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English for Dummies


Year: 2010
Language: english
Author: Geraldine Woods
Genre: Textbook
Publisher: For Dummies
Edition: 2nd
ISBN: 0470546646
Format: PDF
Quality: eBook
Pages count: 384
Description: Enhancing your speaking and writing skills helps in everyday situations, such as writing a paper for school, giving a presentation to a company's bigwigs, or communicating effectively with family and friends. English Grammar For Dummies, 2nd Edition gives you the latest techniques for improving your efficiency with English grammar and punctuation.
Teaches the rules of verbs, adjectives, and adverbs; prepositions, propositions, and pronoun pronouncements; punctuation; possessives; and proofreading skills for all communication
Geraldine Woods is the author of English Grammar Workbook For Dummies, College Admission Essays For Dummies, Research Papers For Dummies, SAT I For Dummies, 6th Edition, AP English Literature For Dummies, and AP English Language For Dummies
For speakers and writers of all skill levels, English Grammar For Dummies, 2nd Edition provides easy-to-follow, practical information for improving your command of English grammar.

Contents

Introduction ................................................................. 1
About This Book ..............................................................................................2
How to Use This Book .....................................................................................2
What You Are Not to Read .............................................................................2
Foolish Assumptions .......................................................................................2
How This Book Is Organized ..........................................................................3
Part I: Getting Down to Basics: The Parts of the Sentence ...............3
Part II: Avoiding Common Errors .........................................................4
Part III: No Garage, but Plenty of Mechanics ......................................4
Part IV: Polishing Without Wax — The Finer Points of Grammar ...4
Part V: Rules Even Your Great-Aunt’s
Grammar Teacher Didn’t Know ........................................................5
Part VI: The Part of Tens .......................................................................5
Icons Used in This Book .................................................................................5
Where to Go from Here ...................................................................................6
Part I: Getting Down to Basics:
The Parts of the Sentence .............................................. 7
Chapter 1: I Already Know How to Talk.
Why Should I Study Grammar? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9
Deciding Which Grammar to Learn ...............................................................9
Distinguishing between the Three Englishes .............................................10
Wanna get something to eat? Friendspeak .......................................11
Do you feel like getting a sandwich? Conversational English ........12
Will you accompany me to the dining room? Formal English ........12
Using the Right English at the Right Time ..................................................13
Thumbing Your Way to Better Grammar ...................................................14
Relying on Computer Grammar Checkers Is Not Enough ........................15
What’s Your Problem? Solutions to Your Grammar Gremlins ................15
Chapter 2: Verbs: The Heart of the Sentence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .17
Linking Verbs: The Giant Equal Sign ...........................................................17
Being or linking — what’s in a name?................................................18
Savoring sensory verbs .......................................................................19
Completing Linking Verb Sentences Correctly ..........................................21
Placing the Proper Pronoun in the Proper Place ......................................23
Lights! Camera! Action Verb! ........................................................................24
Getting by with a Little Help from My Verbs .............................................25
Pop the Question: Locating the Verb ..........................................................26
Forget To Be or Not To Be: Infi nitives Aren’t Verbs .................................27
Chapter 3: Relax! Understanding Verb Tense. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .29
Simplifying Matters: The Simple Tenses .....................................................29
Present tense ........................................................................................30
Past tense ..............................................................................................30
Future tense ..........................................................................................31
Using the Tenses Correctly ..........................................................................32
Present and present progressive .......................................................32
Past and past progressive ..................................................................33
Future and future progressive ...........................................................33
Perfecting Verbs: The Perfect Tenses .........................................................34
Present perfect and present perfect progressive ............................35
Past perfect and past perfect progressive........................................35
Future perfect and future perfect progressive.................................36
Using Present Perfect Tense Correctly .......................................................36
Forming Present and Past Participles of Regular Verbs ...........................37
Just to Make Things More Diffi cult: Irregular Verbs ................................38
“To be or not to be” is a complete pain ............................................38
Irregular past and past participles ....................................................40
Chapter 4: Who’s Doing What? How to Find the Subject . . . . . . . . . . .43
Who’s Driving the Truck? Why the Subject Is Important .........................43
Teaming up: Subject and verb pairs ..................................................44
Compound subjects and verbs: Two for the price of one ..............44
Pop the Question: Locating the Subject–Verb Pairs .................................45
What’s a Nice Subject Like You Doing in a Place Like This?
