Basic English Grammar For Dummies

Geraldine Woods is a grammarian. She has more than 35 years of teaching experience and is the author of more than 50 books. Her friendly style and good humor make learning easy. She is a lifelong New Yorker and blogs about public grammar transgressions at www.grammarianinthecity.com.

• Introduction 1Part 1: Getting Started with Basic English Grammar 9Chapter 1: Getting a Grip on Grammar 11Chapter 2: Language in Action 25Part 2: Meeting the Parts of Speech 35Chapter 3: People to See, Places to Go, Things to Remember: Recognizing Nouns 37Chapter 4: Perfecting Pronouns 51Chapter 5: Doing and Being Words: Verbs 67Chapter 6: Describing with Adjectives and Adverbs 83Chapter 7: Building Relationships with Prepositions 101Chapter 8: Connecting and Commenting: Conjunctions and Interjections 113Part 3: Creating Correct Sentences 125Chapter 9: Making Progress: Verbs Ending in –ing 127Chapter 10: Putting the Past in Order: The Perfect Tenses 139Chapter 11: Seeking Subjects 153Chapter 12: Adding Meaning with Complements 169Chapter 13: Writing Complete Sentences 183Part 4: Punctuation and Capitalization 197Chapter 14: Applying Apostrophes Accurately 199Chapter 15: Catching a Break with Commas 213Chapter 16: Who Said What: Quotation Marks 229Chapter 17: Going Big: Capital Letters 243Part 5: Grammar in Action 259Chapter 18: Texting, Emailing, and Posting 261Chapter 19: Presentation Slides and Bulleted Lists 271Chapter 20: Writing at School and on the Job 283Part 6: Fine-Tuning Your Writing 297Chapter 21: Tricky Word Traps 299Chapter 22: Avoiding Common Mistakes 311Chapter 23: Finishing Touches: Advanced Grammar Topics 323Part 7: The Part of Tens 339Chapter 24: Ten Spelling Tips to Remember 341Chapter 25: Five “Always” and Five “Never” Rules of English Grammar 347Index 351

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