Best little grammar workbook ever by arlene miller

Complex Sentence Compound-Complex Sentence 2.9 Not a Sentence: Fragments and Run-OnsFragments Run-Ons 2.10 Sentence Variety Patterns Important Things to Remember from Chapter 2Chapter 2

Complex Sentence

Compound-Complex Sentence

2.9 Not a Sentence: Fragments and Run-OnsFragments

Run-Ons

2.10 Sentence Variety Patterns

Important Things to Remember from Chapter 2Chapter 2 Test

Chapter 3 Punctuation

3.1 Periods and Other Ending Punctuation3.2 Commas (,)

3.3 Semicolons (;)

3.4 Colons (:)

3.5 Parentheses ( ), Brackets [ ], and Braces { }

*The Best Little Grammar Book Ever: 101 Ways to Impress With Your Writing and Speaking (First Edition)—paperback and e-book

*The Best Little Grammar Book Ever: Speak and Write with Confidence/Avoid Common Mistakes (Second Edition)—paperback and e-book

*Correct Me If I’m Wrong: Getting Your Grammar, Punctuation, and Word Usage Right—paperback and e-book

*The Great Grammar Cheat Sheet: 50 Grammar, Punctuation, Writing, and Word Usage Tips You Can Use Now—e-book only

*Beyond Worksheets: Creative Lessons for Teaching Grammar in Middle School and High School—e-book only

*The Best Grammar Workbook Ever: Grammar, Punctuation, and Word Usage for Ages 10 Through 110—paperback and e-book

Copyright © 2016 by Arlene Miller

All rights reserved No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior written permission of the copyright holder.

p cm.

Includes answer appendix

ISBN 978-0-9911674-5-6

instruction.

My life, My loves

2.1 Subjects

Important Things to Remember from Chapter 3 Chapter 3 Test

Chapter 4 Capitalization

Important Things to Remember from Chapter 4 Chapter 4 Test

Important Things to Remember from Chapter 8 Chapter 8 Test

Exercise 1.6 Exercise 1.7 Exercise 1.8 Exercise 1.9 Exercise 1.10 Exercise 1.11 Exercise 1.12 Exercise 1.13 Exercise 1.14 Exercise 1.15 Exercise 1.16 Exercise 1.17 Exercise 1.18 Exercise 1.19 Exercise 1.20 Exercise 1.21 Exercise 1.22 Chapter 1 Test Exercise 2.1 Exercise 2.2 Exercise 2.3 Exercise 2.4 Exercise 2.5 Exercise 2.6 Exercise 2.7 Exercise 2.8 Exercise 2.9 Exercise 2.10 Exercise 2.11 Exercise 2.12 Exercise 2.13 Chapter 2 Test Exercise 3.1 Exercise 3.2 Exercise 3.3 Exercise 3.4 Exercise 3.5 Exercise 3.6 Exercise 3.7

Exercise 3.8 Exercise 3.9 Exercise 3.10 Exercise 3.11 Exercise 3.12 Exercise 3.13 Exercise 3.14 Chapter 3 Test Exercise 4.1 Exercise 4.2 Exercise 4.3 Exercise 4.4 Exercise 4.5 Chapter 4 Test Exercise 5.1 Exercise 5.2 Exercise 5.3 Exercise 5.4 Exercise 5.5 Exercise 5.6 Chapter 5 Test Exercise 6.1 Exercise 6.2 Exercise 6.3 Exercise 6.4 Exercise 6.5 Exercise 6.6 Exercise 6.7 Chapter 6 Test Exercise 7.1 Exercise 7.2 Exercise 7.3 Exercise 7.4 Exercise 7.5 Exercise 7.6 Exercise 7.7 Exercise 7.8 Exercise 7.9 Exercise 7.10

There are always many people to thank when one embarks on a writingcareer, becomes a publisher, and becomes an entrepreneur, particularly later

in life when one is wiser and less daring!

I started out six years ago knowing nothing about this business, so I

acknowledge everyone who has helped me, educated me, and supported mealong my journey Your names are too many to list

Thank you to my greatest inspirations: my children, Shelley and Jake

Marny Parkin, my designer; Matt Hinrichs, my cover designer; Gil Namur,

my website guy; and John DeGaetano, my business advisor and friend, alsomerit special thanks

Copperfield’s Books has been so supportive of me and so many other

independently published writers Thank you

And all of you members of Redwood Writers and Bay Area IndependentPublishers Association, everyone whom I have heard speak at a meeting,everyone who sends me valuable e-mails, everyone who has written me ablurb or a review, I thank you

go through some of the more confusing aspects of grammar and word usage.Chapters 7 and 8 discuss important grammar issues that will improve your

writing, including a few things that have changed or are changing

This workbook contains many exercises, chapter tests, a pretest, and a final test.There are also Helpful Hints and Notes throughout the book

All the answers are in the Appendix There is no index because everything isincluded in the table of contents, and I wanted to make it easier for you to findthe answers at the end of the book You might want to put a Post-It in the answersection so you can find it more easily—or even gently tear those pages out This

See the Appendix for the answers.

