It’s a familiar scene: you’re discussing a hot topic with your friends or family, and everyone has a different opinion. Some are for the idea, while others are against it; some talk about the pros and cons, and others say they are pro or against. In the heat of the discussion, you’re left wondering, does …

Your boss explains that she has to lay off half of the department, and you’re left sweating, wondering if you’ll still have a job by the end of the day. That’s when you wake up with a start and cold sweat. The phrase “laid off” is hard enough to hear, but it’s even harder to …

When someone uses “long term” or “long-term” while speaking, the words sound the same. Still, you’re confident you’ve seen this expression written both with and without the hyphen, so it’s not unusual to wonder, “Is it ‘long-term’ or ‘long term’?” And does that make a difference to the meaning of the word? Both “long-term” and …

Have you ever been tempted to use the phrase “accompanied by” or “accompanied with” but were concerned about using it in the wrong context? Worry no more! In this article, we’ll take a closer look at the meanings of these phrases, particularly how they’re different from each other. “Accompanied by” is a phrase we predominantly …

The use of “has” or “have” is one of those verbal conjugations that can confuse English speakers. There are up to a dozen “rules” surrounding their use, but before we start to panic, let’s reduce the rules to their simplest form, using one example: do we use “the country has” or “the country have”? “The …

When it comes to versatile words, “had” is probably one of the first to come to mind. Unfortunately, useful words can get repetitive, and repetition often looks clumsy in English, so how do you avoid using “had”? When “had’ is a transitive verb, you can easily replace it with a synonym for ownership. However, when …