Verb Review #1 Run and Drink

Verb Review #1 Run and Drink Verb Review #1 Run and Drink Verb Review #1 Run and Drink By Maeve Maddox Native English speakers frequently make mistakes with the irregular verbs run and drink, even in contexts that call for standard usage: Woman arrested on manslaughter charge; man was ran over by car he was fixing. – Albany Democrat-Herald The pair are believed to have ran up an estimated  £3,000 credit card bill after they sneaked out of  school last Monday–Daily MailOnline Court documents state that Angela Haas called the emergency room after learning what the child drank, and she told staff that a friend had drank orange juice with methamphetamine in it.  Ã¢â‚¬â€œGreatFallsTribune (Montana) Poor motor activity and head movement can occur in infants where mothers have drank high levels of alcohol during the last few days of pregnancy (Dominguez, Lopez and Molina, 1998) –Paper published by Women’s Health Council run The principal parts of the verb run are: run, ran, (have) run. As illustrated by the above examples, the error occurs when the simple past (ran) is substituted for the past participle (run). The correct form to use with a helping verb is run: A man was run over by a car. They are believed to have run up an estimated  £3,000 credit card bill. drink The principal parts of the verb drink are: drink, drank, (have) drunk. As illustrated by the above examples, the error occurs when the simple past (drank) is substituted for the past participle (drunk). The correct form to use with a helping verb is drunk: A friend had drunk orange juice. Poor motor activity can occur in infants whose mothers have drunk high levels of alcohol. It is possible that these errors with run and drink may become so widespread as to gain standard status. Indeed, the online dictionary Dictionary.com accompanies the entry for drink with this observation: drank is widely used as a past participle in speech by educated persons and must be considered an alternate standard form. â€Å"Must be?† Call me â€Å"elitist,† but I think that an â€Å"educated person† would know better than to write â€Å"have drank† in a context that calls for standard English. The Chicago Manual of Style is not so accommodating: drink (verb): Correctly conjugated drink–drank–drunk. Example: â€Å"They had not drunk any fruit juice that day.† I suspect that some speakers deliberately avoid the use of the word drunk because of a strong aversion to the state of drunkenness; they feel that drunk isn’t a â€Å"nice† word. I have no theory as to why incorrect â€Å"have ran† should be preferred to correct â€Å"have run.† Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Usage Review category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:100 Words for Facial ExpressionsWhat's a Male Mistress?Supervise vs. Monitor

I Write to Discover What I Know

I Write to Discover What I Know As a blogger, I see everything that happens in my life as a possible jumping off point for an article. There are writing topics surrounding me at every moment. And yet, I sit down most weeks not knowing what I’m going to write about. I face â€Å"writer’s block† on a regular basis. How do I manage to think of something to say every week? I scroll through various topic sources such as: articles I’ve read or that someone has sent to me over the past week things I’ve learned at a conference or workshop articles someone else has written that I might want to post as a guest post client success stories and challenges, as well as business lessons from the past week Topic ideas are a dime a dozen. But how do I land upon one that strikes a chord with my audience? Sometimes I start writing only to discover that it’s a dud; and so I start over. Today’s article began when a friend sent me a link to a page of chalkboard art. I looked through the images through my default filter of â€Å"Is there a blog article in this?† When I saw a beautiful rendition of a quote by Flannery O’Connor, â€Å"I write to discover what I know,† I knew I had found a rich topic. I started thinking about a class in law school, Alternative Dispute Resolution, where I first discovered the phenomenon of â€Å"discovering what I know† by putting pen to paper. Each week we were given a choice of 3 topics and had to write a page or two about one of them. Each week, I was sure I would have nothing to write about. But write I did. I got an A. Writing doesn’t have to be academic to be a discovery process. Even writing a shopping list can help you uncover previously hidden information. So can writing a heartfelt letter to a friend. If you are someone who writes a journal, you understand that you discover surprises about yourself as you let your thoughts flow onto the page. Often all it takes to â€Å"unblock† a writer is the spark of an idea; sometimes that idea must be accompanied by a detailed framework or outline of a full essay. If someone is having a hard time writing  a resume, going through How to Write a WINNING Resume  along with one of my resume questionnaires  can do the trick. Clients often tell me that completing that questionnaire is one of the most valuable parts of working with me; they identify what they know about themselves as they start putting it into words. I would like every person faced with a writing project to know that it’s okay to start out not knowing what you’re going to write. Even if you have no clue, try sitting down and writing, even if it doesnt make sense or isn’t related to the topic. Stream of consciousness is just fine and is a great way to discover your own thoughts. You might be someone who needs to talk through ideas with another human being and nail down an outline before writing. If so, call someone (perhaps The Essay Expert) to work with you. If, on the other hand, all you need is structure, I recommend reading â€Å"how to† books such as How to Write a WINNING Resume or How to Write a KILLER LinkedIn Profile. If you are stuck on your resume, try answering the questions in my resume questionnaires so that you have guidance as you start to put your ideas to paper (or to computer). I am a frequent writer, and thus an evolving discoverer. I explore how seemingly unrelated topics connect with each other. I dive into my opinions, likes and dislikes. I find out more and more about who I am and who I am not. Flannery O’Connor was right on target, as  I hope you too will learn as you embark on this path of discovery.