¶ The Library
Parts of Speech
Rereading an email before you hit send: every word doing a job, and finally knowing which one
Adults
UK & US
In this pillar
Every article, one shelf- A, An, The — or Nothing? A, an, the, or nothing at all — the tiny word choice that changes a whole sentence
- Antecedent Agreement & Singular ‘They’ A colleague flags your singular 'they' in a company email — why it's correct, and always was
- Comparative & Superlative Adjectives Dashing off a Friday email and needing the 'better' or 'best' word — comparatives and superlatives, sorted
- Comparative & Superlative Adverbs "Quicker" or "more quickly"? The comparative rule that trips up even careful writers
- Compound & Collective Nouns Editor-in-chief or editor in chief, email or e-mail — the hyphens and spaces that keep shifting underfoot
- Conjunctive Adverbs vs Conjunctions Comma splices sneak in right after "however" — the fix that separates conjunctions from connectors
- Coordinating & Correlative Conjunctions "And" at 4:55 on a Friday: when a comma saves your sentence, when it doesn't
- Countable & Uncountable Nouns Typing 'some informations' at 4:55 on a Friday — the split that quietly runs your whole sentence
- Demonstrative Determiners "This documents" or "these documents"? The demonstrative slip that changes with the noun
- Dependent Prepositions "Responsible for" or "responsible of"? The fixed pairings native speakers never question
- Gerunds & Verbal Nouns Sitting down to write an email and freezing on 'the meeting starting/starts' — gerunds finally made to behave
- Good vs Well (Confusable Pairs) "I feel good" or "I feel well"? The line between the two, once and for all
- How to Spot Word Classes — and Use Them to Edit You already know the labels — here's the part school skipped: reading a word's class in a live sentence, and using it to edit
- Interjections & How to Punctuate Them "Oh no" muttered alone at your desk — punctuating interjections without overdoing the exclamation marks
- Interrogative Pronouns "Who approved this? Whose signature is that?" The small words standing in for the answer you're chasing
- Noun Phrases You never wrote "report" — you wrote "the quarterly sales report". How a noun gathers its words around it
- Noun Plurals (UK) Two draft's by Friday, sent then reread with a wince — the plural rules that actually hold up
- Noun Plurals (US) Thank you for all the feedbacks — your cursor hangs, and here's why that -s never belongs
- Personal Pronouns & Case (who/whom) 'Sarah and I' or 'Sarah and me'? the one quick swap test that settles it for good
- Phrasal Verbs That two-word verb you fire off without thinking — phrasal verbs, and why they trip up learners
- Possessive Determiners "Your keys" or "you're keys"? Untangling possessive determiners from their sound-alikes
- Possessive Nouns vs Pronouns "Whose is this?" — "It's Priya's" or "It's hers"? Ownership with an apostrophe, or with a word that already carries it
- Possessive Pronouns vs Determiners Frozen on 'its' or 'it's' in a report to your boss — the difference, sorted for good
- Prepositional Phrases "With the manager" or "in the meeting"? Spotting what a phrase actually describes
- Prepositions of Time, Place & Movement (UK) In, on, at, by — the tiny words that carry all the weight in a UK sentence
- Prepositions of Time, Place & Movement (US) "On Tuesday" or "in Tuesday"? The tiny prepositions that trip up even fluent writers
- Quantifiers: Some, Any, Much, Many… Much, many, some, any: the quantifier maze, plus the less vs fewer trap
- Reflexive, Intensive & Reciprocal Pronouns Typing 'please contact myself' in a careful email — when reflexives help and when they just sound stiff
- Regular & Irregular Verbs Autocorrect won't catch 'I have already wrote' to your landlord — the irregular verbs that trip everyone up
- Relative Pronouns (who/whom/which/that) Stalled on 'who' or 'whom' before forwarding an email — plus the real line between 'which' and 'that'
- Showing Possession & Apostrophes (UK) About to send an important email when the apostrophe suddenly refuses to sit where you put it
- Showing Possession & Apostrophes (US) Last weeks report, hovering over that missing apostrophe — singular, plural, and every owner in between, settled
- Subordinating Conjunctions "Because I was late" — where that comma actually needs to go, and when it doesn't
- The Order of Adjectives 'Durable, lightweight, waterproof jacket' reads fine — the hidden order behind adjectives, and when commas matter
- Transitive vs Intransitive Verbs 'Please complete and return' — the client email that's missing an object, and why that matters
- UK vs US Plurals — Comparison A novelist split between Bristol and Boston, and the spellings that quietly gave her editor grey hairs
- UK vs US Prepositions — Comparison "Different to" (UK) or "different from" (US)? The transatlantic preposition divide, sorted
- What Are Determiners? That missing "the" before Monday — small word, big difference in a work email
- What Is a Conjunction? The little joining words look harmless — yet more comma errors trace back to them than to anything else
- What Is a Noun? Editing a CV, or emailing a landlord about a noisy neighbour — what actually counts as a noun
- What Is a Preposition? The small change of English — "in, on, at, of" — deployed without a flicker, until one of them quietly reads wrong
- What Is a Pronoun? Stuck between 'I' and 'me' before you even hit send — what pronouns are really doing
- What Is a Verb? Halfway through a work email, every sentence stalls without one word doing the heavy lifting — the verb
- What Is an Adjective? It's 4:55 on a Friday and your email needs one sharper word — enter the adjective
- What Is an Adverb? 'I'll reply soon' sits in your drafts, and soon when nags at you — what adverbs actually do