2019: "English Plain and Simple" columns in The Manila Times(This listing is in reverse chronological order, the latest first. To access and read a particular column, simply click the indicated link.)
December 26, 2019:
Subject-verb agreement peculiarity of inverted sentencesDecember 19, 2019:
Pronouns as subject complement always take the subjective formDecember 12, 2019:
How onerous legalese imperils public welfareDecember 5, 2019:
How the two types of English determiners workNovember 28, 2019:
Is “Philippines” plural and what is its possessive form?November 21, 2019:
The 'who'/'whom' grammar conundrum revisitedNovember 14, 2019:
The perplexing workings of the double possessiveNovember 7, 2019:
Is your “were” in the indicative or subjunctive mood?October 31, 2019:
Precisely when do we use “request” or “request for”?October 24, 2019:
Don’t let “can,” “could,” “will,” and “would” baffle you anymoreOctober 17, 2019:
Is there anything wrong with the expression “Thanks God”?October 10, 2019:
The correct tense for reporting verbs in reported speechOctober 3, 2019:
The many senses of 'while' elude not just a fewSeptember 26, 2019:
Can an adjective be used as a subject in a sentence?September 19, 2019:
How English deals with the past imperfect tenseSeptember 12, 2019:
The six ways that English evokes the futureSeptember 5, 2019:
Pitfalls in constructing negative 'used to' sentencesAugust 29, 2019:
Do we say “in the street” or “on the street”?August 22, 2019:
The one single thing that brought them all to America (This special essay takes the place of “Do we say 'in the street' or 'on the street'”? only here in the Forum. The originally scheduled English-usage column for
The Manila Times and this slot will be run on August 29, 2019 instead.)
August 15, 2019:
The strange grammar of “need” as modal auxiliaryAugust 8, 2019:
How to ask a question within a questionAugust 1, 2019:
Precisely when is a verb linking or an auxiliary?July 25, 2019:
The rightful place for a headline modifierJuly 18, 2019:
The craft of writing headlines and titles - 2July 11, 2019:
The craft of writing headlines and titles - 1July 4, 2019:
Bedlam when a verb is very late in comingJune 27, 2019:
When to use full infinitives, bare infinitives, or gerunds - 2June 20, 2019:
When to use full infinitives, bare infinitives, or gerunds - 1June 13, 2019:
When is a parenthetical necessary in a sentence?June 6, 2019:
The virtue of postpositively positioned adjectivesMay 30, 2019:
Use of “hopefully” and other grammar bugbearsMay 23, 2019:
How elliptical sentences differ from elliptical clausesMay 16, 2019:
Using discourse markers for contextualizing ideasMay 9, 2019:
Random questions that need a lot of explaining to answerMay 2, 2019:
Precisely when do we use the past progressive tense?April 25, 2019:
Prepositions at work in prepositional idiomsApril 18, 2019:
Prepositions at work in literal prepositional phrasesApril 11, 2019:
A full-dress review of English preposition usage – 3 (Time and duration)April 4, 2019:
A full-dress review of English preposition usage – 2 (Motion and direction)March 28, 2019:
A full-dress review of English preposition usage – 1 (Place and location)March 21, 2019:
Tough, counterintuitive aspects of English grammar - 2March 14, 2019:
Tough, counterintuitive aspects of English grammar - 1March 7, 2019:
Exercising caution in asserting what’s good or bad EnglishFebruary 28, 2019:
Let’s get acclimatized to the country’s weather terminologyFebruary 21, 2019:
Play it by ear whether to use a gerund phrase or infinitive phraseFebruary 14, 2019:
Does “nor” always need “neither” to work properly?February 7, 2019:
The thorny choice between “whether it is” and “whether it be”January 31, 2019:
It’s a mark of civility to use “can” and “may” properlyJanuary 24, 2019:
How the three kinds of objects work in English grammarJanuary 17, 2019:
We shouldn’t mistake mass nouns for collective nounsJanuary 10, 2019:
Why not a few academics encode their insights into turgid EnglishJanuary 3, 2019:
How to use “can” and “could” and “will” and “would”
