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English Grammar

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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). v 0 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 con- junction. If you have one subject and two verbs, don't put a comma before the conjunction.

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_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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Copyright ©2001 Hungry Minds, Inc. All rights reserved. Cheat Sheet $2.95 value. Item 5322-4. H u n g r y Minds'" por m o r e information about Hungry Minds, call 1-800-762-2974.

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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 w w w. w i 1 e y. c o m 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, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise, except as permitted under Sections 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, 978-750-8400, fax 978-646-8700. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Legal Department, Wiley Publishing, Inc., 10475 Crosspoint Blvd., Indianapolis, IN 46256, 317-572-3447, fax 317-572-4447, or e-mail permcoordi nator@wi 1 ey. com Trademarks: Wiley, the Wiley Publishing logo, For Dummies, the Dummies Man logo, A Reference for the Rest of Us!, The Dummies Way, Dummies Daily, The Fun and Easy way, Dummies.com and related trade dress are trademarks or registered trademarks of Wiley Publishing, Inc., in the United States and other countries, and may not be used without written per- mission. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Wiley Publishing, Inc., is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book. 1 LIMIT OF LIABILITY/DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTY: WHILE THE PUBLISHER AND AUTHOR HAVE USED THEIR BEST I EFFORTS IN PREPARING THIS BOOK, THEY MAKE NO REPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES WITH RESPECT TO THE ACCURACY OR COMPLETENESS OF THE CONTENTS OF THIS BOOK AND SPECIFICALLY DISCLAIM ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. NO WARRANTY MAY BE CREATED OR EXTENDED BY SALES REPRESENTATIVES OR WRITTEN SALES MATERIALS. THE ADVICE AND STRATEGIES CON- TAINED HEREIN MAY NOT BE SUITABLE FOR YOUR SITUATION. YOU SHOULD CONSULT WITH A PROFESSIONAL WHERE APPROPRIATE. NEITHER THE PUBLISHER NOR AUTHOR SHALL BE LIABLE FOR ANY LOSS OF PROFIT OR ANY OTHER COMMERCIAL DAMAGES, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, OR OTHER DAMAGES. For general information on our other products and services or to obtain technical support, please contact our Customer Care Department within the U.S. at 800-762-2974, outside the U.S. at 317-572-3993, or fax 317-572-4002. Wiley also publishes its books in a variety of electronic formats. Some content that appears in print may not be available in electronic books.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data: Library of Congress Control Number: 2001089309 ISBN: 0-7645-5322-

Manufactured in the United States of America 10 9 8 7 6 1B/RT/QT/QT/IN

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.

Contents at a Glance

Chapter 9: Prepositions and Interjections and Articles, Oh My!

Table of Contents

English Grammar For Dummies Proposing Relationships: Prepositions I l l

• Part 1: The Parts of Speech and Parts of the Sentence Introduction /
• 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
• Chapter 7: Getting Hitched: Marrying Sentences Part 11: Avoiding Common Errors 5 / - on Adjectives and Adverbs Chapter 8: Do You Feel Bad or Badly? The Lowdown
• Chapter 10: Everyone Brought Their Homework: Pronoun Errors Other Parts of Speech I l l
• Chapter 11: Just Nod Your Head: About Agreement
• Part HI: Mo Garage, but Plenty of Mechanics
• Chapter 12: Punctuation Law That Should Be Repealed: Apostrophes
• Chapter 13: Quotations: More Rules Than the Internal Revenue Service
• Chapter 14: The Pause That Refreshes: Commas
• Chapter 15: Adding Information: Semicolons, Dashes, and Colons
• Chapter 16: CAPITAL LETTERS
  • The Finer Points of Grammar .. Part IV: Polishing Without Wax —
• 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
  • Grammar Teacher Didn't Knotf Part V: Rules Even \lour Great-Aunt's
  • Chapter 22: The Last Word on Verbs
  • Chapter 23: The Last Word on Pronouns
  • Chapter 24: The Last Word on Sentence Structure
  • Chapter 25: The Last Word on Punctuation
  • Part VI: The Part of Tens
  • Chapter 26: Ten Ways Two to Improve Your Proofreading
  • Chapter 27: Ten Ways to Learn Better Grammar
• Index
• 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 - The Finer Points of Grammar Part IV: Polishing Without Wax — - Didn't Know Part V: Rules Even Your Great-Aunt's Grammar Teacher - 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
    • Why Should I Study Grammar? Chapter 1:1 Already Know How to Talk. - 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
• Chapter 3: Relax! Understanding Verb Tense English Grammar For Dummies - 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 - Unusual Word Order What's a Nice Subject Like You Doing in a Place Like This?: - 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 - Forming the Plural of Nouns Subjects Aren't Just a Singular Sensation: - 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 - Understanding Endmarks Oh, Mama, Could This Really Be the End?
  • Chapter 6: Handling Complements Table of Contents
    • 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
  • on Adjectives and Adverbs Chapter 8: Do You Feel Bad or Badly? The Lowdown
    • 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
• Other Parts of Speech Chapter 9: Prepositions and Interjections and Articles, Oh My! - and their objects The objects of my affection: Prepositional phrases - 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
• Pronoun Errors Chapter 10: Everyone Brought Their Homework:
  • 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 1 1 : Just Nod Your Head: About Agreement
  • Writing Singular and Plural Verbs - The unchangeables - The changeables
    • and Verbs Agree Easier Than Marriage Counseling: Making Subjects
  • Choosing Verbs for Two Subjects
  • The Question of Questions - Present tense questions - Past tense questions - Future tense questions
  • Negative Statements and Subject-Verb Agreement
    • and Other Irrelevant Words The Distractions: Prepositional Phrases
  • 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 - without their partners I want to be alone: Either and neither - Politics, statistics, and other irregular subjects