Unusual Word Order .................................................................................46
Find That Subject! Detecting You-Understood ..........................................48
Searching for the Subject in Questions ......................................................49
Don’t Get Faked Out: Avoiding Fake Verbs and Subjects .........................49
Finding fake verbs ................................................................................50
Watching out for “here” and “there” and other fake subjects .......50
Choosing the correct verb for “here” and “there” sentences ........51
Subjects Aren’t Just a Singular Sensation:
Forming the Plural of Nouns .....................................................................51
Regular plurals .....................................................................................51
The -IES and -YS have it .......................................................................52
No knifes here: Irregular plurals ........................................................53
The brother-in-law rule: Hyphenated plurals ...................................54
Chapter 5: Having It All: The Complete Sentence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .55
Completing Sentences: The Essential Subjects and Verbs ......................55
Complete Thoughts, Complete Sentences .................................................58
Combining Sentences ....................................................................................60
Connecting with coordinate conjunctions .......................................61
Attaching thoughts: Semicolons ........................................................62
Boss and Employee: Joining Ideas of Unequal Ranks ...............................63
Choosing subordinate conjunctions ...........................................................64
Employing Pronouns to Combine Sentences .............................................66
Steering Clear of Fragments .........................................................................68
Oh, Mama, Could This Really Be the End? Understanding Endmarks ....70
Chapter 6: Handling Complements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .73
Springing into Action Verb Complements ..................................................74
Receiving the action: Direct objects ..................................................74
Rare, but sometimes there: Indirect objects ....................................76
No bias here: Objective complements ..............................................76
Finishing the Equation: Subject Complements ..........................................77
Pop the Question: Locating the Complement ............................................78
Pop the Question: Finding the Indirect Object ..........................................80
Pronouns as Objects and Subject Complements ......................................81
Part II: Avoiding Common Errors .................................. 83
Chapter 7: Do You Feel Bad or Badly? The Lowdown
on Adjectives and Adverbs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .85
Clarifying Meaning with Descriptions .........................................................85
Adding Adjectives ..........................................................................................86
Adjectives describing nouns ..............................................................87
Adjectives describing pronouns ........................................................87
Attaching adjectives to linking verbs ................................................88
Articles: Not just for magazines .........................................................88
Pop the question: Identifying adjectives ..........................................89
Stalking the Common Adverb ......................................................................91
Pop the question: Finding the adverb ...............................................91
Adverbs describing adjectives and other adverbs..........................93
Choosing Between Adjectives and Adverbs ..............................................94
Sorting out “good” and “well” ............................................................95
Dealing with “bad” and “badly” ..........................................................96
Adjectives and adverbs that look the same .....................................97
Avoiding Common Mistakes with Adjectives and Adverbs .....................98
Placing “even” ......................................................................................98
Placing “almost” and “nearly” ............................................................99
Placing “only” and “just” ...................................................................100
Chapter 8: Small Words, Big Trouble: Prepositions . . . . . . . . . . . . . .101
Proposing Relationships: Prepositions .....................................................101
The Objects of My Affection: Prepositional Phrases
and Their Objects ....................................................................................102
Pop the question: Questions that identify the objects
of the prepositions .........................................................................104
Why pay attention to prepositions? ................................................105
Are You Talking to I? Prepositions and Pronouns ..................................106
A Good Part of Speech to End a Sentence With? .....................................107
Chapter 9: Everyone Brought Their Homework: Pronoun Errors . . . .109
Pairing Pronouns with Nouns ....................................................................109
Choosing between Singular and Plural Pronouns ...................................111
Using Singular and Plural Possessive Pronouns ......................................113
Positioning Pronoun–Antecedent Pairs ....................................................114
Matching Pronouns to Pronoun Antecedents ..........................................117
Everyone, somebody, nothing, and similar pronouns ..................117
Each and every ...................................................................................118
Either and neither ..............................................................................119
Steering Clear of Sexist Pronouns .............................................................120
Chapter 10: Just Nod Your Head: About Agreement . . . . . . . . . . . . . .121
Writing Singular and Plural Verbs .............................................................121
