COURSE ANNOUNCEMENT

 Welcome: In July, we welcome Sean, Layoug, Howard, Grace, Melanie, Krista, and Calum to the course. We hope you will enjoy the course and participate in the blog.

Congratulations:
Stephanie is the most recent student to complete the course--well done! 

Previous Grammar Question

The twin’s were unusual amused, first they entertain there school’s friends’ by telling jokes, than they had chased after the neighboring dog and it was ended when they had imitated their friend’s.

1. Active or passive voice? If the twins were amused, then someone or something was amusing them. Given their actions, it makes more sense to use the active voice and use the past progressive tense--were amusing--as they were amusing the others. Similarly use the simple past “ended” in the active voice instead of the passive “was ended”.

2. Word form: unusual is an adjective; here the verb is being modified, so use the adverb --unusually.

3. Possessive or plural: “twins” should be plural not possessive--no apostrophe. Similarly, “school’s” modifies “friends”--as an adjective it cannot have a possessive, and it cannot be plural either; use “school”; also, “friends” is plural, not possessive--no apostrophe (both times).

4. Verb tense: This story is set in the past, so use either past progressive or simple past; instead of “entertain” use “entertained”. Also, use the simple past tense (chased) to be consistent--not the past perfect (had chased), and use the simple past “imitated” and not the past perfect “had imitated”..

5. Word confusion: the pronoun is “their”; “there” is an adverb of place.

6. Word confusion: “than” is used to compare two things; to indicate what happened next, use “then”.

7. Word confusion: “neighbouring” refers to a place; here use either the possessive “neighbour’s” or “neighbourhood”.

8. Punctuation: The first two clauses are independent ones; use a semicolon after “amusing”.  Where “and” separates two independent clauses, use a comma (after dog).

Suggested solution: The twins were unusually amusing; first they entertained their school friends by telling jokes, then they chased after the neighbour’s dog, and it ended when they imitated their friends.

Next Blog: Friday, July 30th