Grammar Rules

If vs. whether

We can use if or whether to relate indirect yes-no questions and questions with or. If is more common than whether: Please contact the manager if you have any further queries. I called Amelia to find out whether she really did go to movie or not.   If = We use if to introduce a clause, often in indirect speech, that shows two or more...
‘Nothing but’ means ‘only.’ It can denote ‘only this thing and nothing else,’ for example, “Give mother nothing but sugar-free peanut butter. She is a diabetic.” ‘Nothing but’ can have the sense of ‘very’ or ‘a lot of,’ for example, “It is very often nothing but our own vanity that deceives us.”...
Have something done = When we talk about something that someone else did for us or for another person, we use a causative verb with the construction have something done (have + object + past participle). In other words, the subject caused the action to happen, but didn't do...
When we want to give a reason for a particular situation, we can begin a clause with as, because, since, etc. As, because and since are conjunctions and they all introduce subordinate clauses. They connect the result of something with its reason. As it was getting late, we decided...
We can use ‘so+adj’ at the beginning of a clause to give special emphasis to the adjective. Compare these pairs of sentences: · His business was so hopeless that he had to find employment. or · So hopeless was his business that he had to find employment. · The blizzard became so dangerous...
Having driven 100 miles across country, we arrived to find all the hotels had been fully booked. After having driven 100 miles across country, we arrived to find all the hotels had been fully booked. There is not much difference in meaning between these two sentences. Generally we use a past...
“Who is this?” (on the phone) or “Who’s that?” (at the door) may not be technically wrong, but can sound rude; might be used if you’re suspicious that the person might be someone undesirable. So, it sounds just a bit awkward to say "who is this/ that?" over the...
Analyse the following sentence: The doctor advised him to avoid eating fatty foods.                           ↓                   ↓          ↓                   main verb ...
Every = all members of a group considered individually All = the total number of people or things considered as a group Each = all members of a group considered individually though we think of them more one by one.   Every, All, Each – Difference 'Every' and 'all' have similar meanings. We use them...
Going by grammar rules, there is only one way to use this word, and that is nowadays – a single word and not as three different entities like now a days. If you use the word as a phrase ‘now a days’ instead of a single word ‘nowadays’, you will...

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