When to Use Pass Time

What does pass time mean? The definition of pass time is to spend time doing
something. For example,
 We were bored, so to pass time we played video games.
 The elevator rap sung by eight University of Southern California offensive
linemen passed the time while they were stuck inside. –Winston Salem
Journal
Another common phrase to pass the time of day is defined as to exchange
greetings or casual remarks.
Under both of these definitions, to pass time functions as a verb, which is
important to remember.
When to Use Past Time

What does past time mean? When

something is past time, it means it should have been done before now. A similar
phrase is the phrase past due.
 It is past time that we go get some pizza.
 It is past time to turn in your report.
 It is long past time for Congress to deliver the money needed to fight a
virus that, if unchecked, could ruin thousands of young lives. –The
Washington Post
In the phrase past time, past is acting as an adjective describing time. You are
saying that it is beyond time that we get some pizza. It is past time.
When to Use Pastime

What does pastime mean? The

definition of pastime is anactivity that someone does regularly for enjoyment
outside of work; a hobby.
 Baseball is America’s pastime.
  His favorite pastimes were hunting and marksmanship.
 The surprise is that Rumsfeld’s game is a test of strategy, based on a
favorite pastime of Winston Churchill. –Time
The word pastime functions as a noun in the sentence, so it’s easy to spot. It will
usually be the subject or direct object of a sentence or inside of a prepositional
phrase.
Also, interestingly enough, pastime is not a truncated version of past time. In fact,
it is a shortened version of pass time, which makes sense once you look at the
definitions of each one of our above phrases.
 Pass time = to spend time doing something.
 Pass + time = pastime.
 Pastime = an activity one spends their time doing.
In other words, pastime comes from pass + time, not from past + time.
Another common mistake is to misspell pastime as pasttime. This is a
misspelling.
 Pastime = correct.
 Pasttime = incorrect.

Remember the Difference

Here’s are a few good tips to remember pastime vs. past time vs. pass time.
First, you can remember this helpful mnemonic.

 You pass time with your pastime.

 It is past time that you do your pastime.
You can also know how to use each spelling by their functions in a sentence.

 Pass time = verb.

 Past time = adjective + noun.
 Pastime = noun.
Summary
Is it pastime or pasttime? The word pastime is sometimes misspelled
as pasttime, but these words are actually unrelated.
 Pass Time means to spend time doing something.
 Past Time means something should have been done already.
 Pastime means an activity or hobby that one does.
What is the Difference Between A and An?
When to Use A

The basic rule for using a in a sentence is

 Use a before words, abbreviations, acronyms, or letters that begin with
a consonant sound, regardless of their spelling.
For example,

 A dog.
 A fish.
 A university.
 A utopia.
When to Use An

An is used before words,

abbreviations, acronyms, or letters that begin with a vowel sound, regardless of
their spelling.
 An idiot.
 An element.
 An honor.
 An heirloom.
The rule only becomes tricky when you have a vowel with a consonant sound or
a consonant with a vowel sound like in our above examples,
  A university (yoo-ne-ver-se-tee).
 A utopia (yoo-toe-pe-a).
 An honor (ah-ner).
Summary
Is it a or an? Both a and an are used as articles in the English sentences, but
their use use differs based on what words follow.
How to Use A and An:
 A is used with consonant sounds.
 An is used with vowel sounds.

If the liquor originated in the United States or Ireland, use whiskey.

If the liquor originated in Scotland, Canada, or Japan, use whisky.
Gage is the spelling of an obsolescent word meaning a pledge, a challenge, etc.
Gauge is the spelling to use when you measure measurement, estimate, or
standard.
Y’all is a contraction of you all.
Ya’ll is a misspelling of y’all.
Is it woah or whoa? There is only one correct spelling of whoa, but there are a
few misspellings.
 Whoa is the correct spelling and dominates popular usage.
 Woah is a common misspelling.
 Whoah is also a misspelling.
Any more (two words) is reserved for the meaning even the smallest amount. In
other words, when used as a determiner, the two-word spelling any more is used.
 I don’t want any more children.
Anymore (one word) is reserved for the meaning any longer. In other words,
when used as an adverb, the one-word spelling anymore is used.
 You’re not a little kid anymore.
I, personally, find this distinction to be quite helpful, and most American writers
and publishing houses observe it.

In British English, it is still quite common to see any more (two words) as an
adverb in print. This is beginning to change, however, as some British writers and
publishing houses opt to observe the distinction between the one-word and two-
word spellings.
Is it any more or anymore? This depends on its function within the sentence. In
American English,

Any more is used as a determiner.

