1001 Practice Questions For Dummies

314 Pages·2014·2.9 MB·English

by  Woods, Geraldine

1,001 Grammar
Practice Questions

1,001 Grammar
Practice Questions
by Geraldine Woods
1,001 Grammar Practice Questions For Dummies®
Published by: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River St., Hoboken, NJ 07030-5774, www.wiley.com
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Library of Congress Control Number: 2013954227
ISBN 978-1-118-74501-4 (pbk); ISBN 978-1-118-74475-8 (ebk); ISBN 978-1-118-74474-1 (ebk)
Manufactured in the United States of America
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Contents at a Glance
Introduction ............................................................................1
Part I: The Questions ................................................................5
Chapter 1: Time Travel: Identifying the Verb and Choosing the Correct Tense ..........................7
Chapter 2: Taking a Look at Irregular, Helping, and Descriptive Verb Forms ............................13
Chapter 3: One to Many: Forming Plurals of Nouns and Pronouns..............................................23
Chapter 4: Identifying Subjects and Perfecting Subject-Verb Agreement ...................................29
Chapter 5: Coming to a Clear Agreement: Pairing Pronouns and Antecedents ..........................35
Chapter 6: Solving the Case (of Pronouns) .....................................................................................39
Chapter 7: Forming Complete Sentences .........................................................................................45
Chapter 8: Moving Beyond the Basics: Adding Descriptions ........................................................51
Chapter 9: Taking the Long View: Descriptive Phrases and Clauses ...........................................57
Chapter 10: For Better or Worse: Forming Correct Comparisons ................................................63
Chapter 11: Avoiding Capital Punishment: Placing Capital Letters Properly .............................69
Chapter 12: Exercising Comma Sense: Placing Commas Correctly ..............................................75
Chapter 13: Little Things That Mean A Lot: Apostrophes and Quotation Marks .......................81
Chapter 14: Not Just for Railroad Tracks: Parallelism ...................................................................89
Chapter 15: Slimming Down: Cutting Repetition and Wordiness .................................................95
Chapter 16: Aiming for Style: Creating Interesting Sentences ....................................................101
Chapter 17: Spotlighting Verbs: Voice and Mood .........................................................................109
Chapter 18: Dealing with Electronic Media ...................................................................................113
Chapter 19: Choosing Language to Suit Your Audience ..............................................................121
Chapter 20: Tricky Word Traps ......................................................................................................127
Chapter 21: Seeing Double: Confusing Word Pairs .......................................................................133
Chapter 22: Steering Clear of Incorrect Expressions ...................................................................139
Part II: The Answers ............................................................145
Chapter 23: Answers.........................................................................................................................147
Index ..................................................................................289

Table of Contents
Introduction ................................................................. 1
What You’ll Find ..............................................................................................1
How This Workbook Is Organized .................................................................2
Part I: The Questions .............................................................................2
Part II: The Answers ..............................................................................3
Beyond the Book .............................................................................................3
What you’ll find online ..........................................................................3
How to register .......................................................................................4
Where to Go for Additional Help ...................................................................4
Part I: The Questions .................................................... 5
Chapter 1: Time Travel: Identifying the Verb and Choosing
the Correct Tense . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7
The Questions You’ll Answer .........................................................................7
What to Watch Out For ...................................................................................7
Locating the Verb ............................................................................................8
Choosing Simple and Perfect Tense Verb Forms ........................................9
Consistently Choosing the Right Verb Tense ............................................12
Chapter 2: Taking a Look at Irregular, Helping, and Descriptive
Verb Forms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .13
The Questions You’ll Work On ....................................................................13
What to Watch Out For .................................................................................13
Handling Irregular Verbs ..............................................................................14
Dealing with To Be and To Have ..................................................................16
Adding Meaning with Helping Verbs ...........................................................17
Creating Questions with Helping Verbs ......................................................18
Detecting and Placing Descriptive Verb Forms .........................................19
Selecting Tense for Descriptive Verb Forms ..............................................20
Chapter 3: One to Many: Forming Plurals of Nouns and Pronouns . . .23
The Questions You’ll Work On ....................................................................23
What to Watch Out For .................................................................................23
Forming Plural Nouns ...................................................................................25
Sorting Singular and Plural Pronouns .........................................................26
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1,001 Grammar Practice Questions For Dummies
Chapter 4: Identifying Subjects and Perfecting Subject-Verb
Agreement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .29
The Questions You’ll Work On ....................................................................29
What to Watch Out For .................................................................................29
Locating the Subject ......................................................................................30
Fine-Tuning Subject-Verb Agreement .........................................................31
Chapter 5: Coming to a Clear Agreement: Pairing Pronouns
and Antecedents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .35
The Questions You’ll Work On ....................................................................35
What to Watch Out For .................................................................................35
Identifying Pronouns and Their Antecedents ............................................36
Pairing Pronouns and Antecedents Correctly ...........................................37
Avoiding Vague Pronoun References ..........................................................38
Chapter 6: Solving the Case (of Pronouns) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .39
The Questions You’ll Work On ....................................................................39
What to Watch Out For .................................................................................39
Sorting Subject, Object, and Possessive Pronouns ...................................40
Using Subject and Object Pronouns Correctly ..........................................41
Chapter 7: Forming Complete Sentences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .45
The Questions You’ll Work On ....................................................................45
What to Watch Out For .................................................................................45
Recognizing Complete Sentences ................................................................46
Combining Ideas Correctly ...........................................................................46
Correcting Run-Ons and Fragments ............................................................48
Chapter 8: Moving Beyond the Basics: Adding Descriptions . . . . . . .51
The Questions You’ll Work On ....................................................................51
What to Watch Out For .................................................................................51
Distinguishing Between Adjectives and Adverbs ......................................52
Placing Adjectives and Adverbs in Sentences ...........................................53
Dealing with Articles .....................................................................................54
Hyphenating Descriptions ............................................................................55
Chapter 9: Taking the Long View: Descriptive Phrases
and Clauses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .57
The Questions You’ll Work On ....................................................................57
What to Watch Out For .................................................................................57
Identifying the Words Being Described ......................................................58
Avoiding Misplaced, Dangling, and Vague Descriptions ..........................59
Chapter 10: For Better or Worse: Forming Correct Comparisons . . . .63
The Questions You’ll Work On ....................................................................63
What to Watch Out For .................................................................................63
Creating Comparative and Superlative Forms ...........................................64
Avoiding Incomplete, Illogical, or Vague Comparisons ..................................65