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24 Rules of English Grammar
24 Rules of English Grammar
The number of rules of English grammar and other writing topics governing correctness is far more than we can
teach students before high school graduation.
Unless we define which rules we mean when we tell students to use "good English," we're setting ourselves and
our students up for failure.
Before employers or colleges consider them competent writers students have to know and use 24 rules in their
writing. They are not all actually rules of English grammar. Some are actually rules for correct spelling and correct
punctuation.
Below, broken down into three categories of writing mechanics, is a list of 24 essential practices students must
routinely follow in their written work. They incorporate a beginning writers' list of essential rules of English grammar.
Precise terms
To be precise, words that sound alike but have different spellings are homophones. Bear and bare are
examples of homophones.
To purists, words that are spelled the same way but have different meanings are homographs. Bow and
bow are examples of homographs.
Whatever you call them — homonyms, homophones, homographs or spelling demons — they spell
trouble for unwary writers.
5. Learn to spell correctly the words you use regularly, whether they are one-syllable
words or long, technical terms.
Advice
Show an interest
Most worksheets end with the instruction to memorize the focus words. This is to
reinforce the theme of that particular exercise. Don't expect that these words will be
imprinted in the memory for ever more! You will need to go back from time to time. Do be sure
to study the three memorizing strategies pages. (They include a link to a super interactive
exercise)
Syllables
o care-ful
o hos-pit-al
o u-ni-ver-si-ty
Breaking a word into syllables makes it easier to deal with one small bit at a time.
1. Read aloud each of the following words, then break it into syllables. Try "clapping" the word.
One clap for each syllable. Or tap your desk. Finally memorize it and write it in the third column -
without looking back! The first one has been done for you.
nowadays now-a-days
probably
shampoo
impossible
wondering
ordinary
problem
themselves
neither
spoonful
sideways
scrambled
gentlemen
autobiography
continental
intercontinental
2. Now memorize the focus words and test yourself on them. Don't forget to break them up into
syllables first!
ap-par-ent-ly
2. The first five focus words have been broken into syllables and each syllable has been hidden in the
following grid.
Use a highlighter pen to pick them out (ap -par-ent-ly has been done for you)
a t i c n s o r b r
p u z y e u a p c a
m p a r c v r e n t
a e l s a i p l y v
t s a r y s a p e e
e l r p e r l y n r
p r o x l y u d i s
3. Now go back to the first grid. Underline any parts of words that you think might be awkward to
remember. Then memorize the focus words and test yourself on them.
Consonant Blends
Consonant blends are often difficult to hear so you need to say the words very clearly. If you
make lists of words starting with these blends you will get used to hearing them and recognizing the
patterns.
Here are some more examples. Use your dictionary to add 3 more words which begin with each
consonant blend.
blunder
broken
climate
cracker
dreadful
flood
fridge
globe
group
platform
protect
scorch
scratch
shred
sketch
shriek
slippery
smoke
snooze
special
splendid
sprinkle
squeeze
statue
struggle
throat
treasure
twinkle
Prefixes
Prefixes as an aid to spelling
A prefix is a group of letters placed at the start of a
root word to change its meaning. Some complicated words
are less difficult to spell if you are familiar with
prefixes.
un + likely disrespect
un + lawful disprove
undressed dissatisfied
un + popular dissimilar
NOTICE that when the prefix ends with the same letter as the
first letter of the base word then you have a double letter,
for example: dissimilar unnecessary
Click here prefix2ans.html for the answers.
2. Click here for a revision list of words starting un- or words startingwith the prefix
dis-
Click here for the answers, here for a relevant Hangman Puzzle,
here for an interactive quiz on these prefixes and here for a Wordle revision list
il- if the base word starts with l. For example not legal = illegal
ir- if the base word starts with r. For example not relevant = irrelevant
in- if the base word starts with any letter other than l, m, p, or r. For example not adequate =
inadequate
See if you can choose the correct words in the following. Click on the button alongside a word to see if
you're right.
1. not literate
2. not effective
3. not perfect
4. not reversible.
