English Grammar For Dummies

by Woods, Geraldine

• ISBN13: 9780470546642
• ISBN10: 0470546646
• Edition: 2nd
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2010-02-02
• Publisher: For Dummies

Summary

The fun and easy way to improve your grammar

Do the parts of speech render you speechless? Does the thought of diagramming sentences make you sweat? Fear not! English Grammar For Dummies, 2nd Edition takes the "grr" out of grammar and gives you fun, easy-to-follow strategies for understanding the rules of grammar and punctuation to improve your speaking and writing skills —without ever diagramming a single sentence!

-Quoting the experts — learn when to use single quotation marks, double quotation marks, or no quotation marks at all

-Avoid common errors and mistakes — discover the mismatches between singular and plural words and pronoun gender

-Today's technology — brush up on the proper way to compose emails, texts, and presentations and get the latest grammar do's and don'ts for blogging, texting, and IMing

-Periods, commas, and colons, oh my! — use a little "comma sense" to make sure your writing is always punctuated properly

-Capitalize on the situation — understand what words and phrases are capitalized and which are lowercased

-Rules even your grammar teacher didn't know — find out how to avoid double-negative errors and get the last word on the dreaded who/whom debate

Open the book and find:

-The building blocks of a sentence

-The rules of verbs and prepositions

-Tips to improve speaking and writing skills

-The latest techniques for improving your command of grammar

-Updated examples and references

-Ways to improve your proofreading

-Help for speakers or writers of any skill level

Learn to:

-Get down to basics with the rules of English grammar

-Improve your writing and verbal communication skills

-Brush up on your proofreading abilities

-Improve your grades and/or test scores

Author Biography

Geraldine Woods teaches English and directs the independent study program at a high school for gifted students. She has more than 35 years of teaching experience and is the author of more than 40 books, including English Grammar Workbook For Dummies.

Table of Contents

Introduction 1

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

Chapter 2: Verbs: The Heart of the Sentence 17

Chapter 3: Relax! Understanding Verb Tense 29

Chapter 4: Who's Doing What? How to Find the Subject 43

Chapter 5: Having It All: The Complete Sentence 55

Chapter 6: Handling Complements 73

Part II: Avoiding Common Errors 83

Chapter 7: Do You Feel Bad or Badly? The Lowdown on Adjectives and Adverbs 85

Chapter 8: Small Words, Big Trouble: Prepositions 101

Chapter 9: Everyone Brought Their Homework: Pronoun Errors 109

Chapter 10: Just Nod Your Head: About Agreement 121

Part III: No Garage, but Plenty of Mechanics 135

Chapter 11: Punctuation Law That Should Be Repealed: Apostrophes 137

Chapter 12: Quotations: More Rules Than the Internal Revenue Service 151

Chapter 13: The Pause That Refreshes: Commas 169

Chapter 14: Useful Little Marks: Dashes, Hyphens, and Colons 185

Chapter 15: CAPITAL LETTERS 195

Chapter 16: New Media, New Grammar Rules 207

Part IV: Polishing Without Wax — The Finer Points of Grammar 219

Chapter 17: Pronouns and Their Cases 221

Chapter 18: Fine-Tuning Verbs 235

Chapter 19: Saying What You Want to Say: Descriptive Words and Phrases 253

Chapter 20: Good, Better, Best: Comparisons 265

Chapter 21: Parallels Without the Lines 281

Part V: Rules Even Your Great-Aunt's Grammar Teacher Didn't Know 295

Chapter 22: The Last Word on Verbs 297

Chapter 23: The Last Word on Pronouns 309

Chapter 24: The Last Word on Sentence Structure 323

Part VI: The Part of Tens 343

Chapter 25: Ten Ways Two to Improve Your Proofreading 345

Chapter 26: Ten Ways to Learn Better Grammar 349

Index 353