English Grammar All-in-One For Dummies

Title Page
Copyright Page
Table of Contents
Introduction
About This Book
Foolish Assumptions
Icons Used in This Book
Beyond the Book
Where to Go from Here
Unit 1 Exploring Grammar and Style
Chapter 1 Sampling the Ingredients of Grammar and Style
What This Year’s Sentence Is Wearing: Understanding Grammar and Style
Getting to Know the Elements of Grammar and Style
Parts of speech
Parts of a sentence
Verbs
Subjects
Complements and descriptions
Small but important: Punctuating, capitalizing, and spelling
Punctuation
Capitalization
Spelling
Recognizing Your Grammar Profile
Chapter 2 Adapting Language to Every Situation
Grasping the Power and Limits of Standard English
Adjusting Language to Suit Your Audience
Wanna get something to eat? Friendspeak
Conversational English
Standard English
Practice Questions Answers and Explanations
Whaddya Know? Chapter 2 Quiz
Answers to Chapter 2 Quiz
Unit 2 Exploring Parts of Speech
Chapter 3 People to See, Places to Go, Things to Remember: Recognizing Nouns
Identifying Nouns
Naming people with nouns
Naming places with nouns
Naming things with nouns
Naming ideas and emotions with nouns
Sorting Out Singular and Plural Nouns
Adding the letters S or ES to form plurals
Plurals that break the rules
Attaching “This,” “These,” and Other Words to Nouns
Practice Questions Answers and Explanations
Whaddya Know? Chapter 3 Quiz
Answers to Chapter 3 Quiz
Chapter 4 Meeting the Pronoun Family
Working Hard: Pronouns and Their Jobs
Replacing nouns
Replacing pronouns
Doubling back with -self pronouns
Creating connections, asking questions
Tracing Pronoun Traits
Person and number
Gender and number
Case
Practice Questions Answers and Explanations
Whaddya Know? Chapter 4 Quiz
Answers to Chapter 4 Quiz
Chapter 5 Existing and Acting with Verbs
Expressing Meaning with Verbs
Tense
Number
Mood
Voice
Meeting the Families: Linking and Action Verbs
Linking verbs: A giant equal sign
Forms of “be”
Synonyms of “be”
Savoring sensory verbs
Lights! Camera! Action verb!
Pop the Question: Locating the Verb
Calling the Help Line for Verbs
The big three
The verb “be”
The verb “do”
The verb “have”
Timing is everything: Creating a time frame with helping verbs
Don’t ask! Questions and negative statements
Adding shades of meaning with helping verbs
Practice Questions Answers and Explanations
Whaddya Know? Chapter 5 Quiz
Answers to Chapter 5 Quiz
Chapter 6 Two Real Really Good Parts of Speech: Adjectives and Adverbs
Clarifying Meaning with Descriptions
Adding Adjectives
Adjectives describing nouns
Adjectives describing pronouns
Adjectives attached to linking verbs
Pop the question: Identifying adjectives
Articles: Not just for magazines
Stalking the Common Adverb
Pop the question: Finding the adverb
Adverbs describing adjectives and other adverbs
Choosing Between Adjectives and Adverbs
Sorting out “good” and “well”
Dealing with “bad” and “badly”
Practice Questions Answers and Explanations
Whaddya Know? Chapter 6 Quiz
Answers to Chapter 6 Quiz
Chapter 7 Tiny but Mighty: Prepositions, Conjunctions, and Interjections
Proposing Relationships: Prepositions
Prepositional phrases
Pop the question: Questions that identify the objects of the prepositions
Why pay attention to prepositions?
Connecting with Conjunctions
Improving flow and adding meaning with conjunctions
Pairing up conjunctions
Interjections Are Easy!
