Thackeray's use of -ise/-ize verbs in Vanity Fair

In which I list all the instances of this type of verb in Mr. Thackeray's fine work and note certain inconsistencies in the spelling thereof, and do the same for Mr. Darwin and his Origin of Species.

Some random thoughts about -ise and -ize verbs in British English.

As a change from writing grammar exercises for foreign students, I've decided with this post to make a small contribution to the debate on the position of -ise/-ize verbs in Britain. It is rather long and quite detailed, and illustrated with lots of examples.

Inversion in Conditionals

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There's not an awful lot on the Internet or in grammar books on the inversion of conditionals, so I thought I'd take quite a detailed look at it, with plenty of exercises.

This post consists of:

• Four introductory exercises
• The basic principles
• First conditional - exercise
• Second conditional - exercise
• Third conditional - exercise
• Inverting negatives
• Mixed conditionals
• If it wasn't/weren't/hadn't been for ... - exercise
• Bringing it all together - exercise
• Should - advanced point - aspect
• How do we know when we can invert in real tense conditionals?
• Exceptions - should, have and were to have done

Should you find the introductory exercises too difficult, or would prefer to go straight the explanation, you can skip (miss out) the first section.