When working on a writing assignment or talking with a friend, sometimes it’s tough to figure out if you should use the past or present tense with “was only.” “Is “was only” past tense?” The phrase “was only” is past tense since “was” is the simple past tense form of the verb “to be,” with …
Language Arts
We consider patriotism a virtue, and many schools still teach this character trait alongside others like patience, gratitude, and kindness. However, when discussing their nation, many schoolchildren might be confused by one simple question: should it be nations or nation’s? Use the plural noun “nations,” with no apostrophe when discussing more than one national territory …
In certain situations, you might need to get the point across of some sort of minimum or maximum. In a conversation, the easiest way to determine a maximum of the topic at hand would be to use the phrase “at most,” which we can also replace with “at the most” in certain circumstances. Both “at …
“Didn’t” is the mantra of toddlers and teenagers everywhere. If you ask a child who made the mess, the response is inevitably, “I didn’t do it!” While “didn’t” indicates that an event did not occur, adding the word “yet” can change things. “Yet” and “didn’t” can appear together in a sentence. “Did” is the simple …
With so many past tense forms in English, knowing which words correspond with each can feel confusing. When using the past perfect tense, you know that something happened in the past, but can you add adverbs of time to your sentence, too? You can use “yesterday” with the past perfect tense. The past perfect tense …
It’s clear with some words what tense we should use with them, while others provide a greater challenge. “Then” is one of those words that we must understand in greater detail before we can be sure about the tense we use with it. “Then” can be used in past, present, or future tense sentences, depending …