The unchangeables ............................................................................122
The changeables ................................................................................122
Easier Than Marriage Counseling:
Making Subjects and Verbs Agree .........................................................125
Choosing Verbs for Two Subjects .............................................................125
The Question of Questions .........................................................................126
Present tense questions ....................................................................126
Past tense questions..........................................................................127
Future tense questions ......................................................................127
Negative Statements and Subject–Verb Agreement ................................128
The Distractions: Prepositional Phrases
and Other Irrelevant Words ...................................................................129
Can’t We All Just Get Along? Agreement with Diffi cult Subjects ...........130
Five puzzling pronouns as subjects ................................................130
Here and there you fi nd problems ...................................................131
The ones, the things, and the bodies ..............................................132
Each and every mistake is painful ...................................................132
Either and neither: Alone or with partners ....................................133
Politics and other irregular subjects ...............................................134
Part III: No Garage, but Plenty of Mechanics ............. 135
Chapter 11: Punctuation Law That Should Be Repealed:
Apostrophes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .137
The Pen of My Aunt or My Aunt’s Pen? Using Apostrophes
to Show Possession .................................................................................138
Ownership for singles .......................................................................138
Sharing the wealth: Plural possessives ...........................................139
Possession with Proper Nouns ..................................................................143
Ownership with Hyphenated Words .........................................................144
Possessive Nouns That End in S ................................................................144
Common Apostrophe Errors with Pronouns ...........................................145
Shortened Words for Busy People: Contractions ....................................146
Common Contraction Mistakes .................................................................148
Chapter 12: Quotations: More Rules Than
the Internal Revenue Service. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .151
And I Quote ...................................................................................................151
Punctuating Quotations ..............................................................................153
Quotations with speaker tags...........................................................153
Quotations without speaker tags .....................................................156
Quotations with question marks .....................................................157
Quotations with exclamation points ...............................................159
Quotations with semicolons .............................................................160
Quotations inside quotations ...........................................................160
Who Said That? Identifying Speaker Changes ..........................................162
Germ-free Quotations: Using Sanitizing Quotation Marks ......................164
Punctuating Titles: When to Use Quotation Marks .................................165
Chapter 13: The Pause That Refreshes: Commas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .169
Distinguishing Items: Commas in Series ...................................................169
Using “Comma Sense” to Add Information to Your Sentence ................171
Separating a list of descriptions ......................................................171
Essential or extra? Commas tell the tale .........................................173
Commas with appositive infl uence ..................................................176
You Talkin’ to Me? Direct Address ............................................................177
Using Commas in Addresses and Dates ...................................................178
Addressing addresses .......................................................................178
Punctuating dates ..............................................................................180
Flying Solo: Introductory Words ...............................................................181
Punctuating Independently ........................................................................182
Chapter 14: Useful Little Marks: Dashes, Hyphens, and Colons . . . .185
Inserting Information with Dashes ............................................................185
Long dashes ........................................................................................186
Short dashes .......................................................................................187
H-y-p-h-e-n-a-t-i-n-g Made Easy ...................................................................188
Understanding the great divide .......................................................188
Using hyphens for compound words ..............................................188
Placing hyphens in numbers ............................................................189
Utilizing the well-placed hyphen ......................................................190
Creating a Stopping Point: Colons .............................................................190
Addressing a business letter ............................................................191
Introducing lists .................................................................................191
Introducing long quotations .............................................................192
Chapter 15: CAPITAL LETTERS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .195
Browsing the Basics of Capital Letters .....................................................195
Capitalizing (or Not) References to People ..............................................196
Sorting out titles.................................................................................197