Anymore is used as an adverb.
More fun is accepted; funner is not.
Most fun is accepted; funnest is not.
If you want to be taken seriously as a writer or you are an ESL student learning
the language, do not use funner or funnest or your writing.

Summary
Fun is increasingly being used as an attributive adjective in informal contexts.
If one were doing a piece of formal writing, research paper, resume, cover letter,
dissertation, etc., I would advise the writer to steer clear of fun as an adjective.
Avoid completely the words funner and funnest.

There is one easy trick to determine which of these words is the correct choice
for your sentence. If you substitute who is for either who’s or whose, you can
easily tell which is the correct choice. For example,
 Whose car are we taking?
 Who’s the person in charge here?
If we substitute who is into both of these sentences, we can see which is correct.
 Who is car are we taking?
This sentence doesn’t make any sense when we put in who is, so we
know whose was the correct choice.
 Who is the person in charge here?
This sentence makes perfect sense when we put who is in place of who’s, so we
know that who’s is fine to use.
Is it whose or who’s? That depends on the context of your sentence.

Whose is the possessive form of who and sometimes which.

Who’s is a contraction for either who is or who has.

Is it every thing or everything? There is little, if any, difference in meaning

between the two.

Everything is now the default spelling, but is separated into two words when an
adjective comes in the middle (every single thing).

Is it sometime or some time? It is easy to confuse sometime and some time.

They can both function as adverbs, and even though they are only differentiated
by being spelled as one word or two, they are not interchangeable.
 Sometime means at an unspecified time.
 Some time means quite a while.
You can remember that some time means a while since these phrases both
comprise two separate words.

Should I use smelt or smelled? The largely depends on who your audience is.

When should I use smelled? Smelled is the preferred past tense spelling of to
smell in American English. Smelled is the correct spelling in American English.
When should I use smelt? Smelt is a common past tense spelling of the verb to
smell in British English. Smelt and Smelled are both acceptable spellings in
British English.

The best way to keep track of saw vs. seen is to use the trick I mentioned above.

Saw should never appear with a helping verb in front of it and stands alone.
 I saw you.
 You saw me.
Seen is the exact opposite; it cannot appear without a helping verb and never
stands alone.
 I have seen you.
 You have seen me.
The differences in meaning between these two examples are outlined above.

Summary
Is it saw or seen? While these two verbs forms are sometimes mixed up, they
are pretty easy to keep track of.
Saw is used with the simple past. It can stand alone and doesn’t appear with
helping verbs.
Seen is a past participle and forms the perfect tenses. It cannot stand alone and
must always appear with a helping verb.
Is it freshmen of freshman? One is singular and one is plural.

Freshman is a singular noun. It can also be used as an adjective.

Freshmen is a plural noun. It cannot be used as an adjective.

 When you put a quote inside a quote, you alternate between double and
single quotation marks.
 In American English, you start with double quotation marks, and then
single quotation marks.
  In British English, you start with single quotation marks, and then double
quotation marks.
 Has vs. have. What is the difference? These are two different conjugations
of the same verb to have.
 Has is the third person singular present tense.
 Have is the first and second person singular present and plural tenses and
the third person plural present tense.
 Is it aide or aid? Of course, that depends on the context of your sentence.
 Aid is some form of help or assistance. Military aid, financial aid, disaster
relief aid. It can be a verb and a noun.
 Aide is a helper or assistant, usually to an important person. It is only a
noun.
 Is it bought or brought? What a difference one little letter can make, as
these words have very different meanings.
 Brought is the past tense and past participle of the verb to bring. It has to
do with taking or carrying along with.
 Bought is the past tense and past participle of the verb to buy. It has to do
with purchasing something in an economic sense.
How do you pronounce defense? The traditional pronunciation of defense is
with the stress on the second syllable.
 Defense = di-fen[t]s
As a result of sports commentators, however, it is now common to
hear defense pronounced with the stress on the first syllable in athletic contexts.
 Defense = dee-fen[t]s
 Defence (spelled with a “c”) should be used in British English.
 Defense (spelled with an “s”) should be used in American English.
 Opossums are marsupials living in North America.
 Possums are marsupials living in Australia and its surrounding islands.
 s it lightning or lightening? You can lighten something with bleach, but you
cannot lightning it.
 Lightening is a verb and is the opposite of darkening.
 Lightning is a noun and adjective, and refers to a bolt of light from the sky.
 Is it lost or loss? Both words have to do with losing something, but they are
different parts of speech.
 Loss is a noun and refers to the act of losing.
 Lost is the past tense and past participle of to lose.
Bare as an adjective. As an adjective, bare refers to the lacking of usual or
appropriate covering or clothing. To be bare is to be naked.
 Are you walking around with bare feet?
Bare as a verb. As a verb, bare is defined as to make bare, uncover, reveal, or
expose.
 He bared his chest to show the wound.
 When frightened, the dog bares his teeth.
Bear as a noun. As a noun, a bear is a large, furry mammal. They growl and live
in the woods. This word rarely gets confused or mistaken for bare.
 The bear tried to eat the food from our camp.
Bear as a verb. The verbal form of bear is commonly confused with bare. As a
verb, bear has many different meanings,

