![Basic English Grammar For Dummies - US - Geraldine Woods](https://cdn.kobo.com/book-images/Images/1d285bbe-5d50-4543-a539-504e7d8821ec/300/300/False/image.jpg)
Sorry, we are not able to source the ebook you are looking for right now.
We did a search for other ebooks with a similar title, however there were no matches. You can try selecting from a similar category, click on the author's name, or use the search box above to find your ebook.
The easy way to brush up on your English skills
Is it good or well? There, their, or they're? Some people don't have to think twice about using proper English, but for the rest of us it can get tricky and confusing. Whether you're writing or speaking, it's all too easy to fall prey to simple mistakes that will represent you in a less-than-desirable light—which can potentially cost you a job or put you in an embarrassing social situation. Avoiding complicated grammar rules, Basic English For Dummies sticks to the basics and makes it easy to get up and running on what you need to know to partake in successful everyday communication, no matter your audience or medium.
Inside, you'll find plenty of examples and exercises, guidance on how to structure sentences to make yourself easily understood, and so much more. In no time, you'll leave the 'me or I?' debate at the door and speak and write confidently and correctly. Plus, you'll expand your vocabulary, find the right tone and style you want to convey in your communication, and avoid common English language pitfalls.
- Includes quizzes and self-tests
- Provides guidance on composing letters, emails, texts, and phone calls
- Explains in plain English how to improve your English skills
- Gives you instruction and exercises on putting your skills to practice right away
If English is your first language, but you missed or have forgotten the nuances that were taught in school, Basic English For Dummies is your go-to guide. It is also ideal for those learning English as a second language.
on
Introduction 1
About This Book 1
Foolish Assumptions 2
Icons Used in This Book 2
Beyond the Book 3
Where to Go From Here 3
Part I: Getting Started with Basic English Grammar 5
Chapter 1: Getting a Grip on Grammar 7
Getting to Know the Elements of Proper English 7
Building Language, Block by Block: Parts of Speech 8
Making Sentences 10
Action or being words 11
Subjects 12
Complements and descriptions 14
Small but Important: Punctuating, Capitalizing, and Spelling 14
Punctuation 15
Capitalization 16
Spelling 17
Facing Everyday Writing Tasks 18
Chapter 2: Language in Action 21
Adjusting Language to Suit Your Audience 21
Friendspeak 22
Conversational English 23
Standard English 24
Getting Help from Spelling and Grammar Checkers 26
Recognizing Your Grammar Profile 28
Part II: The Parts of Speech 31
Chapter 3: People to See, Places to Go, Things to Remember: Recognizing Nouns 33
Identifying Nouns 33
Naming people with nouns 34
Naming places with nouns 35
Naming things with nouns 36
Naming ideas and emotions with nouns 37
Sorting Out Singular and Plural Nouns 39
Adding the letters "S" or "ES" to form plurals 39
Creating plurals of words that end with the letter "Y" 40
Plurals that break the rules 42
Attaching "This," "These," and Other Words to Nouns 43
Chapter 4: Practicing Pronouns 47
Replacing Nouns with Pronouns 47
Pronouns for the speaker or writer 48
Pronouns that speak to others 50
Pronouns that speak about other people or things 51
Avoiding errors with two common pronouns 52
Solving the Case of Pronouns 54
Subject pronouns 54
Object pronouns 57
Sorting subject and object pronouns 58
Forming Possessive Pronouns 62
Chapter 5: Doing and Being Words: Verbs 65
Searching Out Verbs 65
Asking Questions to Find the Verb 66
Telling Time with Verbs 68
Present tense 68
Past tense 69
