English Grammar All-in-One For Dummies

Introduction 1 About This Book 1 Foolish Assumptions 2 Icons Used in This Book 2 Beyond the Book 3 Where to Go from Here 3 Unit 1: Exploring Grammar and Style 5 Chapter 1: Sampling the Ingredients of Grammar and Style 7 What This Year’s Sentence Is Wearing: Understanding Grammar and Style 8 Getting to Know the Elements of Grammar and Style 9 Parts of speech 10 Parts of a sentence 11 Small but important: Punctuating, capitalizing, and spelling 15 Recognizing Your Grammar Profile 18 Chapter 2: Adapting Language to Every Situation 21 Grasping the Power and Limits of Standard English 21 Adjusting Language to Suit Your Audience 22 Wanna get something to eat? Friendspeak 22 Conversational English 24 Standard English 24 Practice Questions Answers and Explanations 29 Whaddya Know? Chapter 2 Quiz 31 Answers to Chapter 2 Quiz 33 Unit 2: Exploring Parts of Speech 35 Chapter 3: People to See, Places to Go, Things to Remember: Recognizing Nouns 37 Identifying Nouns 38 Naming people with nouns 38 Naming places with nouns 39 Naming things with nouns 40 Naming ideas and emotions with nouns 41 Sorting Out Singular and Plural Nouns 42 Adding the letters S or ES to form plurals 42 Plurals that break the rules 44 Attaching “This,” “These,” and Other Words to Nouns 45 Practice Questions Answers and Explanations 47 Whaddya Know? Chapter 3 Quiz 49 Answers to Chapter 3 Quiz 50 Chapter 4: Meeting the Pronoun Family 51 Working Hard: Pronouns and Their Jobs 51 Replacing nouns 52 Replacing pronouns 53 Doubling back with -self pronouns 53 Creating connections, asking questions 54 Tracing Pronoun Traits 55 Person and number 56 Gender and number 58 Case 59 Practice Questions Answers and Explanations 61 Whaddya Know? Chapter 4 Quiz 63 Answers to Chapter 4 Quiz 64 Chapter 5: Existing and Acting with Verbs 65 Expressing Meaning with Verbs 66 Tense 66 Number 66 Mood 66 Voice 67 Meeting the Families: Linking and Action Verbs 67 Linking verbs: A giant equal sign 68 Forms of “be” 68 Synonyms of “be” 68 Savoring sensory verbs 69 Lights! Camera! Action verb! 70 Pop the Question: Locating the Verb 71 Calling the Help Line for Verbs 73 The big three 73 Timing is everything: Creating a time frame with helping verbs 77 Don’t ask! Questions and negative statements 77 Adding shades of meaning with helping verbs 79 Practice Questions Answers and Explanations 81 Whaddya Know? Chapter 5 Quiz 84 Answers to Chapter 5 Quiz 85 Chapter 6: Two Real Really Good Parts of Speech: Adjectives and Adverbs 87 Clarifying Meaning with Descriptions 88 Adding Adjectives 88 Adjectives describing nouns 89 Adjectives describing pronouns 89 Adjectives attached to linking verbs 90 Pop the question: Identifying adjectives 90 Articles: Not just for magazines 91 Stalking the Common Adverb 93 Pop the question: Finding the adverb 94 Adverbs describing adjectives and other adverbs 95 Choosing Between Adjectives and Adverbs 97 Sorting out “good” and “well” 98 Dealing with “bad” and “badly” 98 Practice Questions Answers and Explanations 100 Whaddya Know? Chapter 6 Quiz 103 Answers to Chapter 6 Quiz 104 Chapter 7: Tiny but Mighty: Prepositions, Conjunctions, and Interjections 105 Proposing Relationships: Prepositions 105 Prepositional phrases 106 Pop the question: Questions that identify the objects of the prepositions 108 Why pay attention to prepositions? 