English Grammar Demystified | DeMystified

English Grammar Demystified

Authors: Phyllis Dutwin

Published: November 2009

eISBN: 9780071600811 0071600817 | ISBN: 9780071600804

Contents

Introduction

Part One: All About the English Sentence

Chapter 1 The Essential Elements of the English Sentence

Subject and Verb

Sentence Fragments and Run-Ons

Time and Number: Agreement Between Subject and Verb

Perfect Verb Tenses

Irregular Verbs

Chapter 2 Introduction to the Parts of Speech

Parts of Speech

Nouns

Verbs

Adjectives

Adverbs

Pronouns

Prepositions

Conjunctions

Interjections

Articles

Chapter 3 More About Verbs, Prepositions, and Pronouns

Perfect Tenses

Prepositional Phrases

More About Pronouns

Personal Pronouns

Ownership Pronouns

Mirror Pronouns

Relative Pronouns

Who, Whom, That, or Which?

Demonstrative Pronouns

Indefinite Pronouns

Part One Test

Part Two: All About Punctuation and Capitalization

Chapter 4 Punctuation: End Marks and Commas

Brief History of Punctuation

Period

Question Mark

Exclamation Point

Comma

Chapter 5 More About Punctuation

Semicolon

Quotation Marks

Colon

Apostrophe

Dash and Hyphen

Parentheses and Brackets

Chapter 6 Capitalization

Brief History of the Alphabet and Capitalization

Modern Rules of Capitalization

Part Two Test

Part Three: Mastering Good Sentence Structure

Chapter 7 Building Better Sentences

Building Balanced Sentences

Creating Well-Connected Sentences

Trimming Unnecessary Words from Sentences

Chapter 8 Punctuation Builds Sentences

Punctuation in Sentence Building

Simple Sentences

Compound Sentences

Complex Sentences

Compound-Complex Sentences

Chapter 9 Style and Clarity

Writing Clearer Sentences

Using Active Verbs

Placing Important Information Last

Using Verbs Instead of Nouns

Avoiding Unclear Pronoun References

Placing Descriptive Words Correctly

Deleting Unnecessary Words

Correcting Illogical Statements

Writing Balanced Sentences—a Reminder

Using Prepositions Correctly in a Series

Part Three Test

Part Four: Spelling and Word Usage Skills

Chapter 10 Proven Techniques to Improve Spelling

Who Needs Help with Spelling?

Techniques for Improving Spelling Skills

Helpful Spelling Rules—or Not

Becoming a Better Speller

Chapter 11 Correct Word Usage

Easily Confused Words: Homonyms, Homophones, and Homographs

Incorrectly Used Words and Phrases

Words That Sound Almost Alike but Have Different Meanings

Part Four Test

Final Exam

Appendix A: Most Commonly Misspelled Words

Appendix B: The 50 Most Deadly Common Errors

Answer Key

Index