GRAMMAR, PUNCTUATION & USAGE

GRAMMAR, PUNCTUATION & USAGE

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Table of Contents

Parts of a Sentence 5

Subject 5

Noun 5

Adjective 5

Pronoun 5

Verb 5

Adverb 5

Verb Phrase 6

Clauses 6

Independent Clause (IC) 6

Dependent Clause (DC) 6

Dependent Marker Word (DM) 6

Connecting dependent and independent clauses 6

Coordinating Conjunction (CC) 7

Independent Marker Word (IM) 7

Preposition 7

Count and Noncount Nouns 7

Count or Noncount? 7

Pluralizing 8

COUNT vs. NON-COUNT STUDENT EXERCISE 10

Pronouns 12

Subject Pronouns 12

Object Pronouns 12

Possessive Pronouns 13

Reflexive Pronouns 13

PRONOUN STUDENT EXERCISE 14

Simple, Compound & Complex Sentences 15

SIMPLE SENTENCE 15

COMPOUND SENTENCE 15

COMPLEX SENTENCE 16

COMPLEX SENTENCES / ADJECTIVE CLAUSES 16

SIMPLE, COMPLEX & COMPOUND SENTENCES STUDENT EXERCISE 17

Subjects and Verbs 19

Definition of a Verb 19

Definition of a Subject 19

SUBJECTS & VERBS STUDENT EXERCISE 21

Making Subjects and Verbs Agree 22

MAKING SUBJECTS & VERBS AGREE STUDENT EXERCISE 1 24

SUBJECT AND VERB AGREEMENT STUDENT EXERCISE 2 25

Who and Whom / Whoever and Whomever 26

Who/Whom 26

WHO, WHOM, WHOEVER, WHOMEVER STUDENT EXERCISE 28

Accept vs. Except 29

Accept and Except 29

ACCEPT VS. EXCEPT STUDENT EXERCISE 30

Adjectives and Adverbs 31

Adjectives 31

Adverbs 31

ADJECTIVES & ADVERBS STUDENT EXERCISE 33

Semicolon ; 34

SEMI-COLON STUDENT EXERCISE 35

Apostrophes ‘ ’ 36

APOSTROPHES STUDENT EXERCISE 39

Commas 40

COMMAS STUDENT EXERCISE 42

Capitals 43

PUNCTUATION & CAPITALIZATION STUDENT EXERCISE 45

Writing Numbers 46

WRITING NUMBERS STUDENT EXERCISE 48

Colon : 49

Parenthesis () 49

Dash - 50

Quotation Marks “ ” 50

PUNCTUATION STUDENT EXERCISE 52

Sentence Fragments 53

SENTENCE FRAGMENT STUDENT EXERCISE 55

Spelling: MISUSED WORDS 57

MISUSED WORDS STUDENT EXERCISE 62

Parallel Structure 63

PARALLEL STRUCTURE STUDENT EXERCISES 66

A or An? 66

‘A’ OR ‘AN’ STUDENT EXERCISE 68

Spelling: IE/EI 69

SPELLING: EI/IE STUDENT EXERCISE 70

Parts of a Sentence

The information below is provided for your information & review – the following terms will be used when discussing grammar, punctuation, sentence structure & spelling.

Subject

The word or words in a sentence about which something is said

Examples: Children read.

Friends and neighbours stopped by to offer help after the event.

Noun

Person, place, or thing

Examples: paper, dog, magazine, desk

Adjective

A word that describes a noun

Examples: pretty, ugly, wet, green

Pronoun

A pronoun is a word standing for a noun. There are different kinds of pronouns, including the following:

Indefinite pronouns ("some," "any"),

demonstrative pronouns ("this," "those"),

interrogative pronouns ("who," "which"),

personal pronouns ("I," "you," "she"),

Verb

A verb is an action word.

Examples: walking, jump, run

Adverb

An adverb is a word that modifies the meaning of a verb, an adjective, or another adverb. They answer the questions "how?" "when?" "where?" “what?” “who?”

Example: The little girl climbed quickly up the very tall tree.

Verb Phrase

A verb phrase is the combination of a verb and an adverb whose combined meaning cannot be deduced from their individual meanings.

