English grammar for dummies

English Grammar
Far dummies®

O*A
^

&

Parts of Speech
i^ Noun: names a person, place, thing, idea (Lulu, jail, cantaloupe, loyalty, and so on)
W

Pronoun: takes the place of a noun (he, who, I, what, and so on)

u* Verb: expresses action or being (scrambled, was, should win, and so on)
v* Adjective: describes a noun or pronoun (messy, strange, alien, and so on)
A> Adverb: describes a verb, adjective, or other adverb (willingly, woefully, very, and so on)
u* Preposition: relates a noun or a pronoun to another word in the sentence (by, for, from, and so on)
i^ Conjunction: ties two words or groups of words together (and, after, although, and so on)
i > Interjection: expresses strong emotion (yikesi wow! ouch! and so on)

Parts of a Sentence
f

Verb (also called the predicate): expresses the action or state of being

t> Subject: the person or thing being talked about
u* Complement: a word or group of words that completes the meaning of the subject-verb pair
i> Types of complements: direct and indirect objects, subject complement, objective complement

Pronouns Tips
Pronouns that may be used only as subjects or subject complements: I, he, she, we, they, who,
whoever.
Pronouns that may be used only as objects or objective complements: me, him, her, us, them, whom,
whomever.
Common pronouns that may be used as either subjects or objects: you, it, everyone, anyone, no one,
someone, mine, ours, yours, theirs, either, neither, each, everybody, anybody, nobody, somebody,
everything, anything, nothing, something, any, none, some, which, what, that.
Pronouns that show possession: my, mine, your, yours, his, her, hers, its, our, ours, their, theirs, whose.

For Dummies: Bestsellinq Book Series for Beginners


English Grammar
Far ùummtes®
Subject-Verb Agreement Tips
W

Match singular subjects with singular verbs, plural subjects with plural verbs.

i* Amounts of time and money are usually singular (ten dollars is).
v* Either/or and neither/nor: Match the verb to the closest subject (neither the boys nor the girl is).
v0 Either and neither, without their partners orand nor, always take a singular verb (either of the
apples is).
v* All subjects preceded by each and everytake a singular verb.
k* Both, few, several, many are always plural.

Punctuation Tips
u* Endmarks: All sentences need an endmark: a period, question mark, exclamation point, or

ellipsis. Never put two endmarks at the end of the same sentence.
V

Apostrophes: For singular ownership generally add s;for plural ownership generally add s'.

J>

Commas: In direct address use commas to separate the name from the rest of the sentence. In
lists place commas between items in a list, but not before the first item. Before conjunctions,
when combining two complete sentences with a conjunction, place a comma before the conjunction. If you have one subject and two verbs, don't put a comma before the conjunction.

-!£

Verb Tense Tips
u* Simple present tense: tells what is happening now
^

Simple past tense: tells what happened before now

i* Simple future: talks about what has not happened yet
J>

Present perfect tense: expresses an action or state of being in the present that has some
connection with the past

v* Past perfect tense: places an event before another event in the past
W

Future perfect tense: talks about something that has not happened yet in relation to another
event in the future

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English Grammar
FOR

by Géraldine Woods

Wiley Publishing, Inc.


English Grammar For Dummies®
Published by
Wiley Publishing, Inc.
909 Third Avenue
New York, NY 10022
www.wi1ey.com

Copyright © 2001 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana
Published simultaneously in Canada
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means,
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Manufactured in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6
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About the Author
Géraldine Woods' career as a grammarian began in her elementary school,
which in those days was called "grammar school" for very good reason. With
the guidance of a series of nuns carrying long rulers (good for pointing at the
board and slapping unruly students), she learned how to diagram every
conceivable type of sentence. She has been an English teacher for 25 years
and has written 40 books, give or take a few. She loves minor-league baseball,

Chinese food, and the novels of Jane Austen. The mother of a grown son
(Tom, a lawyer), she lives in New York City with Harry (her husband of 30
years) and parakeets Alice and Archie.



Dedication
For my husband and son, the hearts of my life.

