English Grammar Workbook For Dummies With Online Practice

Improve your English grammar

You have nothing to lose and everything to gain by using proper English language and grammar. The ability to articulate and communicate effectively is a valuable asset in all aspects of life. From writing a research paper to giving a presentation at work or just holding a casual conversation with friends or family, strong verbal and written skills are necessities in everyday communication. 

English Grammar Workbook For Dummies is the perfect solution for sharpening the tools in your grammar kit, with lessons and plenty of practice opportunities to help reinforce learning. Whether you need to brush up on the finer points of punctuation, need help making sense of those pesky parts of speech—or anything in between—this approachable guide makes it fast and easy.

•    Find FREE quizzes for every chapter online

•    Handle pronouns with grace

•    Master plurals and possessives

•    Improve your proofreading skills

Everyone benefits from using proper grammar and speech, and now you can too!

Introduction 1

Foolish Assumptions 2

Icons Used in This Book 2

Beyond the Book 3

Where to Go from Here 3

Part 1: Building A Firm Foundation: Grammar Basics 5

Chapter 1: Tailoring Language to Suit Your Audience and Purpose 7

Climbing the Ladder of Language Formality 8

Matching Message to Situation 10

Answers to “Tailoring Language to Suit Your Audience and Purpose” 13

Chapter 2: Identifying the Major Elements of a Sentence 15

Going to the Heart of the Matter: The Verb 15

Treasure hunt: Finding the verb 16

Choosing the correct verb for negative expressions 17

Questioning with verbs 18

Aiding and abetting: Helping verbs 19

Zeroing in on the Subject 20

When one isn’t enough: Forming noun plurals 21

Adding Meaning: Objects and Complements 23

Answers to Questions about Major Elements of a Sentence 25

Chapter 3: Having It All: Writing Complete Sentences 29

Finding Subjects and Verbs that Match 30

Checking for Complete Thoughts 31

Improving Flow with Properly Joined Sentences 33

Setting the Tone with Endmarks 36

Proper Sentence or Not? That Is the Question 37

Calling All Overachievers: Extra Practice with Complete Sentences 39

Answers to Complete Sentence Problems 40

Part 2: Clearing Up Confusing Grammar Points 45

Chapter 4: Finding the Right Verb at the Right Time 47

Using Past, Present, and Future Tense at the Right Times 47

Putting Perfect Tenses in the Spotlight 49

Speaking of the Past and Things That Never Change 51

Romeo Lives! Writing about Literature and Art in Present Tense 53

Hitting Curveballs: Irregular Forms 54

Getting a Handle on Common Irregulars: Be and Have 56

Calling All Overachievers: Extra Practice with Verbs 58

Answers to Problems on Verbs and Verb Tenses 59

Chapter 5: Agreement: Choosing Singular or Plural Verbs and Pronouns 67

Meeting Their Match: Pairing Subjects and Verbs 67

Boning up on the basics 68

Taming the tough guys: Difficult subjects 70

Dealing with tricksters 72

Matching Pronouns and Antecedents 73

Calling All Overachievers: Extra Practice with Hitching Subjects and Verbs 77

Answers to Subject, Verb, and Pronoun Pairing Problems 78

Chapter 6: Solving Pronoun Case 85

Meeting the Subject at Hand and the Object of My Affection 85

To “Who” or To “Whom”? That Is the Question 87

You Talkin’ to Me, or I? Pronouns as Objects of Prepositions 89

Matching Posses