English Grammar All-in-One For Dummies (+ Chapter Quizzes Online)

Learn to get your ideas across clearly and correctly—the easy way

English Grammar All-in-One For Dummies is packed with everything you need to know to communicate with confidence—in your writing, on standardized tests, at work, on social media, and everywhere else. Strong verbal and written skills can help you get where you want to be, and this easy-to-understand Dummies guide will help you understand the English grammar principles you need to know so you can improve your understanding of basic grammar and punctuation rules, easily identify parts of speech, and communicate more effectively.

• Learn the basics of punctuation—periods, commas, semicolons, and beyond
• Write clearer e-mails and messages, or ace the writing section of your test
• Navigate pronouns and make sure you’re using inclusive language
• Practice with end-of-chapter quizzes and even more online practice

English Grammar All-In-One For Dummies is an excellent resource for students, professionals, job seekers, non-native-English learners, and anyone who wants to brush up on using this crazy language we call English.

Geraldine Woods is a grammarian and writer with more than 35 years’ experience teaching and writing about English. She is the author of English Grammar For Dummies, SAT For Dummies, and Research Papers For Dummies.

Introduction 1

About This Book 1

Foolish Assumptions 2

Icons Used in This Book 2

Beyond the Book 3

Where to Go from Here 3

Unit 1: Exploring Grammar and Style 5

Chapter 1: Sampling the Ingredients of Grammar and Style 7

What This Year’s Sentence Is Wearing: Understanding Grammar and Style 8

Getting to Know the Elements of Grammar and Style 9

Parts of speech 10

Parts of a sentence 11

Small but important: Punctuating, capitalizing, and spelling 15

Recognizing Your Grammar Profile 18

Chapter 2: Adapting Language to Every Situation 21

Grasping the Power and Limits of Standard English 21

Adjusting Language to Suit Your Audience 22

Wanna get something to eat? Friendspeak 22

Conversational English 24

Standard English 24

Practice Questions Answers and Explanations 29

Whaddya Know? Chapter 2 Quiz 31

Answers to Chapter 2 Quiz 33

Unit 2: Exploring Parts of Speech 35

Chapter 3: People to See, Places to Go, Things to Remember: Recognizing Nouns 37

Identifying Nouns 38

Naming people with nouns 38

Naming places with nouns 39

Naming things with nouns 40

Naming ideas and emotions with nouns 41

Sorting Out Singular and Plural Nouns 42

Adding the letters S or ES to form plurals 42

Plurals that break the rules 44

Attaching “This,” “These,” and Other Words to Nouns 45

Practice Questions Answers and Explanations 47

Whaddya Know? Chapter 3 Quiz 49

Answers to Chapter 3 Quiz 50

Chapter 4: Meeting the Pronoun Family 51

Working Hard: Pronouns and Their Jobs 51

Replacing nouns 52

Replacing pronouns 53

Doubling back with -self pronouns 53

Creating connections, asking questions 54

Tracing Pronoun Traits 55

Person and number 56

Gender and number 58

Case 59

Practice Questions Answers and Explanations 61

Whaddya Know? Chapter 4 Quiz 63

Answers to Chapter 4 Quiz 64

Chapter 5: Existing and Acting with Verbs 65

Expressing Meaning with Verbs 66

Tense 66

Number 66

Mood 66

Voice 67

Meeting the Families: Linking and Action Verbs 67

Linking verbs: A giant equal sign 68

Forms of “be” 68

Synonyms of “be” 68

Savoring sensory verbs 69

Lights! Camera! Action verb! 70

Pop the Question: Locating the Verb 71

Calling the Help Line for Verbs 73

The big three 73

Timing is everything: Creating a time frame with helping verbs 77

Don’t ask! Questions and negative statements 77

Adding shades of meaning with helping verbs 79

Practice Questions Answers and Explanations 81

Whaddya Know? Chapter 5 Quiz 84

Answers to Chapter 5 Quiz 85

Chapter 6: Two Real Really Good Parts of Speech: Adjectives and Adverbs 87

Clarifying Meaning with Descriptions 88

