vacuous - vocabulary

adjective
Empty, without content; lacking in intelligence or ideas; without purpose, idle. Television was not invented to make human beings vacuous, but is an emanation of their vacuity...

vacuum - correct spelling

noun, adjective, and verb
Example: The vacuum of space was a mystery to us. noun...

valley - correct spelling

noun
Example: The soldier sat on the side of the mountain and looked at the valley below....

valuable - correct spelling

adjective and noun (often plural
)Example: He gave us some valuable advice. ...

Valuable vs. Invaluable

Some English usage can look mystifying to outside observers. Often, though, even things which don’t seem to ...

vapid - vocabulary

adjective
Having lost sparkling quality and flavor; insipid; flat; dull or tedious. A society in which everyone works is not necessarily a free society and may indeed be a slave society; on the other ha...

variety - correct spelling

noun
Example: The restaurant offered a variety of food....

vegetable - correct spelling

noun and adjective
Example: He ate only one vegetable each day. noun
Example: She prefer...

vehement - vocabulary

adjective
Very eager or urgent; zealous, ardent; characterized by rancor or anger; consisting of great exertion or energy. It is very natural for young men to be vehement, acrimonious a...

vein - correct spelling

noun and verb
Example: The nurse finally found a vein for the IV. noun
Example: New houses wi...

Venal vs. Venial

Catholics everywhere are confused: do they commit venal sins or venial sins? And what is a venal/venial sin anyway? Whether they're Catholic or not, many writers are just as confused. Consider...

venal, venial

Venal means “open to corruption or without honor.”Venial means “easily forgiven” or “minor.”Example: The venal officer was guilty of more that just ...

venal, venial - vocabulary

adjective
Venal: willing to sell one’s influence in return for a bribe; associated with bribery. From what we already know, . . . some churchmen had dealings with the ...

venerable - vocabulary

adjective
Meriting or commanding high esteem because of age or high dignity; impressive or interesting because of great age; hallowed or historic. Heaven and earth are grand; father and...

vengeance - correct spelling

noun
Example: The father of the missing child wanted vengeance....

verb

The most important word in the English language is the verb. Without it, we could not write sentences. In fact, if you want to write a one-word sentence, that one word must be a verb.We have four kinds of main verbs: (1) ...

Verb "To Be"

To Be or Not To BeThe eBook Developing a Powerful Writing Style thoroughly discusses the problem of overusing the verb to ...

verb "to be"

The verb to be is unique in the English language. It can serve as a main verb (I am a writer) and as a primary auxiliary ver...

Verb Conjugation

Verb Conjugation in EnglishEvery verb in the English language has two states or dimensions—two realms, if you will. In the infinitive state, the verb reveals only the activity described: to hit or to run. Fr...

Verb Function 1 - Conjugated Verb

The conjugated verb performs the most crucial role in English: It forms the sentence. Without the conjugated verb, we would have no complete grammatical sentences.When conjugated, the verb forms two kinds of clauses. The independent clause ca...

Verb Function 2 - Infinitive Phrase - "To" Phrase

Remember the definition of the infinitive form of a verb: the word you would ordinarily look up in the dictionary. Its bare form is just the word by itself: write. Its periphrastic form consists of the infinitive preceded by the pre...

Verb Function 3 - Present-Participial Phrase (-ing Phrase)

Every verb has a present participle. Just add ‑ing as an ending. If a silent ‑e ends the word, then drop it: write, writing. If a consonant ends the word, you’ll sometimes ha...

Verb Function 4 - Past-Participial Phrase (-ed Phrase)

Every verb has a past participle, which we form by adding ‑ed for regular verbs and some other ending for irregular verbs. For the ‑ed verbs, we sometimes have to double up an ending consonant (occurred) (check the dictiona...

Verb Function 5 - Participial Adjectives

We come to the end of the list of the functions of verbs. One-word participles, either present or past, serve as wonderful participial adjectives. Think about the images these verbal adjectives can paint in your writing: -ing ...

verbal object

Action verbs come in two varieties: transitive verbs and intransitive verbs
. A transitive verb has the intrinsic ability to attach directly to a ...