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Grammar Review
Nouns with irregular plurals Quail -> quail Radius -> radii Phenomenon -> phenomena Medium -> media Cactus -> cacti Syllabus -> syllabi Trout -> trout Fish -> fish (or fishes when referring to
species) Deer -> deer
Collective Nouns
Collective nouns refer to a collection of persons, places, things, ideas or activities. They take a singular or plural verb depending on the meaning of the sentence.
Consider a collective noun singular when it refers to a group as a whole or plural when it refers to each member individually.
Words that are plural but singular in meaning take singular verbs.
Compound Nouns
A compound noun is made up of two or more words. Compound nouns that are not hyphenated form the plural by adding s or es to the singular form.
Examples: handful -> handfuls; bookcase -> bookcases; cupful -> cupfuls
Compound Nouns
If the compound noun is hyphenated, the principal part of the word should be changed to plural.
Example: father-in-law -> fathers-in-law; passer-by -> passers-by
Commonly Misused Words
Try and -> try to Your’s -> yours alot -> a lot Centered around -> centered on Irregardless -> regardless Should of -> should have Real busy -> very busy
Commonly Misused Words
Cupsful -> cupfuls Different than -> different from Most everybody -> almost
everybody Seldom ever -> seldom
In vs. Into
In – being inside Into – the act of entering
When I walked into the store… C.J. was in the shoe department.
Irregular Verbs
Most verbs in the English language are regular verbs, but about 150 verbs are not.
Most irregularities involve the ways in which the past and past participle are formed.
4 Principal Parts of a Verb Present: describes action happening now Past: describes action that happened in
the past Past participle: describes action that
happened in the past; uses helping verbs such as have, has, or had.
Present participle: describes action happening now; has an –ing ending and always uses helping verbs such as is, am, are.
Irregular Verbs
Fight Bring Hear Win Tell Find Begin Drive
Don’t be tense about verbs
A passage that begins in the present tense should continue in the present tense
A passage that begins in the past tense should continue in the past tense.
Do not mix tenses as you write within individual sentences.
Make the tense agree with the message of your sentence.
Subject-Verb Agreement
Subjects connected by and are plural. (Greg and Mandie are in Dothan today.)
If a compound subject joined by and is thought of as a unit, use a singular verb. (Macaroni and cheese is a favorite for most children.)
When subjects are joined by correlative conjunctions (or, Neither…nor, Either…or), the verb agrees with the subject closer to the verb.
NOMINATIVE, OBJECTIVE, and POSSESSIVE CASE PRONOUNS
Nominative Case
Objective Case
Possessive Case
Singular: Singular: Singular:
Iyouhe, she, it
meyouhim, her, it
my, mineyour, yourshis, her, hers, its
Plural: Plural: Plural:
weyouthey
usyouthem
our, oursyour, yourstheir, theirs
SUBJECT PRONOUNS
Sarah went to the store.-or- SHE went to the store.
That is easy enough. But “subject” pronouns are also used as PREDICATE NOMINATIVES.
What is a PREDICATE NOMINATIVE?
Predicate Nominatives
A predicate nominative is a noun or PRONOUN in the predicate that renames the subject. Some examples of pronouns being used as a predicate nominative: It is he. The only people in the line were they. It is we who are responsible for the decision
to downsize. It could have been they. It is I at the door.
OBJECT PRONOUNS
Object pronouns are often a little easier to identify. They must be used as OBJECTS within the sentence. They can be:
DIRECT OBJECTS INDIRECT OBJECTSOBJECTS OF THE PREPOSITION
Possessive Pronouns
Don’t forget possessive pronouns (mine, his, hers, its, ours, yours, theirs) do not use apostrophes.
Active Voice v. Passive Voice
In the active voice, the subject performs an action.
In the passive voice, the subject receives the action.
The active voice is more direct and vigorous than the passive voice.
Dangling Participles
A word or phrase is called a dangling participle when there is not a word in the sentence for it to modify.
Showing an interest in computers, personnel offices are flooded with applications. (Who is showing an interest?)
Misplaced Participles
Misplaced participles are words or groups of words placed next to words that they are not intended to modify.
Words frequently confused
Complement – a helpful addition Compliment – expression of
admiration
Principle – a law, code, doctrine, or rule
Principal – sum of money or a person or thing of importance
Words frequently confused
Among – use to show relation of more than two persons or things
Between – use when dealing with two things
Formally – in a formal manner Formerly – happening in the past
Words frequently confused Except – to exclude or to exempt
something Accept – to receive a thing, agree to
something
Affect – always a verb; means to influence or bring about change
Effect – can be a noun or verb. As a noun it means “a result or outcome” and as a verb it means “to bring about or accomplish”
Comma Splice
Comma splice – when two independent clauses are connected with only a comma
Semicolons
Use a semicolon: To separate elements in a series in
which one element is already separated by commas
In a compound sentence with no conjunction
Before a conjunctive adverb (I wanted to go to the recital; however, I was too busy.)
Colons
Use a colon after a complete sentence to introduce a list of items when introductory words such as namely, for example, or that is do not appear.
A colon should not precede a list unless it follows a complete sentence.
Use a colon after an introductory statement containing the words as follows or the following.
Capitalization
Do not capitalize seasons. Capitalize directions only when they refer to
definite sections of the U.S. or world. Capitalize the first word in a full sentence
direct quotation. Do no capitalize the second part of a broken quotation.
Always capitalize the first and last words of titles of publications. Capitalize other words within titles, including short verb forms Is, Are and Be. Do not capitalize words such as a, an, the, but, as, if, and, or, nor or prepositions.