English Grammar Workbook for "dummies" - Geraldine Woods
.pdfTable 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 |
Table of Contents xiii |
|
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 |
|
Table of Contents |
xv |
|
||
Being Stingy with Quotation Marks ..................................................................................... |
274 |
|
Using Pronouns Incorrectly .................................................................................................. |
274 |
|
Placing New Words in the Wrong Context .......................................................................... |
274 |
|
Letting Slang Seep into Your Speech ................................................................................... |
274 |
|
Forgetting to Proofread ......................................................................................................... |
275 |
|
Relying on Computer Checks for Grammar and Spelling.................................................. |
275 |
|
Repeating Yourself ................................................................................................................. |
275 |
|
Appendix: Grabbing Grammar Goofs |
...........................................277 |
Exercise One ........................................................................................................................... |
277 |
Exercise Two........................................................................................................................... |
278 |
Exercise Three........................................................................................................................ |
279 |
Exercise Four .......................................................................................................................... |
280 |
Answers to Exercise One ...................................................................................................... |
281 |
Answers to Exercise Two ...................................................................................................... |
284 |
Answers to Exercise Three ................................................................................................... |
286 |
Answers to Exercise Four ..................................................................................................... |
289 |
Index ....................................................................................... |
293 |
xvi English Grammar Workbook For Dummies
Introduction
Good grammar pays. No, I’m not making a sentimental statement about the importance of a job well done or the satisfaction of learning for learning’s sake, though I believe in
both of those values. I’m talking about cold, hard cash, the kind you fold and put into your wallet. Don’t believe me? Fine. Try this little test: The next time you go to the movies, tear yourself away from the story for a moment and concentrate on the dialogue. Chances are the characters who have fancy jobs or piles of dough sound different from those who don’t. I’m not making a value judgment here; I’m just describing reality. Proper English, either written or spoken, tends to be associated with the upper social or economic classes. Tuning up your grammar muscles doesn’t guarantee your entry into the Bill Gates income tax bracket, but poor grammar may make it much harder to fight your way in.
Another payoff of good grammar is better grades and an edge in college admissions. Teachers have always looked more favorably on nicely written sentences, and grammar has recently become an additional hurdle that applicants must jump over or stumble through when they sit for the SAT or the ACT, the two most important standardized tests for the college bound.
The good news is that you don’t have to spend a lifetime improving your English. Ten minutes here, ten minutes there, and before you know it, your grammar muscles will be toned to fighting strength. This book is the equivalent of a health-club membership for your writing and speaking skills. Like a good health club, it doesn’t waste your time with lectures on the physiology of flat abs. Instead, it sends you right to the mat and sets you up with the exercises that actually do the job.
About This Book
English Grammar Workbook For Dummies doesn’t concentrate on what we English teachers (yes, I confess I am one) call descriptive grammar — the kind where you circle all the nouns and draw little triangles around the prepositions. A closely guarded English-teacher secret is that you don’t need to know any of that terminology (well, hardly any) to master grammar. Instead, English Grammar Workbook For Dummies concentrates on functional grammar — what goes where in real-life speech and writing.
Each chapter begins with a quick explanation of the rules (don’t smoke, don’t stick your chewing gum on the bedpost, be sure your sentence is complete, and so forth). Okay, I’m kidding about the smoking and the chewing gum, but you get the idea. I start off telling you what’s right and wrong in standard English usage. Next, I provide an example and then hit you with ten or so quick questions. Just to make sure you know that I’m not wasting your time, in every chapter I give you a sample from real-life English (with a fairly absurd situation, just to keep your funny bone tingling), so you can see how proper grammar actually aids communication.
After filling in the blanks, you can check your answers at the end of the chapter. In English Grammar Workbook For Dummies, I also tell you why a particular choice is correct, not just for the sake of learning a set of rules but rather to help you make the right decision the next time — when you’re deciding between their and they’re or went and had gone, for example.
2English Grammar Workbook For Dummies
As the author of English Grammar For Dummies (Wiley) and a grammar teacher for more decades than I care to count (let’s just say that I had an inkwell in my first classroom), I believe that if you truly get the logic of grammar — and most rules do rest upon a logical basis — you’ll be a better, more precise communicator.
