English Grammar Workbook For Dummies with Online Practice

Geraldine Woods has taught every level of English from 5th grade through AP. Her more than 50 books include English Grammar For Dummies and many children's books. At www.grammarianinthecity.com, Woods blogs about current language trends and amusing signs she spots around New York City.

• Introduction 1Foolish Assumptions 2Icons Used in This Book 2Beyond the Book 3Where to Go from Here 3Part 1: Building a Firm Foundation: Grammar Basics 5Chapter 1: Tailoring Language to Suit Your Audience and Purpose 7Climbing the Ladder of Language Formality 8Matching Message to Situation 10Answers to “Tailoring Language to Suit Your Audience and Purpose” 13Chapter 2: Identifying the Major Elements of a Sentence 15Going to the Heart of the Matter: The Verb 15Treasure hunt: Finding the verb 16Choosing the correct verb for negative expressions 17Questioning with verbs 18Aiding and abetting: Helping verbs 19Zeroing in on the Subject 20When one isn’t enough: Forming noun plurals 21Adding Meaning: Objects and Complements 23Answers to Questions about Major Elements of a Sentence 25Chapter 3: Having It All: Writing Complete Sentences 29Finding Subjects and Verbs that Match 30Checking for Complete Thoughts 31Improving Flow with Properly Joined Sentences 33Setting the Tone with Endmarks 36Proper Sentence or Not? That Is the Question 37Calling All Overachievers: Extra Practice with Complete Sentences 39Answers to Complete Sentence Problems 40Part 2: Clearing Up Confusing Grammar Points 45Chapter 4: Finding the Right Verb at the Right Time 47Using Past, Present, and Future Tense at the Right Times 47Putting Perfect Tenses in the Spotlight 49Speaking of the Past and Things That Never Change 51Romeo Lives! Writing about Literature and Art in Present Tense 53Hitting Curveballs: Irregular Forms 54Getting a Handle on Common Irregulars: Be and Have 56Calling All Overachievers: Extra Practice with Verbs 58Answers to Problems on Verbs and Verb Tenses 59Chapter 5: Agreement: Choosing Singular or Plural Verbs and Pronouns 67Meeting Their Match: Pairing Subjects and Verbs 67Boning up on the basics 68Taming the tough guys: Difficult subjects 70Dealing with tricksters 72Matching Pronouns and Antecedents 73Calling All Overachievers: Extra Practice with Hitching Subjects and Verbs 77Answers to Subject, Verb, and Pronoun Pairing Problems 78Chapter 6: Solving Pronoun Case 85Meeting the Subject at Hand and the Object of My Affection 85To “Who” or To “Whom”? That Is the Question 87You Talkin’ to Me, or I? Pronouns as Objects of Prepositions 89Matching Possessive Pronouns to “-ing” Nouns 90Missing in Action: Choosing Pronouns for Implied Comparisons 91Calling All Overachievers: Extra Practice with Pronoun Case 92Answers to Advanced Pronoun Problems 93Chapter 7: Little Words Packing a Lot of Power: Prepositions and Interjections 99Pinning Down Prepositions 100Interjections Are Simple! 102Calling All Overachievers: Extra Practice with Prepositions and Interjections 103Answers to Questions About Prepositions and Interjections 104Chapter 8: Writing Good or Well: Adjectives and Adverbs 107Identifying Adjectives and Adverbs 107The Right Place at the Right Time: Placing Adjectives and Adverbs 109How’s It Going? Choosing Between Good/Well and Bad/Badly 111Mastering the Art of Articles 112For Better or Worse: Forming Comparisons 113Visiting the -ER (and the -EST): One- or two-word comparisons 113Going from bad to worse (and good to better): Irregular comparisons 116Calling All Overachievers: Extra Practice with Descriptors 117Answers to Adjective and Adverb Problems 118Part 3: Mastering Mechanics 125Chapter 9: A Hook That Can Catch You: Apostrophes 127Showing Who Owns What: Possessives 128Tightening Up Text: Contractions 129Calling All Overachievers: Extra Practice with Apostrophes 132Answers to Apostrophe Problems 133Chapter 10: “Can I Quote You on That?” Quotation Marks 137Quoting and Paraphrasing: What’s the Difference? 