Adding Adjectives 88

Adjectives describing nouns 89

Adjectives describing pronouns 89

Adjectives attached to linking verbs 90

Pop the question: Identifying adjectives 90

Articles: Not just for magazines 91

Stalking the Common Adverb 93

Pop the question: Finding the adverb 94

Adverbs describing adjectives and other adverbs 95

Choosing Between Adjectives and Adverbs 97

Sorting out “good” and “well” 98

Dealing with “bad” and “badly” 98

Practice Questions Answers and Explanations 100

Whaddya Know? Chapter 6 Quiz 103

Answers to Chapter 6 Quiz 104

Chapter 7: Tiny but Mighty: Prepositions, Conjunctions, and Interjections 105

Proposing Relationships: Prepositions 105

Prepositional phrases 106

Pop the question: Questions that identify the objects of the prepositions 108

Why pay attention to prepositions? 108

Connecting with Conjunctions 110

Improving flow and adding meaning with conjunctions 110

Pairing up conjunctions 112

Interjections Are Easy! 113

Practice Questions Answers and Explanations 114

Whaddya Know? Chapter 7 Quiz 116

Answers to Chapter 7 Quiz 117

Unit 3: Basic Elements of a Sentence 119

Chapter 8: Who’s Doing What? Identifying the Subject-Verb Pair 121

Baring the Bones of a Sentence: The Subject–Verb Pair 121

When One Is Not Enough: Compound Subjects and Verbs 122

Pop the Question: Locating the Subject–Verb Pairs 123

Popping the question for questions 124

Unusual word order 125

Not missing in action: Detecting you-understood 126

Don’t Get Faked Out: Avoiding Fake Verbs and Subjects 128

Verbals 128

“Here” and “there” sentences 129

Practice Questions Answers and Explanations 131

Whaddya Know? Chapter 8 Quiz 133

Answers to Chapter 8 Quiz 134

Chapter 9: Handling Complements 135

Getting a Piece of the Action: Complements for Action Verbs 135

Receiving the action: Direct objects 136

Rare, but sometimes there: Indirect objects 139

No bias here: Objective complements 141

Completing the Equation: Subject Complements 142

Practice Questions Answers and Explanations 146

Whaddya Know? Chapter 9 Quiz 148

Answers to Chapter 9 Quiz 149

Chapter 10: When All Is Said and Done: Complete Sentences 151

Completing Sentences: The Essential Subjects and Verbs 151

Not flying solo: Verb forms ending in –ing 152

Past verb forms that can’t stand alone 153

Do not “be” alone 155

Complete Thoughts, Complete Sentences 157

Reaching the End of the Line: End Marks 159

Connecting Ideas 161

Breaking Away from Sentence Fragments 166

Placing fragments in the right context 166

Steering clear of inappropriate fragments 167

Practice Questions Answers and Explanations 169

Whaddya Know? Chapter 10 Quiz 172

Answers to Chapter 10 Quiz 173

Chapter 11: No Santas but Plenty of Clauses 175

Grasping the Basics of Clause and Effect 175

Sorting Subordinate and Independent Clauses 177

Defining the Three Legal Jobs for Subordinate Clauses 179

Describing nouns and pronouns 179

Describing verbs, adjectives, or adverbs 179

Acting as subjects, objects, or subject complements inside another clause 180

Untangling Subordinate and Independent Clauses 180

Deciding When to Untangle Clauses 182

When you’re picking a pronoun 182

When you’re deciding on the correct verb 182

When you’re figuring out where to put commas 183

Choosing Content for Subordinate Clauses 183

Practice Questions Answers and Explanations 185

Whaddya Know? Chapter 11 Quiz 187

Answers to Chapter 11 Quiz 188

Unit 4: Clearing Up Confusing Grammar Points 189

Chapter 12: Relax! Understanding Verb Tense, Voice, and Mood 191

It’s All in the Timing: Tense 191

Simplifying matters: The simple tenses 191

Using the simple tenses correctly 194

Not picture-perfect: Understanding the perfect tenses 197

Employing the perfect tenses correctly 200

Speaking of the past and things that never change 204

Romeo lives! Writing about literature and art in present tense 206

The rebels: Dealing with irregular verbs 207

Giving Voice to Verbs 210

Getting Your Verbs in the Proper Mood 211