5. not legible
6. not eligible
ileligible ireligible ineligible
7. not relevant
8. not possible
9. not responsible
polite audible
human reversible
visible patient
regular eligible
competent resistible
possible logical
1. Here are some root words. What you have to do is to build new words by adding one of these
prefixes to the root word. The first one is done for you.
honest complete
legal understand
mingle perfect
edible heat
relevant treat
imaginative mortal
like possible
consistent contented
septic appetizing
Prefixes
Suffixes
noise -y noisy
Consonant Vowel
Examples Examples
Suffixes Suffixes
+consonant +vowel
Base word Base word
suffix suffix
excite+ing arrive+al
blame+less spice+y
waste+ful care+ing
place+ed place+ment
Swede+ish create+ion
one syllable
one short vowel
you double the final consonant when you add a vowel suffix
Sounds complicated doesn't it? But some examples will help:
slip has one syllable, one short vowel (i) and one consonant (p) at the end so:
When you add a consonant suffix, the base word doesn't change:
bag + ful = bagful, wet + ness = wetness
Click here for a worksheet on this topic
one syllable
one short vowel
you double the final consonant when you add a vowel suffix
Now make new words by adding suffixes to the following base words.
The first one has been done for you.
spot + y step + ed
You should notice that in the top line you stressed the first syllable. And in the bottom line you
stressed the second syllable. Like this:
If the stress is on the first syllable the base word doesn't change:
profit + able = profitable; and enter + ed = entered
If the stress is on the last syllable, double the final consonant before adding a vowel
suffix:
begin + ing = beginning; and equip + ed = equipped
If the stress is on the first syllable the base word doesn't change:
profit + able = profitable; and enter + ed = entered
delay reply
convey busy
destroy pity
delay + ed = delayed
employ + ment = employment
reply + ed = replied
busy + ness = business
pity + ful = pitiful
but reply + ing = replying
Copy the new word into the third column of this table.
Base word +
New word Copy new word here
suffix
busy + ly busily
carry + ed carried
bury + al burial
supply + er supplier
empty + ed emptied
Memorize the focus words and then click here for Suffix 7B
Fill in the gaps in the following chart. The first row is done for you.
noisy ly
easy easiest
ed supplied
try er
gloomy est
marry married
ment employment
mystery ous
apply appliance
ous envious
age marriage
Base + suffix Page New word Base + suffix Page New word
target + ed 5 control + er 5
supply + er 7A happy + ly 7A
adventure+ous 2 satisfy + ed 7A
exploit + ed 5 investigate+or 2
Test your understanding of them by crossing out the wrong spellings in each of the following sentences.
1. Biff labeled/labelled the packages, threw them on the trolley, and wheeled/wheelled them out of the
room.
3. The referee sent off the striker for fouling/foulling the goalkeeper.
4. Marianne's fees for the modeling/modelling course totaled/totalled more than a month's salary.
6. Sammy controled/controlled the speed of the haulage/haullage rope using a red lever.
slowly inspect
happily project
normally neglect
separately recollect
positively architect
If you make lists of words that have similar patterns you will
soon become a better speller.
click panic
trick Titanic
chick ethnic
sick clinic
Did you spot the difference? The words with only one
syllable end in -ick.
The words having more than one syllable end in -ic.
There are only a few exceptions to this pattern and these
usually happen where two words are joined together as in
homesick and candlestick.
2. On a spare piece of paper write down all the words you can
think of that end with -ick. Work your way through the
alphabet, not forgetting words that start with two consonants such as brick. How many
can you find?
We thought of twenty without much trouble. Can you beat that?
Words ending ic
1. Notice that each of the following words has more than one
syllable and ends in -ic. Copy each word in the space alongside.
mimic scientific
tonic magic
horrific tonic
Arctic Antarctic
traffic comic
logic tragic
2. Look at this e-mail. Some of the words have been left out.
They are all from the list of focus words. Write them down on a separate piece of paper.
Hi Mac,
I was late for school today because of the heavy 1 .
We were doing a new 2 in Geography about
the world's oceans. Our teacher told us about the two largest
oceans, the 3 and the 4 . Then she
went on to describe the 5 and the 6 at
the very north and south of the globe. In 7 we were doing long multiplication sums.
We're hoping to go on a 8 in the woods on Saturday if the 9 gets our car
fixed in time.
It would be 10 if you could come too. Let me know as soon as possible.
