Grammar Star

Did you know that round off and round up mean different things? Look at these: Round off: conclude or summarize 1. The moderator signaled the guest speaker to round off his speech. 2. "Please, round off. Time is no more on our side," the man said. Round up: arrest or gather 1. The police rounded up the criminals last Friday. 2. The Maths teacher asked the students to  round up the figures to a whole number. I hope you can see the difference now. Please, leave a comment, questions and suggestions on the post. Kindly share after reading. Thanks.

When we want to change direct to indirect speech, we are faced with the word "say". Most of those times, we keep repeating the word "say" as in "He said...", "She said..." At those times, using the right word will go a long way in conveying the appropriate message.  Thus, in this lesson, we are going to look at the verbs we can use in place of "say". When you want to express  1. Agreement, use:  admit, confirm, continue, declare, maintain, reply, state, suggest. 2. Command, use: command, direct, insist, instruct, order. 3. Distress, use: alert, complain, cry, groan, lament, mutter, regret, shout. 4. Refusal, use: contradict, criticize, counter, deny, forbid, oppose, refute. 5. Request, use: advise, ask, beg, caution, entreat, plead, request, urge, wish. Using the words above in appropriate places will eliminate monotony and save one from the embarrassment arising from frequent use of the verb "say".  ### Let's have your co

Easter is just few days away from now. As we prepare for the day, we shall be considering a word used to describe the event of the Day and other confusing words. 1. Between "arose" and "arouse" Let's look at the two words: i. Arose (past tense of arise): - to get up or stand up : rise.  E.g. He arose from the grave. - especially: to get up from sleep or after lying down. E.g. He arose (from bed) refreshed after a good night's sleep. ii. Arouse  /ə-ˈrauz/: - to cause (an emotional or mental state) E.g. The report aroused a great deal of public interest. - to awaken the passion or (sexual) desire in someone. E.g. The alleged rapist said he was aroused by the lady's nude body. - to wake (someone) from sleep. E.g. The noise of the children playing could  arouse him. Note that the two vowel letters / ou / in "arouse" sound like / aw / as in "out" while the letter /o/ in "arose" has a different sound. Often times, some p

This week, we shall be looking at how we mix direct and reported speeches in statements and how we can remedy that. A lot of us are guilty of this error without knowing it. Look at the following: 1. The man asked me what is my name. 2. He also said who is my father.  3. He asked me what is the question. 4. The woman asked me what is my concern in the matter. 5. She said I will not take any insult from anyone.  These are some of the ways we mix up direct and reported speeches in statements. Other examples of such mix-ups abound.  How can we remedy this?  First, we have to understand that a direct speech refers to the exact speech of a speaker, usually with the use of quotation marks. Let's take some of our examples from the ones above: 1. The man asked, "What is your name?" 2. "What is your concern in the matter?" the woman asked. Consider the examples above. You will notice that the exact words of the speakers have been enclosed in quotation marks.  In a repor