Grammar workbook 3

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Contents at a Glance Introduction.................................................................................1 Part I: Laying Out the Concrete Slab: Grammar Basics....................7 Chapter 1: Placing the Proper Verb in the Proper Place .........................................................................9 Chapter 2: Matchmaker, Make Me a Match: Pairing Subjects and Verbs Correctly...........................23 Chapter 3: Who Is She, and What Is It? The Lowdown on Pronouns...................................................35 Chapter 4: Finishing What You Start: Writing Complete Sentences.....................................................49 Part II: Mastering Mechanics ......................................................65 Chapter 5: Exercising Comma Sense........................................................................................................67 Chapter 6: Made You Look! Punctuation Marks That Demand Attention ...........................................81 Chapter 7: One Small Mark, a Whole New Meaning: Apostrophes ......................................................91 Chapter 8: “Let Me Speak!“ Quotation Marks .......................................................................................101 Chapter 9: Hitting the Big Time: Capital Letters ..................................................................................113 Part III: The Pickier Points of Correct Verb and Pronoun Use .......125 Chapter 10: The Case of It (And Other Pronouns) ...............................................................................127 Chapter 11: Choosing the Best Pronoun for a Tricky Sentence .........................................................141 Chapter 12: Traveling in Time: Tricky Verb-Tense Situations.............................................................155 Chapter 13: Are You and Your Verbs in the Right Mood?....................................................................167 Part IV: All You Need to Know about Descriptions and Comparisons ......................................................................177 Chapter 14: Writing Good or Well: Adjectives and Adverbs ...............................................................179 Chapter 15: Going on Location: Placing Descriptions Correctly........................................................189 Chapter 16: For Better or Worse: Forming Comparisons ....................................................................205 Chapter 17: Apples and Oranges: Improper Comparisons .................................................................215 Part V: Writing with Style.........................................................227 Chapter 18: Practicing Parallel Structure..............................................................................................229 Chapter 19: Spicing Up and Trimming Down Your Sentences ............................................................243 Chapter 20: Steering Clear of Tricky Word Traps.................................................................................255 Part VI: The Part of Tens...........................................................267 Chapter 21: Ten Overcorrections ...........................................................................................................269 Chapter 22: Ten Errors to Avoid at All Cost..........................................................................................273 Appendix: Grabbing Grammar Goofs ..........................................277 Index.......................................................................................293
Table of Contents Introduction .................................................................................1 About This Book.........................................................................................................................1 Conventions Used in This Book ...............................................................................................2 What You’re Not to Read...........................................................................................................2 Foolish Assumptions .................................................................................................................2 How This Book Is Organized.....................................................................................................3 Part I: Laying Out the Concrete Slab: Grammar Basics ...............................................3 Part II: Mastering Mechanics ..........................................................................................3 Part III: The Pickier Points of Correct Verb and Pronoun Use ....................................4 Part IV: All You Need to Know about Descriptions and Comparisons ......................4 Part V: Writing with Style ................................................................................................4 Part VI: The Part of Tens .................................................................................................4 Icons Used in This Book............................................................................................................4 Where to Go from Here..............................................................................................................5 Part I: Laying Out the Concrete Slab: Grammar Basics ....................7 Chapter 1: Placing the Proper Verb in the Proper Place .................................................9 Choosing among Past, Present, and Future ............................................................................9 Shining a Light on Not-So-Perfect Tenses .............................................................................11 Navigating among Irregular Forms ........................................................................................12 Mastering the Two Most Common Irregulars: Be and Have ...............................................13 Getting By with a Little Help from Some Other Verbs .........................................................15 Calling All Overachievers: Extra Practice with Verbs..........................................................16 Answers to Problems on Verbs and Verb Tenses ................................................................17 Chapter 2: Matchmaker, Make Me a Match: Pairing Subjects and Verbs Correctly..............................................................................................................23 When One Just Isn’t Enough: Plural Nouns ..........................................................................23 Isn’t Love Groovy? Pairing Subjects and Verbs....................................................................24 Taming the Brats: Difficult Subjects to Match with Verbs ..................................................26 Calling All Overachievers: Extra Practice with Hitching Subjects and Verbs ..................29 Answers to Subject and Verb Pairing Problems...................................................................30 Chapter 3: Who Is She, and What Is It? The Lowdown on Pronouns..........................35 Separating Singular and Plural Pronouns .............................................................................35 Taking Possession of the Right Pronoun...............................................................................37 It’s All in the Details: Possessives versus Contractions......................................................38 Avoiding Double Meanings .....................................................................................................40 Calling All Overachievers: Extra Practice with Basic Pronouns ........................................42 Answers to Pronoun Problems...............................................................................................43 Chapter 4: Finishing What You Start: Writing Complete Sentences ...........................49 Seeking Out the Subject/Verb Pair .........................................................................................50 Checking for Complete Thoughts ..........................................................................................51 Going for Flow: Joining Sentences Correctly ........................................................................52 Finishing with Flair: Choosing Endmarks..............................................................................55