Practice Questions Answers and Explanations
Whaddya Know? Chapter 7 Quiz
Answers to Chapter 7 Quiz
Unit 3 Basic Elements of a Sentence
Chapter 8 Who’s Doing What? Identifying the Subject-Verb Pair
Baring the Bones of a Sentence: The Subject–Verb Pair
When One Is Not Enough: Compound Subjects and Verbs
Pop the Question: Locating the Subject–Verb Pairs
Popping the question for questions
Unusual word order
Not missing in action: Detecting you-understood
Don’t Get Faked Out: Avoiding Fake Verbs and Subjects
Verbals
“Here” and “there” sentences
Practice Questions Answers and Explanations
Whaddya Know? Chapter 8 Quiz
Answers to Chapter 8 Quiz
Chapter 9 Handling Complements
Getting a Piece of the Action: Complements for Action Verbs
Receiving the action: Direct objects
Rare, but sometimes there: Indirect objects
No bias here: Objective complements
Completing the Equation: Subject Complements
Practice Questions Answers and Explanations
Whaddya Know? Chapter 9 Quiz
Answers to Chapter 9 Quiz
Chapter 10 When All Is Said and Done: Complete Sentences
Completing Sentences: The Essential Subjects and Verbs
Not flying solo: Verb forms ending in –ing
Past verb forms that can’t stand alone
Do not “be” alone
Complete Thoughts, Complete Sentences
Reaching the End of the Line: End Marks
Connecting Ideas
Breaking Away from Sentence Fragments
Placing fragments in the right context
Steering clear of inappropriate fragments
Practice Questions Answers and Explanations
Whaddya Know? Chapter 10 Quiz
Answers to Chapter 10 Quiz
Chapter 11 No Santas but Plenty of Clauses
Grasping the Basics of Clause and Effect
Sorting Subordinate and Independent Clauses
Defining the Three Legal Jobs for Subordinate Clauses
Describing nouns and pronouns
Describing verbs, adjectives, or adverbs
Acting as subjects, objects, or subject complements inside another clause
Untangling Subordinate and Independent Clauses
Deciding When to Untangle Clauses
When you’re picking a pronoun
When you’re deciding on the correct verb
When you’re figuring out where to put commas
Choosing Content for Subordinate Clauses
Practice Questions Answers and Explanations
Whaddya Know? Chapter 11 Quiz
Answers to Chapter 11 Quiz
Unit 4 Clearing Up Confusing Grammar Points
Chapter 12 Relax! Understanding Verb Tense, Voice, and Mood
It’s All in the Timing: Tense
Simplifying matters: The simple tenses
Present tense
Past tense
Future tense
Using the simple tenses correctly
Present and present progressive
Past and past progressive
Future and future progressive
Not picture-perfect: Understanding the perfect tenses
Present perfect and present perfect progressive
Past perfect and past perfect progressive
Future perfect and future perfect progressive
Employing the perfect tenses correctly
Case 1: Beginning in the past and continuing in the present
Case 2: Events at two different times in the past
Case 3: More than two past events, all at different times
Case 4: Two events in the future
Speaking of the past and things that never change
Romeo lives! Writing about literature and art in present tense
The rebels: Dealing with irregular verbs
Giving Voice to Verbs
Getting Your Verbs in the Proper Mood
Stating the facts: Indicative
Commanding your attention: Imperative
Discovering the possibilities: Subjunctive
Using subjunctives with “were”
Forming subjunctives with “had”
Expressing an indirect command
Practice Questions Answers and Explanations
Whaddya Know? Chapter 12 Quiz
Answers to Chapter 12 Quiz
Chapter 13 Agreement: Choosing Singular or Plural Verbs and Pronouns
Agreeing Not to Disagree
Making Subjects and Verbs Agree: The Basics
Matching Subjects and Verbs in Some Tricky Situations
Compound subjects
Ignoring distracting descriptions
Each and every
Either and neither, alone or with partners
Five puzzling pronouns
The ones, the things, and the bodies
Agreeing with Relative Pronouns
Politics and Other Irregular Subjects
Practice Questions Answers and Explanations
Whaddya Know? Chapter 13 Quiz
Answers to Chapter 13 Quiz
Chapter 14 Solving Pronoun Case
While We’re on the Subject: Choosing Pronouns to Act as Subjects
Taking an Objective Viewpoint: Choosing Pronouns to Act as Objects
Dealing with direct and indirect objects
Are you talking to I? Prepositions and pronouns
Attaching objects to verbals
Knowing the Difference Between Who and Whom
Attracting Appositives
Picking Pronouns for Comparisons
Dealing with Pronouns and -ing Nouns
Practice Questions Answers and Explanations
Whaddya Know? Chapter 14 Quiz
Answers to Chapter 14 Quiz
Chapter 15 Getting Specific: The Power of Descriptions
Creating Comparisons with Adjectives and Adverbs
Ending it with -er or giving more to adjectives
Creating comparisons with adverbs
Breaking the rules: Irregular comparisons
Good, bad, well
Little, many, much
Resolving incomplete and illogical comparisons
Incomplete comparison
Illogical comparisons
On Location: Placing Descriptions Correctly
Troubling singles
Placing “even”
Placing “almost” and “nearly”
Placing “only” and “just”
Misplaced descriptions
Just hanging out: Danglers
Avoiding confusing descriptions
Practice Questions Answers and Explanations
Whaddya Know? Chapter 15 Quiz
Answers to Chapter 15 Quiz
Unit 5 Spelling, Punctuation, and Capitalization
Chapter 16 Becoming a Better Speler Speller
Following the Rules of English Spelling
Changing Y to I
I before E
Double letters
Dropping the silent E
Taming Spelling Demons
How does the word end?
One or two?
Which vowel?