Author's Acknowledgments
I offer thanks to my students, whose intelligence and curiosity never fail to
inspire me. I also thank technical editor Tom LaFarge, whose good sense of
humor and knowledge of grammar vastly improved this book. I am grateful to
my project editor Linda Brandon, whose thoughtful comments challenged me
to clarify my explanations and whose encouragement changed many a bad
day into a good one. I appreciate the hard work of copy editors Billie Williams
and Ellen Considine, who constantly reminded me to focus on you, the
reader. I am also grateful to acquisitions editors Joyce Pepple, Roxane Cerda,
and Susan Decker, who encouraged me at every opportunity. I owe a debt of
gratitude to my agent, Carolyn Krupp, who calmed my nerves and answered
my e-mails with unfailing courtesy and valuable assistance. Lastly, I thank my
colleagues in the English Department, whose passion for teaching and love of
our subject make my time at work a pleasure.


Publisher's Acknowledgments
We're proud of this book; please send us your comments through our online registration form
locatedatwww.dummies.com/register.
Some of the people who helped bring this book to market include the following:
Acquisitions, Editorial, and Media

Development
Project Editor Linda Brandon
Acquisitions Editor: Susan Decker
Copy Editors: Ellen Considine, Billie A. Williams
Technical Editor: Thomas LaFarge
5

Editorial Manager: Christine Beck
Editorial Assistant: Jennifer Young
Cover Photos: ©1996 Rob Gage/FPG

Production
P r o j e c t C o o r d i n a t o r : R e g i n a S n y der
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a n d G r a p h i c s : A m y Adriarl) Karl Brandt?

Joyce Haughey, Jill Piscitelli, Betty Schulte,
^rian Torwelle, Julie Trippetti,
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Contents at a Glance
Introduction

/

Part 1: The Parts of Speech and Parts of the Sentence ..... 7
Chapter 1:1 Already Know How to Talk. Why Should I Study Grammar?
Chapter 2: Verbs: The Heart of the Sentence
Chapter 3: Relax! Understanding Verb Tense
Chapter 4: Who's Doing What? How to Find the Subject
Chapter 5: Having It All: The Complete Sentence
Chapter 6: Handling Complements

Part 11: Avoiding Common Errors

9

17
31
45
59
69

.......................5/

Chapter 7: Getting Hitched: Marrying Sentences
Chapter 8: Do You Feel Bad or Badly? The Lowdown
on Adjectives and Adverbs
Chapter 9: Prepositions and Interjections and Articles, Oh My!
Other Parts of Speech
Chapter 10: Everyone Brought Their Homework: Pronoun Errors
Chapter 11: Just Nod Your Head: About Agreement

Ill
119
131

Part HI: Mo Garage, but Plenty of Mechanics

147

Chapter
Chapter
Chapter
Chapter
Chapter

149
163
181
191
203

12: Punctuation Law That Should Be Repealed: Apostrophes
13: Quotations: More Rules Than the Internal Revenue Service
14: The Pause That Refreshes: Commas
15: Adding Information: Semicolons, Dashes, and Colons
16: CAPITAL LETTERS

Part IV: Polishing Without Wax —
The Finer Points of Grammar
Chapter 17: Pronouns and Their Cases
Chapter 18: Fine-tuning Verbs
Chapter 19: Saying What You Want to Say: Descriptive Words and Phrases
Chapter 20: Good, Better, Best: Comparisons
Chapter 21: Parallels Without the Lines

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95

..219
221
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247
255
269

Part V: Rules Even \lour Great-Aunt's
Grammar Teacher Didn't Knotf

283

Chapter
Chapter
Chapter
Chapter

285
297
309
325

22:
23:
24:
25:

The Last Word on Verbs
The Last Word on Pronouns
The Last Word on Sentence Structure
The Last Word on Punctuation

Part VI: The Part of Tens

337

Chapter 26: Ten Ways Two to Improve Your Proofreading
Chapter 27: Ten Ways to Learn Better Grammar

339
343

Index

36 7


Cartoons at a Glance
By Rich lennant

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Cartoon Information:
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Fax: 978-546-7747
E-Mail:
MferM Wfafe We6: www. the5thwave. com



Table of Contents
Introduction

.

