Sách English Grammar Demystified

Introduction ix
PART ONE ALL ABOUT THE ENGLISH SENTENCE
CHAPTER 1 The Essential Elements of the English Sentence 3
Subject and Verb 4
Sentence Fragments and Run-Ons 5
Time and Number: Agreement Between Subject
and Verb 12
Perfect Verb Tenses 18
Irregular Verbs 19
CHAPTER 2 Introduction to the Parts of Speech 25
Parts of Speech 26
Nouns 29
Verbs 30
Adjectives 36
Adverbs 40
Pronouns 42
Prepositions 44
Conjunctions 46
Interjections 48
Articles 48vi Contents
CHAPTER 3 More About Verbs, Prepositions, and Pronouns 51
Perfect Tenses 52
Prepositional Phrases 57
More About Pronouns 61
Personal Pronouns 61
Ownership Pronouns 64
Mirror Pronouns 65
Relative Pronouns 67
Who, Whom, That, or Which? 68
Demonstrative Pronouns 70
Indefi nite Pronouns 71
PART ONE TEST 77
PART TWO ALL ABOUT PUNCTUATION
AND CAPITALIZATION
CHAPTER 4 Punctuation: End Marks and Commas 89
Brief History of Punctuation 89
Period 91
Question Mark 93
Exclamation Point 95
Comma 97
CHAPTER 5 More About Punctuation 103
Semicolon 104
Quotation Marks 111
Colon 114
Apostrophe 118
Dash and Hyphen 120
Parentheses and Brackets 123
CHAPTER 6 Capitalization 127
Brief History of the Alphabet and Capitalization 127
Modern Rules of Capitalization 129
PART TWO TEST 137PART THREE MASTERING GOOD SENTENCE STRUCTURE
CHAPTER 7 Building Better Sentences 153
Building Balanced Sentences 153
Creating Well-Connected Sentences 160
Trimming Unnecessary Words from
Sentences 167
CHAPTER 8 Punctuation Builds Sentences 171
Punctuation in Sentence Building 171
Simple Sentences 172
Compound Sentences 174
Complex Sentences 179
Compound-Complex Sentences 183
CHAPTER 9 Style and Clarity 187
Writing Clearer Sentences 188
Using Active Verbs 188
Placing Important Information Last 191
Using Verbs Instead of Nouns 193
Avoiding Unclear Pronoun References 195
Placing Descriptive Words Correctly 198
Deleting Unnecessary Words 200
Correcting Illogical Statements 204
Writing Balanced Sentences—a Reminder 206
Using Prepositions Correctly in a Series 207
PART THREE TEST 213
PART FOUR SPELLING AND WORD
USAGE SKILLS
CHAPTER 10 Proven Techniques to Improve Spelling 229
Who Needs Help with Spelling? 229
Techniques for Improving Spelling Skills 231
Helpful Spelling Rules—or Not 233
Becoming a Better Speller 241
Contents viiviii Contents
CHAPTER 11 Correct Word Usage 243
Easily Confused Words: Homonyms, Homophones,
and Homographs 243
Incorrectly Used Words and Phrases 257
Words That Sound Almost Alike but Have
Different Meanings 261
PART FOUR TEST 265
FINAL EXAM 271
APPENDIX A Most Commonly Misspelled Words 295
APPENDIX B The 50 Most Deadly Common Errors 303
Answer Key 311
Index 335