A contronym is a word that can also act as it’s own own antonym. Examples of contronyms include:
- Cleave: to split in two or cling together
- Dust: to cover with or to remove dust
- Sanction: to approve or penalize
- Fast: firmly fixed in place or moving rapidly
- Overlook: to supervise or fail to see
- Left: remaining or departed
- Screen: to show or conceal
- Trim: to add or reduce
QuillBot’s Grammar Checker can help ensure you’re using contonyms correctly.
Read this FAQ: What is a contronym?
The subject is “what the sentence is about.”
If the sentence is in the active voice, then the subject of the sentence is the “doer” of the action described by the main verb.
For instance, in the sentence “Kate has to write her aunt a thank-you letter,” “Kate” is the subject (she is “doing” the writing).
If the sentence is in the passive voice, the subject is not the doer, it is the “recipient” of the action (or occasionally the thing being “transferred”).
For instance, if the information from the example above is expressed in the passive voice as “Kate’s aunt has to be written a thank-you letter,” the subject is “Kate’s aunt” (the recipient).
In the sentence “A thank-you letter has to be written to Kate’s aunt,” which is also in the passive voice, the subject is “a thank-you letter” (the thing being transferred).
Have you tried QuillBot’s free Grammar Checker? You can use it to check that the verbs in your sentences “agree with” the subjects.
Read this FAQ: How do you find the subject of a sentence?
To change a sentence from the passive voice into the active voice, identify the “doer” of the action and then make it the subject of the sentence.
For instance, in this passive sentence, “The play was written by Shakespeare,” the verb is “write,” and the “doer” is Shakespeare. So, the sentence with Shakespeare as the subject will begin with “Shakespeare wrote…” If we add the rest of the information, the full sentence in the active voice is “Shakespeare wrote the play.”
You can use QuillBot’s free Paraphraser to rephrase sentences that are in the passive voice.
Read this FAQ: How do you change passive voice to active voice?
In the active voice, the subject of the sentence is the “doer” of the action (e.g., “He cooked the food”), but in the passive voice the subject is the “recipient” of this action (e.g., “The food was cooked by him”).
You can use QuillBot’s free Grammar Checker to identify uses of the passive voice in your writing.
Read this FAQ: What is the difference between active and passive voice?
An object complement can be a noun or noun phrase, but it can also be an adjective or adjective phrase.
Object complements follow a direct object and describe or rename it. For example:
- They appointed me president. [noun]
- I consider her the perfect teacher. [noun phrase]
- The chlorine turned my hair green. [adjective]
- The critic found the book trite and predictable. [adjective phrase]
QuillBot’s Grammar Checker can help you ensure you’re using object complements correctly.
Read this FAQ: Is an object complement a noun?
Both object complements and subject complements rename or describe a noun or pronoun.
Object complementsvs subject complements
| Object complement examples |
Subject complement examples |
| That makes me sad. |
I am sad. |
| Let’s paint our nails blue. |
Our nails are blue. |
| The state elected her governor. |
She is the governor. |
QuillBot’s Grammar Checker can help you use subject and object complements correctly.
Read this FAQ: What’s the difference between a subject complement and an object complement?
Either … or is a correlative conjunction that can be used in a variety of ways in sentences. Some examples are:
- Either my mom or my dad will give me a ride.
- They said we could either sit in the balcony or stand near the stage.
- Either pay attention, or leave.
- I’ll take either a soda or a water.
The QuillBot Grammar Checker can help ensure you’re using either … or correctly.
Read this FAQ: What are some either or examples?
The correct form of the correlative conjunction is neither … nor (e.g., “We have neither the capital nor the name recognition to expand into a new market”). “Or” is never used with “neither.”
A QuillBot Grammar Check can help ensure you’re using correlative conjunctions and negatives like “neither … nor” correctly.
Read this FAQ: Is it neither nor or neither or?
Some examples of sentences using neither … nor (a correlative conjunction) are:
- The marketing campaign neither attracted new users nor increased sales.
- Neither the actors nor the studios were satisfied with the result of the negotiations.
- My date was neither charming nor intelligent.
Neither … nor is also used in some well-known expressions, such as:
- That’s neither here nor there. Let’s focus on the main issue.
- I’m going to follow my grandma’s advice: “Neither a borrower nor a lender be.”
- I can neither confirm nor deny that I saw Talia at the soccer game on her sick day.
The QuillBot Grammar Checker can help ensure you’re using “neither … nor” correctly.
Read this FAQ: What are some neither nor examples?
The choice between the correlative conjunctions either … or and neither … nor depends on your intended meaning.
- Use either … or when you want to present two options (e.g., “We can either go out to eat or order in”).
- Use neither … nor when you want to express that two things are not true or did not happen (e.g., “We neither ate nor slept on the flight”).
When there is already a negative (e.g., “not,” “never “) in your sentence, use “or” to avoid a double negative (e.g., “We did not eat or sleep on the flight”).
The QuillBot Grammar Checker can help ensure you’re using correlative conjunctions correctly.
Read this FAQ: Should I use either or or neither nor?