137Giving Voice to Direct Quotations 139Punctuating Titles 140Calling All Overachievers: Extra Practice with Quotation Marks 142Answers to Quotation Problems 143Chapter 11: Pausing to Consider the Comma 147Keeping Lists in Order with Commas and Semicolons 148Directly Addressing the Listener or Reader 150Punctuating Dates and Addresses 150Placing Commas in Combined Sentences 152Inserting Extras with Commas: Introductions and Interruptions 154Setting Descriptions Apart 155Calling All Overachievers: Extra Practice with Commas 157Answers to Comma Problems 158Chapter 12: Handling Dashes, Hyphens, and Colons 165Dashing Off 165Helping Yourself to Hyphens 167Coming to a Stop: Colons 168Calling All Overachievers: Extra Practice with Dashes, Hyphens, and Colons 170Answers to Problems on Dashes, Hyphens, and Colons 171Chapter 13: Hitting the Big Time: Capital Letters 175Paying Respect to People’s Names and Titles 176Capitalizing the Right Time and Place 177Working with Business and School Terms 178Capitalizing Titles of Literary and Media Works 180Managing Capital Letters in Abbreviations 181Calling All Overachievers: Extra Practice with Capital Letters 182Answers to Capitalization Problems 183Chapter 14: Writing for Electronic Media 187Knowing Your Audience: The Right Writing for the Right Situation 187Shortening Your Message 190Powering Up Your Presentation Slides 192Calling All Overachievers: Extra Practice with Electronic Media 195Answers to Electronic Media Problems 196Part 4: Going Above and Beyond: the Finer Points Of Grammar and Style 199Chapter 15: Going for the Gold: The Finer Points of Verb Usage 201Voicing an Opinion: Active and Passive Verbs 201In the Mood: Selecting the Right Verb for All Sorts of Sentences 203Indicating facts: Indicative mood 204Issuing commands: Imperative mood 204Telling lies: Subjunctive mood 205Spicing Up Sentences by Adding Interesting Verbs 207Calling All Overachievers: Extra Practice with Voice and Mood 208Answers to Voice and Mood Problems 210Chapter 16: Identifying Clauses and Their Effects 215Locating Clauses 215Sorting Independent and Subordinate Clauses 217Making Clauses Work Together 218Answers to Clause Problems 221Chapter 17: Adding Style to Sentences 225Speaking Verbally 225Identifying verbals 226Telling time with verbals 227Playing with Sentence Patterns 228Introductory elements 228Combining ideas and changing word order 231Calling All Overachievers: Extra Practice Honing Your Sentences 233Answers to Sentence Improvement Problems 234Chapter 18: Staying on Track: Parallel Writing 239Geometry Meets English: Making Sentences Parallel 239Staying in Gear: Avoiding Unnecessary Shifts 242Following Special Rules for VIPs: Very Important Pairs 245Drawing Parallel Comparisons 247Calling All Overachievers: Extra Practice with Parallels 248Answers to Parallelism Problems 249Chapter 19: Steering Clear of Confusion: Clarity 255Putting Descriptive Words in Their Proper Place 255Inserting single-word descriptions 256Relocating longer descriptions 257Dangling descriptions 259Getting caught in the middle: Vague descriptions 262Avoiding Illogical Comparisons 263Completing half-finished comparisons 263Being smarter than yourself: Illogical comparisons 265Making Sure Your Pronouns Are Meaningful 267Calling All Overachievers: Extra Practice in Writing Clear Sentences 269Answers to Clarity Problems 270Chapter 20: Dealing with Grammar Demons 277Dropping Double Negatives 277Telling Word-Twins Apart 279Distinguishing Between Commonly Confused Words 280Counting and Measuring Grammatically 281Taming Tricky Verbs 282Banishing Bogus Expressions 283Calling All Overachievers: Extra Practice with Tricky Words 287Answers to Grammar Demon Problems 288Appendix: Grabbing Grammar Goofs 293Index 313