Stating the facts: Indicative 211

Commanding your attention: Imperative 211

Discovering the possibilities: Subjunctive 212

Practice Questions Answers and Explanations 216

Whaddya Know? Chapter 12 Quiz 220

Answers to Chapter 12 Quiz 221

Chapter 13: Agreement: Choosing Singular or Plural Verbs and Pronouns 223

Agreeing Not to Disagree 223

Making Subjects and Verbs Agree: The Basics 224

Matching Subjects and Verbs in Some Tricky Situations 225

Compound subjects 225

Ignoring distracting descriptions 225

Each and every 227

Either and neither, alone or with partners 227

Five puzzling pronouns 229

The ones, the things, and the bodies 230

Agreeing with Relative Pronouns 231

Politics and Other Irregular Subjects 233

Practice Questions Answers and Explanations 235

Whaddya Know? Chapter 13 Quiz 238

Answers to Chapter 13 Quiz 239

Chapter 14: Solving Pronoun Case 241

While We’re on the Subject: Choosing Pronouns to Act as Subjects 241

Taking an Objective Viewpoint: Choosing Pronouns to Act as Objects 244

Dealing with direct and indirect objects 244

Are you talking to I? Prepositions and pronouns 244

Attaching objects to verbals 246

Knowing the Difference Between Who and Whom 247

Attracting Appositives 249

Picking Pronouns for Comparisons 250

Dealing with Pronouns and -ing Nouns 251

Practice Questions Answers and Explanations 253

Whaddya Know? Chapter 14 Quiz 255

Answers to Chapter 14 Quiz 256

Chapter 15: Getting Specific: The Power of Descriptions 257

Creating Comparisons with Adjectives and Adverbs 257

Ending it with -er or giving more to adjectives 258

Creating comparisons with adverbs 260

Breaking the rules: Irregular comparisons 261

Resolving incomplete and illogical comparisons 263

On Location: Placing Descriptions Correctly 268

Troubling singles 268

Misplaced descriptions 270

Just hanging out: Danglers 272

Avoiding confusing descriptions 274

Practice Questions Answers and Explanations 276

Whaddya Know? Chapter 15 Quiz 279

Answers to Chapter 15 Quiz 280

Unit 5: Spelling, Punctuation, and Capitalization 281

Chapter 16: Becoming a Better Speler Speller 283

Following the Rules of English Spelling 283

Changing Y to I 284

I before E 285

Double letters 286

Dropping the silent E 287

Taming Spelling Demons 288

How does the word end? 289

One or two? 290

Which vowel? 290

Checking the Dictionary for Spelling Help 291

Practice Questions Answers and Explanations 293

Whaddya Know? Chapter 16 Quiz 295

Answers to Chapter 16 Quiz 296

Chapter 17: Little Hooks, Big Problems: Apostrophes 297

The Pen of My Aunt or My Aunt’s Pen? Using Apostrophes to Show Possession 298

Ownership for singles 299

Sharing the wealth: Plural possessives 299

A few special possessions 302

Shortened Words for Busy People: Contractions 304

Making short work of common contractions 305

You coulda made a contraction mistake 306

Managing Tricky Contraction/Pronoun Pairs 307

Its/it’s 308

Whose/who’s 308

Your/you’re 308

Their/there/they’re 308

Practice Questions Answers and Explanations 310

Whaddya Know? Chapter 17 Quiz 312

Answers to Chapter 17 Quiz 313

Chapter 18: Quotations: More Rules Than the Strictest Teacher 315

And I Quote 316

Punctuating Quotations 318

Quotations with speaker tags 318

Quotations without speaker tags 321

Quotations with question marks 323

Quotations with exclamation points 324

Quotations with semicolons 325

Quotations inside quotations 326

Germ-Free Quotations: Using Sanitizing Quotation Marks 327

Punctuating Titles: When to Use Quotation Marks 328

Practice Questions Answers and Explanations 331

Whaddya Know? Chapter 18 Quiz 333

Answers to Chapter 18 Quiz 334

Chapter 19: The Pause That Refreshes: Commas 337

Distinguishing Items: Commas in Series 338

Using “Comma Sense” to Add Information to Your Sentence 340

List of descriptions 341

Essential or extra? Commas tell the tale 342

Commas with appositive influence 344

You Talkin’ to Me? Direct Address 345