xii English Grammar Workbook For Dummies Complete or Incomplete? That Is the Question ...................................................................56 Calling All Overachievers: Extra Practice with Complete Sentences ................................58 Answers to Complete Sentence Problems ............................................................................59 Part II: Mastering Mechanics.......................................................65 Chapter 5: Exercising Comma Sense ................................................................................67 Making a List and Checking It Twice .....................................................................................67 You Talkin’ to Me? Direct Address .........................................................................................69 Dating and Addressing ............................................................................................................70 Introducing (and Interrupting) with the Comma .................................................................71 Setting Off Descriptions ..........................................................................................................73 Calling All Overachievers: Extra Practice with Commas ....................................................75 Answers to Comma Problems ................................................................................................76 Chapter 6: Made You Look! Punctuation Marks That Demand Attention ..................81 Connectors and Dividers: Hyphens .......................................................................................81 Just Dashing Through..............................................................................................................82 Sorting Out Semicolons...........................................................................................................84 Placing Colons ..........................................................................................................................85 Calling All Overachievers: Extra Practice with Hyphens, Dashes, Colons, and Semicolons ............................................................................................................................85 Answers to Punctuation Problems ........................................................................................87 Chapter 7: One Small Mark, a Whole New Meaning: Apostrophes............................91 Putting Words on a Diet: Contractions..................................................................................91 Taking Possession ....................................................................................................................93 Calling All Overachievers: Extra Practice with Apostrophes .............................................95 Answers to Apostrophe Problems .........................................................................................96 Chapter 8: “Let Me Speak!“ Quotation Marks ..............................................................101 Lending Written Words a Voice: Punctuating Direct Quotations .....................................101 Embedding One Quotation inside Another.........................................................................103 Punctuating Titles ..................................................................................................................105 Calling All Overachievers: Extra Practice with Quotation Marks ....................................106 Answers to Quotation Problems ..........................................................................................108 Chapter 9: Hitting the Big Time: Capital Letters............................................................113 Bowing to Convention and Etiquette: People’s Names and Titles...................................113 Entering the Worlds of Business and Academia ................................................................115 Capitalizing Titles of Literary and Media Works ................................................................116 Placing Geographical Capitals..............................................................................................117 AM or p.m.? Capitalizing Abbreviations..............................................................................118 Calling All Overachievers: Extra Practice with Capital Letters........................................120 Answers to Capitalization Problems ...................................................................................121 Part III: The Pickier Points of Correct Verb and Pronoun Use ........125 Chapter 10: The Case of It (And Other Pronouns)..........................................................127 Meeting the Subject at Hand and the Object of My Affection ..........................................127 To “Who” or To “Whom”? That Is the Question.................................................................129
xiii Table of Contents Linking Up with Pronouns in “To Be” Sentences ...............................................................130 You Talkin’ to Me, or I? Pronouns as Objects of Prepositions..........................................131 Matching Possessive Pronouns to “-ing” Nouns ................................................................132 Calling All Overachievers: Extra Practice with Pronoun Case .........................................133 Answers to Pronoun Case Problems ...................................................................................135 Chapter 11: Choosing the Best Pronoun for a Tricky Sentence .................................141 Nodding in Agreement: Pronouns and Possessives Come Head to Head.......................141 Working for the Man: Pronouns for Companies and Organizations ................................143 Decoding Who, That, and Which .........................................................................................144 Getting Down to Specifics: Avoiding Improper Pronoun References ..............................146 Calling All Overachievers: Extra Practice with Tricky Pronoun Situations....................149 Answers to Advanced Pronoun Problems ..........................................................................150 Chapter 12: Traveling in Time: Tricky Verb-Tense Situations .....................................155 Telling Tales of the Past ........................................................................................................155 The Unchanging Universe: When You’re Stuck in the Present.........................................157 Tackling the Timeline: Verbals to the Rescue.....................................................................158 Calling All Overachievers: Extra Practice with Verb Tenses ............................................159 Answers to Advanced Verb Tense Problems......................................................................161 Chapter 13: Are You and Your Verbs in the Right Mood?.............................................167 Stating the