I've been thinking for a while that it might be useful to have a thread where people can ask questions about the English language - spelling, grammar, punctuation and things like that. After getting the thumbs-up for this idea on the "Down Crack" thread, I've decided to give it a go. Also, if anyone has questions about specific texts they are studying at school, people who've read them might be able to help out with those, too.
I'll get things started with a quick explanation about something that confuses lots of people (English or otherwise) - the apostrophe (').
Apostrophes have two main functions:
1. to show that letters have been left out of a word
2. to show that something belongs to someone or something.
They should never be used for plurals, so writing something like "I love animal's" would be wrong.
Here are some examples with the correct usage:
It's raining.
I'm feeling fine.
He's very silly.
They've moved house.
The apostrophes are there to show that the writer means "It is...", "I am...", "He is..." and "They have...".
Incidentally, when writing about decades, we don't need an apostrophe, because no letters have been left out:
The 1980s
That's simple enough, now for the more tricky part.
When we want to say that something belongs to someone or something, we write an apostrophe after the owner, and add the letter 's':
The dog's bone. (One dog owns the bone.) John's house.
If the person or thing ends with the letter 's', or we want to talk about something with more than one owner, it's common to put an apostrophe after it, and not to add another 's':
James' football. The dogs' bone. (More than one dog owns the bone.)
We always put the apostrophe after the owner, so in the two doggy examples above, in the first one the owner is "the dog", in the second the owner is "the dogs".
Still with me? OK. Now for the confusing part - the word "its". How do we know whether to write "it's" or "its"?
The answer is that we only use "it's" when we mean "it is". If you want to talk about something that is owned by something else, use "its":
Every rose has its thorn. The dog was playing with its bone.
Right, I hope that's been useful for somebody. For now, bring on the questions...
The rule is that you should use 'an' before a word starting with a vowel (or a vowel sound), and 'a' before words starting with a consonant. It's because of the different ways people have of pronouncing 'h' that the ambiguity you've noticed crops up. Some people pronounce it with a consonant at the start - 'haitch', and some with a vowel sound - 'aitch'.
With abbreviations, if you say 'haitch' then you should normally use 'a'; if you say 'aitch', then 'an' would be appropriate.
Similarly, there are two ways of pronouncing words that begin with 'h'. Take the word 'hotel':
Most people pronounce the 'h', so saying 'a hotel' would be appropriate. Some people don't pronounce the 'h', and use 'an', so what you hear is 'an 'otel'.
Thanks for your help with my essay. It was on chapters 36 - 38 of 'Far from the Madding' by Thomas Hardy. You'll, no doubt, be familiar with it. Anyway, I handed in my first draft which I know I did really badly on because it was only 2.5 pages when other people were writing up to 4 pages!
Oh well...
"I spent thirty years learning manners, and I spent twenty years learning knowledge."
I'd like to add on the bit for introductions. When your writing an essay or any kind of document that is analytical. The best introduction is usually a summary of your arguement. Since i feel the hardest thing in english is to actually *start* writing lol!
This thread is to improve the English language skills and to ask grammatical questions on English, so that our English language improves inshaaAllah.
good thread but maybe you can also turn this thread into a thread where you can learn nes vocabulary aswell ...because that is why i am always failing to get the grade my mum wants
Apparently it is, it is what I learned at ENG3U1 course which is, Canadian English University level. It is found on www.dictionary.com as well. Yeah lol give your answer, smarty pants lol
The Possibilities in Islam are limitless.
The first step to getting the things you want out of life is this: Decide what you want. -Ben Stein
They always say time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself. -Andy Warhol
^ you are not supposed to look into dictionary just tell what you feel, and if you don't know the anwer then tell me, and I will give the answer inshaaAllah
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Anyway, I handed in my first draft which I know I did really badly on because it was only 2.5 pages when other people were writing up to 4 pages!
...because that is why i am always failing to get the grade my mum wants 
just tell what you feel, and if you don't know the anwer then tell me, and I will give the answer inshaaAllah
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