English Grammar Essentials For Dummies (Australian Edition)

194 Pages·2016·8.93 MB·English

by  Anderson Wendy M.

Australian Edition
English
Grammar
Essentials
by Wendy M Anderson
Geraldine Woods
Lesley J Ward
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English Grammar Essentials For Dummies®
Australian edition published by
Wiley Publishing Australia Pty Ltd
42 McDougall Street
Milton, Qld 4064
www.dummies.com
Copyright © 2013 Wiley Publishing Australia Pty Ltd
The moral rights of the authors have been asserted.
National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication data:
Author: Anderson, Wendy M
Title: English Grammar Essentials For Dummies/Wendy M Anderson;
Geraldine Woods; Lesley J Ward.
Edition: Australian ed.
ISBN: 9781118493311 (pbk.)
Series: For Dummies
Notes: Includes index
Subjects: English language — Grammar.
English language — Grammar — Problems, exercises, etc.
English language — Self-instruction.
Other Authors/
Contributors: Woods, Geraldine
Ward, Lesley J
Dewey Number: 428.2
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About the Authors
Wendy M Anderson spent the first decade or so of her
professional life as an English teacher before reinventing herself
as an education publisher. She then moved on to teaching
editing and professional writing to adult learners, guest lecturing
in grammar and tutoring in a university English department, and
facilitating corporate workshops in business communication.
She occupies the remaining daylight hours (and lots of the non-
daylight hours too) enjoying the feast or famine world of the
freelance writer/editor and has been widely published. She lives
on the Bass Coast and strongly denies all accusations that she
has a few wallabies loose in the top paddock.
Geraldine Woods career as a grammarian began in her
elementary school, which in those days was called ‘grammar
school’ for very good reason. With the guidance of a series of
nuns carrying long rulers, she learned how to diagram every
conceivable type of sentence. She has been an English teacher
for over 25 years and has written 40 books, give or take a few.
She loves baseball, Chinese food and the novels of Jane Austen.
Lesley J Ward has worked in the publishing industry for over
30 years, editing and proofreading. She is a founder member of
the UK Society of Editors and Proofreaders (SfEP), and regularly
leads training courses for SfEP, the Irish Book Publishers’
Association and the London College of Communications. She is
also a distance-learning tutor for the Publishing Training Centre.
She lives in Berkshire and is notorious for being a harmless
eccentric/dangerous radical who refuses to have email.
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Publisher’s Acknowledgements
We’re proud of this book; please send us your comments through our online
registration form located at http://dummies.custhelp.com.
Some of the people who helped bring this book to market include the following:
Acquisitions, Editorial and Media Production
Development
Cartoon: Glenn Lumsden
Acquisitions Editor: Clare Dowdell
Proofreader: Charlotte Duff
Editorial Manager: Dani Karvess
Technical Reviewer: Margaret
McKenzie
Indexer: Don Jordan, Antipodes
Indexing
Every effort has been made to trace the ownership of copyright material.
Information that enables the publisher to rectify any error or omission in
subsequent editions is welcome. In such cases, please contact the Legal
Services Section of John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd.
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Contents at a Glance
Introduction.............................................................1
Chapter 1: Grappling with Grammar........................................................5
Chapter 2: Controlling Verbs ..................................................................17
Chapter 3: Completing Sentences ..........................................................31
Chapter 4: Peaking with Pronouns .........................................................45
Chapter 5: Modifying with Descriptions................................................55
Chapter 6: Punctuating for Meaning ......................................................67
Chapter 7: Choosing Capital Letters and Numerals.............................87
Chapter 8: Avoiding Tricky Situations ...................................................95
Chapter 9: Reporting Speech and Quoting Others ............................115
Chapter 10: Writing with Style ..............................................................133
Chapter 11: Creating More Accurate Documents ..............................151
Chapter 12: Ten Solutions to the Most Common
Grammar Errors..................................................................................167
Index...................................................................173
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Table of Contents
Introduction .......................................................1
About This Book .........................................................................1
Foolish Assumptions ..................................................................2
Icons Used in This Book ............................................................2
Where to Go from Here .............................................................3
Chapter 1: Grappling with Grammar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Grasping Grammar: Good and Proper .....................................6
Using Aussie English ..................................................................7
Having a Quick Squiz at Aussie Words ....................................8
Choosing Levels of English .....................................................10
Impressing with formal English ....................................10
Chatting in informal English .........................................11
Labelling Words ........................................................................12
Nouns ...............................................................................12
Pronouns .........................................................................12
Verbs ................................................................................13
Adjectives ........................................................................13
Adverbs ............................................................................14
Verbals .............................................................................14
Determiners .....................................................................15
Prepositions ....................................................................15
Conjunctions ...................................................................16
Chapter 2: Controlling Verbs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Verifying Verbs .........................................................................17
Happening with action verbs ........................................18
Being with linking verbs ................................................18
Helping out in verb groups ...........................................20
Finding the whole verb ..................................................21
Simplifying Subjects .................................................................22
Locating the subject ......................................................22
Baring the complete subject .........................................22
Uncovering a hidden subject ........................................23
Commanding an implied subject..................................23
Making Subjects and Verbs Agree ..........................................24
Separating singles from plurals ....................................24
Adjusting verbs to match subjects ..............................25
Matching two subjects...................................................27
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viii
English Grammar Essentials For Dummies, Australian Edition
Looking like Verbs: Verbals ....................................................28
Participating with participles .......................................28
Naming gerunds ..............................................................28
Defining infinitives ..........................................................30
Chapter 3: Completing Sentences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Having Subject–Verb Pairs ......................................................31
Expressing Complete Thoughts ..............................................33
Creating Completeness with Clauses .....................................33
Understanding clauses ..................................................34
Telling main from dependent clauses .........................35
Considering Fragments ............................................................36
Fragmented subject–verb pair .....................................37
Fragmented ideas ...........................................................37
Contemplating Complements ..................................................39
Receiving direct objects ................................................40
Baring complete objects................................................40
Identifying the direct object or complement .............41
Recognising indirect objects ........................................42
Completing Linking Verbs .......................................................43
Complementing the Object .....................................................44
Chapter 4: Peaking with Pronouns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Matching Pronouns with Nouns .............................................46
Avoiding Vague Pronoun Use .................................................46
Choosing Singular and Plural Pronouns ................................47
Pairing Pronouns with Collective Nouns ..............................48
Selecting Pronouns as Subjects ..............................................49
Matching more than one subject .................................50
Selecting pronouns as objects......................................51
Knowing Who or Whom ...........................................................51
Comparing with Pronouns ......................................................52
Owning Possessive Pronouns .................................................52
Reflecting on Reflexive Pronouns ...........................................53
Chapter 5: Modifying with Descriptions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
Adding Meaning with Adjectives ............................................55
Describing with Adjectives ......................................................56
Locating adjectives ........................................................57
Adding adjectives to nouns ..........................................57
Adding adjectives to pronouns ....................................59
Using adjectives with linking verbs .............................59
Describing with Adverbs .........................................................60
Finding adverbs ..............................................................60
Using adverbs to describe other describing words ..61
Using adverbs to modify a complete statement ........62
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