Grammar: 1001 Practice Questions For Dummies (+ Free Online Practice)

Geraldine Woods has more than 40 years of teaching experience and has helped students prepare for the SAT for more than 30 years. She has written more than 50 books, including English Grammar For Dummies.

• Introduction 1What You’ll Find 3How This Workbook Is Organized 4Part 1: The Questions 4Part 2: The Answers 5Beyond the Book 5What you’ll find online 6How to register 6Where to Go for Additional Help 6Part 1: The Questions 7Chapter 1: Telling Time: Identifying the Verb and Choosing the Correct Tense 9The Questions You’ll Work On 9What to Watch Out For 9Locating the Verb 10Choosing Simple and Perfect Tense Verb Forms 11Consistently Choosing the Right Verb Tense 14Chapter 2: Working with Irregular, Helping, and Descriptive Verb Forms 17The Questions You’ll Work On 17What to Watch Out For 18Handling Irregular Verbs 18Dealing with To Be and To Have 20Adding Meaning with Helping Verbs 21Creating Questions with Helping Verbs 23Detecting and Placing Descriptive Verb Forms 24Selecting Tense for Descriptive Verb Forms 25Chapter 3: One Cool and One Hot Topic: Forming Plurals of Nouns and Pronouns 27The Questions You’ll Work On 27What to Watch Out For 28Forming Plural Nouns 28Sorting Singular and Plural Pronouns 29Chapter 4: Reaching an Agreement: Pairing Subjects and Verbs 33The Questions You’ll Work On 33What to Watch Out For 33Locating the Subject 34Fine-Tuning Subject-Verb Agreement 35Chapter 5: Matchmaking: Pairing Pronouns and Antecedents 39The Questions You’ll Work On 39What to Watch Out For 39Identifying Pronouns and Their Antecedents 40Pairing Pronouns and Antecedents Correctly 41Avoiding Vague Pronoun References 42Chapter 6: Pronouns on a Case-by-Case Basis 45The Questions You’ll Work On 45What to Watch Out For 45Sorting Subject, Object, and Possessive Pronouns 46Using Subject and Object Pronouns Correctly 47Chapter 7: Forming Complete Sentences 53The Questions You’ll Work On 53What to Watch Out For 53Recognizing Complete Sentences 54Combining Ideas Correctly 55Correcting Run-Ons and Fragments 56Chapter 8: Moving Beyond the Basics: Adding Descriptions 59The Questions You’ll Work On 59What to Watch Out For 60Distinguishing Between Adjectives and Adverbs 60Placing Adjectives and Adverbs in Sentences 61Dealing with Articles 63Hyphenating Descriptions 64Chapter 9: Going Long: Descriptive Phrases and Clauses 65The Questions You’ll Work On 65What to Watch Out For 65Identifying the Words Being Described 66Avoiding Misplaced, Dangling, and Vague Descriptions 68Chapter 10: Writing Gooder Better Comparisons 71The Questions You’ll Work On 71What to Watch Out For 71Creating Comparative and Superlative Forms 72Avoiding Incomplete, Illogical, or Vague Comparisons 73Chapter 11: Correct with a Capital C: Capitalization 77The Questions You’ll Work On 77What to Watch Out For 77Capitalizing Names, Titles, Relationships, and Ethnicity 78Capitalizing GeographicalNames, Quotations, and School References 80Capitalizing the Titles of Artistic or Scientific Works 81Chapter 12: Exercising Comma Sense: Placing Commas Correctly 83The Questions You’ll Work On 83What to Watch Out For 83Commas in Lists 84Using Commas with Identifying and Extra Information 85Creating a Pause in a Sentence 87Chapter 13: A Smooth Ride to Meaning: Apostrophes and Quotation Marks 89The Questions You’ll Work On 89What to Watch Out For 89Creating the Possessive Form of Nouns 90Creating Contractions with Apostrophes 91Inserting and Deleting Apostrophes 91Distinguishing Between Quotations and Paraphrases 92Placing Quotation Marks and Other Punctuation 93Punctuating Academic Work 94Chapter 14: Seeking Unity and Balance: Parallelism 97The Questions You’ll Work On 97What to Watch Out For 97Identifying Parallel Elements in Lists 98Working with Paired Conjunctions 100Creating Parallel Comparisons 101Keeping Sentences Parallel 101Chapter 15: Cutting Repetition and Wordiness 103The Questions You’ll Work On 103What to Watch Out For 103Cutting Repetitive Words and Phrases from Sentences 104Writing Concisely 105Chapter 16: Breaking Patterns to Create Interesting Sentences 109The Questions You’ll Work On 109What to Watch Out For 109Weaving Complex Sentences 110Varying Sentence Patterns 115Chapter 17: More on Verbs: Voice and Mood 119The Questions You’ll Work On 119What to Watch Out For 119Identifying Active and Passive Verb Forms 120Changing Passive Voice to Active 121Using Subjunctive Verbs Properly 121Chapter 18: Tailoring Your Writing for Electronic Media 123The Questions You’ll Work On 123What to Watch Out For 124Presentation Slides 124Composing emails and Texts 127Chapter 19: Choosing Language to Suit Your Audience 131The Questions You’ll Work On 131What to Watch Out For 132Identifying Levels of Formality 132The Right Words for the Right Time 133Chapter 20: Confusing Word Pairs 135The Questions You’ll Work On 135What to Watch Out For 135Distinguishing between Words Resembling Each Other 136Words Incorrectly Seen as Synonyms 139Chapter 21: Making Proper Word Choices 143The Questions You’ll Work On 143What to Watch Out For 143Selecting the Correct One- or Two-Word Expression 144Eliminating Nonstandard Words 145Chapter 22: Identifying Nonstandard Expressions 149The Questions You’ll Work On 149What to Watch Out For 149Avoiding Double Negatives and Other Errors 150Counting and Measuring Words 152Strange Verb Pairs 153Part 2: The Answers 155Chapter 23: Answers 157Index 313