English Grammar for dummies All in All

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