“I love Owen, and I felt bad that he had to deal with all the outside bulls––.” - Ben Stiller, about friend Owen Wilson’s attempted suicide, in Playboy
Ben has correctly used the adjective “bad” after the linking verb “felt.” A common error is the use of the adverb “badly” with a form of the linking [...]
“It was a liquid diet where you lose weight really fast. I would not recommend it if someone wasn’t doing a movie because there are other ways to lose weight.” - Beyonce Knowles, on how she lost 20 pounds for her role in the movie Dreamgirls
Beyonce has made two common errors, one involving the use [...]
A verb expresses an action or a state of being.
A verb is transitive if it has a receiver of its action (an object). If the subject performs the action, the verb is in the active voice. When the subject is the receiver of the action, the verb is in the passive voice.
Bob ate the cookie.
The [...]
The tense of a verb indicates the time frame of an action’s occurrence. Actions that occur now use the simple present tense, actions that already occurred use the simple past tense, and actions that will occur use the simple future tense.
simple present tense: I study. [This is happening now.]
simple past tense: I [...]
The voice of an action verb refers to the relationship of the verb to the subject.
When the subject performs the action, the verb is in the active voice.
Bob made a decision.
The subject is “Bob” and the verb is “made.” The subject performed the action: Bob is the one who made the decision. The verb “made” [...]