108 Connecting with Conjunctions 110 Improving flow and adding meaning with conjunctions 110 Pairing up conjunctions 112 Interjections Are Easy! 113 Practice Questions Answers and Explanations 114 Whaddya Know? Chapter 7 Quiz 116 Answers to Chapter 7 Quiz 117 Unit 3: Basic Elements of a Sentence 119 Chapter 8: Who’s Doing What? Identifying the Subject-Verb Pair 121 Baring the Bones of a Sentence: The Subject–Verb Pair 121 When One Is Not Enough: Compound Subjects and Verbs 122 Pop the Question: Locating the Subject–Verb Pairs 123 Popping the question for questions 124 Unusual word order 125 Not missing in action: Detecting you-understood 126 Don’t Get Faked Out: Avoiding Fake Verbs and Subjects 128 Verbals 128 “Here” and “there” sentences 129 Practice Questions Answers and Explanations 131 Whaddya Know? Chapter 8 Quiz 133 Answers to Chapter 8 Quiz 134 Chapter 9: Handling Complements 135 Getting a Piece of the Action: Complements for Action Verbs 135 Receiving the action: Direct objects 136 Rare, but sometimes there: Indirect objects 139 No bias here: Objective complements 141 Completing the Equation: Subject Complements 142 Practice Questions Answers and Explanations 146 Whaddya Know? Chapter 9 Quiz 148 Answers to Chapter 9 Quiz 149 Chapter 10: When All Is Said and Done: Complete Sentences 151 Completing Sentences: The Essential Subjects and Verbs 151 Not flying solo: Verb forms ending in –ing 152 Past verb forms that can’t stand alone 153 Do not “be” alone 155 Complete Thoughts, Complete Sentences 157 Reaching the End of the Line: End Marks 159 Connecting Ideas 161 Breaking Away from Sentence Fragments 166 Placing fragments in the right context 166 Steering clear of inappropriate fragments 167 Practice Questions Answers and Explanations 169 Whaddya Know? Chapter 10 Quiz 172 Answers to Chapter 10 Quiz 173 Chapter 11: No Santas but Plenty of Clauses 175 Grasping the Basics of Clause and Effect 175 Sorting Subordinate and Independent Clauses 177 Defining the Three Legal Jobs for Subordinate Clauses 179 Describing nouns and pronouns 179 Describing verbs, adjectives, or adverbs 179 Acting as subjects, objects, or subject complements inside another clause 180 Untangling Subordinate and Independent Clauses 180 Deciding When to Untangle Clauses 182 When you’re picking a pronoun 182 When you’re deciding on the correct verb 182 When you’re figuring out where to put commas 183 Choosing Content for Subordinate Clauses 183 Practice Questions Answers and Explanations 185 Whaddya Know? Chapter 11 Quiz 187 Answers to Chapter 11 Quiz 188 Unit 4: Clearing Up Confusing Grammar Points 189 Chapter 12: Relax! Understanding Verb Tense, Voice, and Mood 191 It’s All in the Timing: Tense 191 Simplifying matters: The simple tenses 191 Using the simple tenses correctly 194 Not picture-perfect: Understanding the perfect tenses 197 Employing the perfect tenses correctly 200 Speaking of the past and things that never change 204 Romeo lives! Writing about literature and art in present tense 206 The rebels: Dealing with irregular verbs 207 Giving Voice to Verbs 210 Getting Your Verbs in the Proper Mood 211 Stating the facts: Indicative 211 Commanding your attention: Imperative 211 Discovering the possibilities: Subjunctive 212 Practice Questions Answers and Explanations 216 Whaddya Know? Chapter 12 Quiz 220 Answers to Chapter 12 Quiz 221 Chapter 13: Agreement: Choosing Singular or Plural Verbs and Pronouns 223 Agreeing Not to Disagree 223 Making Subjects and Verbs Agree: The Basics 224 Matching Subjects and Verbs in Some Tricky Situations 225 Compound subjects 225 Ignoring distracting descriptions 225 Each and every 227 Either and neither, alone or with partners 227 Five puzzling pronouns 229 The