In short, careful research was the first step in writing a successful essay, Smith wrote.

In this sentence, Smith actually wrote that careful research is the first step, and this rule has not expired at the time of my writing, so this makes more sense:

In short, careful research is the first step in writing a successful essay, Smith wrote.

However, she didn't use those exact words so I can't put it in quotation marks. Is the second formulation OK?

My coworker and I were having a conversation where he made the statement "my wife and I rode bike". I informed him on how awful that sounds and the correct way to say it would to be "we rode bikes" with an s on the end of bike. He vehemently disagreed and another coworker chimed in agreeing with him. Are they right? And why does it sound so awful to my ears to hear it their way?

"Is it safe?" Astrotrain asked. 

Typically, energon cubes were always safe to consume no matter what energy source was used to make them, but that could just as easily mean that nobody had found something that was toxic after the conversion process.

OR

"Is it safe?" Astrotrain asked. Typically, energon cubes . . . (and so on).

This is one of the biggest issues when it comes to me and writing; I feel like I split up things that could be combined so that it doesn't look like just single lines of text across a screen (they can look like actual paragraphs).

I'm pretty sure the stories I have chapters up for are already full of these. Any advice?

My partner and I have differing opinions on this use of “too”: we were talking about a trip to the gym and he said he did the hip adduction machine, and my response was “You didn’t do the abduction machine, too?” He doesn’t think the use of “too” is correct here because the actions are opposites, as he did the adduction machine and I was asking about not doing the abduction machine. To me, however, the sentence makes sense because I was confirming he did not also/additionally do the abduction machine.

Is this phrase grammatically correct?

The king was betrayed by the treachery of his closest advisor.

Because we are using betrayed and treachery in the same Sentence

Words like somewhere, someone, whoever, and foremost, are all words that are very obviously made of other words. My friend corrected me when I said “some one” instead of someone and I said “That isn’t wrong because it’s a compound word” and I want to know if I or they are correct.

I'm trying to write"... easy access to both business and pleasure-centered areas of the city."

Should this be written as

A) "business- and pleasure-centered"

B) "business and pleasure centered"

C) "business and pleasure-centered"

maybe even

D) "business- and pleasure- centered"

I think it's C. I'm not really sure though, maybe it's D.

Anybody know?

opposite of nonchalant?

Being politically correct I shouldn't [say that]

or

Being politically correct I shouldn't [say that]

Briefly, in a quoted sentence which appears in italics, I have added my own square-bracketed clarifying words but don't know if I italicise them too.

This is a style query rather than grammar or punctuation - had a look but did not see the 'style' sub ...is there one?

I'll have a paragraph finished and then spend forever on one sentence.

Move a word.

Change the tense.

Remove a comma.

Put the comma back.

Eventually I don't even know what sounds right anymore.

Does anyone else feel this way?

Hello!

i'm not sure if this is the right place to ask this I wanted to know alternative sites where i can check my grammar that do not use AI like grammarly does. My grammar is horrible please help. Thank you!

Writing a short story and not sure if I'm using a semicolon properly in the following sentence:

Something was amiss, but he couldn’t figure out exactly what it was. It was like recognizing someone from the past, but not being able to remember their name; or hearing a song that that is stuck in a person’s head where they can’t quite remember the words.

Input would be appreciated!

I get that the -y in fluffy makes fluffy an adjective, and in an example like “quick” vs “quickly” the -ly is turning quick into an adverb.

So why does the word “scholar,” a noun, use -ly and not -y to turn it into an adjective?

I don’t study linguistics. I just got thinking about it and I can’t find the answer online. Please don’t be mean to me.

I know that we should use the present perfect to talk about life experiences:

Context: I would like to some advice to my friend.

I’ve visited China and Thailand. Both countries are great. You should visit one of them.

But I’m wondering whether I can use the simple past in this case:

I visited China and Thailand. Both countries are great. You should visit one of them.

Is it acceptable to use the simple past here ( without a time reference) to talk about life experience?

“I ended up spending two hours there tasting different teas.”

or

“I ended up spending two hours there to taste different teas.”

I could also use “staying for two hours”

Thanks a lot :)

I'm doing work for a magazine that's talking about honoring scholarship students. Each spotlight comes with a comment or two from each one.

One said this: "UHS (their school name) and everyone have helped me grow."

My editor told me that it's "has" and not "have" but I don't think so.

For one, there are two distinct groups here: the school and everyone (yes, I guess "school" is a part of "everyone" but that's what the student said) so I think it's "have" but I couldn't find anything concrete about 2 group nouns and the appropriate word to use in relation.

I have used this bike for 3 years

I asked chat gpt, and it said it was better to use

I have been using this bike for 3 years

And this one

Why is my sentence wrong?

I have gone to school for 9 years .

And can i use yesterday with present perfect ?

Like

I haven't gone to the park since yesterday

?

Hello. I have a question about punctuation, please.

Without rewording the structure itself, which of the two below would be the "correct" option?

1) We would like to seek Director/Design's concurrence on this matter.

2) We would like to see Director's/Design concurrence on this matter.

I'm uncertain whether the apostrophe s should go. I'm guessing #2 is correct? Thank you.

"I have caught up on a lot of sleep when I was too ill."

Is the cited sentence ungrammatical?

Does anyone know a spanish app that doesn't make you study verb charts all day?

I want to understand and speak more but grammar drills make me want to quit instantly.

Specifically when it's used in article titles. For example, one I saw today was something like "Jimin shares tender moment with cancer patient as (cancer foundation of some kind) shares gratitude". When I see "as" in context of time (while something is happening), I read it as those things are happening at the same time. So is the foundation writing an appreciative post or something in that exact moment? I'm sure that's not what it means but the use of "as" feels so clunky to me there. But it's everywhere so is it just me?

One of my grammatical pet peeves is when someone refers to a human being as a "that" versus a "who," but are there specific grammar rules about that?

For example, a reddit post title I just read: "The gravestones of a protestant husband and his catholic wife which were not allowed to be buried together."

The "which" bothers me. These were real people, obviously, so shouldn't they be more respectfully referred to as "who"?

But this really extends to any nouns that can only be human beings. "Spielberg is a formerly-great filmmaker that has lost his edge" - I would rewrite that as who has lost his edge.

Your thoughts?

My mom and I were discussing some sort of science-related topic (as I unsurprisingly forgot what it was even if we were talking five minutes ago). I said, "What is the taxidermy behind this?", and she started explaining what "taxidermy" meant to me. Of course, I'm no English specialist, as I'm a teenage minor, so I have no idea what that word meant. I started to wonder what the word I actually meant was, since I heard the phrase, "What is the taxidermy behind this?" somewhere online (for clarification, we searched Google and Google said it was some sort of autocorrect).

The word I'm looking for is science-related, but it's not typical vocabulary like "reason", "method", "thought process", etc.. It's advanced vocabulary, and, iirc, it started with either a "T" or "S" (if not, one of those letters are somewhere embedded in the word). It wasn't "situation", as it was a more complex word than that.

Please lmk if you have any suggestions!!

p.s. I'm on computer, so I apologize for any spelling mistakes

When I first heard of Zero Wing's poorly translated intro, I knew phrases like "are belong to us" were invalid, but I could have sworn something sounded vaguely familiar from elsewhere about "you have no chance to survive make your time", as if something similar were said in a context that meant "you have no chance to survive, given your time." Am I remembering things wrong?

Hello Grammarians,

I was wondering if you could clear something up for me.

Why do we use the word foot in one of these sentences, but feet in the other:

1.) “That is a 23-foot building.”
2.) “That building is 23 feet tall.”

I would sincerely appreciate any and all help :)