Other Titles of Interest from L e a r ni ng E xp r e s s Algebra Success in 20 Minutes a Day Biology Success in 20 Minutes a Day Chemistry Success in 20 Minutes a Day Earth Science Success in 20 Minutes a Day Physics Success in 20 Minutes a Day Practical Math Success in 20 Minutes a Day Reading Comprehension Success Reasoning Skills Success in 20 Minutes a Day Statistics Success in 20 Minutes a Day Trigonometry Success in 20 Minutes a Day Vocabulary and Spelling Success Copyright © 2010 LearningExpress, LLC. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. Published in the United States by LearningExpress, LLC, New York. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Grammar success in 20 minutes a day.
paper) ISBN-10: 1-57685-721-2 (pbk. English language—Grammar—Problems, exercises, etc.2—dc22 2009024478 Printed in the United States of America 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 ISBN: 978-1-57685-721-2 For information on LearningExpress, other LearningExpress products, or bulk sales, please write to us at LearningExpress 2 Rector Street 26th Floor New York, NY 10006 Or visit us at www.com Contents Introduction v Pretest 1 NOUNS and pronouns Lesson 1 Kinds of Nouns 13 Common, proper, concrete, abstract, collective, and compound nouns Lesson 2 Noun Usage 19 Plural and possessive nouns Lesson 3 Pronouns 27 Personal, reflexive, demonstrative, relative, interrogative, and indefinite pronouns verbs Lesson 4 Verb Types 35 Action, linking, and helping verbs Lesson 5 egular and Irregular Verbs R 39 Common regular and irregular verbs, problem, and tricky verbs Lesson 6 erb Forms and Tenses V 49 Present and past, present and past participle, and other verb forms; basic tense review modifiers Lesson 7 Adjectives 57 Articles, pronouns as adjectives, and demonstrative and comparative adjectives iii Contents Lesson 8 Adverbs 63 Common adverbs, comparative adverbs, and how to distinguish adverbs from adjectives Lesson 9 Prepositions 69 Common prepositions and how to distinguish prepositions from adverbs Lesson 10 Misplaced Modifiers and Tricky Words 73 Kinds of modifiers, homonyms, and homographs sentence structure Lesson 11 Sentence Basics 85 Subjects, predicates, complements, and direct and indirect objects Lesson 12 Agreement 91 Subject-verb and pronoun-antecedent agreement Lesson 13 Phrases 97 Prepositional, adjective, adverb, verbal, participial, infinitive, gerund, and appositive phrases Lesson 14 Clauses 101 Independent, subordinate, noun, adjective, and adverb clauses Lesson 15 Conjunctions 107 Coordinating, corrective, and subordinating conjunctions Lesson 16 Combining Sentences 113 Kinds of sentences, including compound, complex, and compound-complex, that enliven writing punctuation Lesson 17 End Punctuation 121 Periods, question marks, and exclamation points Lesson 18 Internal Punctuation I 125 Commas, colons, and semicolons Lesson 19 Internal Punctuation II 133 Apostrophes, hyphens, and dashes Lesson 20 Internal Punctuation III 139 Quotation marks, parentheses, brackets, italics and underlining, and parentheses Posttest 147 iv Introduction D o your grammar skills need some brushing up? Perhaps you have an exam on the horizon, or you want to hone your grammar skills to improve your writing or speech. Whatever the case may be, this quick reference guide will help put you well on your way toward accomplishing your grammar goals—no matter how big or small. Because English is so complex, rules and guidelines called grammar and usage are necessary to help us bet- ter understand its many idiosyncrasies.
While language is forever changing to meet our needs, the inner workings of a sentence are, for the most part, as constant as the stars, and figuring out these dynamics is like putting a puzzle together (or taking it apart). Understanding the inner workings of a sentence can help you with your speech and writing—the essence of communication and language. And the benefits you get for your efforts far outweigh the 20 minutes of your day you’ll spend with this book. Before you begin to progress through the book, take the pretest on the next few pages to determine what you already know and what you might need to focus on.
You might be surprised by just how much you remember! v Pretest B efore you start your study of grammar skills, get an idea of how much you already know and how much you need to learn by taking the pretest that follows. It consists of 50 multiple-choice questions about what is in this book. Naturally, 50 questions can not cover every single concept or rule you will learn by working through these lessons, so even if you answer all the questions correctly, it is almost guaranteed that you will find a few things in the book you did not already know. If you get lots of answers wrong on the pretest, do not worry—this book will teach you how to improve your grammar and writing, step by step.
Record your answers in this book. If it does not belong to you, list the numbers 1–50 on a piece of paper and write your answers there. Take as much time as you need to finish the test. When you finish, check your answers against the answer key that follows the test.
Each answer lists the lesson of the book that covers the concept(s) in that question. If you get a high score on the pretest, you may be able to spend less time with this book than you originally planned. If you get a low score, you may find you will need more than 20 minutes a day to learn all that you need to know. Circle the antecedents/pronouns that agree in gender.
Circle the common nouns. tree/it Anthony/she chair joy knitted King Henry/he passenger/it Australia supermarket Ohio kangaroo/his Alice/her Monticello understanding toddlers saucepan dancing hostess 8. Circle the antecedents/pronouns that agree in number. Circle the abstract nouns.
kids/him everybody/they peace telephone livelihood Kathy and I/it fish/they deceit cheerfulness jungle group/it fish/it NASA smile rubber band each/he or she woman/we test eyelash patience both/they 3. Circle the proper nouns. Circle the interrogative pronouns. Texas Work Clock who when whose Puzzle Nancy Mr.
