How do you decide whether to use further vs farther in a sentence? Further and farther are among the plenty of commonly confused word pairs in American English. And this confusion can be linked to the inevitable evolution of language. Historically, farther and further have been interchangeable when we’re talking about distance – whether figurative or physical. Further vs Farther …
Cumulative Adjectives: Order & Examples
What is a Cumulative Adjective? We use adjectives to define, explain, and give layers to nouns or pronouns. And sometimes, we need more than one adjective to achieve that. Cumulative adjectives are two or more adjectives modifying the same noun such as thrilling old Japanese film or lively little yellow lights. Because they act as a group of words describing …
Adjectives: Modifying Nouns & Pronouns
Most times, nouns alone cannot encapsulate the intensity of our feelings, experiences, or thoughts. “A devastating storm” sounds more definite than “a storm.” We use adjectives (enormous, gigantic, slow, pink, insane, childlike, dull, excellent) to describe nouns or pronouns. The tiny words a, an, and the, also called articles or determiners, are the most frequently used adjectives. Remember that adjectives …
Standard Deviation: Variation from the Mean
What is Standard Deviation? Standard Deviation (SD) is the statistical measure of how spread out the values of a data set are from the mean or average number. In short, it measures the variation of the values from the mean. The closer the values are to the mean, the lesser they are spread out, which also yields to a small …
Verb Tense Consistency: Maintain or Change?
What is Verb Tense Consistency? Verb tense consistency means sticking to a verb tense for the entire clause, sentence, or paragraph. Do not shift tenses unless necessary and appropriate. Take this sentence with confusing and inconsistent verb tense, for example: Michelle painted her room red, arranges her closet, and will wash the car. The verb painted is in the past tense, …
Verb Tenses: When an Action Occurs
What are Verb Tenses? Aside from expressing what the subject does, verbs essentially show us the time of an action. Verbs specify different time frames through different verb tenses. In short, verb tenses tell when an action occurred. English has three main verb tenses: past, present, and future. The past tense describes an action that happened in the past, for …
Allusion: Implied or Direct Reference
What is an Allusion? In short, an allusion is a figure of speech that references a famous person, place, event, or literary work. Allusions are either implied or direct. If you hear someone say, “Cupid’s arrow keeps missing me,” he or she alludes to the classic mythology that hails Cupid as the arrow-bearing God of Love. In literature, writers use …
Area of a Triangle: Formula & Examples
A triangle is three-sided shape with a height that’s perpendicular to its base. There are different types of triangle, such as scalene, isosceles, and equilateral. The formulas for finding the area and the perimeter of a triangle are the same for all its types. Here’s an illustration of a showing the formulas for finding the area and perimeter of a …
Perimeter of a Triangle: Formula & Examples
A triangle is three-sided shape with a height that’s perpendicular to its base. There are different types of triangle, such as scalene, isosceles, and equilateral. The formulas for finding the area and the perimeter of a triangle are the same for all its types. Here’s an illustration of a triangle and the formulas for finding its area and perimeter. Want …
Area of a Square: Formula & Examples
A square is a shape with four equal sides (equilateral) and four equal angles (equiangular). It’s the only equilateral and equiangular quadrilateral. Here’s a quick guide to computing the area of a square. How to Compute the Area of a Square The area of a shape refers to the total amount of space enclosed in it. To find the area …