 Is it bare or bear? These words have very different meanings, so it’s

important to use them correctly in our writing.
 Bear is a noun and a verb. A bear is a large mammal; to bear is to carry.
 Bare is an adjective and a verb and refers to being exposed.

 Is it libel or slander? That depends on the medium of dissemination. Both

of these things qualify as defamation, but each is a specific kind.
 Slander is usually spoken.
 Libel is usually written.

What does slander mean? Slander is oral communications of false and

malicious statements that damage the reputation of another.
 Slander is transitory by nature, which means it exists or lasts only a short
period of time.
 This usually gets equated to verbal speech because, unless they are being
recorded, oral communications only last while the words are being said.

What does libel mean? Libel is the legally indefensible publication or broadcast
of words or images that damage the reputation of another.
Libel is permanent by nature, which means once it is printed, published, or
broadcasted, it exists forever.

Obvious examples of libel would be magazine stories, newspaper articles, books,

etc.

Examples
 This is a libelous piece of journalism.

If this post hasn’t yet made you nauseated, here is a quick summary. Should I
use nauseous or nauseated?

The traditional rule goes like this,

Nauseous is used to describe something that causes nausea.

Nauseated is used when someone is experiencing nausea.
What does nauseous mean? Nauseous is defined as causing nausea;
sickening. In this sense, nauseous is an adjective and something that is
nauseous will cause you to feel sick or experience nausea.
What does nauseated mean? Nauseated is defined as to experience or feel
nausea. In this sense, nauseated is a verband to feel sick is to be nauseated.
Breath refers to the actual air that is either inhaled or exhaled from one’s lungs.
As I mentioned above, it is pronounced as breth (rhymes with death).
Common Phrases That Use Breath
Here are a few common phrases and idioms that use the word breath.
 In the same breath: at, or almost at, the same time.
 Out of breath: breathing with difficultly, gasping for air.
 Under one’s breath: In a muted voice or whisper.
 Save your breath: don’t bother or waste your time.
 A breath of fresh air: a brief moment in the fresh air; a welcomed site.
 Take someone’s breath away: astonish someone with awed respect or
delight.
When to Use Breathe

What does breathe mean? Breathe

(pronounced breeth) is a verb and to breathe is the action of inhaling and
exhaling air using the lungs.
 After the race, I could hardly breathe.
 If you replace this dirty air filter, you will be able to breathe better.
 She breathed on the window and it fogged up.
 Let me preface this by saying that there are few more passionate football
fans than me. I live and breathe by the fate of the New York Jets. –New
York Post
Breathe doesn’t refer to air itself; instead, it refers to the action of inhaling and
exhaling air from one’s lungs.
Breath is also pronounced differently that breath. Breathe is pronounced
as breeth (rhymes with seethe).
Common Phrases That Use Breathe
As with breath, breathe is used in many common English phrases.
 To breathe down someone’s neck: follow close behind or constantly
check up one.
 Breathe easily/freely: relaxed after a period or tension.
 Breathe a sigh of relief: exhale noisily as a sign of relief.
 Breathe one’s last: a euphemism for death.
  Breathe new life: fill with enthusiasm and renewed spirit.
 Is it breathe or breath? The spelling, of course, depends on your sentence.
Do you need a noun or a verb?
 Breath is a noun and refers to the air that it inhaled or exhaling while
breathing.
 Breathe is a verb and is the action of inhaling or exhaling.

Is it grateful or greatful? Grateful is the correct spelling, and greatful should be

universally avoided.
Greatful is a common misspelling for the word grateful.
Grateful is the correct spelling of the words.