I welcome any and all corrections to my grammar. If you are not a Patreon member, you can always email me at author@sheilastrine.com to kindly let me know of any solecisms I have committed. However I have been surprised by criticisms which were incorrect.
The word its is used for ownership. It is like theirs, yours and ours; these are possessive pronouns which do not have apostrophes for ownership.
They are homophones, being words with different spelling which sound the same.
I will add to this list if any more misunderstandings arise.
Australians use toward and towards in different circumstances. Americans tend to use toward at all times.
In Aussie Guards stories, towards is a preposition in an adverbial phrase and toward is a preposition in an adjectival phrase.
Where the focus of the sentence is on the action of the verb, then any description of the verb is adverbial.
She drove away towards the gate. [It doesn’t really matter that it was towards the gate, the main issue is that she drove away. The sentence would be complete without the phrase towards the gate.]
The difficulty is that sometimes a verb is transitive, that is, it is an action directed at a specific object. It is considered incomplete until it has an object to complete its meaning. In that case, the object is adjectival rather than adverbial.
Katie drove her van toward the gate. [The author is treating the verb drove as incomplete on its own. Drove? Drove where?]
He led her toward the driveway.
He stepped toward her.
Adverb modifying a verb.
The bush lurched backwards and forwards.
Adjective qualifying a noun phrase.
From this day forward.
She is a forward girl.
Forward base.
He was in a forward position.
From that time forward, he always remembered.
Something is in forward motion.
Some people think that if forward completes the meaning of a verb, it is an adverb. However when forward forms part of the object of a transitive verb, it is not describing the verb; instead, the verb is leading towards it.
He was looking forward to proving himself.
Sam bent forward and glared.
He couldn't see any way forward.
Take a step forward.
You're being a bit forward.
In the following example, ushered is a transitive verb. Sam didn’t just usher Quinn, he did the type of ushering which had to have a direction. This means ushered is considered incomplete until it has an object to complete its meaning. A word which is a complement to a verb is an adjective – a predicate adjective, also called an adjective complement.
This can lead to both words being used in the same paragraph:
Sam ushered Quinn forward with a courtly gesture. Quinn walked forwards. [Sam was just trying to get Quinn to move. Once she walked, the verb was complete. In this example, forwards is an adverb as it describes the verb rather than completing it.]
Of course, sometimes the word is neither an adjective or an adverb. In the following examples, forward is a verb:
Please forward that email to me.
Forward that call.
The same holds true for