English Language Flashcards
Difference between consist, comprise and compose
Consist, comprise and compose are all verbs used to describe what something is ‘made of’. We don’t use them in continuous forms.
Consist
Their diet only consisted of fruit and seeds. The whole group consists of students.
We only use the active form of consist of:
Their flat consists of two bedrooms, a kitchen and a bathroom. Not: Their flat is consisted of two bedrooms…
Comprise
Comprise is more formal than consist:
The USA comprises 50 states.
We can also use it in the passive voice in the form ‘be comprised of’:
The course is comprised of ten lectures and five seminars on the theory of economics and banking.
Comprise, but not compose, can be used with the parts that make up something as the subject:
Oil and coal comprise 70% of the nation’s exports.
Compose of is even more formal than consist of and comprise. Compose of is only used in the passive voice:
Muscle is composed of different types of protein.
Typical errors
We don’t use consist, comprise and compose in a continuous form: The whole group consists of students. Not: The whole group is consisting of students.
Brought vs Bought
The difference between brought and bought
Brought is the past tense and past participle of the verb to bring, which means “to carry someone or something to a place or person.”
Bought is the past tense and past participle of the verb to buy, which means “to obtain something by paying money for it.”
Bought implies an economic transaction; brought implies the transport of something (or someone).
Legend has it that European explorers bought Manhattan for twenty-four dollars.
Alex brought a cup of coffee to his exhausted mother.
Want vs Wants
The correct phrase is “I want”. Because when you are talking about yourself, you should never add “S” to the end of a verb. Just as you wouldn’t say “I eats”, you would say “I eat”. The same also applies to “You want”, “They want”, and “We want”.
You should use “wants” when there is ONE person who wants something, and that person is neither you nor the person you’re talking to.
When to use punctuation marks such as colon, semicolon, dash, etc.
https://www.uopeople.edu/blog/punctuation-marks/
Ability vs Capability
Ability to do some task means that you can do it and have done it in the past. Ability determines a person’s skill or level of expertise. In other words, it denotes the quality of being able to perform something
Capability to do a task is the potential to do it. Whether you are able to do the task at the moment or not, is different, but you have the capability or the potential to do it sometime. For example, you may not have the ability to run now because of knee pain, however in due course of time, you may be able to do so. You have the capability to run a marathon
