Grammar Essentials For Dummies

Title Page
......Page 3
Copyright Page......Page 4
Table of Contents......Page 7
About This Book......Page 13
Icons Used in This Book......Page 14
Where to Go from Here......Page 15
Chapter 1 Grasping Grammar Nitty-Gritty......Page 17
Grammar: What It Is!......Page 18
Making the right word choices......Page 19
Arranging words for optimal understanding......Page 21
Pinpointing punctuation......Page 22
Putting Grammar to Work in the Real World......Page 23
Chapter 2 Making Peace between Subjects and Verbs......Page 25
Linking verbs: The giant equal sign......Page 26
Helping verbs: The do-gooders......Page 28
Infinitives: Verb imposters......Page 29
Identifying Subjects......Page 30
Figuring out you-understood......Page 31
Finding subjects when words are missing......Page 32
Searching for the subject in questions......Page 33
Give Peace a Chance: Making Subjects and Verbs Agree......Page 34
Verbs that change and verbs that don’t......Page 35
Dealing with negative statements......Page 37
Cutting through distractions......Page 38
Coming to an Agreement with Difficult Subjects......Page 39
Spotting five little pronouns that break the rules......Page 40
Meeting the ones, the things, and the bodies......Page 41
Figuring out either and neither......Page 42
Playing Matchmaker with Pronouns and Nouns......Page 45
Selecting Singular or Plural Pronouns......Page 47
Treating companies as singular nouns......Page 48
Getting Possessive with Your Pronouns......Page 49
Keeping Your Pronouns and Antecedents Close......Page 50
Pairing Pronouns with Pronoun Antecedents......Page 52
Wrestling with everybody, somebody, and no one......Page 53
Examining either and neither......Page 54
Avoiding Sexist Pronouns......Page 55
Chapter 4 Constructing a Complete Sentence......Page 57
Locating subject-verb pairs......Page 58
Not relying on context......Page 59
Fishing for complements......Page 60
Banning Fragments from Formal Writing......Page 63
Getting your endmarks in place......Page 64
Employing coordinate conjunctions......Page 66
Connecting Unequal Ideas......Page 68
Giving subordinate clauses a job......Page 69
Finding homes for your subordinate clauses......Page 70
Making connections with subordinate conjunctions......Page 71
Combining Sentences with Pronouns......Page 73
Dangling participles......Page 74
Dangling infinitives......Page 75
Seeking Balance......Page 77
Matching verb tenses......Page 80
Staying active (or passive)......Page 81
Being true to your person......Page 82
Using Conjunction Pairs Correctly......Page 84
Constructing Proper Comparisons......Page 85
Spotting Adjectives......Page 87
Working hand in hand with linking verbs......Page 88
Recognizing articles as adjectives......Page 89
Locating adjectives......Page 90
Sprucing up verbs......Page 91
Locating adverbs......Page 92
Choosing between “good” and “well”......Page 93
Do you feel “bad” or “badly”?......Page 94
Placing “even”......Page 95
Placing “only” and “just”......Page 97
Getting the hang of regular comparisons......Page 98
Good, better, best: Working with irregular comparisons......Page 100
Error alert: Using words that you can’t compare......Page 102
Confusing your reader with incomplete comparisons......Page 103
More Rules Than the IRS: Using Apostrophes......Page 105
Showing possession......Page 106
Cutting it short: Contractions......Page 109
Punctuating your quotations......Page 110
Using quotation marks in titles......Page 114
Making Comma Sense......Page 115
Adding information to your sentence......Page 116
Directly addressing someone......Page 120
Presenting addresses and dates......Page 121
Setting off introductory words......Page 122
Mastering Dashes......Page 123
Short dashes......Page 124
Creating compound words......Page 125
Creating a Stopping Point: Colons......Page 126
Introducing long quotations......Page 127
Covering the Basic Rules......Page 129
Capitalizing (Or Not) References to People......Page 130
Treating a person’s titles with care......Page 131
Handling family relationships......Page 132
Tackling race and ethnicity......Page 133
Locations and languages......Page 134
Getting Schooled in Education Terms......Page 135
Wrestling with Capitals in Titles......Page 136
Writing about Events and Eras......Page 137
Capitalizing Abbreviations......Page 138
One Word or Two?......Page 139
Picking your meaning......Page 140
Its/it’s......Page 141
Whose/who’s......Page 142
Affect versus effect......Page 143
Continual versus continuous......Page 144
Farther versus further......Page 145
Rise versus raise......Page 146
Suppose versus supposed......Page 147
Who versus whom......Page 148
Irregardless......Page 149
Different than......Page 150
Creating Noun Plurals......Page 151
The -ies and -ys have it......Page 152
Gooses? Childs? Forming irregular plurals......Page 153
Perfecting Prepositions......Page 154
Expressing relationships......Page 155
Eyeing the objects of prepositional phrases......Page 156
Paying attention to prepositions......Page 157
Are you talking to I? Matching prepositions and pronouns......Page 158
Deleting Double Negatives......Page 159
Identifying Your Audience......Page 161
Knowing when conversational English will work......Page 162
Cutting Ties with Your Computer Grammar Checker......Page 163
Staying active......Page 164
Recognizing that your writing “has” issues......Page 166
Letting your subjects do more than “say” and “walk”......Page 167
Deleting All That’s Extra......Page 168
Spicing Up Boring Sentences......Page 169
The clause that refreshes......Page 170
Verbally speaking......Page 171
Scoping your audience......Page 172
Being clear and concise......Page 173
Structuring an e-mail message......Page 175
Proofreading before you send......Page 176
Pick Up a Good Book......Page 177
Delve into Strunk and White......Page 178
Review Style Manuals......Page 179
Download Podcasts......Page 180
Listen to Authorities......Page 181
Index......Page 183
EULA......Page 195