Example: Friends and neighbours stopped by to offer help after the event.

Clauses

Independent Clause (IC)

An independent clause is a group of words that contains a subject and verb and expresses a complete thought. An independent clause is a sentence.

Example: Jim studied in the Sweet Shop for his chemistry quiz. (IC)

Dependent Clause (DC)

A dependent clause is a group of words that contains a subject and verb but does not express a complete thought. A dependent clause cannot be a sentence. Often a dependent clause is marked by a dependent marker word.

Example: When Jim studied in the Sweet Shop for his chemistry quiz . . . (DC)

Dependent Marker Word (DM)

A dependent marker word is a word added to the beginning of an independent clause that makes it into a dependent clause. Some common dependent markers are: after, although, as, as if, because, before, even if, even though, if, in order to, since, though, unless, until, whatever, when, whenever, whether, and while.

Example: When Jim studied in the Sweet Shop for his chemistry quiz, it was very noisy. (DM)

Connecting dependent and independent clauses

There are two types of words that can be used as connectors at the beginning of an independent clause: coordinating conjunctions and independent marker words.

Coordinating Conjunction (CC)

The seven coordinating conjunctions used as connecting words at the beginning of an independent clause are and, but, for, or, nor, so, and yet. When the second independent clause in a sentence begins with a coordinating conjunction, a comma is needed before the coordinating conjunction:

Example: Jim studied in the Sweet Shop for his chemistry quiz, but it was hard to concentrate because of the noise. (CC)

Independent Marker Word (IM)

An independent marker word is a connecting word used at the beginning of an independent clause. These words can always begin a sentence that can stand alone. When the second independent clause in a sentence has an independent marker word, a semicolon is needed before the independent marker word. Some common independent markers are: also, consequently, furthermore, however, moreover, nevertheless, and therefore.

Example: Jim studied in the Sweet Shop for his chemistry quiz; however, it was hard to concentrate because of the noise. (IM)

Preposition

One of a small number of relational (function) words like "in," "on," "behind," etc. which are known as prepositions because they are "pre-posed" or "placed before" the phrases they introduce.

Example: In the box which sat on the porch behind the house was an egg.

Count and Noncount Nouns

Count or Noncount?

The main difference between count and noncount nouns is whether you can count the things they refer to or not.

Count nouns refer to things that exist as separate and distinct individual units. They usually refer to what can be perceived by the senses.

Examples: table, chair, word, finger, remark, girl, bottle, award, candidate - all can be counted

Example sentences:

I stepped in a puddle. (How many puddles did you step in? Just one.)

I drank a glass of milk. (Glasses of milk can be counted)

I saw an apple tree. (Apple trees can be counted)

Noncount nouns refer to things that can't be counted because they are thought of as wholes that can't be cut into parts. They often refer to abstractions and occasionally have a collective meaning (for example, furniture).

Examples: anger, furniture, warmth, courage, education, leisure, progress, weather, precision

Example Sentences:

I dove into the water. (How many waters did you dive into? The question does not make any sense; therefore, water is a noncount noun.)

I saw the milk spill. (How many milks? Milk cannot be counted.)

I admired the foliage. (How many foliages? Foliage cannot be counted.)

Note: Since the issue is complicated and almost no rule is absolute, there will be exceptions to the above definitions; however, we can show some general patterns. Bear in mind that what is countable in another language may not be countable in English, and vice versa.

Pluralizing

Rule: Most Count nouns pluralize with ‘s’ and most Noncount nouns do not pluralize at all.

An Exception to the Rule

For a number of nouns, the rule needs slight revision. Certain nouns in English belong to both classes: they have both a noncount and a count meaning. Normally the noncount meaning is abstract and general and the count meaning concrete and specific.

Compare:

Count

 I've had some difficulties finding a job. (refers to a number of specific problems)

 The talks will take place in the Krannert building. (refers to a number of specific lectures)

 The city was filled with bright lights and harsh sounds. (refers to a number of specific lights and noises)

Noncount

 She succeeded in school with little difficulty. (refers to the general idea of school being difficult)

 I dislike idle talk. (refers

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