ones, the things, and the bodies 230 Agreeing with Relative Pronouns 231 Politics and Other Irregular Subjects 233 Practice Questions Answers and Explanations 235 Whaddya Know? Chapter 13 Quiz 238 Answers to Chapter 13 Quiz 239 Chapter 14: Solving Pronoun Case 241 While We’re on the Subject: Choosing Pronouns to Act as Subjects 241 Taking an Objective Viewpoint: Choosing Pronouns to Act as Objects 244 Dealing with direct and indirect objects 244 Are you talking to I? Prepositions and pronouns 244 Attaching objects to verbals 246 Knowing the Difference Between Who and Whom 247 Attracting Appositives 249 Picking Pronouns for Comparisons 250 Dealing with Pronouns and -ing Nouns 251 Practice Questions Answers and Explanations 253 Whaddya Know? Chapter 14 Quiz 255 Answers to Chapter 14 Quiz 256 Chapter 15: Getting Specific: The Power of Descriptions 257 Creating Comparisons with Adjectives and Adverbs 257 Ending it with -er or giving more to adjectives 258 Creating comparisons with adverbs 260 Breaking the rules: Irregular comparisons 261 Resolving incomplete and illogical comparisons 263 On Location: Placing Descriptions Correctly 268 Troubling singles 268 Misplaced descriptions 270 Just hanging out: Danglers 272 Avoiding confusing descriptions 274 Practice Questions Answers and Explanations 276 Whaddya Know? Chapter 15 Quiz 279 Answers to Chapter 15 Quiz 280 Unit 5: Spelling, Punctuation, and Capitalization 281 Chapter 16: Becoming a Better Speler Speller 283 Following the Rules of English Spelling 283 Changing Y to I 284 I before E 285 Double letters 286 Dropping the silent E 287 Taming Spelling Demons 288 How does the word end? 289 One or two? 290 Which vowel? 290 Checking the Dictionary for Spelling Help 291 Practice Questions Answers and Explanations 293 Whaddya Know? Chapter 16 Quiz 295 Answers to Chapter 16 Quiz 296 Chapter 17: Little Hooks, Big Problems: Apostrophes 297 The Pen of My Aunt or My Aunt’s Pen? Using Apostrophes to Show Possession 298 Ownership for singles 299 Sharing the wealth: Plural possessives 299 A few special possessions 302 Shortened Words for Busy People: Contractions 304 Making short work of common contractions 305 You coulda made a contraction mistake 306 Managing Tricky Contraction/Pronoun Pairs 307 Its/it’s 308 Whose/who’s 308 Your/you’re 308 Their/there/they’re 308 Practice Questions Answers and Explanations 310 Whaddya Know? Chapter 17 Quiz 312 Answers to Chapter 17 Quiz 313 Chapter 18: Quotations: More Rules Than the Strictest Teacher 315 And I Quote 316 Punctuating Quotations 318 Quotations with speaker tags 318 Quotations without speaker tags 321 Quotations with question marks 323 Quotations with exclamation points 324 Quotations with semicolons 325 Quotations inside quotations 326 Germ-Free Quotations: Using Sanitizing Quotation Marks 327 Punctuating Titles: When to Use Quotation Marks 328 Practice Questions Answers and Explanations 331 Whaddya Know? Chapter 18 Quiz 333 Answers to Chapter 18 Quiz 334 Chapter 19: The Pause That Refreshes: Commas 337 Distinguishing Items: Commas in Series 338 Using “Comma Sense” to Add Information to Your Sentence 340 List of descriptions 341 Essential or extra? Commas tell the tale 342 Commas with appositive influence 344 You Talkin’ to Me? Direct Address 345 Using Commas in Addresses and Dates 346 Addressing addresses 346 Punctuating dates 347 Getting Started: The Introductory Comma 349 Words not connected to the meaning of the sentence 349 Phrases and clauses 350 Punctuating Independently 350 Practice Questions Answers and