Using Commas in Addresses and Dates 346

Addressing addresses 346

Punctuating dates 347

Getting Started: The Introductory Comma 349

Words not connected to the meaning of the sentence 349

Phrases and clauses 350

Punctuating Independently 350

Practice Questions Answers and Explanations 352

Whaddya Know? Chapter 19 Quiz 354

Answers to Chapter 19 Quiz 355

Chapter 20: Useful Little Marks: Dashes, Hyphens, and Colons 357

Inserting Information with Dashes 357

Long dashes 358

Short dashes 358

H-y-p-h-e-n-a-t-i-n-g Made Easy 360

Understanding the great divide 360

Using hyphens for compound words 360

Placing hyphens in numbers 361

Utilizing the well-placed hyphen 361

Creating a Stopping Point: Colons 362

Addressing a business letter or an email 363

Introducing lists 363

Introducing long quotations 364

Practice Questions Answers and Explanations 367

Whaddya Know? Chapter 20 Quiz 369

Answers to Chapter 20 Quiz 370

Chapter 21: Capital Letters 373

Knowing What’s Up with Uppercase 373

Capitalizing (or Not) References to People 374

Sorting out job titles 374

Writing about family relationships 375

Tackling race and ethnicity 376

Capitalizing Geography: Directions and Places 377

Marking Seasons and Other Times 378

Capitalizing Work and School Terms 379

Capitalizing Titles 380

Headline style 380

Sentence style 382

?4U: Cn U AbbreV8? 383

Practice Questions Answers and Explanations 385

Whaddya Know? Chapter 21 Quiz 388

Answers to Chapter 21 Quiz 389

Unit 6: Developing Style 391

Chapter 22: Adding Meaning with Well-Chosen Words 393

Going Vivid with Verbs 393

“There is” a problem with boring verbs 393

Does your writing “have” a problem? 394

Don’t just “say” and “walk” away 395

Pinpointing Meaning with Nouns and Descriptions 397

Saving Time: Cutting Unnecessary Words 400

Repetition 400

Wordiness 400

Practice Questions Answers and Explanations 403

Whaddya Know? Chapter 22 Quiz 405

Answers to Chapter 22 Quiz 407

Chapter 23: Grammar Gremlins 409

Deleting Double Negatives 409

Sounding Incorrect 412

Scoring D minus 412

Three terrible twos 413

You gotta problem with grammar? 413

Almost twins 414

Pairs of Trouble: Complicated Verbs 417

Sit/set 417

Hanged/hung 417

Rise/raise 418

Lie/lay 418

Lose/loose 419

One Word or Two? 420

Three for the Road: Other Common Errors 422

Between/among 422

Being that 422

Try and/try to 423

Practice Questions Answers and Explanations 424

Whaddya Know? Chapter 23 Quiz 426

Answers to Chapter 23 Quiz 427

Chapter 24: Writing Stylish Sentences 429

Speaking Verbally 429

Identifying verbals 430

Choosing the correct tense 432

Sprucing Up Boring Sentences with Clauses and Verbals 434

Clauses 435

Verbals 436

Mixing It Up: Changing Sentence Patterns and Length 437

Patterns 437

Going long or cutting it short 440

Practice Questions Answers and Explanations 442

Whaddya Know? Chapter 24 Quiz 445

Answers to Chapter 24 Quiz 447

Unit 7: Grammar in Action 449

Chapter 25: Adapting Your Style to Electronic Media 451

Hitting the Screen with Formal or Informal Language 452

Communicating Clearly in Texts, Tweets, and Posts 454

Dropping words 454

Dropping punctuation and capital letters 456

Abbreviating 457

Emailing Your Way to Good Grammar 458

The heading 459

The greeting 459

The body 460

The closing 460

PowerPoint to the People 461

Surveying presentation slides 462

Writing titles 462

Biting the bulleted list 464

Autocorrect and Other Error Magnets 469

Practice Questions Answers and Explanations 470

Whaddya Know? Chapter 25 Quiz 472

Answers to Chapter 25 Quiz 474

Chapter 26: Writing at School and on the Job 475

A Is for Accomplished: Writing at School 475

Essays and research papers 476

Science reports 480

Get to Work: Writing on the Job 483

Letters 483

Memos 486

Practice Questions Answers and Explanations 488

Whaddya Know? Chapter 26 Quiz 490

Answers to Chapter 26 Quiz 491

Index 493

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