Grammar workbook 3 ppsx

Contents at a Glance Introduction 1 Part I: Laying Out the Concrete Slab: Grammar Basics 7 Chapter 1: Placing the Proper Verb in the Proper Place 9 Chapter 2: Matchmaker, Make Me a Match: Pairing Subjects and Verbs Correctly 23 Chapter 3: Who Is She, and What Is It? The Lowdown on Pronouns 35 Chapter 4: Finishing What You Start: Writing Complete Sentences 49 Part II: Mastering Mechanics 65 Chapter 5: Exercising Comma Sense 67 Chapter 6: Made You Look! Punctuation Marks That Demand Attention 81 Chapter 7: One Small Mark, a Whole New Meaning: Apostrophes 91 Chapter 8: “Let Me Speak!“ Quotation Marks 101 Chapter 9: Hitting the Big Time: Capital Letters 113 Part III: The Pickier Points of Correct Verb and Pronoun Use 125 Chapter 10: The Case of It (And Other Pronouns) 127 Chapter 11: Choosing the Best Pronoun for a Tricky Sentence 141 Chapter 12: Traveling in Time: Tricky Verb-Tense Situations 155 Chapter 13: Are You and Your Verbs in the Right Mood? 167 Part IV: All You Need to Know about Descriptions and Comparisons 177 Chapter 14: Writing Good or Well: Adjectives and Adverbs 179 Chapter 15: Going on Location: Placing Descriptions Correctly 189 Chapter 16: For Better or Worse: Forming Comparisons 205 Chapter 17: Apples and Oranges: Improper Comparisons 215 Part V: Writing with Style 227 Chapter 18: Practicing Parallel Structure 229 Chapter 19: Spicing Up and Trimming Down Your Sentences 243 Chapter 20: Steering Clear of Tricky Word Traps 255 Part VI: The Part of Tens 267 Chapter 21: Ten Overcorrections 269 Chapter 22: Ten Errors to Avoid at All Cost 273 Appendix: Grabbing Grammar Goofs 277 Index 293 02_599321 ftoc.qxp 4/3/06 11:10 PM Page ix 02_599321 ftoc.qxp 4/3/06 11:10 PM Page x Table 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 02_599321 ftoc.qxp 4/3/06 11:10 PM Page xi 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 xii English Grammar Workbook For Dummies 02_599321 ftoc.qxp 4/3/06 11:10 PM Page xii 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 xiii Table of Contents 02_599321 ftoc.qxp 4/3/06 11:10 PM Page xiii 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 xiv English Grammar Workbook For Dummies 02_599321 ftoc.qxp 4/3/06 11:10 PM Page xiv . at All Cost 2 73 Writing Incomplete Sentences 2 73 Letting Sentences Run On and On 2 73 Forgetting to Capitalize “I” 2 73 xiv English Grammar Workbook For Dummies 02_59 932 1 ftoc.qxp 4 /3/ 06 11:10 PM. 129 xii English Grammar Workbook For Dummies 02_59 932 1 ftoc.qxp 4 /3/ 06 11:10 PM Page xii Linking Up with Pronouns in “To Be” Sentences 130 You Talkin’ to Me, or I? Pronouns as Objects of Prepositions 131 Matching. Avoid at All Cost 2 73 Appendix: Grabbing Grammar Goofs 277 Index 2 93 02_59 932 1 ftoc.qxp 4 /3/ 06 11:10 PM Page ix 02_59 932 1 ftoc.qxp 4 /3/ 06 11:10 PM Page x Table of Contents Introduction 1 About This