About This Book

How to Use This Book
What You Are Not to Read
Foolish Assumptions
How This Book Is Organized
Part I: The Parts of Speech and Parts of the Sentence
Part II: Avoiding Common Errors
Part III: No Garage, but Plenty of Mechanics
Part IV: Polishing Without Wax —
The Finer Points of Grammar
Part V: Rules Even Your Great-Aunt's Grammar Teacher
Didn't Know
Part VI: The Part of Tens
Icons Used in This Book
Where to Go from Here

Part 1: The Parts of Speech and Parts of the Sentence
Chapter 1:1 Already Know How to Talk.
Why Should I Study Grammar?
Living Better with Better Grammar
Deciding Which Grammar to Learn
Distinguishing between the Three Englishes
Wanna get something to eat? Friendspeak
Do you feel like getting a sandwich? Conversational English
Will you accompany me to the dining room? Formal English
Using the Right English at the Right Time
Relying on Computer Grammar Checkers Is Not Enough

Chapter 2: Verbs: The Heart of the Sentence
Linking Verbs: The Giant Equal Sign
Being or linking — what's in a name?

Savoring sensory verbs
Completing Linking Verb Sentences Correctly
Placing the Proper Pronoun in the Proper Place
Lights! Camera! Action Verb!
Getting by with a Little Help from My Verbs
Pop the Question: Locating the Verb
Forget To Be or Not To Be: Infinitives Are Not Verbs

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English Grammar For Dummies

Chapter 3: Relax! Understanding Verb Tense
Simplifying Matters: The Simple Tenses
Present tense
Past tense
Future tense
Using the Tenses Correctly
Present and present progressive
Past and past progressive
Future and future progressive
Perfecting Grammar: The Perfect Tenses
Present perfect and present perfect progressive
Past perfect and past perfect progressive

Future perfect and future perfect progressive
Using Present Perfect Tense Correctly
Forming Present and Past Participles of Regular Verbs
Just to Make Things More Difficult: Irregular Verbs
"To be or not to be" is a complete pain
Irregular past and past participles
Chapter 4: Who's Doing What? How to Find the Subject
Who's Driving the Truck or Why the Subject Is Important
Teaming up: Subject and verb pairs
Compound subjects and verbs: Two for the price of one
Pop the Question: Locating the Subject-Verb Pair
What's a Nice Subject Like You Doing in a Place Like This?:
Unusual Word Order
Find That Subject! Detecting You-Understood
Don't Get Faked Out: Avoiding Fake Verbs and Subjects
Finding fake verbs
Watching out for here and there and other fake subjects
Choosing the correct verb for here and there sentences
Subjects Aren't Just a Singular Sensation:
Forming the Plural of Nouns
Regular plurals
The IES and YS have it
No knifes here: Irregular plurals
The brother-in-law rule: Hyphenated plurals
When the Subject Is a Number
Chapter 5: Having It All: The Complete Sentence
Completing Sentences: The Essential Subjects and Verbs
Complete Thoughts, Complete Sentences
Taking an Incomplete: Fragment Sentences
Oh, Mama, Could This Really Be the End?

Understanding Endmarks

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Table of Contents

Chapter 6: Handling Complements
Getting to the Action: Action Verb Complements
Receiving the action: Direct objects
Rare, but sometimes there: Indirect objects
No bias here: Objective complements
Finishing the Equation: Linking Verb Complements
Pop the Question: Locating the Complement
Pop the Question: Finding the Indirect Object
Pronouns as Objects and Subject Complements

Part 11: Avoiding Common Errors .
Chapter 7: Getting Hitched: Marrying Sentences
Matchmaking: Combining Sentences Legally
Connecting with coordinate conjunctions

Pausing to place commas
Attaching thoughts: Semi-colons
Boss and Employee: Joining Ideas of Unequal Ranks
Choosing subordinate conjunctions
Steering clear of fragments
Employing Pronouns to Combine Sentences
Chapter 8: Do You Feel Bad or Badly? The Lowdown
on Adjectives and Adverbs
Adding Adjectives
Adjectives describing nouns
Adjectives describing pronouns
Attaching adjectives to linking verbs
Pop the question: Identifying adjectives
Stalking the Common Adverb
Pop the question: Finding the adverb
Adverbs describing adjectives and other adverbs
Distinguishing Between Adjectives and Adverbs
Sorting adjectives from adverbs: The -ly test
Sorting out adjective/adverb pairs
Avoiding Common Mistakes with Adjectives and Adverbs
Placing even
Placing almost
Placing only