Love, Elizabeth
Click here for the answers
3. -er is also the most common way of ending a word for someone carrying out an action:
reporting reporter
playing player
fighting fighter
listening listener
printing printer
cleaning cleaner
4. -or is used when the base word ends in -ate, -ct, -it :
calculate/calculator create/creator investigate/investigator
contract/contractor reflect/reflector conduct/conductor
visit/visitor exhibit/exhibitor edit/editor
See if you can choose the correct words in the following. Click on the button alongside a word to see if
you're right.
veget- civiliz-
consider- punctu-
operate demonstrate
concentrate exaggerate
retaliate abbreviate
2. Write down the root verbs of these nouns. Check in the dictionary if you need help.
Noun Root Verb Noun Root Verb
relegation location
dedication ventilation
radiation indication
Click here for the answers but don't forget to come back!
3. Now memorize the focus words and test yourself on them. Why not brush up your
memorizing skills?
o If the base word is not altered in any way then add -able.
This works most of the time:
understand —> understandable,
predict —> predictable,
comfort —> comfortable, and so on.
o There are many more words ending -able than -ible.
I counted 900 -able words and 200 -ible words.
So, if you make a guess and choose -able
you're probably right 4 out of 5 times!
o The best advice I can give you is to learn the most common -ible
words and use -able for the rest.
Very many of the -ible words are so rare that you'll never use them.
Have you ever written fungible for instance?
negligible: of no importance
horrible: awful
sensible: reasonable
responsible: trustworthy
permissible: allowable
compatible: suitable
Notice how the adjectives all end with -ical, and the nouns end with -acle or -icle.
Handy Tip: Nearly all the words that end with this sound will be adjectives and
will therefore end with -ical.
3. Now memorize the focus words and test yourself on them. Are you
remembering to use LOOK - THINK - COVER - WRITE - CHECK?
4. Try the wordsearch on Puzzles 10 where you will find a number of words which
end like this. Or click here for a relevant hangman puzzle or a crossword puzzle
I often receive emails asking me to solve a puzzle. The person has been asked a question
about the third word which ends in -gry.
They have been led to believe that there are three common words in the English language
which end in -gry and have been asked to think of the third one.
1. There are only two common words ending in -gry. They are angry and hungry. There
are several other words which end like this such as aggry, meagry, puggry and some
others. But none of these could be described as common words.
2. This is a riddle rather than a genuine question - so you need to be on guard for
some trickery in the wording of the question.
3. Sometimes this riddle is misquoted. If you don't have the correct wording it
becomes impossible to solve. This how it should be worded:
Think of words ending in -gry. Angry and hungry are two of them. There are
only three words in the English language. What is the third word? The word
is something that everyone uses every day. If you have listened carefully, I
have already told you what it is.
Now that you know that it is a riddle and you have the correct wording, why not spend some
time trying to solve it?
Vowels
face close
wake whale
joke bagpipe
exercise promoted
space museum
escape hopeless
arrive craze
hikers surprise
diversion lately
I recently watched a group of children enthusiastically playing a game that included what I call the Magic E.
Their teacher uses the term “bossy E” because the silent E “bosses” the preceding vowel and changes it from a
short vowel to a long vowel. So, for example, putting a bossy E on the end of pin changes the short i to a long i
in pine.
The pack of cards had been prepared by the teacher herself and laminated to give them a long life. Each card
had a different word in which the bossy E and the preceding vowel were written in red. (There were also a
number of CHANGE cards – see below).
Two or more children played the game, the dealer giving five cards to each player as well as to themselves. The
spare cards were placed face down in the middle.
1. The dealer starts the game by selecting the top card of the pile and placing it face up alongside the stack.
2. The dealer reads the word, then sounds out the letters and finally draws attention to the long vowel and the
bossy E. So, for example, if the word is take, the dealer says “take”, spells it out ”t-a-k-e” and then says “a like
in take”. (If the card were bone then the dealer would say “bone”, spell it out “b-o-n-e” and then say “o like in
bone”).
3. If the next player has a card with the same sound as the one turned over by the dealer (for example late) they
place it on top of the pile, spell it out “l-a-t-e” and say “a like in late”.
4. However if they don’t have a match in their hand they have to pick up a card from the face down pile. If the
new card is a match they can play it immediately.
6. Any player who doesn’t have a match but has a CHANGE card in their hand can play the CHANGE card,
saying, for example, “I’m going to change it to i like in bite”. They then play their bite card, spelling it out “b-i-
t-e” and saying “i like in bite”.
8. The winner is the first player to get rid of all of their cards.
9. The teacher should make sure that each player says the correct wording, as above, as they play a card.
10. In the game that I watched there seemed to be, on average, about one CHANGE card for every six word
cards. Of course some players ended up without any CHANGE cards in the first round.