Explanations 352 Whaddya Know? Chapter 19 Quiz 354 Answers to Chapter 19 Quiz 355 Chapter 20: Useful Little Marks: Dashes, Hyphens, and Colons 357 Inserting Information with Dashes 357 Long dashes 358 Short dashes 358 H-y-p-h-e-n-a-t-i-n-g Made Easy 360 Understanding the great divide 360 Using hyphens for compound words 360 Placing hyphens in numbers 361 Utilizing the well-placed hyphen 361 Creating a Stopping Point: Colons 362 Addressing a business letter or an email 363 Introducing lists 363 Introducing long quotations 364 Practice Questions Answers and Explanations 367 Whaddya Know? Chapter 20 Quiz 369 Answers to Chapter 20 Quiz 370 Chapter 21: Capital Letters 373 Knowing What’s Up with Uppercase 373 Capitalizing (or Not) References to People 374 Sorting out job titles 374 Writing about family relationships 375 Tackling race and ethnicity 376 Capitalizing Geography: Directions and Places 377 Marking Seasons and Other Times 378 Capitalizing Work and School Terms 379 Capitalizing Titles 380 Headline style 380 Sentence style 382 ?4U: Cn U AbbreV8? 383 Practice Questions Answers and Explanations 385 Whaddya Know? Chapter 21 Quiz 388 Answers to Chapter 21 Quiz 389 Unit 6: Developing Style 391 Chapter 22: Adding Meaning with Well-Chosen Words 393 Going Vivid with Verbs 393 “There is” a problem with boring verbs 393 Does your writing “have” a problem? 394 Don’t just “say” and “walk” away 395 Pinpointing Meaning with Nouns and Descriptions 397 Saving Time: Cutting Unnecessary Words 400 Repetition 400 Wordiness 400 Practice Questions Answers and Explanations 403 Whaddya Know? Chapter 22 Quiz 405 Answers to Chapter 22 Quiz 407 Chapter 23: Grammar Gremlins 409 Deleting Double Negatives 409 Sounding Incorrect 412 Scoring D minus 412 Three terrible twos 413 You gotta problem with grammar? 413 Almost twins 414 Pairs of Trouble: Complicated Verbs 417 Sit/set 417 Hanged/hung 417 Rise/raise 418 Lie/lay 418 Lose/loose 419 One Word or Two? 420 Three for the Road: Other Common Errors 422 Between/among 422 Being that 422 Try and/try to 423 Practice Questions Answers and Explanations 424 Whaddya Know? Chapter 23 Quiz 426 Answers to Chapter 23 Quiz 427 Chapter 24: Writing Stylish Sentences 429 Speaking Verbally 429 Identifying verbals 430 Choosing the correct tense 432 Sprucing Up Boring Sentences with Clauses and Verbals 434 Clauses 435 Verbals 436 Mixing It Up: Changing Sentence Patterns and Length 437 Patterns 437 Going long or cutting it short 440 Practice Questions Answers and Explanations 442 Whaddya Know? Chapter 24 Quiz 445 Answers to Chapter 24 Quiz 447 Unit 7: Grammar in Action 449 Chapter 25: Adapting Your Style to Electronic Media 451 Hitting the Screen with Formal or Informal Language 452 Communicating Clearly in Texts, Tweets, and Posts 454 Dropping words 454 Dropping punctuation and capital letters 456 Abbreviating 457 Emailing Your Way to Good Grammar 458 The heading 459 The greeting 459 The body 460 The closing 460 PowerPoint to the People 461 Surveying presentation slides 462 Writing titles 462 Biting the bulleted list 464 Autocorrect and Other Error Magnets 469 Practice Questions Answers and Explanations 470 Whaddya Know? Chapter 25 Quiz 472 Answers to Chapter 25 Quiz 474 Chapter 26: Writing at School and on the Job 475 A Is for Accomplished: Writing at School 475 Essays and research papers 476 Science reports 480 Get to Work: Writing on the Job 483 Letters 483 Memos 486 Practice Questions Answers and Explanations 488 Whaddya Know? Chapter 26 Quiz 490 Answers to Chapter 26 Quiz 491 Index 493