Improve and test your knowledge of grammar and style.
The following sentences all illustrate the dreaded dangling or misplaced modifier. A dangling modifier sounds like something you could be arrested for, but it’s just a minor stylistic mistake. A modifier is a word or group of words that modifies (describes or limits) another word or group of words. In the sentence, “I have a blue … More Dangling and Misplaced Modifiers
The personal pronouns change their forms depending on how they function in a sentence. When a personal pronoun functions as the subject of a verb (the doer of the action), it takes the form of the subjective case: I, he, she, we, they: I know Mort. He knows Jadwiga. She knows Abigail. We know Abigail … More Pronoun Case
Learning grammar is like learning refrigeration repair. At some point you have to learn the names of the parts. One essential piece of grammatical terminology is the clause. A clause has to have at least one subject and one verb. Here’s an example of a clause: Ron sleeps. Ron is the subject, and sleeps is … More Punctuating Simple and Compound Sentences
Only one of the following sentences is correct. Can you spot the errors in the others? If Tom would have been there, he would have known what to do. Edmonton is colder than almost city in Canada. Garth skipped the party, which was stupid. Brad was both interested and repelled by the idea of eating … More Spotting Errors
Here are three important ways to reduce wordiness in your writing: Avoid expletive constructions such as “there is” and “there are.” Prefer active to passive voice. “A wordy bureaucrat strangled three grammarians last night” is a better sentence than “There were three grammarians who were strangled by a wordy bureaucrat last night.” Avoid nominalizations. … More The Plague of Wordiness
It is important to understand the difference between gerunds and participles. A present participle is a verbal form (derived from a verb) that ends in –ing and functions as an adjective because it modifies or describes nouns and pronouns. Look at these sentences: Strangling an iguana, Susan smiled.* The young woman strangling an iguana … More Gerunds and Participles
Pronoun reference is an important grammatical concept. Pronouns always refer to nouns or to other pronouns. Without pronouns, we would have to monotonously repeat nouns all the time. The pronouns in the following sentences are in bold type: When I met Jan, she was walking her dog, which she had just bought. Albert’s cousin, … More Pronoun Reference
George Orwell’s Six Rules of Writing Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print. Never use a long word where a short one will do. If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out. Never use the passive where you can … More George Orwell’s Six Rules of Writing
PREPOSITIONS Choose the correct word: Colbart divided the vodka (between/among) all his friends. After accidentally shooting his friend in the face, The Vice-President didn’t feel (like/as if) he needed to tell anyone. The vodka bottle fell (off of/off) the table and broke. Has she been (into/in to) see you today? The three stooges walked (into/in … More About Prepositions-Quizzes
No Harm Spilt 