Klondike which whom whomever Licorice Mexico City Basketball how where what IBM Spiderman Mt. Circle the subjective case pronouns. Circle the nouns that are pluralized correctly. I went to his house and saw him.
halves theorys oxen She brought me an apple and I thanked her. casinoes inchs dishes They went to Pat’s and called me. valleyes houses mother-in-laws booths tooths hippopotami 11. Circle the objective case pronouns.
He threw it toward me. Circle the hyphenated nouns that are spelled Pass me the salt. We made them sandwiches. sister-in-laws kilowatt-hours runner-ups forget-me-nots 12.
Circle the reflexive case pronouns and underline follow-ups sticks-in-the-mud the possessive case pronouns. Carlo was angry, but stopped himself before 6. Circle the nouns that have been made possessive he said something really mean to his correctly. child’s her’s Jody’s I was so tired I couldn’t force myself to get Congress’ tooth’s cactus’s dressed and join my friends at the mall.
puppies’ moms’ Jason’s Some people take themselves too seriously women’s his’ dress’s and think it’s their responsibility to solve everyone else’s problems! 2 Pretest 13. Circle the demonstrative pronouns and 19. Circle the correct tricky verb in each sentence. underline the relative pronouns.
Sandy carefully (hanged, hung) her new curtains That is the most annoying sound that I have on the window. Peter tried to (accept, except) Jim’s Those are the boxes of blankets that Mom explanation, but it was difficult. plans to take to the SPCA. You (can, may) take another glass of Is this the channel that you were watching? lemonade if you like.
Identify the tense of each verb as present, past, 14. Circle the action verbs. future, present perfect, past perfect, future wash be hold cook perfect, present progressive, past progressive, or would buy pray gnaw future progressive. put write loan marry will drive am driving had driven drove 15.
Circle the linking verbs. drive has driven appear took become sat drives will have driven feel prove call grow study look is lose 21. Circle the common adjectives in the following sentences. Circle the regular verbs and underline the The pungent aroma of Italian spices filled the irregular verbs.
busy kitchen of the pizzeria. forgive grow buy walk Shelley wore a blue dress to the wedding. wash hide sew pet We donated our old car to an automotive sit hear play throw school where students practice doing repairs. Circle the correct form of lay/lie in each 22.
Place the correct indefinite article in front of sentence. Joy found her hairbrush (laying, lying) in the ___ house ___ elephant suitcase. ___ unicorn ___ yellow flower The swing has (lain, laid) broken behind the ___ one-way street ___ honor shed for two years. ___ underdog ___ loafer The boy had (laid, lain) awake before getting ___ unopened gift ___ orange up to play.
___ hour ___ occasion ___ wrist ___ admirer 18. Circle the correct form of sit/set in each ___ upper level sentence. The class (set, sat) patiently as the teacher 23. Change the following proper nouns into proper took attendance.
Claudia’s aunt (sits, sets) the table while Gert Italy Bahama Africa cooks dinner. Texas France Hawaii (Setting, Sitting) on the porch on a cool America Virginia Denmark summer night is the best. California Belgium China Japan Inca England 3 Pretest 24. Determine whether the boldfaced word in each 28.
Determine whether the boldfaced word in the sentence is a possessive pronoun or a possessive sentence is an adjective or an adverb. The accounting department ran at a fast but His sneakers were worn, so he bought new friendly pace. Cory worked hard on improving his tennis Marissa crossed her fingers and hoped the swing for the tournament. winning ticket would be hers.
Nora was sent straight to her room for My uncle showed me an autographed Babe disobeying her parents. Ruth baseball card and said it would one day be mine. Identify the prepositional phrases in the following sentences. Determine whether the boldfaced word in each Ferdinand Magellan was the first explorer to sentence is a demonstrative pronoun or a sail around the world.
Without a doubt, regular exercise is necessary This is really over the top! for good health. Take this money and buy yourself a treat. The little monkey ran around Mom’s living Watch these carefully while they boil. room and climbed up the drapes.
Determine which form of comparative or super- 30. Determine whether the boldfaced word is a lative adjective best completes each sentence. preposition or an adverb. Terry’s (most high, highest) jump in the high Holly was beside herself with fear when the jump was four feet, six inches.
child darted into the street. Sean’s bank account was (larger, more large) If we can reach Hightstown by five, we may be than mine. able to see the president’s motorcade go by. Barbara was (best, better) at chess than her Use caution when you walk across busy roommate Natalie.
Circle the correct form of the comparative and 31. Rewrite each sentence so that the misplaced superlative adverbs in the following sentences. modifiers are properly placed. Joel was (less, least) active during the winter The woman was walking her dog with hair than during the summer.
The store brand’s price was the (low, lower, Walking along the shore the sand burned my lowest) of the three brands. This was the (long, longer, longest) day of the Tina bought a guinea pig for her brother they year. Using the clues, write the homonyms or 37. Identify the verb that correctly completes the homographs.
finished/tossed Neither Jessica nor Marty (like, likes) to do trade event/equitable the laundry. the total/several Spaghetti and meatballs (is, are) my favorite shut/nearby Italian meal. dispatched/perfume Sally or Zach (is, are) probably going to be the dress in/goods for sale valedictorian this year. Identify the simple subject in the following 38.
Circle the verb that agrees with the indefinite sentences. pronoun in each sentence. Next week, Scott and Jennifer will get Everyone (need, needs) to get any homework married. I assign in on time!