Introduction

Someone important — a teacher or a boss — is judging your work and wants you to submit a self-evaluation. You begin to write:

I had given I gived I gave alot of a lot of much thought to all my work. I believe my performance is really real excellent. Everyone praised the most recent project the more recent the project about stocks and bonds.

What a headache! You know what you want to say. You're just not sure how to say it. Fortunately, help is on the way. In fact, it’s already here. Basic English Grammar For Dummies, 2nd edition, explains what you need to know about writing reports, texts, presentation slides, letters, and, well, anything. Instead of listing outdated rules, Basic English Grammar For Dummies, 2nd edition, focuses on current usage — what’s correct today.

Does that last bit surprise you? When you’re sitting in an English classroom, grammar rules seem set in stone. They’re not. Human beings create language. Because human beings change, language does too. Pronouns (words that stand in for names of people, places, and things) are a good example. Thou and thy have faded, and they has recaptured an old meaning, which I explain in the boxed text. Punctuation is also different. Old books contain more commas ( , ) and fewer exclamation points ( ! ) than today’s works.

About This Book

The goal of Basic English Grammar For Dummies, 2nd edition, is to help you improve your speaking and writing skills, not to add fancy grammar terms to your vocabulary. For this reason, I explain what you need to know in ordinary, nonteacher language. If I can’t avoid a technical term, I immediately define it and provide examples.

With every grammar rule, I give you a few practice questions. I also provide the answers, so you can check whether you’ve understood the concept. If I mention an idea but do not explain it immediately, I direct you to a chapter that contains more information.

How This Book Is Organized

When they hear the word grammar, many people imagine a teacher wagging a finger while saying, “Don’t do this!” or “Always do that!” In my mind, grammar is an umbrella covering all the things that factor into the way people speak and write, from the form of words to the nature of a complete sentence to punctuation and much, much more. Because grammar is a broad subject, in this book I break it into manageable chunks.

Part 1: Getting Started with Basic English Grammar

Part one takes you on a tour of the elements of English grammar and then explains how to adjust your level of formality to suit your purpose, situation, audience, and medium.

Part 2: Parts of Speech

Each chapter in this part explains how to identify and use these building blocks of language: nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions, and interjections. (You’ll love the last one. It’s nearly impossible to make a mistake with an interjection.)

Part 3: Creating Correct Sentences

Sentences are like hangers in your closet. They organize ideas! This part surveys the elements of a sentence (verbs, subjects, complements) and explains how to write complete, grammatically correct sentences.

Part 4: Punctuation and Capitalization

If you’ve ever asked yourself whether you need a capital letter or if you’ve ever puzzled over quotation marks and commas, Part 4 is for you. I discuss each punctuation mark: its meaning, usage, and placement. I also explain the most common situations requiring capital letters.

Part 5: Grammar in Action

This part takes grammar into the real world: first to texts and messages and posts on the internet and then to the workplace and classroom. Along the way, you learn how to format presentation slides and bulleted lists, both essential to modern writing.

Part 6: Fine-Tuning Your Writing

Part 6 shows you how to avoid falling into tricky word traps and how to sidestep common grammar errors. This part also covers some advanced — okay, picky — points of the language, such as the mood and voice of verbs and the difference between who and whom.

Part 7: The Part of Tens

Spelling checkers are good, but learning basic spelling rules is better. This part also explains when and how to consult a dictionary and lists five “always” and five “never” rules of English.

Foolish Assumptions

I don’t know who you are, but I have already spent some time with you — the reader I imagine. When I write, I keep you, the reader, in my mind. This is how I see you:

• You know the language, but you are open to learning more.
• You want a firmer grasp of the rules of Standard English, the formal language of educated people.
• You’re busy. You don’t want to waste time memorizing facts you will never need.
• You enjoy a little humor.

Have I described you accurately? I hope so.

Conventions Used in This Book

To help you navigate through this book, I use the following conventions:

• Italic is used to emphasize and highlight new words or defined terms.
• Boldfaced text indicates keywords in bulleted lists or the action part of numbered steps.
• Underlining calls your attention to a particular spot in a word or a sentence.
• Monofont is used for web addresses.
• Sidebars, which look like text enclosed in a shaded gray box, consist of information that’s interesting to know but not necessarily critical to your understanding of the chapter or section...