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The words “paid” and “payed” sound completely identical in the English language. Part of what adds to the confusion of how to use these words is the fact that “-ay” words in English take a variety of endings. For example, “I say” is the present tense of “to say”, but “I said” is how it transforms in the past tense. This pattern is the same for the verb “to pay”, making “paid” the correct past tense verb. However, that does not mean “payed” is always incorrect.

It’s true that, when you talk about money, you should almost always use “paid” and not “payed”. Any kind of transaction, whether literally using monies or a figurative transaction, “paid” is still the proper word to use. For example, “I paid one dollar for a burrito”. Likewise, one could say “I paid her back for lying to me”. “Paid” is certainly the most common spelling between “paid” and “payed” that is used in the English language.

“Payed”, however, is still a correct word. Its use is predominantly in a sailing context. One example of how this is used is to describe ropes being “payed” out. “Payed” can also be used to in a financial context when the method of “paying out” can be likened to the action of “paying out” a rope in the nautical sense. This is a rather abstract application, but it is important for English speakers to realize that expressions such as “having payed out over time” are not grammatically incorrect.

Dating as far back as the seventeenth century, the familiar phrase “hear ye, hear ye” appeared in various types of literature and rang out in British Parliament meetings. This particular sequence of words originally called attention to an orator and encouraged boisterous gatherers to listen to the featured speaker. Other ways of expressing this locution included “hear him, hear him”, or even “hear her, hear her.” Hundreds of years of utterance abbreviated the idiom to the recognizable “hear, hear” still used in contemporary language. Although frequently misspelled or misspoken as “here, here”, the provenance of the saying and its evolution through time confirm the words “hear, hear” as the proper way to employ this phrase.

Similar to the actual parlance of “hear, hear” metamorphosing over time, the connotation in modern vernacular likewise experienced a shift. Instead of summoning an audience to observe the beginning of a lecture, these words now commonly signify support or agreement. A person concurring with a statement may declare, “hear, hear”, thus voicing concordance and approval. Another popular application occurs during celebrations, whereby a person giving a toast may call “hear, hear” as a cheer to an honoree, and guests will respond back with an exuberant, “hear, hear”. Once reserved for a larger assemblage, this phrase now extends to use in small groups and even in casual one-on-one conversations. Yet, in spite of all the changes to this distinct expression from its initial purpose, one aspect endures: the correct verbiage remains “hear, hear” not “here, here”.

What is a reply chug ? Prompting your friends to reply with a Snapchat video of them drinking/chugging alcohol by doing it yourself.

We’ve all heard the expression “Karma’s a bitch.” There are some who might wonder why karma is a bitch and to understand this figure of speech; they must first examine the meaning of karma.

Karma is a spiritual principle that what goes around comes around. If a person is full of good intent and performs good deeds, that the person will enjoy a lifetime or an afterlife of peace. This also goes to say that if a person operates on bad intent, wrongs others, and wishes ill-will toward others that they will later experience misery and hardship in their lifetime or after-life.

Many people believe that karma is tied hand-in-hand with reincarnation. Reincarnation is the belief that when a person dies, their soul resurrects into another living being; which could be a tree, an insect, a teacher, a pilot, or even a career criminal. A person who spent their life abusing others may be reincarnated as a person who is themselves abused. A kind person, however, may find themselves reincarnated as someone’s prized pet dog or cat.

When we say “karma’s a bitch,” we are referring to the unpleasantries that usually follow a set of actions. A person does not have to be dead to experience this. An eighth-grade class bully may find himself to be the victim of bullying once he reaches high school. As the bully became the bullied, one of his victims might point out that “karma’s a bitch,” because the bully is now receiving the same or similar treatment that he had previously bestowed upon others.

Understanding the difference between the pronouns “who” and “whom” is very easy if you simply follow the rules of usage. “Who” is the subjective or nominative case and “whom” is objective. Knowing this, the only thing left to do is to determine which case is appropriate for each use of the pronoun.

Knowing the case that should be used may be the trickier part of this problem. To do so, you have to be able to tell the difference between a subject and an object in a sentence. If the pronoun is used as a subject, then the correct form will be “who”, the subjective form. For example, “The man who called me yesterday is tall.” In this sentence, “who” is used as the subject of the clause, identifying the one performing the act of calling.

A good test of correct use is to substitute the words “he” and then “him” for “who.” If “he” sounds right, then “who” is probably correct. If, on the other hand, “him” seems to fit, then “whom” is more likely correct. You just use “he” to test “who” and “him ” to test “whom.” Follow the “m”, in other words. Almost everyone can tell that “he called” sounds better than “him called.”

If the pronoun who or whom is being used to represent the person performing the action, then it should be “who” with no “m.” When the pronoun is the receiver of the action, it will be “whom”, with the “m.”

Rules Regarding Adjective Order
We often use more than one word to describe a person, place, or object. The rules regarding the correct order of these adjectives are not something that we necessarily study in school, but we seem to understand them on an intuitive level. Although the order of the adjectives does not change the meaning of the sentence, our ear can tell when it is not correct.

Examples:

• Suzy is wearing a loose, green top.
• Suzy is wearing a green, loose top.

Both sentences convey the same information; however, the second sentence does not follow the usual rule regarding the proper order of adjectives.

As a general rule, adjectives should become more permanent as attributes the closer you get to the noun. The following is a guide to help you remember the correct order of adjectives.

