Ring is an irregular verb used to describe the act of making something (e.g., a bell) produce a ringing sound or the act of making a call on a phone (e.g., “Steph said she would ring her friends tomorrow”). The simple past of ring is “rang,” and the past participle, used to form perfect tenses and the passive voice, is “rung.”
Ring is also a verb with a different meaning, used to describe encircling something (e.g., “to ring a bird’s leg”). This meaning of the verb has a different past tense and past participle: “ringed.”
Beat is an irregular verb, so its past participle and simple past forms are different from each other.
Beat is the simple past form of “beat.” It’s exactly the same as the simple present tense form. The simple past is used when describing an event or action that took place in the past.
Beaten is the past participle of the verb. Past participles are used to make the passive voice and perfect tenses.
Examples: Beat in a sentence
Examples: Beaten in a sentence
Emily beat her sister at tennis.
The school team has beaten every team they have played.
I know you beat me last time, but this time is different!
Few can be a noun, determiner, indefinite pronoun, or adjective meaning “not many.” It is used when we want to talk about the quantity of countable nouns without being specific about their number (e.g., “few people”).
There is no specific number that few refers to, and in fact the actual number can vary significantly; “few people in the US” will probably be a larger number than “few members of my class.”
Few in a sentence examplesVery few people know what it’s like to walk on the moon.
A few of my classmates meet up every year for a reunion.
There are few pleasures better in life than the smell of fresh-mown grass.
We have a few tips for your trip to Lisbon.
NoteAlthough it is used widely in everyday writing and speech, in academic writing it is likely that few will be too imprecise.
Side effects were reported by few of those in the experimental group.
Side effects were reported by three of those in the experimental group.
In these instances, it’s best to rewrite your sentence to ensure your meaning is clear.
As well as is a common phrase that means “in addition to.” It functions as either a preposition or a conjunction and is used to join two parts of a sentence together. Typically, as well as adds emphasis to the part of the sentence that precedes it. Some synonyms for as well as are “plus,” “besides,” and “along with.”
As well as exampleDieting for weight loss requires planning as well as self-discipline.
As well as being beautiful to look at, the guitar played like a dream.
The manifesto went into the proposed tax changes, as well as explaining how they would be paid for.
The placebo effect refers to a phenomenon whereby patients experience an improvement in their physical ailment after taking a non-treatment, called a placebo.
The treatment contains no active ingredients, meaning that any improvement experienced by the patient is caused by their expectation or belief that the “treatment” is doing them some good.
Placebo effect exampleAs a life-long sufferer from back pain, you are invited to take part in a double-blind trial of a new treatment. It is a preventative treatment, and you take one pill three times per day, as instructed, and record your pain levels in a journal. At the end of the month-long trial, your journal shows that the medication appears to be having a positive effect, as there is a clear improvement in the levels of chronic pain.
When you report your findings to the researchers, you (and they) discover that your treatment was, in fact, nothing more than a sugar pill rather than the new drug. The improvement you perceived was due to the placebo effect.
In double-blind medical trials, where the experimental design includes both control and treatment groups, the placebo effect is often seen in the control group.
Bear with me is a way of asking someone to be patient with you. It can stand on its own, if the reason for patience is already known. More typically it will be followed by a subordinating conjunction (e.g., “while” or “as”) introducing the reason you are asking for patience.
Bear with me in a sentence exampleBear with me; I’m just dealing with a customer.
I see the problem with your account; can you bear with me while I see if I can fix it?
We have had hundreds of applications, so please bear with us as we work through them.
Eponymous is an adjective that describes a thing or person (e.g., a creator, inventor, discoverer, or founder) after which something is named. It can also describe the actual thing that has been named after that something or someone.
In the literary world, works that are named after their main character or protagonist can be described as eponymous (e.g., Huckleberry Finn).
Eponymous in a sentence examplesSilas Marner is the eponymous hero of George Eliot’s brooding masterpiece.
In light of Bob Dylan’s renown as a songwriter, it is interesting that his eponymous first album included only one original composition.
The Elizabethan era in English history coincides with the reign of the eponymous Queen Elizabeth I.
The Doppler effect is named after the eponymous physicist who first explained it, Charles Doppler.
Ad nauseam is an adverb that comes from Latin and means “to the point of sickness/nausea.”
Usually, ad nauseam is used as a hyperbole; typically, it is used to say that something is repeated or carries on to an excessive degree, but not actually to the point of sickness or nausea.
Ad nauseam in a sentence examplesBy the end of the election campaign, the same issues had been debated ad nauseam by both sides.
My toddler can sing the same song ad nauseam without appearing to tire.
The teacher went on ad nauseam about the importance of revision and good study habits.
NoteAlthough ad nauseam is a loanword, it has been used in English for so long that it is not necessary to use italics when writing it. This also applies to other Latin words and phrases, like mea culpa or vice versa.
Verbiage is a noun which describes the tendency to use more words than necessary or overly technical words. Usually, it is used with negative connotations.
Recency bias is the tendency of recent events to receive more weight in our thinking when we make decisions about a future course of action. Because they are recent, some events loom large in our consciousness as we consider likely future outcomes.
Recency bias exampleRecency bias can be seen in people’s attitude to flying. Although airplanes remain one of the safest forms of transport, news reports of an air disaster can affect people’s willingness to fly, or how anxious they are when flying.
The recency of the event makes flying seem less safe.
Our brains are more likely to recall recent events than past ones, and these can override our ability to analyze clearly.
