Lavengro Books Pearls are concentrated units of concise information. Each Pearl contains a point about the English language in a short form (average about 75 words) that is easy to assimilate and remember. The Pearls contrast with and complement the detailed descriptions contained in A Guide to English Language Usage. There's always a place for a large, detailed reference book that covers everything you might possibly want to know about the English language. But there's a place too for a small book that presents the basic points in a way that is short, simple and easy to remember. That is how Peter Harvey's Pearls of the English Language differs from his A Guide to English Language Usage. Each of its short articles covers a specific point in a way that is intended to be striking and easy to remember. The book is deliberately made to be small, light and affordable. How to write dates, when to double consonants, how to use 'have', verb tenses and forms, the use of capital letters, irregular plurals, the English names of chess pieces, 'any-' forms, rise and raise - these and many more tricky points of language usage are presented concisely and accurately. Pearls of the English Language cannot include all the details and exceptions and it is not intended to do so. What it does, and does well, is give enough facts to jog a memory that can't always remember all the basic information. It would also make an excellent last-minute revision tool before an exam, when basic knowledge has to be crammed into the memory. The Pearls contrast with and complement the detailed descriptions contained in A Guide to English Language Usage, also by Peter Harvey.