Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Grammar refresher: compose, comprise; continual, continuous

Compose, comprise. From the University's Style Manual: "The whole comprises the parts; the whole is composed
of its parts. The parts compose the whole and are comprised in it."

Continual, continuous. Also from the Style Manual: "Use continual when
you mean action that is intermittent or repeated at intervals (the continual
reminder of gunfire in the distance). Use continuous when you mean
uninterrupted action in time or unbroken extent in space (a continuous stream
of marchers)."


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