Grammar

Raise is a transitive verb, which means that it always has an object (noun) after it.

Raise the blinds and let some light into the room. (The object of raise is blinds.)

Rise is the opposite of raise in that it is an intransitive verb. It stands alone without an object following it.

The sun rises today at 7:02 am.

The verbs are easy to distinguish in their present forms, but it can get confusing with the various tenses. Is it raised or rose? Have raised or have risen?

Here are the principle parts of raise and rise:

Real is often used in place of really, most often in conversational English.

Example 1 (incorrect usage): I am real tired today.

Example 2 (correct usage): I am really tired today.

Although this error is somewhat acceptable in informal conversation, it is actually incorrect and should never be used in writing. The reason that real is incorrect when used this way is simple: Real is an adjective, and as you can see in the first example above, real is incorrectly used as an adverb. In the example, real is describing tired, which is an adjective, so the adverb really is needed to make the sentence correct.

The phrase wait on should be used only when referring to serving someone or something.

Example 1 (correct usage): The server waited on the customers in the restaurant.

This phrase should never mistakenly be used in place of wait for.

Example 2 (incorrect usage): We waited on our guests to arrive.

Example 3 (correct usage): We waited for our guests to arrive.

These two words must be a couple of the trickiest ones in the English language. It seems as if no speakers, and only some writers, know how to use who and whom correctly. In fact, whom doesn’t even exist in some people’s vocabularies, and it appears to be a word that is quickly disappearing from the English language. (more…)