Future tense 71
Recognizing Forms of Some Important Verbs 72
The verb "be" 72
The verb "do" 73
The verb "have" 75
Getting Assistance from Helping Verbs 76
Asking questions with helping verbs 76
Creating negative statements with helping verbs 78
Expressing duty, ability, and possibility with helping verbs 80
Chapter 6: Describing with Adjectives and Adverbs 83
Adding Detail with Adjectives 83
How to find adjectives 85
Where to find adjectives 86
Writing Well with Adverbs 89
Adding information to verbs 89
Adding meaning to descriptions 91
Choosing between Adjectives and Adverbs 93
Placing "a" and "an" in the Proper Place 96
Making Comparisons with Adjectives and Adverbs 97
Single-word comparisons 97
Two-word comparisons 98
Irregular comparisons 99
Chapter 7: Little Things Mean a Lot: Prepositions 101
Recognizing Prepositions 101
Locating items and actions with prepositions 102
Telling time with prepositions 103
Discussing other relationships with prepositions 104
Identifying Objects of Prepositions 105
Finding objects through meaning 106
Locating objects with questions 107
Choosing Pronouns as Objects of Prepositions 109
Placing Prepositional Phrases in the Proper Place 110
Chapter 8: Joining and Commenting: Conjunctions and Interjections 113
Linking Ideas with Conjunctions 113
Adding meaning with conjunctions 114
Connecting equals 114
Paired conjunctions 116
Joining unequal ideas 118
Punctuating sentences with conjunctions 120
Identifying Interjections 123
Part III: Creating Correct Sentences.127
Chapter 9: Making Progress: Verbs Ending in -ing 129
Keeping Time with -ing Verb Forms ........129
Present progressive 130
Past progressive 131
Future progressive 132
Choosing between Simple and Progressive Tenses 133
Present 133
Past 135
Future 137
Some Help with Spelling -ing Verb Forms 138
Chapter 10: Revisiting the Past: The Perfect Tenses 141
Building a Bridge between the Present and the Past: Present Perfect Tense 141
Present perfect forms 142
When to use present perfect tense .144
Placing Events in Order with Past Perfect Tense 145
Past perfect forms 146
When to use past perfect tense 147
Breaking the Rules: Irregular Past Forms 150
Glancing at the Future Perfect Tense 152
Chapter 11: Searching for Subjects 155
Locating the Subject of a Sentence 155
Statement subjects 156
Question subjects 160
Command subjects 161
Matching Subjects and Verbs Properly 162
Sorting out subjects and verbs in common situations 163
Tackling tougher sentences 164
Dealing with Tricky Subjects 166
Singular subjects that look like plurals 166
Subjects in sentences with "here" and "there" 168
Changeable subjects 169
Chapter 12: Adding Meaning with Complements 171
Surveying Complements 171
Taking action: Objects 172
Finishing the thought: Subject complements 174
Popping the Question to Identify Objects and Subject Complements 176
Locating subject complements 180
Choosing the Proper Complement Pronoun 182
Chapter 13: Finishing the Job: Writing Complete Sentences 185
Halfway Is Not Enough: Expressing a Complete Thought 185
Cooking Up a Complete Sentence: The Essential Subject-Verb Pair 188
Not flying solo: Verb forms ending in -ing 188
Help wanted: Past verb forms that cannot stand alone 190
Do not be alone 191
Ending Sentences with Proper Punctuation 193
Changing the Rules for Texting 195
Dropping words 195
Skipping punctuation 196
Part IV: Punctuation and Capitalization 199
Chapter 14: Small Punctuation Mark, Big Trouble: Apostrophes 201
Possessed: Using Apostrophes to Show Ownership 201
Apostrophes and ownership 202
Forming singular possessives 204
Forming regular plural possessives 205
Forming irregular plural possessives 207
Shortening Words with Apostrophes 208
Avoiding Common Apostrophe Mistakes 211
Apostrophes in plurals 211
Possessive pronouns 212
Expanding contractions 213
