Using A Search Engine to Answer Usage Questions

Video tutorial.

What's better to say? "For example" or "for instance"? "You should" or "You ought to"? Have you ever gotten this kinds of questions from your students? if you have then you know that the answer is somethimes difficult to give. It all depends on what is more commonly used. Here's a quick tip to check what is more commonly used in these cases. You can use a search engine to check the occurence of phases. The higher the number of occurrences, the more commonly used a phase is.

This way of checking is not perfect. Remember that we are not taking into account the context in which the phases are used. Still, the number of occurrences gives you a preatty good idea of how common a phase is compared to another.