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English Grammar For Dummies

Chapter 9: Prepositions and Interjections and Articles, Oh My!
Other Parts of Speech
Proposing Relationships: Prepositions
The objects of my affection: Prepositional phrases
and their objects
Are you talking to I? Prepositions and pronouns
A good part of speech to end a sentence with?
Interjections Are Easy!
Articles: Not Just for Magazines Anymore
Chapter 10: Everyone Brought Their Homework:
Pronoun Errors
Pairing Pronouns with Nouns
Deciding between Singular and Plural Pronouns
Using Singular and Plural Possessive Pronouns
Positioning Pronoun-Antecedent Pairs
Avoiding Common Pronoun Errors
Using troublesome singular pronouns properly
Steering clear of sexist pronouns
Chapter 11: Just Nod Your Head: About Agreement
Writing Singular and Plural Verbs
The unchangeables
The changeables
Easier Than Marriage Counseling: Making Subjects
and Verbs Agree
Choosing Verbs for Two Subjects
The Question of Questions

Present tense questions
Past tense questions
Future tense questions
Negative Statements and Subject-Verb Agreement
The Distractions: Prepositional Phrases
and Other Irrelevant Words
Can't We All Just Get Along? Agreement with Difficult Subjects
Five puzzling pronouns as subjects
Here and there you find problems
The Ones, the Things, and the Bodies
Each and every mistake is painful
I want to be alone: Either and neither
without their partners
Politics, statistics, and other irregular subjects

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Table of Contents

Part 111: No Garage, but Plenty of Mechanics

«

Chapter 12: Punctuation Law That Should Be Repealed:
Apostrophes
The Pen of My Aunt or My Aunt's Pen? Using Apostrophes

to Show Possession
Ownership for singles
Because Bill doesn't own everything: Plural possessives
Possession with Proper Nouns
Ownership with Hyphenated Words
Possessive Nouns That End in S
Common Apostrophe Errors with Pronouns
Shortened Words for Busy People: Contractions
Common contraction mistakes
Contractions you ne'er use except in poetry
Using Apostrophes with Symbols and Numbers
Chapter 13: Quotations: More Rules Than
the Internal Revenue Service
And I Quote
Punctuating Quotations
Quotations with speaker tags
Quotations without speaker tags
Quotations with question marks
Quotations with exclamation points
Quotations with semicolons
Quotations inside quotations
Who Said That? Identifying Speaker Changes
Using Sanitizing Quotation Marks
Quoting Slang
Punctuating Titles: When to Use Quotation Marks
Chapter 14: The Pause That Refreshes: Commas
Distinguishing Items: Commas in Series
Separating a List of Descriptions
You Talkin' to Me? Direct Address
Using Commas in Addresses and Dates

Addressing addresses
Punctuating dates
Flying Solo: Introductory Words
Chapter 15: Adding Information: Semicolons, Dashes,
and Colons
Gluing Complete Thoughts Together: Semicolons
Using semicolons with false joiners
Separating items in a list with semicolons

167
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Xtfll


Creating a Stopping Point: Colons
Addressing a business letter
Introducing lists
Introducing long quotations
Joining explanations
Giving Additional Information — Dashes

Chapter 16: CAPITAL LETTERS
Capitalizing (or Not) References to People

Addressing Chief Dogcatcher and other officials
Writing about family relationships
Capitalizing the Deity
Capitalizing Geography: Directions, Places, and Languages
Directions and areas of a country
Capitalizing geographic features
An exception to the rule on country names
Tackling race and ethnicity
Marking Seasons and Other Times
Schooling: Courses, Years, and Subjects
Writing Capitals in Book and Other Titles
Concerning Historic Capitals: Events and Eras
If U Cn Rd Ths, U Cn Abbreviate
Giving the Last Word to the Poet

Part \V: Polishinq Without Wax —
The Finer Points of Grammar
Chapter 17: Pronouns and Their Cases
Me Like Tarzan: Choosing Subject Pronouns
Compounding interest: Pairs of subjects
Attracting appositives
Picking pronouns for comparisons
Connecting pronouns to linking verbs
Using Pronouns as Direct and Indirect Objects
Choosing objects for prepositions
Seeing double causes problems
Pronouns of Possession: No Exorcist Needed
Dealing with Pronouns and "-Ing" Nouns

