Better Grammar in 30 Minutes a Day

Table of contents

1. Cover Page
2. Title Page
3. Copyright Page
4. Contents
5. Preface
6. Chapter 1 Nouns and Pronouns
   1. 1.1 Identifying Nouns
      1. Common and Proper Nouns
   2. 1.2 Singular and Plural Nouns
   3. 1.3 Possessives
      1. Making Nouns Possessive
      2. Plurals and Possessives
   4. 1.4 Personal Pronouns
      1. Person, Number, Gender
      2. Avoiding Shifts in Person
      3. Possessive Pronouns—Short Forms (Use with Nouns)
      4. Possessive Pronouns—Long Forms (Use without Nouns)
      5. The Pronoun Who
      6. Contractions
   5. 1.5 Reflexive Pronouns
7. Chapter 2 Verbs
   1. 2.1 Present and Past Tenses: Regular Verbs
      1. Action Verbs
      2. Linking Verbs
   2. 2.2 Present and Past Tenses: Irregular Verbs
   3. 2.3 Principal Forms of Verbs
   4. 2.4 Auxiliary Verbs
      1. Adverbs
      2. Contractions
   5. 2.5 Future Tense
      1. Will and Would
   6. 2.6 Perfect Tenses
   7. 2.7 Tense Shift Problems
8. Chapter 3 The Sentence
   1. 3.1 Subjects and Verbs
      1. Commands and Requests
   2. 3.2 Prepositional Phrases
   3. 3.3 Direct Objects of Action Verbs
   4. 3.4 Linking Verbs
   5. 3.5 Pronouns Used as Subjects and Objects
      1. Subject Pronouns
      2. Object Pronouns
   6. 3.6 Compound Subjects, Verbs, and Objects
      1. Pronouns in Compound Subjects and Objects
   7. 3.7 Contractions
      1. Omitting Letters in a Verb
      2. Omitting the i in Here is and There is
   8. 3.8 Sentence Patterns
9. Chapter 4 Expanding the Sentence
   1. 4.1 Adding Details with Adjectives
      1. Adjectives
      2. Kinds of Adjectives
      3. Position of Adjectives
      4. Special Forms of Adjectives
      5. Punctuating Adjectives Before a Noun
      6. Comparison of Adjectives
   2. 4.2 Adding Details with Adverbs
      1. Tests for Adverbs
      2. Function of Adverbs
      3. Position of Adverbs
      4. Comparison of Adverbs
   3. 4.3 Adding Details with Verbal Phrases
      1. Punctuation
   4. 4.4 Misplaced Modifiers and Dangling Modifiers
      1. Misplaced Modifiers
      2. Dangling Modifiers
10. Chapter 5 Main Clauses
    1. 5.1 Identifying Main Clauses
    2. 5.2 Connecting Main Clauses
       1. The Simple Sentence
       2. The Compound Sentence
       3. Joining Main Clauses
       4. Punctuation
    3. 5.3 Parallel Structure
       1. Faulty Parallelism
       2. Punctuation
    4. 5.4 Correcting Comma Splices and Fused Sentences
11. Chapter 6 Subordinate Clauses
    1. 6.1 Identifying Subordinate Clauses
       1. Sentences with More than One Subordinate Clause
    2. 6.2 Using Subordinate Clauses
       1. Adverb Clauses
       2. Adjective Clauses
       3. Using Subordination to Correct Comma Splices and Fused Sentences
       4. Punctuation
    3. 6.3 Sentence Fragments
       1. Four Types of Sentence Fragments
12. Chapter 7 Agreement
    1. 7.1 Subjects and Verbs
    2. 7.2 Subjects and Verbs—Four Difficult Patterns
       1. Words that Come Between the Subject and the Verb
       2. Reversed Word Order
       3. Compound Subjects Joined by and
       4. Compound Subjects Joined by or, Neither... nor, or Either... or
    3. 7.3 Subjects and Verbs-Special Problems
       1. Subjects that Are Singular
       2. Subjects that Can Be Singular or Plural
       3. Collective Nouns
       4. Nouns Ending in -s that Are Not Plural
       5. Time, Money, and Weight
       6. Titles
       7. Names of Organizations and Businesses
       8. Special Problems of Agreement
    4. 7.4 Agreement of Pronoun and Antecedent
       1. Words that Separate Antecedent and Pronoun
       2. Compound Antecedents
       3. Collective Nouns
       4. Singular Words
       5. Agreement of Who, Whom, Which, and That with Antecedents
    5. 7.5 Unclear Pronoun Reference
       1. More than One Possible Antecedent
       2. No Specific Antecedent
13. Chapter 8 Commas
    1. 8.1 Coordinating Connectives Between Main Clauses; Items in a Series; Introductory Phrases and Clauses
       1. 1. Use a Comma Between Two Main Clauses Connected by a Coordinating Connective
       2. 2. Use Commas to Separate Items in a Series
       3. 3. Use a Comma After Introductory Words and Phrases
       4. 4. Use a Comma After Introductory Subordinate Clauses
    2. 8.2 Adjectives Before a Noun; Words that Interrupt; Direct Address
       1. 5. Use Commas to Separate Adjectives Before a Noun
       2. 6. Use Commas to Enclose Words that Interrupt
       3. 7. Use Commas to Set Off Words in Direct Address
    3. 8.3 Nonessential Words, Phrases, and Clauses; Direct Quotations; Dates, Geographical Names, and Addresses
       1. 8. Use Commas to Set Off Nonessential Words, Phrases, and Clauses
       2. 9. Use Commas to Set Off Direct Quotations
       3. 10. Use Commas in Dates, Geographical Names, and Addresses
14. Chapter 9 Punctuation and Capitalization
    1. 9.1 Period, Question Mark, and Exclamation Point
       1. Period (.)
       2. Question Mark (?)
       3. Exclamation Point (!)
    2. 9.2 Semicolon and Colon
       1. Semicolon (;)
       2. Colon (:)
    3. 9.3 Quotation Marks
       1. Direct Quotations
       2. Split Quotations
       3. End Punctuation in Quotations
       4. Quotations within Quotations
       5. The Use of Quotation Marks and Underlining in Titles
    4. 9.4 Hyphen and Dash
       1. Hyphen (-)
       2. Dash ( — )
    5. 9.5 Capital Letters
       1. Always Capitalize
15. Chapter 10 Usage
    1. 10.1 A/An/And
    2. 10.2 Accept/Except
    3. 10.3 Advice/Advise
    4. 10.4 Affect/Effect
    5. 10.5 Already/All Ready
    6. 10.6 Dessert/Desert
    7. 10.7 Its/It’s
    8. 10.8 Know/No
    9. 10.9 Lead/Led
    10. 10.10 Loose/Lose
    11. 10.11 Past/Passed
    12. 10.12 Personal/Personnel
    13. 10.13 Principal/Principle
    14. 10.14 Quiet/Quite
    15. 10.15 Suppose/Supposed
    16. 10.16 Then/Than
    17. 10.17 There/Their/They’re
    18. 10.18 Through/Though/Thought
    19. 10.19 To/Two/Too
    20. 10.20 Use/Used
    21. 10.21 Weather/Whether
    22. 10.22 Whose/Who’s
    23. 10.23 Your/You’re
16. Answer Key
17. Glossary
18. Index