Writing about family relationships ..................................................198
Tackling race and ethnicity ..............................................................199
Capitalizing Geography: Directions, Places, and Languages .................200
Directions and areas of a country ...................................................200
Capitalizing geographic features .....................................................201
Marking Seasons and Other Times ............................................................201
Schooling: Courses, Years, and Subjects ..................................................202
Writing Capitals in Titles ............................................................................203
Concerning Historic Capitals: Events and Eras .......................................204
If U Cn Rd Ths, U Cn Abbreviate ................................................................205
Chapter 16: New Media, New Grammar Rules. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .207
Thumb Wrestling with Grammar: Text and Instant Messages ..............207
Choosing formal or informal language ............................................208
Being clear but concise .....................................................................209
Making a text and checking it twice ................................................211
E-Mailing Your Way to Good Grammar .....................................................211
The heading ........................................................................................211
The greeting ........................................................................................212
The body .............................................................................................212
The closing .........................................................................................213
Handling Grammar on the Internet ...........................................................213
Blogging for fun and (sometimes) profi t .........................................214
Navigating social networks ...............................................................214
PowerPoint to the People ...........................................................................215
Writing titles .......................................................................................215
Biting the bulleted list .......................................................................216
Part IV: Polishing Without Wax —
The Finer Points of Grammar ..................................... 219
Chapter 17: Pronouns and Their Cases. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .221
Me Like Tarzan: Choosing Subject Pronouns ..........................................221
Compounding interest: Pairs of subjects ........................................222
Attracting appositives ......................................................................223
Picking pronouns for comparisons .................................................225
Connecting pronouns to linking verbs ............................................227
Using Pronouns as Direct and Indirect Objects ......................................228
Choosing objects for prepositions ..................................................228
Attaching objects to verbals ............................................................229
Seeing double causes problems .......................................................230
Pronouns of Possession: No Exorcist Needed .........................................231
Dealing with Pronouns and “-Ing” Nouns .................................................232
Chapter 18: Fine-Tuning Verbs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .235
Giving Voice to Verbs ..................................................................................235
Actively Seeking a Better Voice .................................................................236
Adding Meaning with Strong Verbs ...........................................................238
“There is” a problem with boring verbs .........................................238
Does your writing “have” a problem? .............................................239
Don’t just “say” and “walk” away .....................................................239
Putting It in Order: Sequence of Tenses ...................................................240
Case 1: Simultaneous events — main verbs ...................................241
Case 2: Simultaneous events — verbals .........................................241
Case 3: Events at two different times in the past ...........................242
Case 4: More than two past events, all at different times .............244
Case 5: Two events in the future ......................................................245
Case 6: Different times, different verb forms .................................246
Reporting Information: The Verb Tells the Story ....................................249
Recognizing Eternal Truths: Statements That Are Always
in Present Tense.......................................................................................251
Chapter 19: Saying What You Want to Say:
Descriptive Words and Phrases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .253
Ruining a Perfectly Good Sentence: Misplaced Descriptions ................253
Keeping Your Audience Hanging: Danglers ..............................................256
Dangling participles ...........................................................................257
Dangling infi nitives ............................................................................259
Avoiding Confusing Descriptions .............................................................260
Finding the Subject When Words Are Missing from the Sentence .......262
Chapter 20: Good, Better, Best: Comparisons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .265
Ending It with -Er or Giving It More ...........................................................265
Breaking the Rules: Irregular Comparisons .............................................270
Good, bad, well ...................................................................................270
Little, many, much .............................................................................271
Never More Perfect: Using Words That You Can’t Compare .................272
Leaving Your Audience in Suspense: Incomplete Comparisons ...........275
Joe DiMaggio Played Better Than Any Baseball Player:
Illogical Comparisons ..............................................................................277
