COMMAS
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Three places to ALWAYS put them!
1-Before coordinating conjunctions joining independent clauses. They went to Texas, but they didn't see any armadillos.
Remember, you have to have two complete sentences to be able to join them with a coordinating conjunction! ( for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so-FANBOYS)
2-After an introductory word or phrase. While playing baseball, Suzanne hurt her ankle.
Yesterday, I put a new roof on the house.
The introductory element acts as an ADVERB, describing WHEN, HOW, or UNDER WHAT CIRCUMSTANCES the main action of the sentence takes place!
3-Items in a series.
Some of the enemies of good grammar are The Splice, The Run-On, Professor Perfect, and Fragmento.
There must be at least THREE items in the series to have them separated by a comma. Always put the comma before the AND next to the last item!
COMMA SPLICE
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A comma splice is a comma that is INCORRECTLY used to join two sentences! A comma by itself is NOT strong enough to join two sentences!
Here is an example of a comma splice (what NOT to do!)
Sally painted her room, she loved the color.
You see what's wrong? There are two complete sentences with only a comma between them. A comma alone isn't strong enough to join sentences, but one way to fix the sentence is to add a coordinating conjunction after the comma.
Here is how the fixed sentence looks:
Sally painted her room, and she loved the color.
RUN-ONS
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A run-on is when two complete sentences are put together with nothing between them. Run-ons are sometimes called FUSED sentences because two sentences are FUSED together into one long, grammatically-incorrect sentence!
Here are two examples of run-ons:
They went to the game they had a great time.
I ran I fell.
See how two complete sentences, subject, predicate, and complete thought, are RUN together? This is a run-on, and it will make your reader read on and on! Never fear! There are not 1, not 2, not 3, not 4, but there are 5 ways to properly show the boundary between two sentences!
1-comma and coordinating conjunction
I ran ,and I fell.
2-period. I ran. I fell.
3-semicolon. I ran; I fell.
4-subordinating conjunction. After I ran, I fell.
5-conjunctive adverb. I ran ;however, I fell.
FRAGMENT
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A fragment is a phrase (a group of words that does not have both a subject and predicate) or clause (a group of words that does have both a subject and predicate) that is missing at least ONE of the THREE ELEMENTS that make a sentence COMPLETE: a SUBJECT , a PREDICATE , and a COMPLETE THOUGHT.
Here is an example of a FRAGMENT:
When Billy walked down the street.
Let's see… why is this a fragment? We have a subject, BILLY, we have a predicate, WALKED, but what is missing? Ahh, look! It doesn't express a COMPLETE THOUGHT! The sentence begins with WHEN, a SUBORDINATE CONJUNCTION, which makes the clause a DEPENDENT clause! It needs a whole other sentence added to it to make it complete! Let's try this:
When Billy walked down the street, he saw his friends.
We added another complete sentence, “he saw his friends,” which makes the previously DEPENDENT clause an INDEPENDENT clause. It is INDEPENDENT- it can stand on its own now because it expresses a COMPLETE THOUGHT!
VERB TENSE
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Add an S to end of most regular verbs to create present tense; add ED to end of most regular verbs to create past tense.
Here are some examples:
She plays soccer today. “plays” is PRESENT tense
She played soccer yesterday. “played” is PAST tense.
SUBJECT-VERB AGREEMENT “GOLDEN RULE”
Agreement means that the subjects and their verbs in a sentence match. There are single subjects, single verbs, plural subjects, and plural verbs. To have agreement in a sentence, make sure the subject is matched with the same type of verb.
Here's an easy way to think of it:
SINGULAR SUBJECT= SINGULAR VERB
PLURAL SUBJECT=PLURAL VERB
Here are examples of matching subjects with their correct verbs:
The plant NEEDS water. The plants NEED water.
See how this works? In the first sentence, the subject is PLANT. There is ONE plant, which means the subject is single; therefore, the verb also has to be single. NEEDS is a singular form verb, so the subject and its verb match!
Look at the second sentence. The subject is PLANTS. PLANTS is a plural subject, which means there's more than one plant. Because the subject is plural, its verb has to be plural, too. NEED is a plural verb. The plural subject is matched with a plural verb, so the sentence is in agreement!
I OR ME “GOLDEN RULE”
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Here's an easy way to remember where to use I and where to use ME:
I am doing something; something is being done to ME.
This sentence shows how the subjective I and the objective ME perform as subjects and objects in sentence. Subjects PERFORM (I AM DOING SOMETHING), and objects RECEIVE (SOMETHING IS BEING DONE TO ME). I and ME are properly used as subject and object, and this sentence will help you learn where to use either of these pronouns correctly!
WHO OR WHOM “GOLDEN RULE”
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There is a very easy replacement test for deciding which pronoun to use. You can substitute HE for WHO, and HIM for WHOM.
WHO=HE WHOM=HIM
Just remember how the words have matching sounds:
WHO and HE have VOWEL sounds.
WHOM and HIM have CONSONANT sounds.
WHO is going with us? We are going with WHOM?
HE is going with us? We are going with HIM?
This is a very simple and effect way to help understand when to use who and when to use whom.
APOSTROPHE
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Apostrophes are to be used to show POSSESSION and CONTRACTION. Possession is another way of showing OWNERSHIP.
Here is an example:
The dog's collar is too loose.
Whose collar is too loose? The dog's collar is too loose. “dog's” shows OWNERSHIP or POSSESSION- the dog has ownership of its collar.
Contraction is when two words have been combined into one smaller word. The apostrophe takes the place of a missing vowel.
Here's an example:
She didn't enjoy her day at the park.
The words CONTRACTED, or combined, are DID and NOT. If the sentence had no contraction, it would look like this:
She did not enjoy her day at the park.
Contractions are useful because they communicate in writing the way many common word combinations have been abbreviated.
Apostrophes are NOT to be used to show plural forms of nouns!
The peanut's are on sale.
This is the WRONG way to use an apostrophe!
Remember that all you need to add to most regular nouns is S or ES to make them plural.
The peanuts are on sale.
Ahh…that's better. Hey, look, there's a contraction right there, and there's another- oh, and another right there!
Use apostrophes correctly!
Grammar Man hopes this Grammar Handbook helps you understand some of the many rules of good grammar. Don't let the enemies of good grammar destroy your writing! Fight them with the help of Grammar Man!
GOOD GRAMMAR RULES! |
