Nathan Holloway

May vs might can be confusing because both modal verbs often appear in sentences about possibility. In many everyday situations, you can use either one without creating a serious grammatical error. The difference usually comes from certainty, context, time, and the speaker’s intended tone. May has several jobs in English. It can describe possibility, give … Read more

Lended or lent is a common English grammar question because lend looks like a regular verb at first glance. You might expect its past form to be lended, just as many verbs become verbs ending in ed. However, lend is an irregular verb, so its past form changes instead of simply taking an ed ending. … Read more

felt or feel can be confusing because both forms come from the same verb and describe sensations, emotions, opinions, or physical experiences. The key difference is tense. Feel is used for the present, while felt is used for the past and as the past participle after certain helping verbs. The choice becomes easier once you … Read more

taken vs taking can be confusing because both forms come from the same verb but they appear in very different sentence structures. The simple answer is that taken usually shows a completed action or a state that results from an action while taking usually describes an action happening now or the activity of doing something. … Read more

The choice between year old vs years old can seem surprisingly tricky because both forms describe age. The good news is that the rule is simple once you look at the position of the phrase in a sentence. Use the singular form before a noun when the entire age expression works as an adjective. Use … Read more

here is vs here are can cause a surprisingly common grammar problem. The choice depends mainly on the noun or noun phrase that follows. Use here is with a singular noun or an uncountable noun and use here are with a plural noun. Once you identify the real subject of the sentence the choice becomes … Read more

every person vs every people can be confusing because person and people both refer to human beings. The difference becomes clear once you look at the grammar. Every person is correct when you mean each individual member of a group. Every people is generally incorrect because every normally takes a singular count noun. The confusion … Read more

My vs Mine can confuse English learners because both words show that something belongs to someone. They have the same basic connection to possession but they don’t fit into the same grammatical position. If you say This is my or This is mine the second sentence is correct because mine can stand on its own … Read more