Chapter 15: Pausing for a Rest: Commas 215
The Sound of Silence: Why Commas Matter 215
Making a List with Commas 217
Placing Commas before Conjunctions 221
Punctuating two connected, complete sentences 221
Punctuating other elements of a sentence 222
Placing Commas after Introductory Words 223
Single words and short phrases 224
Longer introductory elements 224
Introductory phrases containing verbs 225
Introductory subject-verb statements 226
Talking to People: Commas in Direct Address 228
Chapter 16: Who Said What: Quotation Marks 231
Telling the Truth with Quotation Marks 231
Quoting or Paraphrasing: Which Is Better? 232
Signaling exact words 233
Paraphrasing 234
Identifying the Source of a Quotation 236
Adding Punctuation to Quotations 238
Quotations with speaker tags 238
Quotations without speaker tags 241
Identifying Titles with Quotation Marks 242
Chapter 17: Big or Small? When to Write Capital Letters 245
Knowing the (Capital) ABCs of Capital Letters 245
Setting Up Sentences with Capital Letters 246
Naming Names 248
Who are you? Names for people 248
Where are you? Names for places 249
What's that? Names of things 250
Mr. Mayor or mr. mayor: Capitalizing Titles 251
Titles appearing before a name 252
Titles appearing after a name 252
Titles appearing alone 254
Mom or mom? Capitalizing Family Relationships 255
Capitalizing Creative Works 256
Capitalizing Abbreviations 259
Part V: Grammar in Action 261
Chapter 18: Writing with Electronic Media 263
The Unbreakable Rule: Communicating Clearly in Texts, Instant Messages, and Tweets 263
Omitting words 264
Writing Proper Emails 268
Exploring email structure 269
Writing for Websites and Social Media 273
Chapter 19: Presentation Slides and Bulleted Lists 275
Ladies and Gentlemen, May I Present . . . Slides! 275
The title 277
The introduction 279
Writing Bullet Points 281
Matching bullets 281
Capitalizing and punctuating bullet points 284
Chapter 20: Writing at School and on the Job 287
A Is for Accomplished: Writing at School 287
Essays and research papers 287
Science lab reports 292
Get to Work: Writing on the Job 295
Letters 295
Memos 298
Emails and other electronic media 299
Part VI: Common Errors 301
Chapter 21: Spelling Your Way to Perfection 303
Following the Rules of English Spelling 303
I before E 304
Double letters 305
Dropping the silent E 306
Mastering Spelling Demons 308
How does the word end? 308
One or two? 310
Which vowel? 310
Checking the Dictionary for Spelling Help 311
Chapter 22: Tricky Word Traps 313
Same Sounds, Different Spelling: Sorting Out Word Pairs 313
Homonyms 314
Similar, but not alike: Other word pairs 318
Together or Apart? One- and Two-Word Expressions 320
Staying Away from Improper Expressions 322
Chapter 23: Avoiding Common Mistakes 325
Writing Clear Descriptions 325
Descriptions attached to the wrong word 326
Descriptions and missing words 328
Writing Clear Pronouns 329
No! No! Understanding Double Negatives 332
Part VII: The Part of Tens 335
Chapter 24: Ten Easy Ways to Improve Your Writing Skills 337
Listening 337
Reading 338
Writing 338
Rewriting 338
Recognizing Your Weak Spots 339
Asking for Help 339
Proofreading 340
Making Friends with a Dictionary 340
Using Spelling and Grammar Checkers 340
Solving Puzzles and Playing Games 341
Chapter 25: Ten Mistakes to Avoid 343
Substituting "Me" for "I" 343
Switching Verb Tenses 344
Adding Apostrophes to Plurals 344
Confusing "An" and "A" 345
Forgetting Endmarks 345
Pairing "You" with the Wrong Verb 345
Connecting Sentences with a Comma 346
Omitting Capital Letters 346
Using Half a Verb 347
Being Unclear 347
Index 349
ISBN: 9781119063490
ISBN-10: 1119063493
Published: 18th May 2016
Format: ePUB
Language: English
Number of Pages: 384
Audience: General Adult
Publisher: Wiley
Country of Publication: GB
Edition Number: 1