Helpful Hint: Usually, you can put the words a, an, or the before nouns.

And most words that begin with capital letters are nouns: the sun, a girl, a dog, the Empire State Building

3 Interrogative pronouns ask questions There are five: who, whose, whom, which, and what: Who are you?

4 Relative pronouns begin adjective clauses (Chapter 2.6) There are five: who, whom, whose, which, and that Although they are almost the same as the

indefinite pronoun—for example, everyone or somebody—refers to a male or a female So do we use he or do we use she to refer back to everyone? Generally,

we would use he or she If you don’t want to use he or she, which is

grammatically correct, you have two other choices:

1 The plural pronoun they (or their) is now acceptable to use as a singular.

2 Rewrite the sentence to avoid the problem, which can usually be done quiteeasily

Everyone is bringing lunch to the picnic (rewrite)

We are all bringing lunches to the picnic (rewrite)

Some, but not as many, of the indefinite pronouns are plural: all, several, few, many

Several are bringing their own lunches to the picnic (Several is plural The verb are bringing is plural, and the pronoun their is plural Correctly, they

all match.)

Exercise 1.5: Rewrite the following sentences to avoid both the “singular” they and he or she: Note that there is always more than one way to rewrite a

Past perfect progressive: My friends had been running for three hours before I

6 Future perfect tense: I will have run track for five years by the time I

graduate (Will happen in the future before some other future event.)

Future perfect progressive: I will have been running track for five years by the time I graduate.

• When you talk about things that happened in a book you read or a movie yousaw, you generally use the present tense The book or movie is still there; the

reading took place in the past: “I just read Romeo and Juliet It is a story where two young lovers are from warring families.”

Note: In some of the tense examples above, words used before the verb run

look like forms of the linking verb to be, but they are not Because they are

used with another verb (in this case, run), they are called helping verbs For example, in “I will have been running,” will have been are helping verbs, and running is the main verb If those same words are used without a main verb, they are linking verbs For example, “I will have been a teacher

1 She was driven to the dance by her father.

Transitive verbs have a direct object; intransitive verbs don’t Some verbs can beboth, depending on how the verb is used in a particular sentence Direct objectsare discussed in Chapter 2.3 Simply put, if you ask what or who about the verb,

the answer is the direct object:

He saw a ghost (Saw what? Ghost Ghost is the direct object, so saw is

transitive.)

He ran into the closet (Ran what or who? The sentence does not tell you It tells you where There is no direct object, so ran is intransitive.)

Exercise 1.12: Label each italicized verb as either transitive or intransitive.

1 The convention will be held in Miami.

2 Do you play chess?

3 That television channel is showing reruns of my favorite show this week.

Here is an adjective describing another adjective: bright blue sky The adjective blue is describing the noun sky; the adjective bright is describing the type of blue

(not the sky)

What if you said sunny, blue sky? Sunny and blue both describe the noun sky It

is a sunny sky, and it is a blue sky When both adjectives describe the noun (as in sunny, blue sky), you may need a comma between them If you can put the word and between the adjectives and the phrase makes sense, use a comma You can

1 I always drive slowly when approaching a pedestrian

2 How quickly can you do this really difficult puzzle?

3 Now and then I like to eat ridiculously sweet candy!

Wrong: Where are you going to? Right: Where are you going?

an exclamation point or a comma: hey, gosh, ouch, gee whiz, wow, oh, well Wow! What a nice car!

4 Do not confuse pronouns and proper nouns Proper nouns are simply nounsthat begin with a capital letter They are still people, places, things, or

emotions

5 Don’t worry about using shall for the future tense You don’t need it and can use will instead.

6 Don’t switch tenses unless what you are talking about really happened atdifferent times

Every year my cousin comes to visit and she brought her dog (incorrect) Every year my cousin comes to visit and she brings her dog (correct)

7 Pay special attention to where you place your adverbs in a sentence—andavoid flat adverbs

I walk to school every day quickly (not great)

I always walk to school quick (flat adverb)

I always walk to school quickly (correct)

1 Circle the nouns in this sentence: He loves pizza, but only with chicken andgarlic

She gave me a gift for my birthday (Gift is the direct object: gave what? The indirect object is me; birthday is the object of the preposition of.)

Exercise 2.3: Identify the type of object for each italicized word: direct, indirect,

or object of a preposition One of the italicized words isn’t an object at all See ifyou can find it!

