1) Present and Past Tense
Present tenses in English are used to talk about the present, the future and to summarise a book, film or play when telling a story in the present tense.
There are four present tense forms in the English language.
Present Simple: I Work
Present Continuous: I am Working
Present Perfect: I have worked
Present perfect continuous: I have been working
Rules:
You can use the past tense to talk about events or situations that have finished. You can also use past tense in English to talk about long-standing events and situations that have already happened in the past.
For example: When I was a young child, I lived in the countryside.
Here are some frequently used examples of verbs in past simple: are, was, were and went.
2) How To Avoid the Overuse of Adverbs
Adverbs are a varied class of words that work in many different ways to express many different kinds of meaning.
This can make adverbs a useful word group. You should, however, avoid overusing these words to describe actions and events.
The most commonly overused adverbs are manner adverbs, this particular type of adverb modifies the verb.
For example:
Emily Scott shook her head vigorously.
He was in a good mood now, smiling broadly as he grabbed his mug of tea.
A common issue in story writing occurs when you rely too heavily on manner adverbs in your stories.
For example:
The curtain opened quickly, and Ben came slowly into the room. He saw Emma looking flirtatiously with Jack and walked over to her aggressively. ‘Why are you here?’ he screamed angrily.
Here is the same extract with the manner verbs highlighted:
The curtain opened quickly, and Ben came slowly into the room. He saw Emma looking flirtatiously with Jack and walked over to her aggressively. ‘Why are you here?’ he screamed angrily.
The correct use of adverbs is to show not tell the reader what is happening in the story.
3) Your/You’re
These words are also troublesome homophones that cause many problems.
Rules:
“Your” indicates a possession – and defines that something belongs to you.
“You’re” is short for “You are”.
Here is how not to use these words:
Your beautiful.
Do you know when your going?
Can I have you’re coat?
How to get it right:
You’re beautiful.
Do you know when you’re going?
Can I have your coat?
4) Misplacing Apostrophes
You find apostrophes a little tricky, but once you follow the rules, it will become easy. Putting an apostrophe in the wrong place is a common mistake.
Rules:
Apostrophes indicate something belongs to something or is owned by someone else.
To show that something belongs to one person, place the apostrophe before the letter ‘S.’
For example – “The girl’s sheep”.
To show that something belongs to more than one person, you need to place the apostrophe after the letter ‘S’.
For example – “The girls’ sheep”.
Apostrophes are also used in contracted words such as “Can’t” to indicate that the ‘O’ is missing from “Cannot.”
Apostrophes should never be used to make a word plural.
5) There / Their /They’re
You may find that these pesky homophones, a little bit of a headache.
Rules:
Use “There” to refer to a place that isn’t here, for example, “Over there.”
Use “Their” to refer to how owns something – showing that something belongs to that person.
Use “They’re” is a shortened version of “They are”.
Here is how not to use these words:
Their going to be here soon.
We should contact they’re friend.
Can we use there house?
They’re is is an argument that says.
Here is how you use these words correctly:
They’re going to be here soon.
We should contact their friend.
Can we use their house?
There is an argument that says.