English Grammar Workbook For Dummies offers a special welcome to readers for whom English is a second language. You’ve probably picked up quite a bit of vocabulary and basic grammar already. English Grammar Workbook For Dummies lets you practice the little things — the best word choice for a particular sentence, the proper way to create a plural, and so forth. This book moves you beyond comprehension to mastery.
Finally, because standardized college entrance exams are now a permanent part of the landscape, I’ve taken special care to provide examples that mirror those horrible tests. If you’re facing the SAT or the ACT in the near future, don’t despair. Everything the grammar-testing gurus expect you to know is in this book.
Conventions Used in This Book
To make your practice as easy as possible, I’ve used some conventions throughout this book so that from chapter to chapter or section to section you’re not wondering what the heck is going on. Here are a few to note:
At the end of each chapter is the “Answers” section, which covers all the exercises in that chapter. You can find the answers by thumbing through the book until you come to the pages with the gray trim on the outside edge.
The last exercise in each chapter is comprehensive, so you can check your mastery of the material in that chapter and sharpen your editing skills. You can find the comprehensive answers and explanations in the “Answers” section. The callout numbers pointing to the corrections in the exercise correspond with the numbered explanations in the text. I also provide an appendix devoted entirely to providing comprehensive practice with the grammar skills you develop as you consult English Grammar For Dummies and as you complete the exercises throughout this workbook.
What You’re Not to Read
I promise you that I’ve kept the grammar jargon to a minimum in this workbook, but I must admit that I have included a couple of terms from schoolbook land. If you stumble upon a definition, run away as fast as you can and try the sample question instead. If you can get the point without learning the grammatical term, you win a gold star. Likewise, feel free to skip the explanation of any question that you get right, unless of course you want to gloat. In that case read the explanation while crowing, “I knew that.”
Foolish Assumptions
In writing the English Grammar Workbook For Dummies, I’m assuming that you fall into one or more of these categories:
You know some English but want to improve your skills.
You aspire to a better job.
Introduction 3
You want higher grades or SAT/ACT scores.
You feel a bit insecure about your language skills and want to communicate with more confidence.
You’re still learning to speak and write English fluently.
I’ve made two more global assumptions about you, the reader. First, you have a busy life with very little time to waste on unnecessary frills. With this important fact in mind, I’ve tried to keep the explanations in this book clear, simple, and short, so you can get right to it and practice away. I’ve left the fancy grammar terms — gerunds, indicative mood, copulative verb, and the like — by the wayside, where, in my humble opinion, they belong. I don’t want to clutter up your brain; I just want to give you what you need to know to speak and write in standard English. For the total, complete, and occasionally humorous explanations, pick up a copy of the companion book, English Grammar For Dummies, also written by yours truly (and published by Wiley).
Second, I assume that you hate boring, schoolbook style. You’d prefer not to yawn as you read. No problem! I too glaze over when faced with sentences like “The administrative council approved the new water-purification project outlined in by-law 78-451 by a margin of three votes to two.” To keep you awake, I’ve used my somewhat insane imagination to create amusing sentences that will (I hope) make you smile or even laugh from time to time.
How This Book Is Organized
Life gets harder as you go along, doesn’t it? So too English Grammar Workbook For Dummies. Parts I and II concentrate on the basics — plopping the right verbs into each sentence, forming singulars and plurals, creating complete sentences, and so on. Part III moves up a notch to the pickier stuff, not exactly world record but definitely the state-champ level. In Parts III and IV, you get to try your hand at the most annoying problems presented by pronouns (those pesky little words such as I, me, theirs, whomever, and others), advanced verb problems, and comparisons (different than? different from? find out here!). Part V is totally practical, polishing up your writing style and explaining some common word traps into which you may fall. Now for more detail.
Part I: Laying Out the Concrete Slab:
Grammar Basics
In this part I take you through the basic building blocks — verbs (words that express action or state of being) and subjects (who or what you’re talking about) — with a quick side trip into pronouns (I, he, her, and the like). I show you how to create a complete sentence. In this part you practice choosing the correct verb tense in straightforward sentences and find out all you need to know about singular and plural forms.
Part II: Mastering Mechanics
This part’s devoted to two little things — punctuation and capital letters — that can make or break your writing. If you’re not sure whether to head North or north or if you want to know where a comma belongs, this part’s for you.