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Welcome to our 17th Grammar Guide! This week we continue our coverage on sentences. The topic for today is Phrases. A phrase is a group of words that adds detail to a sentence but does not have its own subject or verb. Phrases are parts of sentences, but cannot stand on their own. There are five types of phrases: Adjective Phrases - Phrases that give more detail about a noun, and they are usually found right after the word or words they modify. A few guys from my college came over for a barbecue yesterday. Adverb Phrases - Phrases that modify a verb and appear right after it. We will play on the Xbox. Participial Phrases - Phrases using a present participle are formed by adding -ing to a verb, and act as adjectives. Reaching low, Jimmy snagged the ground ball. Infinitive Phrases - Infinitive is "to +verb," and this construction can act as a subject. To bake cake is her big plan. Appositive Phrases - An appositive phrase is a noun (or pronoun) that gives more information about another noun or pronoun. My younger cousin, the really tall boy, is learning how to drive. References: Kern, Jara. (2020). The Infographic Guide to Grammar. Adams Media Venolia, Jan. (2001). Write Right! (4th ed.). Ten Speed Press

I started Gay Authors to put my favorite stories in one place and have a place to chat about them. It just kept growing. Here we are 20 years later (just about) and I'm still here because I continue to see stories like this.

Complement - a word, phrase, or clause that is necessary to complete the meaning of a given expression. Complements help add meaning or a story to the subject and verb of a sentence, for example. There are five types of Complements: Direct Object - The direct object receives the action of the verb and is usually a noun or pronoun. Tip: Ask yourself "Who" or "What" to identify the direct object in a sentence. Billy drank lemonade. (Lemonade is the direct object) Object Complement - An object complement follows and modifies or refers to a direct object. It can be a noun, pronoun, adjective, or phrase. Billy painted his kitchen yellow. (Kitchen is the direct object. Yellow is the object complement) Indirect Object - An indirect object comes between the verb and the direct object and answers the question "to whom?" or "for whom?" Billy passed Joey the lemonade. (Lemonade is the direct object. Joey is the indirect object) Predicate Adjective - A predicate adjective is an adjective that comes after a linking verb to describe the subject, answering the question "what?" Linking verbs are verbs like: to be, feel, remain, taste, stay, etc The juice tasted sweet. (Sweet is the predicate adjective. Tasted is the linking verb) Predicate Nominative - A predicate nominative is a noun or pronoun that also comes after the linking verb, but it renames the subject and answers the question "who?" or "what?" That short man is my cousin. (Cousin is the predicate nominative) References: Kern, Jara. (2020). The Infographic Guide to Grammar. Adams Media Venolia, Jan. (2001). Write Right! (4th ed.). Ten Speed Press

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Thanks @Comicality! The article has been updated to have the images

I strive to have the desire to get things done around the house with the utmost velleity.

This week we discuss the rules of thumb for dealing with Compound Subjects, especially in how they relate to last week's topic on Subject-Verb Agreement. Compound Subjects - Two or more individual nouns or noun phrases connected by "and" , "or", or "nor" to form a single, longer noun phrase. They can cause confusion with the subject-verb agreement. Example: spaghetti and meatballs is a compound subject, but it is also considered a singular unit, and thus gets a singular verb. Some Rules of Thumb for Compound Subjects: Subjects joined by "And" use a plural verb. (except as noted above where the compound subject is considered a singular unit such as: spaghetti and meatballs, macaroni and cheese). Example: Cats and dogs play together. Singular subjects joined by "or" or "nor" use a singular verb. Example: Neither the cat nor the dog likes spiders. Plural subjects joined by "or" or "nor" use a plural verb. Example: Neither the cats nor the dogs like spiders. Verbs agree with the subject closest to them but only if you have one singular and one plural subject. Example: The cat and dog plays with the boy. The cats and dogs play with the boy. Cats and dogs live together. References: Kern, Jara. (2020). The Infographic Guide to Grammar. Adams Media Venolia, Jan. (2001). Write Right! (4th ed.). Ten Speed Press

Status's get changed Automatically in some cases. "Temporary Hold" is one of those cases. If an Author does not post an update to a story for 60 days and then doesn't show up on the site for a day, then the system automatically flags a story as "Temporary Hold" The system will also update a story from Temporary Hold to Long Term hold if an author hasn't updated a story for a year and then doesn't show up on the site for 3 days. There is no automatic setting to move a story back to "In Process". Authors can do this themselves, but it goes it'll flip back again under the above conditions. If authors are posting to stories with statuses that say "Temporary Hold", then they are probably slower at posting stories or rotate a lot of which story they post to.