Checking the Dictionary for Spelling Help
Practice Questions Answers and Explanations
Whaddya Know? Chapter 16 Quiz
Answers to Chapter 16 Quiz
Chapter 17 Little Hooks, Big Problems: Apostrophes
The Pen of My Aunt or My Aunt’s Pen? Using Apostrophes to Show Possession
Ownership for singles
Sharing the wealth: Plural possessives
Regular plural possessives
Irregular plural possessives
Compound plural possessives
A few special possessions
Possession with proper nouns
Ownership with hyphenated words
Possessive nouns that end in S
Shortened Words for Busy People: Contractions
Making short work of common contractions
You coulda made a contraction mistake
Managing Tricky Contraction/Pronoun Pairs
Its/it’s
Whose/who’s
Your/you’re
Their/there/they’re
Practice Questions Answers and Explanations
Whaddya Know? Chapter 17 Quiz
Answers to Chapter 17 Quiz
Chapter 18 Quotations: More Rules Than the Strictest Teacher
And I Quote
Punctuating Quotations
Quotations with speaker tags
Speaker tags before or after the quotation
Interrupted quotations
Avoiding run-on sentences with interrupted quotations
Quotations without speaker tags
Quotations with question marks
Quotations with exclamation points
Quotations with semicolons
Quotations inside quotations
Germ-Free Quotations: Using Sanitizing Quotation Marks
Punctuating Titles: When to Use Quotation Marks
Practice Questions Answers and Explanations
Whaddya Know? Chapter 18 Quiz
Answers to Chapter 18 Quiz
Chapter 19 The Pause That Refreshes: Commas
Distinguishing Items: Commas in Series
Using “Comma Sense” to Add Information to Your Sentence
List of descriptions
Essential or extra? Commas tell the tale
Commas with appositive influence
You Talkin’ to Me? Direct Address
Using Commas in Addresses and Dates
Addressing addresses
Punctuating dates
Getting Started: The Introductory Comma
Words not connected to the meaning of the sentence
Phrases and clauses
Punctuating Independently
Practice Questions Answers and Explanations
Whaddya Know? Chapter 19 Quiz
Answers to Chapter 19 Quiz
Chapter 20 Useful Little Marks: Dashes, Hyphens, and Colons
Inserting Information with Dashes
Long dashes
Short dashes
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
Creating a Stopping Point: Colons
Addressing a business letter or an email
Introducing lists
Introducing long quotations
Practice Questions Answers and Explanations
Whaddya Know? Chapter 20 Quiz
Answers to Chapter 20 Quiz
Chapter 21 Capital Letters
Knowing What’s Up with Uppercase
Capitalizing (or Not) References to People
Sorting out job titles
Writing about family relationships
Tackling race and ethnicity
Capitalizing Geography: Directions and Places
Marking Seasons and Other Times
Capitalizing Work and School Terms
Capitalizing Titles
Headline style
Sentence style
?4U: Cn U AbbreV8?
Practice Questions Answers and Explanations
Whaddya Know? Chapter 21 Quiz
Answers to Chapter 21 Quiz
Unit 6 Developing Style
Chapter 22 Adding Meaning with Well-Chosen Words
Going Vivid with Verbs
“There is” a problem with boring verbs
Does your writing “have” a problem?
Don’t just “say” and “walk” away
Pinpointing Meaning with Nouns and Descriptions
Saving Time: Cutting Unnecessary Words
Repetition
Wordiness
Practice Questions Answers and Explanations
Whaddya Know? Chapter 22 Quiz
Answers to Chapter 22 Quiz
Chapter 23 Grammar Gremlins
Deleting Double Negatives
Sounding Incorrect
Scoring D minus
Three terrible twos
You gotta problem with grammar?
Almost twins
Continual/continually; continuous/continuously
Farther/further
Accept/except
Affect/effect
Pairs of Trouble: Complicated Verbs
Sit/set
Hanged/hung
Rise/raise
Lie/lay
Lose/loose
One Word or Two?
Three for the Road: Other Common Errors
Between/among
Being that
Try and/try to
Practice Questions Answers and Explanations
Whaddya Know? Chapter 23 Quiz
Answers to Chapter 23 Quiz
Chapter 24 Writing Stylish Sentences
Speaking Verbally
Identifying verbals
Infinitives
Participles
Gerunds
Choosing the correct tense
Simultaneous events
Different times
Sprucing Up Boring Sentences with Clauses and Verbals
Clauses
Verbals
Mixing It Up: Changing Sentence Patterns and Length
Patterns
Word order
Parallelism
Going long or cutting it short
Practice Questions Answers and Explanations
Whaddya Know? Chapter 24 Quiz
Answers to Chapter 24 Quiz
Unit 7 Grammar in Action
Chapter 25 Adapting Your Style to Electronic Media
Hitting the Screen with Formal or Informal Language
Communicating Clearly in Texts, Tweets, and Posts
Dropping words
Omitting subjects and verbs
Dropping other words
Dropping punctuation and capital letters
Abbreviating
Emailing Your Way to Good Grammar
The heading
The greeting
The body
The closing
PowerPoint to the People
Surveying presentation slides
Writing titles
Biting the bulleted list
Bullet introductions
Bullet texts
Autocorrect and Other Error Magnets
Practice Questions Answers and Explanations
Whaddya Know? Chapter 25 Quiz
Answers to Chapter 25 Quiz
Chapter 26 Writing at School and on the Job
A Is for Accomplished: Writing at School
Essays and research papers
Formal writing
Identifying others’ ideas
Other formatting issues
Science reports
References to others’ experiments
Reporting your own actions
Other formatting issues
Get to Work: Writing on the Job
Letters
Memos
Practice Questions Answers and Explanations
Whaddya Know? Chapter 26 Quiz
Answers to Chapter 26 Quiz
Index
EULA