OF all aspects of any language grammar, the topic of tense agreement is usually the most exciting. Why? Simply because it is at this point that a verb can be used in many timelines. Take a note of the word write and how it is used in various tenses as well as few descriptions of selected tenses:

1. present progressive – I am writing.
2. simple present – I write.
3. present perfect – I have written – continuously happening
4. simple past – I wrote.
5. past progressive – I was writing.
6. past perfect – I had written.
7. present perfect progressive – I have been writing.
8. past perfect progressive – I had been writing.
9. simple future – I will write
10. future progressive – I will be writing.
11. future perfect – I will have written.
12. future perfect progressive – I will have been writing.
13. future to go – I am going to write.
14. present conditional – I would write.
15. present progressive conditional – I would be writing.
16. conditional – I would have written.
17. conditional perfect continuous – I would have been writing.
18. present do – I do listen.
19. past do – I did listen.
20. present passive – …is written by me.
21. present progressive passive – …is being written by me.
22. past progressive passive – …was being written by me.
23. past perfect passive – …had been written by me
24. future – …will be written by me.
25. subjunctive – Were I writing
26. imperative – Let me do the writing.
27. conditional – I could do the writing.
28. interrogative – Are you writing?

Another overlooked dimension in the English language is the use of I and me. I must always be used if the word is intended to be the subject of the sentence. A is always used preceding a consonant noun and an will be used preceding a vowel noun except in cases where nouns start in unsounded h like honorable and honest. An is also used in vowel nouns that start with u but sound like y as in union or o but sound like w like one. Articles are omitted for names of languages and nationalities like English, names of sports like hockey and names of academic fields like geology.

Regarding the use of capital letters, they are utilized not just to emphasize proper nouns but for other purposes as well. Among its various uses are family relationships (Aunt Dinah), periods (The Crusades, Ice Age) and religious figures (Buddha). On the other hand, capitalization is not followed when names precede titles (Arnold Schwarzenegger, governor of California).

The following are pairs of words in English that sound the same but have very different meanings:

1. accept – except
2. adverse – averse
3. affect – effect
4. all ready – already
5. all together – altogether
6. allot – a lot
7. allusion – illusion
8. altar – alter
9. amoral – immoral
10. appraise – apprise
11. our – hour – are
12. brake – break
13. by – buy – bye
14. canvas – canvass
15. capital – capitol
16. cite – site
17. coarse – course
18. council – counsel
19. decent – descent – dissent
20. defuse – diffuse