Getting Two for the Price of One: Double Comparisons ........................279
Chapter 21: Parallels Without the Lines. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .281
Constructing Balanced Sentences ............................................................281
Shifting Grammar into Gear: Avoiding Stalled Sentences ......................285
Steering clear of a tense situation ...................................................285
Keeping your voice steady ...............................................................287
Knowing the right person .................................................................288
Seeing Double: Conjunction Pairs .............................................................290
Avoiding Improper Comparisons ..............................................................292
Part V: Rules Even Your Great-Aunt’s
Grammar Teacher Didn’t Know .................................. 295
Chapter 22: The Last Word on Verbs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .297
Getting a Feel for Everyday Verbs: The Indicative Mood .......................297
Commanding Your Verbs: The Imperative Mood ....................................298
Discovering the Possibilities: The Subjunctive Mood ............................299
Using subjunctives with “were” .......................................................300
Creating subjunctives with “had” ....................................................301
Using subjunctives with commands, wishes, and requests .........302
When “If” Isn’t Subjunctive .........................................................................304
Deleting Double Negatives .........................................................................305
I cannot help but think this rule is dumb .......................................306
I can’t hardly understand this rule ..................................................306
I hadn’t but one rule on double-negatives ......................................307
Chapter 23: The Last Word on Pronouns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .309
Knowing the Difference Between Who and Whom ..................................309
Trick #1: Horse and carriage ............................................................310
Trick #2: Getting rhythm ...................................................................312
Replacing Improper Antecedents ..............................................................313
Matching Verbs to Pronouns in Complicated Sentences .......................315
This, That, and the Other: Clarifying Vague Pronoun References ........316
Its or Their? Selecting Pronouns for Collective Nouns ..........................319
Chapter 24: The Last Word on Sentence Structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .323
Understanding the Basics of Clause and Effect .......................................324
Getting the goods on subordinate and independent clauses ......325
Knowing the three legal jobs for subordinate clauses ..................327
Untangling subordinate and independent clauses ........................329
Deciding when to untangle clauses .................................................330
Putting your subordinate clauses in the right place .....................332
Choosing content for your subordinate clauses ...........................333
Getting Verbal ..............................................................................................334
Appreciating gerunds ........................................................................334
Working with infi nitives ....................................................................335
Participating with a participle ..........................................................336
Spicing Up Boring Sentences with Clauses and Verbals ........................338
The clause that refreshes .................................................................339
Verbally speaking...............................................................................339
Extra! Extra! Deleting All That’s Extra From Your Sentences ................341
Part VI: The Part of Tens ........................................... 343
Chapter 25: Ten Ways Two to Improve Your Proofreading. . . . . . . . .345
Read Backward ............................................................................................345
Wait a While .................................................................................................346
Read It Aloud ................................................................................................346
Delete Half the Commas ..............................................................................346
Swap with a Friend ......................................................................................346
Let the Computer Program Help ...............................................................347
Check the Verbs ...........................................................................................347
Check the Pronouns ....................................................................................347
Know Your Typing Style .............................................................................347
The Usual Suspects .....................................................................................348
Chapter 26: Ten Ways to Learn Better Grammar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .349
Read Good Books ........................................................................................349
Watch Good TV Shows ...............................................................................349
Peruse the News ..........................................................................................350
Read the Newspaper ...................................................................................350
Flip through Magazines ...............................................................................350
Download Podcasts .....................................................................................351
Check Out Strunk and White ......................................................................351
Listening to Authorities ..............................................................................351
Reviewing Manuals of Style ........................................................................351
Surfi ng the Internet ......................................................................................352
Index ....................................................................... 353

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