Play with me, Lali! ^^

[Shira]

((Here's stuff that I have learned from English, with a funny twist to it. It's choppy, and randomly taught to me, so feel free to steal, modify, do as you wish, Lali....))

A hyperbole is an over the top simile.

Simile: I tried a thousand times!
Hyperbole: His feet were as large as the Titantic.

See the difference? The simile isn't that over the top (and this one's used commonly) but feet as big as a ship? Now that's over the top.



I drive bad.
Bad is adjective, not adverb
Bad is describing drive.



--ing at the end of a verb is either a noun or an adverb, subject



The subject should do the predict. It makes it a good active voice.



Advoid "to be" verbs. They are:
is
are
was
were
be
being
been
am



Make verbs interesting. For example: "The tree stands in my yard."
Instead, it should be: The tree....
leans
sways
grows
blooms
decorates
occupies
shades my yard.



Russian Guy: Words that can merge two sentances together. And if you say it really fast, it sounds like it's a Russian name.

And
but
or
for
nor
yet
so

Don't forget commas before, and if needed, after it.



However, nevertheless, furthermore, therefore -- coordinating conjuctions (conjuctive adverbs). When added to the end of a sentance to combine two of them (instead of the Russian guy words) make sure you add a semicolon, as these words are contagious and need to be contained to only one sentance.



((Eh, so it's short, but have fun with it.))

[Lali]

Hyperbole is over-exaggeration. It has a slight relationship to similes and metaphors, but not like that. A simile is a comparison, usually identifiable by the presence of "like" or "as".

Simile: His room was as messy as a pigsty.

A metaphor is also a comparison, but this time one thing is claimed to actually be another, rather than just being like it.

Metaphor: His room was a pigsty!

Hyperbole, on the other hand, is simply exaggerating a situation and going a bit over the top in description.

Hyperbole: His room was so messy that it would have needed knocked down and rebuilt to even be clean enough for pigs.

~*~

I drive bad.
Bad is adjective, not adverb
Bad is describing drive.

Actually, that's wrong. "Bad" is indeed an adjective, but adjectives are used to describe nouns - people, places, and things. So you can have a "bad" picture, or a "bad" person, or anything like that. But you can't "drive bad".

Adverbs are used to describe verbs - actions. So here, since you're describing how you do something, you would need to use the adverb, which in this case is "badly".

It's a common mistake, but it is wrong.

~*~

--ing at the end of a verb is either a noun or an adverb, subject

You've confused me a bit here.

A verb that ends in "ing" is most usually a present participle - like: doing, running, being - which just means that the action is taking place at the time being talked about.

Occasionally you can have nouns formed from this - like: a gathering.

But adverbs (describing how an action is done) usually end with "ly" rather than "ing". For example: "quickly", "badly".

So that doesn't seem right to me either.

~*~

The subject should do the predict. It makes it a good active voice.

The subject of a verb is the person who performs the action. The object is the person/thing the action is performed on. (Yeah, I know how that sounds. ;D)

For example: The dog bit the bone.

The dog is the subject.
The bone is the object.
Bit is the verb.

That's active voice.

If, however, you had passive voice, the rules change slightly.

For example: The bone was bitten by the dog.

Now the bone is the subject - because it's what the sentence is about.

There's nothing wrong with using passive voice, but it does create an impression that the person/thing being talked about is utterly powerless. Active voice is much better for characters in a Roleplay. (Unless, for example, they've been kidnapped and tied up and are being carted along helplessly... In which case passive voice might be just what you're looking for. )

~*~

Why avoid "to be" verbs? They're very useful, and frequently the only grammatically correct things you can put in.

~*~

Variation with all things is better than constant repetition, but sometimes the simpler verbs work better, and it does no harm to use them every now and again.