Dave rode his bike down the slope. He was going far too fast
so he put on his front brake. This was a bad mistake as the
front wheel locked and he was thrown over the handlebars.
He landed face-first among some stones. He was quite dazed
and for a moment he didn't know where he was.
Dave's Mum picked him up from the hospital and drove him
home. "You had a lucky escape," she said. "You need to be
much more careful in the future."
Here's a tip: if you're not sure about a vowel sound then try to think of another word which
comes from the same root.
You might be lucky and find one in which the vowel is stressed
and this will help you.
relative relation (the -a- is stressed)
cigarette cigar (the -a- is stressed)
information inform (the -or- is stressed)
1. Put the missing vowels in the following words. Then copy the whole word in the third column.
define def_nition
sedate sed_tive
explore expl_ration
console cons_lation
preservation preserv_tive
2. Now memorize the focus words and test yourself. Concentrate particularly on the underlined
vowels.
Long vowel sounds: -a-
1. The long -a- is most often written a-e for example state.
Usually there is only one letter between the a and the e
as in plate. But often there is more than one, as in table.
It's the magic e which makes the -a- have a long sound.
(Remember to have a look at the magic e page if you haven't
done so already)
2. But -ai- and -ay also make the long a sound. You'll notice
that -ai- usually comes in the middle of a word and
the long a right at the end of a word is always -ay.
4. Click here for a Hangman game on this topic. Long vowel sounds: -e-
When you hear a long -e- , particularly in the middle of
a word, it's often spelled -ea- or -ee- , like the words here:
*Don't forget that you can also spell the long -e- sound
by writing -ie- and -ei- .
For example: believe thief ceiling receive
Look back at Rules 1 to revise the rule about -ie- and -ei- .
*Finally, remember that you can also use the "magic e" to make a short e become a long e, as in
athlete, stampede, and Japanese. Click here for the magic e worksheet
Click here for a hangman puzzle
Long vowel sounds: -i-
4. Now memorize the focus words and test yourself on them. Long vowel
sounds: -o-
1. As is usual with long vowel sounds, most long -o- sounds
are written using the magic e.
(See the magic e page if you're not sure about this)
For example: lonely coke rodent stove
Plurals
Singular Plural
a table becomes two tables
one cake becomes three cakes
a planet becomes many planets
However, there are a few words that behave differently and I've provided two worksheets
which deal with those exceptions that tend to cause spelling difficulties.
These are:
Plurals of words ending in 'y'
Plurals of words ending in 'x', 'sh', 's', 'ss', and 'ch'.
Click on the links above to go to the worksheets.
If the word has a consonant before the final 'y' then the plural ends with 'ies':
Singular Plural
bully becomes bullies
pony becomes ponies
canary becomes canaries
spy becomes spies
If the word has a vowel before the final y then you just add an 's':
Singular Plural
day becomes days
delay becomes delays
survey becomes surveys
toy becomes toys
donkey dictionary
colony fairy
essay Sunday
story similarity
berry artery
Singular Plural
box becomes boxes
bush becomes bushes
atlas becomes atlases
glass becomes glasses
church becomes churches
sandwich guess
tax brush
crash octopus
beach circus
witness reflex
virus address
For a wordsearch on this spelling pattern go to Puzzle 14 or click here for a crossword on words
ending in -es
Memorizing strategies
o LOOK carefully at the new word. How can you break it into smaller bits? Do any of the smaller
bits remind you of the patterns of letters from other words?
o THINK about the parts of the words which might cause problems - double letters for instance, or
a vowel that isn't pronounced as you would expect.
o COVER the word and close your eyes. Try to see it in your mind's eye.
o WRITE the word down without looking back.
o CHECK to see if you're right. If not, look carefully at where you went wrong and try again.
More Hot Tips
* Whenever you have to copy a new word from the blackboard, from a book, or from the dictionary,
always try to write the whole word in one go.
Don't keep looking back after every few letters.
* Try finger-writing: while you're THINKing about the word, pretend to write it with your finger, on
your desk or on your hand.
Sounds complicated? Only because it's such a long, complicated word - which is why I
chose it. But you can do the same with any word. Have a try at remembering
disestablishmentarianism to show how easy it is. And to impress your friends! Then go to
LOOK
mem 3
THIN
K
COVE
R
WRI
TE
CHEC
K
The program downloads from the web site in just a few seconds.
