English Grammar Essentials For Dummies – Australia

Wendy M Anderson is an author, editor and educator. She has taught effective communication in classroom and business environments for over 20 years. Geraldine Woods has taught grammar for over 25 years. Lesley J Ward is a founding member of the UK Society for Editors and Proofreaders.

Introduction 1


About This Book 1


Foolish Assumptions 2


Icons Used in This Book 2


Where to Go from Here 3


Chapter 1: Grappling with Grammar 5


Grasping Grammar: Good and Proper 6


Using Aussie English 7


Having a Quick Squiz at Aussie Words 8


Choosing Levels of English 10


Impressing with formal English 10


Chatting in informal English 11


Labelling Words 12


Nouns 12


Pronouns 12


Verbs 13


Adjectives 13


Adverbs 14


Verbals 14


Determiners 15


Prepositions 15


Conjunctions 16


Chapter 2: Controlling Verbs 17


Verifying Verbs 17


Happening with action verbs 18


Being with linking verbs 18


Helping out in verb groups 20


Finding the whole verb 21


Simplifying Subjects 22


Locating the subject 22


Baring the complete subject 22


Uncovering a hidden subject 23


Commanding an implied subject 23


Making Subjects and Verbs Agree 24


Separating singles from plurals 24


Adjusting verbs to match subjects 25


Matching two subjects 27


Looking like Verbs: Verbals 28


Participating with participles 28


Naming gerunds 28


Defining infinitives 30


Chapter 3: Completing Sentences 31


Having Subject–Verb Pairs 31


Expressing Complete Thoughts 33


Creating Completeness with Clauses 33


Understanding clauses 34


Telling main from dependent clauses 35


Considering Fragments 36


Fragmented subject–verb pair 37


Fragmented ideas 37


Contemplating Complements 39


Receiving direct objects 40


Baring complete objects 40


Identifying the direct object or complement 41


Recognising indirect objects 42


Completing Linking Verbs 43


Complementing the Object 44


Chapter 4: Peaking with Pronouns 45


Matching Pronouns with Nouns 46


Avoiding Vague Pronoun Use 46


Choosing Singular and Plural Pronouns 47


Pairing Pronouns with Collective Nouns 48


Selecting Pronouns as Subjects 49


Matching more than one subject 50


Selecting pronouns as objects 51


Knowing Who or Whom 51


Comparing with Pronouns 52


Owning Possessive Pronouns 52


Reflecting on Reflexive Pronouns 53


Chapter 5: Modifying with Descriptions 55


Adding Meaning with Adjectives 55


Describing with Adjectives 56


Locating adjectives 57


Adding adjectives to nouns 57


Adding adjectives to pronouns 59


Using adjectives with linking verbs 59


Describing with Adverbs 60


Finding adverbs 60


Using adverbs to describe other describing words 61


Using adverbs to modify a complete statement 62


Misplacing Descriptions 63


Dangling a Description in Space 64


Squinting Descriptions 66


Chapter 6: Punctuating for Meaning 67


Conquering Commas 67


Using commas in lists 68


Addressing people directly 70


Noting introductory and concluding words 71


Adding extra detail with pairs of commas 72


Connecting commas with conjunctions 73


Airing All about Apostrophes 74


Using apostrophes in contractions 74


Owning apostrophes of possession 75


Simplifying Semicolons 79


Hinging complete thoughts 79


Joining with conjuncts 79


Separating in lists 80


Clarifying Colons 80


Setting up long lists 81


Setting up extracts 81


Expanding on an idea 81


Dealing with Dashes 82


Using the humble hyphen with words 82


Using the humble hyphen with numbers 83


Embracing Em and En Dashes 84


Chapter 7: Choosing Capital Letters and Numerals 87


Covering the Basics of Capitalisation 88


Speaking officially 88


Addressing family 89


Capitalising directions 89


Understanding geographical capital letters 90


Talking about history 91


Referring to times and times of year 91


Looking at titles 92


Deciding When to Use Numerals 93


Chapter 8: Avoiding Tricky Situations 95


Eliminating Sexist Pronouns 95


Choosing Between Adjectives and Adverbs 97


Choosing between good and well 97


Choosing between real and really 98


Being Clear with Even, Almost and Only 99


Understanding the Connection Between Which,That and the Comma 101


Creating Clear Comparisons 101


Controlling regular comparisons 102


Mastering irregular comparisons 103


Eradicating illogical comparisons 104


Storytelling in Past or Present Tense 105


Choosing past or present tense 105


Mixing tenses 106


Choosing between done and did 107


Using lie, lay, laid, lain 108


Matching Up Two-Part Conjunctions 109


Ending the Problem with I or Me 110


Editing Out Empty Subjects: Its, Here and There 112


Ending a Sentence with a Preposition 113


Chapter 9: Reporting Speech and Quoting Others 115


Quoting Someone Else 115


Punctuating Block Quotations 116


Joining the Dots with Ellipses 118


Putting Brackets within Quotations 119


Recording Titles 121


Writing Conversation: Quotation Marks 122


Indicating indirect speech 122


Dealing with direct speech 123


Showing a change of speaker 129


Writing someone’s thought 131


Creating Scare Quotes: Aerial Quotation Marks 132


Chapter 10: Writing with Style 133


Building Better Sentences 133


Pairing equal ideas: Coordination 133


Demoting lesser ideas: Subordination 135


Creating logic with coordination and subordination 137


Varying sentence patterns 139


Finding the Right Voice: Active and Passive 140


Creating Writing That Flows: Cohesion 143


Putting ideas in order: Sequencing 144


Connecting ideas with transition words 145


Being Absolutely Clear: Plain English 146


Avoiding word-wasting 147


Selecting the best words 149


Staying positive 149


Chapter 11: Creating More Accurate Documents 151


Summarising with Bullet Point Lists 151


Handling Addresses and Dates 153


Adding addresses 154


Dealing with the date 154


Filling in the Rules for Abbreviations 155


Stretching out acronyms 156


Clearing up initialisms 157


Ensuring Effective Emails 157


Establishing who, why and what 158


Averting potential disaster 159


Focussing on Visual Presentations 160


Presenting Perfect Bibliographies 162


Understanding author–date system versus documentary–note system 162


Defining a reference list 163


Chapter 12: Ten Solutions to the Most Common Grammar Errors 167


Adding Apostrophes (Or Not) 167


Reaching Agreement 168


Staying in the Right Tense 169


Splicing Sentences with a Comma 169


Running Sentences On 170


Fragmenting Sentences 170


Misplacing Modifiers 170


Knowing When to Use Subject and Object Pronouns 171


Selecting Prepositions 171


Confusing ‘Of’ with ‘Have’ 172


Index 173