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Part 1 of the answer is simple: almost every word that begins with a consonant (e.g., cat, dog, monkey, giraffe, hamburgers) requires the indefinite article “a.”

The exception to this rule is a word like “honest,” in which the consonant “h” is silent. In that case, it requires “an”: an honest man, an hour from now, etc. (However, for other “h” words in which the “h” is not silent, we use “a”: a hungry hippo, a hot potato, a hero, etc.)

Part 2 of the answer details with vowels:

Therefore, jackerbie, the correct answer to your question would be “a university.”

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That basically answers what a semicolon does. If you are studying for the SAT exam, you definitely need to master the semicolon; it appears frequently. (See what we did there?)

The comma, on the other hand, is much more complicated. Luckily, an excellent piece from the New York Times delves into the misunderstood punctuation that is the comma.

If you have additional questions, feel free to tweet us @The_YUNiversity. Cheers.

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The short answer is that momentarily can mean either “lasting for a moment” or “in a moment.”

Momentarily originally meant “lasting for a moment,” as in “He paused momentarily before answering the question.” But since the 1920s, it has also been used to mean “in a moment,” e.g., “Jane told us that she will be arriving momentarily.”

Here are some more examples:

This post will end momentarily.

For the sake of thoroughness, let’s cover all the different verb tenses of sing.

Sung is the past participle form of “sing.” It usually follows “have,” “has,” or “had.”

However, sung by itself can follow “is,” “was,” and “were”:

• “No Surprises” was sung by Radiohead.
• The chorus was sung in front of a live studio audience.
• “God Bless America” is sometimes sung instead of “The Star-Spangled Banner” at sporting events.

(NOTE: Those three examples are all in the passive voice.)

There you have it. We hope this makes sing, sang, sung, and even singed clearer than when you began reading this post five minutes ago.

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Interesting question!

Let’s first look at the different ways in which “return” can be used:

There’s also one more, as in “to strike back”:

• “Nadal returned Ferrer’s serve for a winner.”
• “She returned his weak insult with a witty remark that completely embarrassed him.”

From the above, “come back” can be used interchangeably with “return” in only #2 and #3:

• “She came back to her homeland.”
• “She came back from her trip to her homeland.”

However, there are cases when “return” cannot be used interchangeably with “come back”:

CLOSING POINTS:

• Notice that all of the above examples involving “come back” involve idioms.
• Also, this post covers “return” and “come back” as verbs, not as nouns. (They can also be nouns. Consult a dictionary to see what they mean as nouns.)