Obvious: Indicative Mood .................................................................................167 Taking Command: Imperative Mood....................................................................................168 Telling Lies or Being Passive: Subjunctive Mood...............................................................169 Calling All Overachievers: Extra Practice with Moody Verbs ..........................................171 Answers to Verb Mood Problems ........................................................................................172 Part IV: All You Need to Know about Descriptions and Comparisons.......................................................................177 Chapter 14: Writing Good or Well: Adjectives and Adverbs.......................................179 Distinguishing between Adjectives and Adverbs ..............................................................179 How’s It Going? Choosing between Good/Well and Bad/Badly ........................................181 Mastering the Art of Articles ................................................................................................182 Calling All Overachievers: Extra Practice with Descriptors.............................................183 Answers to Adjective and Adverb Problems......................................................................184 Chapter 15: Going on Location: Placing Descriptions Correctly ...............................189 Little Words Mean a Lot: Situating “Even,” “Only,” and Similar Words ...........................189 It Must Be Here Somewhere! Misplaced Descriptions.......................................................192 Hanging Off a Cliff: Dangling Descriptions ..........................................................................194 Dazed and Confused: Vague Descriptions ..........................................................................196 Calling All Overachievers: Extra Practice Placing Descriptions ......................................198 Answers to Description Placement Problems ....................................................................199 Chapter 16: For Better or Worse: Forming Comparisons .............................................205 Visiting the -ER (And the -EST): Creating Comparisons ....................................................205 Going from Bad to Worse (And Good to Better): Irregular Comparisons.......................207 Words That Are Incomparable (Like You!)..........................................................................208 Calling All Overachievers: Extra Practice with Bad Comparisons ..................................210 Answers to Comparison Problems ......................................................................................211
xiv English Grammar Workbook For Dummies Chapter 17: Apples and Oranges: Improper Comparisons ..........................................215 No One Likes to Feel Incomplete, and Neither Do Comparisons.....................................215 Being Smarter than Yourself: Illogical Comparisons .........................................................217 Double Trouble: A Sentence Containing More than One Comparison ............................219 Calling All Overachievers: Extra Practice with Improper Comparisons .........................221 Answers to Complicated Comparison Problems ...............................................................222 Part V: Writing with Style .........................................................227 Chapter 18: Practicing Parallel Structure......................................................................229 Geometry Invades English: Parallelism Basics...................................................................229 Avoiding Unnecessary Shifts in Tense, Person, and Voice ...............................................231 Matchmaking 101: Either/Or, Not Only/But Also, and Similar Pairs................................234 Calling All Overachievers: Extra Practice with Parallels ..................................................236 Answers to Parallelism Problems ........................................................................................237 Chapter 19: Spicing Up and Trimming Down Your Sentences ...................................243 Beginning with a Bang: Adding Introductory Elements ....................................................243 Smoothing Out Choppy Sentences ......................................................................................245 Awkward but Interesting: Reversed Sentence Patterns ....................................................247 Shedding and Eliminating Redundancy...............................................................................248 Calling All Overachievers: Extra Practice Honing Your Sentences..................................250 Answers to Sentence Improvement Problems ...................................................................251 Chapter 20: Steering Clear of Tricky Word Traps..........................................................255 Separating Almost-Twins: Commonly Confused Words ....................................................255 Comparing Quantities without Numbers ............................................................................257 Sorry to Bust Your Bubble, but Some Common Expressions Are Wrong .......................258 Verbs That Will Give You a Headache .................................................................................260 Combining Rightfully Independent Words..........................................................................261 Calling All Overachievers: Extra Practice with Tricky Words ..........................................262 Answers to Tricky Word Problems ......................................................................................263 Part VI: The Part of Tens ...........................................................267 Chapter 21: Ten Overcorrections .....................................................................................269 Substituting “Whom” for “Who”...........................................................................................269 Inserting Unnecessary “Had’s”.............................................................................................269 Throwing in “Have” at Random............................................................................................270 Sending “I” to Do a “Me” Job.................................................................................................270 Speaking or Writing Passively ..............................................................................................270 Making Sentence Structure Too Complicated ....................................................................270 Letting Descriptions Dangle .................................................................................................270 Becoming Allergic to “They” and “Their” ...........................................................................271 Being Semi-Attached to Semicolons ....................................................................................271 Not Knowing When Enough Is Enough................................................................................271 Chapter 22: Ten Errors to Avoid at All Cost ....................................................................273 Writing Incomplete Sentences..............................................................................................273 Letting Sentences Run On and On .......................................................................................273 Forgetting to Capitalize “I”....................................................................................................273