She is a supermodel (Is is a linking verb, so supermodel is not an object Since supermodel is a noun, it is called a predicate nominative.)

I am good at math (Am is a linking verb, so there is no object Since good

is an adjective, it is called a predicate adjective.)

Note: Linking verbs function as “equal” signs in a sentence; the subject and the predicate words are equal With an action verb, there is no linking

of words before and after the verb In the sentence “She knit a sweater,” knit is not linking she and sweater She is not a sweater!

A phrase functions as a specific part of speech, even if the phrase doesn’t

contain that part of speech at all For example, prepositional phrases containprepositions and nouns or pronouns (and sometimes adjectives), but thesephrases function as either adjectives or adverbs in a sentence

Here are the most common types of phrases:

1 Prepositional phrases contain a preposition and its object and sometimes an

article and/or an adjective:

I sat on the bench (Tells where, so it is an adverb phrase.)

1 He ran.

2 He ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran, and then he

See the Appendix for the answers.

• Begin with a participial phrase: Getting ready for the party, I broke a vase.

• Begin with a gerund: (A gerund is a verb with an -ing ending that is used as a noun: Reading is my favorite hobby.)

Exercise 2.13: Change these sentences, using as many of the original words as

you can, as instructed

1 I had a date on Saturday night (Begin with the prepositional phrase.)

2 As the dog jumped over the fence, he got caught by a neighbor (Begin with aparticipial phrase.)

3 That watch is mine; it is very expensive (Use an adjective clause in the

sentence.)

4 My goal is to get a master’s degree (Begin the sentence with an infinitive.)

See the Appendix for the answers.

a fragment)

4 To make your writing more interesting, use a variety of sentence types andstructures You will want to vary simple sentences with compound and

complex sentences, and to start some of your sentences with something

besides the subject You will want to use clauses and phrases to liven up yourwriting

See the Appendix for the answers.

In a quote, the period always goes inside the quotation marks in American

English (it is the opposite in British English): He said, “I will go to the mall with you.”

I am tall, but my parents are even taller.

I like pizza, but not with anchovies.

17 In company names if the company uses a comma Spell and punctuate acompany name exactly as the company does

Do not use both the conjunction and the semicolon in this situation, and donot begin the second part of the sentence with a capital letter

What about now?

John O’Mara, the mayor; the police chief; Karen Clarkson, the sheriff; and the fire chief all met with us.

Four people are meeting with us It is clear in the second sentence, but not in thefirst one Use a semicolon in a series if one or more of the items in the series

already need commas Follow every item with a semicolon even if some of the

items don’t have commas in them

Exercise 3.5: Punctuate these sentences with commas and semicolons.

1 I am bringing two dresses two pair of pants blue black and white shirts and ajacket

2 I love dogs but I am allergic to cats

3 I love dogs I am allergic to cats

See the Appendix for the answers.

Whether you use a semicolon or a colon, do not capitalize the second part

of the sentence

4 The other uses for a colon are in time (9:50 a.m.) and after the salutation (greeting) of a business letter (Dear Sirs:).

Exercise 3.6: Punctuate these sentences with commas, semicolons, and colons.

1 Please bring a jacket a hat and boots for the cold snowy weather

2 I am preparing for a big party could you help by bringing a cake?

1 Some compound words are hyphenated If you are unsure about whether tohyphenate a word, and you cannot find it in the dictionary (or if dictionariesdisagree), pick one way to write it, and be consistent within one piece ofwriting.

italics

1 Italicize titles of big things: books, plays, operas, television series, CDs, and

4 Body and Soul is a really old jazz song

5 Put the a’s and b’s in this pile and the c’s and d’s in the other pile

See the Appendix for the answers.

3.8 Quotation (“”) and Single (‘’) Quotation Marks

Exercise 3.10: Either underline (for italics) or use quotations marks where

needed

1 I have watched the first two seasons of Grace and Frankie on television

2 The title of our history book is This Is History, and Chapter 7 is called TheBirth of a Nation

exclamation points where necessary

pronouns

3 Do not put apostrophes in plain old plurals! The plural of brother is brothers, not brother’s! The only time you use an apostrophe in a plural is for clarity: There are too many a’s in this word However, you do not need an apostrophe

6 Semicolons and colons always go outside the quotes

7 The only use for single quotes is for quotation marks inside other quotationmarks

Helpful Hint: Do not capitalize north, south, east, and west when they indicate direction Do capitalize them if they name a region.

She is from the South.

6 Capitalize the names of clubs, teams, and government bodies: Elks Club, Miami Heat, House of Representatives

7 Capitalize holidays, events, and historical periods: Labor Day, Oklahoma State Fair, and Renaissance