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Table of Contents

Chapter 18: Fine-tuning Verbs
Giving Voice to Verbs
Making the Better Choice: Active Voice
Putting It in Order: Sequence of Tenses
Case 1: Simultaneous events — main verbs
Case 2: Simultaneous events — verbals
Case 3: Events at two different times in the past
Case 4: More than two past events, all at different times
Case 5: Two events in the future
Case 6: Different times, different verb forms
Reporting Information: The Verb Tells the Story
Recognizing Eternal Truths: Statements That Are Always
in Present Tense
Chapter 19: Saying What You Want to Say:
Descriptive Words and Phrases
Ruining a Perfectly Good Sentence: Misplaced Descriptions
Keeping Your Audience Hanging: Danglers
Avoiding Confusing Descriptions
Finding the Subject When Words Are Missing from the Sentence

233

233
234
235
236
236
237
239
240
241
243

Chapter 20: Good, Better, Best: Comparisons
Ending It with -Er or Giving It More
Breaking the Rules: Irregular Comparisons
Never More Perfect: Using Words That You Can't Compare
Leaving Your Audience in Suspense: Incomplete Comparisons
Joe DiMaggio Played Better Than Any Baseball Player:
Illogical Comparisons
Getting Two for the Price of One: Double Comparisons
Chapter 21: Parallels Without the Lines
Constructing Balanced Sentences
Shifting Grammar into Gear: Avoiding Stalled Sentences
Steering clear of a tense situation
Keeping your voice steady
Knowing the right person
Seeing Double: Conjunction Pairs
Avoiding Improper Comparisons

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English Grammar For Dummies

Part V: Rules £Grammar Teacher ùidn't Knout
....
Chapter 22: The Last Word on Verbs
Getting a Feel for Everyday Verbs: The Indicative Mood

Commanding Your Verbs: The Imperative Mood
Discovering the Possibilities: The Subjunctive Mood
Using subjunctives with "were"
Using subjunctives with "had"
Using subjunctives with "as though"
Using subjunctives with commands, wishes, and requests
Using subjunctives with "let us"
I Can't Help But Think This Rule Is Crazy:
Deleting Double Negatives
Can't Hardly Understand This Rule:
Yet Another Double Negative

Chapter 23: The Last Word on Pronouns
Knowing the Difference Between Who and Whom
Trick #1: Horse and carriage
Trick #2: Getting rhythm
Studying Improper Antecedents
Matching Verbs to Pronouns in Complicated Sentences
This, That, and the Other: Clarifying Vague Pronoun References
Its or Their? Selecting Pronouns for Collective Nouns
Pronouns, Inc.: Using Pronouns with Company Names

Chapter 24: The Last Word on Sentence Structure
Understanding the Basics of Clause and Effect
Getting the goods on subordinate and independent clauses
Knowing the three legal jobs for subordinate clauses
Untangling subordinate and independent clauses
Deciding when to untangle clauses
Putting your subordinate clauses in the right place
Choosing the content for your subordinate clauses

Getting Verbal
Appreciating gerunds
Working with infinitives
Participating with a participle
Spicing Up Boring Sentences with Clauses and Verbals
The clause that refreshes
Verbally speaking

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Table of Contents

Chapter 25: The Last Word on Punctuation
Making Your Point Clear with Commas
Essential or extra? Your commas tell the tale
Do your commas have appositive influence?
Punctuating independently
Using Those Dot-Dot-Dots
Indicating missing words
Showing hesitation
H-y-p-h-e-n-a-t-i-n-g Made Easy
Understanding the great divide

Using hyphens for compound words
Placing hyphens in numbers
Utilizing the well-placed hyphen
Sprinkling Parentheses and Brackets throughout Your Writing
Slashing Your Sentences

Part (/I: The Part of Tens
Chapter 26: Ten Ways ïwe to Improve Your Proofreading
Read Backward
Wait a While
Read It Aloud
Delete Half of the Commas
Swap with a Friend
Let the Computer Help
Check the Verbs
Check the Pronouns
Know Your Typing Style
The Usual Suspects
Chapter 27: Ten Ways to Learn Better Grammar
Read Good Books
Watch Good TV Shows
Peruse the News
Read the Newspaper
Flip through Magazines
Visit Nerd Hangouts
Check Out Strunk and White
Listening to Authorities
Reviewing Manuals of Style
Surfing the Internet

Index

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