• Opinion—Start with adjectives that explain how you feel about something. Examples of opinion adjectives include horrible, difficult, or beautiful.
• Size—These are adjectives such as tiny, enormous, or gigantic.
• Age—Examples include ancient, new, or young.
• Shape—Examples include square, flat, or round.
• Color—Pink, green, or yellow are examples.
• Origin—Examples include French, American, solar, or northern.
• Material- For instance, an object may be wooden, metallic, or linen.
• Purpose—These adjectives often end in -ing and describe how the object is used. Examples would include a “roasting” tin or a “sleeping” bag.

In some cases, it is possible to swap the order of an adjective based on fact and an adjective based on opinion depending on the characteristic that you want to emphasize.

An easy way to determine if you need a possessive form of a noun is to create an “of the” phrase. For example, the girl’s hat becomes the hat of the girl. If the noun following “of” is an object or building, you do not need to create a possessive. If the noun is anything other than an object or building, you will need to use the following rules for creating a possessive.

At first glance, creating a possessive may seem like a simple matter of adding ‘s.

Examples:

• The dog’s bark was loud.
• The boy’s hat was red.

Even many singular nouns ending in -s can be made possessive by adding ‘s.

Examples:

• Fluffy is James’s cat.
• Tom is Mrs. Jones’s attorney.

Of course, there are exceptions to every English grammar rule. In some cases, pronouncing the possessive ending can be somewhat awkward when the noun ends in -s. In these instances, it is acceptable to simply add the apostrophe. It is up to the writer to make the judgment call and to punctuate according to pronunciation.

Many writers also make exceptions for the possessive of ancient proper names ending in -es, -is, and -us.

Examples:

• Jesus’
• Achilles’
• Adonis’

For plural nouns ending in -s, you simply add the apostrophe.

Examples:

• two countries’ laws
• three dogs’ toys

Prepositions are words that create a relationship in space or time between other words. Common prepositions include above, by, over, before, after, in, around, and since.

Examples:

The coat is in the closet.
Sarah arrived before Tim.

In the first sentence, the preposition “in” is used to describe the coat’s location in relationship to the closet. In the second sentence, the preposition “before” is used to describe the relationship in time between Sarah and Tom’s arrivals.

Grammar purists say that you should never end a sentence with a preposition. There are many circumstances where this is true; however, there are cases when it is perfectly acceptable.

You should never end a sentence with an extraneous preposition.

Example:

Where are you at?
Where did he go to?

The words “at” and “to” are unnecessary; therefore, you should remove them.

On the other hand, if removing the preposition or restructuring the sentence would cause confusion or convoluted written or verbal gymnastics, it is perfectly acceptable to end your sentence with a preposition.

Examples:

What did she sit on?
On what did she sit?

The first sentence does end with a preposition; however, it reads and sounds much more natural than the second sentence.

It is also acceptable to end a sentence with a preposition when using a phrasal verb. Phrasal verbs contain multiple words, one of which is always a preposition. “Leave off,” “go ahead,” and “run over” are all considered phrasal verbs.

Examples:

I told Sally to go ahead.
I wish Bill would cheer up.

‘She’ or ‘he’ just doesn’t cut it when it comes to singular pronouns in the English language.

Especially in a time when the lines between traditional ideas of the gender binary are being blurred or erased entirely, finding a gender-neutral, singular pronoun has become a topic of much debate. It has been argued that using ‘he’ as a gender-neutral pronoun is acceptable, but this has come up against a lot of criticism due to the inherent sexism in that claim: To say that a masculine gendered pronoun is the neutral norm implies that a feminine gendered pronoun is somehow ‘other.’

Since the 14th century, there have been records of the use of ‘they’ in reference to a singular person, also known as the Singular They. To many, this gender-neutral Singular They is the ideal substitute to using a gendered pronoun. However, it has long been the target of criticism among scholars and laypeople alike on whether or not the Singular They is ‘correct’ English.

With the rise of social media and transgender rights discourse, there have been even more cases for the need to flex the English language for a gender neutral pronoun. Neologisms such as ‘ze’ or ‘zir’ have been created, but for many people, those new pronouns are too farfetched. For others, ‘they’ will always be touted as a plural pronoun without any flexibility to be singular in certain contexts.

None of these cases have been conclusive. The jury is still out on a widely-accepted gender-neutral, singular pronoun.

The rules about proper punctuation in relation to quotation marks can be tricky at times. Here is a guide to make sense of it all. Please note that this guide is in reference to American English grammatical rules. Many of these rules may vary in British or Canadian English. When writing a professional or academic piece of text, always check what the accepted style guide is for that situation.

Commas and periods are to be placed inside of quotation marks.
For example: “I went to work,” she said. “It was a long day.”

Semi-colons are to be placed outside of quotation marks.
For example: My morning began with the song “Crazy”; it ended with the song “Happy.”

Colons are to be placed outside of quotation marks.
For example: The job description required someone with “exceptional skill”: Only applicants with five or more years of experience would be considered.

A quote within a quote is indicated by using single quotation marks inside of double quotation marks. A comma or period is placed inside both the single and double quotation marks.
For example: “Shakespeare wrote, ‘The play’s the thing,'” he said.

A question mark or exclamation point is placed outside the single quotation marks, unless it is part of the original quotation, but it is placed inside the double quotation marks.
For example: He added, “But what’s ‘the thing’?”

Parentheses used to cite the source of a quotation should be placed outside of quotation marks.
For example: Marcus argued that “dreams wake us up from reality” (p. 7).