly synonymous with “helpful”. “Of help” is particularly common in formal settings, and has a subtly different meaning and application to the adjective “helpful”. I briefly touched on such “noun of noun” constructions...
by Phil Williams | Oct 13, 2016 | Definitions, Exercises, Vocabulary, Words
It’s that fun time of year where the English speaking world prepares for Halloween – with scary stories, films and costumes. Which means it’s also the time of year to practice our Halloween vocabulary – words which cover a range of frightening topics, emotions and...
by Phil Williams | Nov 3, 2015 | Vocabulary, Words
Many words in English can be adapted to be used for different grammatical functions. We often use prefixes and suffixes (extra parts of the word added at the beginning or the end) to change the meaning of a word for a variety of purposes. Adjectives and verbs can be...
by Phil Williams | Aug 13, 2015 | Definitions, Words, Writing skills
When we talk about future plans in English, the construction “to be willing to do” can be used with a few different adjectives (in place of willing), such as ready, prepared and able. In some contexts these can be used interchangeably with almost no difference in...