Author Archives: barnabyharward

The difference between “commitment” and “commission” (and “committee” and “committal”)

Posted on May 14, 2018

The verb “commit” has numerous related noun forms: commitment, commission, committal and committee. Many people – native English speakers included – do not know all the differences between them. A criminal “commits a crime”. But we cannot talk about the … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Common mistakes with the Present Perfect tense

Posted on February 26, 2018

The Present Perfect tense is made up of have/has and the past participle of a verb: He has eaten all the chocolates. I have included your amendments in the draft agreement. It is perhaps the most difficult of all verb … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , | 6 Comments

When to use “a” and when to use “an”

Posted on November 3, 2017

We say “an old man” but “a young child”. What is the rule for using “a” and “an”? The rule is that we use “a” before a consonant sound and “an” before a vowel sound. Note that it’s the sound … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged | Leave a comment

How to translate “nie później niż w ciągu”

Posted on November 3, 2017

I often see the literal translation of this phrase – not later than within. This is always wrong. Here’s an example: POLISH Płatności należy dokonać nie później niż w ciągu pięciu dni od daty otrzymania niniejszego pisma. WRONG The payment … Continue reading →

Posted in Dla Polaków | Tagged | Leave a comment

How to write dates

Posted on September 28, 2017

There is a difference between how dates are written in British and American English. In British English dates are usually written in the day-month-year format, for example: 6 October 2017 In American English dates are usually written in the month-day-year … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | 10 Comments

How to use “since”

Posted on September 21, 2017

“Since” can be an expression of time, and it can mean “because”. “Since” as a time expression When used to express time, the word “since” means: — from a time in the past until the present — from a time … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

How to use hyphens and dashes

Posted on September 7, 2017

A hyphen is a short line used in compound words and double-barrelled names. There’s one there in “double-barrelled”, which is a compound word. Hyphens don’t usually have spaces before or after them. A dash is a long line used as a punctuation symbol. … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , | Leave a comment