English Grammar Workbook for ‰ Dummies
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www.IELTS4U.blogfa.com 01_599321 ffirs.qxp 4/3/06 8:54 PM Page i English Grammar Workbook FOR DUMmIES‰ www.IELTS4U.blogfa.com 01_599321 ffirs.qxp 4/3/06 8:54 PM Page ii www.IELTS4U.blogfa.com 01_599321 ffirs.qxp 4/3/06 8:54 PM Page iii English Grammar Workbook FOR DUMmIES‰ www.IELTS4U.blogfa.com by Geraldine Woods 01_599321 ffirs.qxp 4/3/06 8:54 PM Page iv English Grammar Workbook For Dummies® Published by Wiley Publishing, Inc. 111 River St. Hoboken, NJ 07030-5774 www.wiley.com Copyright © 2006 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana Published simultaneously in Canada No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise, except as permitted under Sections 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, 978-750-8400, fax 978-646-8600. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Legal Department, Wiley Publishing, Inc., 10475 Crosspoint Blvd., Indianapolis, IN 46256, 317-572-3447, fax 317-572-4355, or online at http://www.wiley.com/go/permissions. Trademarks: Wiley, the Wiley Publishing logo, For Dummies, the Dummies Man logo, A Reference for the Rest of Us!, The Dummies Way, Dummies Daily, The Fun and Easy Way, Dummies.com and related trade dress are trademarks or registered trademarks of John Wiley & Sons, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the United States and other countries, and may not be used without written permission. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Wiley Publishing, Inc., is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book. 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ISBN-13: 978-0-7645-9932-3 ISBN-10: 0-7645-9932-1 Manufactured in the United States of America 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 1B/SQ/QU/QW/IN 01_599321 ffirs.qxp 4/3/06 8:54 PM Page v About the Author Geraldine Woods began her education when teachers still supplied ink wells to their stu- dents. She credits her 35-year career as an English teacher to a set of ultra-strict nuns armed with thick grammar books. She lives in New York City, where with great difficulty she refrains from correcting signs containing messages such as “Bagel’s for sale.” She is the author of more than 40 books, including English Grammar For Dummies, Research Papers For Dummies, College Admission Essays For Dummies, and The SAT I Reasoning Test For Dummies. www.IELTS4U.blogfa.com 01_599321 ffirs.qxp 4/3/06 8:54 PM Page vi www.IELTS4U.blogfa.com 01_599321 ffirs.qxp 4/3/06 8:54 PM Page vii Dedication For the students who labor (and occasionally smile) in the grammar portion of my English classes. Author’s Acknowledgments I owe thanks to my colleagues at the Horace Mann School, who are always willing to discuss the finer points of grammar. I appreciate the work of Kristin DeMint, Sarah Faulkner, and Neil Johnson, editors whose attention and intelligence guided my writing. I also appreciate the efforts of Lisa Queen, my agent, and of Roxanne Cerda and Kathy Cox, Wiley acquisi- tions editors. www.IELTS4U.blogfa.com 01_599321 ffirs.qxp 4/3/06 8:54 PM Page viii Publisher’s Acknowledgments We’re proud of this book; please send us your comments through our Dummies online registration form located at www.dummies.com/register/. Some of the people who helped bring this book to market include the following: Acquisitions, Editorial, and Media Development Composition Services Project Editor: Kristin DeMint Project Coordinator: Adrienne Martinez Acquisitions Editor: Kathleen M. Cox Layout and Graphics: Denny Hager, Copy Editors: Sarah Faulkner, E. Neil Johnson Stephanie D. Jumper, Lynsey Osborn, Melanee Prendergast, Heather Ryan Editorial Program Coordinator: Hanna K. Scott Proofreaders: Leeann Harney, Jessica Kramer, Technical Editor: Sue Williams, PhD Henry Lazarek, Joe Niesen, Dwight Ramsey Senior Editorial Manager: Jennifer Ehrlich Indexer: Joan Griffitts Editorial Assistant: Nadine Bell Special Help Cover Photos: © Getty Images Michelle Hacker Cartoons: Rich Tennant (www.the5thwave.com) Publishing and Editorial for Consumer Dummies Diane Graves Steele, Vice President and Publisher, Consumer Dummies Joyce Pepple, Acquisitions Director, Consumer Dummies Kristin A. Cocks, Product Development Director, Consumer Dummies Michael Spring, Vice President and Publisher, Travel Kelly Regan, Editorial Director, Travel Publishing for Technology Dummies www.IELTS4U.blogfa.comAndy Cummings, Vice President and Publisher, Dummies Technology/General User Composition Services Gerry Fahey, Vice President of Production Services Debbie Stailey, Director of Composition Services 02_599321 ftoc.qxp 4/3/06 11:10 PM Page ix Contents at a Glance Introduction.................................................................................1 Part I: Laying Out the Concrete Slab: Grammar Basics....................7 Chapter 1: Placing the Proper Verb in the Proper Place .........................................................................9 Chapter 2: Matchmaker, Make Me a Match: Pairing Subjects and Verbs Correctly...........................23 Chapter 3: Who Is She, and What Is It? The Lowdown on Pronouns...................................................35 Chapter 4: Finishing What You Start: Writing Complete Sentences.....................................................49 Part II: Mastering Mechanics......................................................65 Chapter 5: Exercising Comma Sense........................................................................................................67 Chapter 6: Made You Look! Punctuation Marks That Demand Attention...........................................81 Chapter 7: One Small Mark, a Whole New Meaning: Apostrophes ......................................................91 Chapter 8: “Let Me Speak!“ Quotation Marks .......................................................................................101 Chapter 9: Hitting the Big Time: Capital Letters ..................................................................................113 Part III: The Pickier Points of Correct Verb and Pronoun Use .......125 Chapter 10: The Case of It (And Other Pronouns)...............................................................................127 Chapter 11: Choosing the Best Pronoun for a Tricky Sentence .........................................................141 Chapter 12: Traveling in Time: Tricky Verb-Tense Situations.............................................................155 www.IELTS4U.blogfa.comChapter 13: Are You and Your Verbs in the Right Mood?....................................................................167 Part IV: All You Need to Know about Descriptions and Comparisons......................................................................177 Chapter 14: Writing Good or Well: Adjectives and Adverbs ...............................................................179 Chapter 15: Going on Location: Placing Descriptions Correctly........................................................189 Chapter 16: For Better or Worse: Forming Comparisons....................................................................205 Chapter 17: Apples and Oranges: Improper Comparisons .................................................................215 Part V: Writing with Style.........................................................227 Chapter 18: Practicing Parallel Structure..............................................................................................229 Chapter 19: Spicing Up and Trimming Down Your Sentences............................................................243 Chapter 20: Steering Clear of Tricky Word Traps.................................................................................255