BBC Scotland has created a couple of interesting cartoons about using proven memory techniques to help
you spell those awkward words that you commonly misspell. Why not have a look here: Brainsmart1 and
here: Brainsmart2
Most students in my classes know that subjects and verbs should agree.
Unfortuntately, few who make errors in subject-verb agreement in their writing have any techniques for
spotting those errors so they can correct them.
Teaching writing to students who habitually make agreement errors requires you to give them a simple
strategy for figuring out whether a sentence they have written contains such an error.
For students whose native language is English, the following strategy should not be difficult. The strategy
builds on the so-called given grammar that native English speakers absorb unconsciously.
If you are teaching students whose primary language is something other than English, you must use
different techniques appropriate to their intuitive understanding of grammar.
or
Those grammatical elements appear in left-to-right order in sentences. All native English speakers know
that left-to-right order. However, your students may not realize they know the order until you point it out
to them.
Students who recognize the normal sentence pattern will look for the subject toward the right of a
sentence (or main clause) instead of on its left.
Most of the time when students make errors in subject verb agreement, they mistake a word close to the
verb as its subject.
Thinking a grammatical subject is a single word contributes to subject verb agreement errors.
If you want students to get subject verb agreement right, you have cure them of assuming the subject will
be a single word and help them find the subjects of verbs.
The trick to identifying errors in subject verb agreement is to isolate the subjects.
Linguist Rei R. Noguchi in his book Grammar and the Teaching of Writing shows how to identify the
subjects of sentences correctly by two simple techniques that native English speakers know intuitively.
These techniques are the sentence tag and the yes-no sentence.
Let me show you how the sentence tag and yes-no question work. First, here is the original sentence:
As you can see, the tag sentence keeps the original sentence intact, but adds a little inquiry tag at the
end.
The inquiry tag uses as its subject a pronoun that is the same gender and number as the subject of the
original sentence.
Now here is the yes-no sentence:
The yes-no sentence brings the subject to the second word in the sentence.
With the help of these two sentences, students will be able to see they have achieved subject verb
agreement in sentences they wrote themselves.
Let's take a sentence and see how to check it for subject verb agreement errors. Here is the original
sentence:
Internet users, like my friend Jim, a small businessman who is building a website, has learned to use
advanced search.
Tag sentence A: Internet users, like my friend Jim, a small businessman who is building a website, has
learned to use advanced search, haven't they?
OR
Tag sentence B: Internet users, like my friend Jim, a small businessman who is building a website, has
learned to use advanced search, hasn't he?
If students' ears don't tell them something is wrong (and many students won't get it), the yes-no
sentence which comes next will be a red flag.
Yes-no sentence: Has Internet users, like my friend Jim, a small businessman who is building a website,
learned to use advanced search?
Just because students hear the problem, doesn't mean they will know how to fix it. You have to make
sure they understand which word in the original sentence is the subject and which the verb. Otherwise,
they could correct the sentence to this:
Internet user, like my friend Jim, a small businessman who is building a website, has learned to use
advanced search.
That correction gets rid of the subject verb agreement error, but produces a sentence that substandard.
Students often have difficulty with subject verb agreement when sentences are lengthy, as in this
example:
Original sentence: The needs of his clients to sell their property in a timely manner and at the best
possible price is Don's first concern when listing a property.
Students might write the tag sentence one of two ways, depending on what they think the grammatical
subject is:
Tag sentence A: The needs of his clients to sell their property in a timely manner and at the best
possible price is Don's first concern when listing a property, isn't it?
OR
Tag sentence B: The needs of his clients to sell their property in a timely manner and at the best
possible price is Don's first concern when listing a property, aren't they?
When students write the yes-no sentence, they put what they think is the verb and its subject together.
they will either use a singular verb, as is done here:
Yes-no sentence A : Isn't the needs of his clients to sell their property in a timely manner and at the
best possible price Don's first concern when listing a property?
Yes-no sentence B: Aren't the needs of his clients to sell their property in a timely manner and at the
best possible price Don's first concern when listing a property?
The yes-no sentence, shows the subject to be the plural noun needs. That means the verb also needs to
be plural. So the original sentence should be edited to read this way:
The needs of his clients to sell their property in a timely manner and at the best possible price are Don's
first concern when listing a property.
Be careful you identify correctly specifically what it is the student does not know. Like doctors,
grammarians must be sure they know the cause of the symptoms they see.
The simple technique shown here isn't going to fix every subject verb agreement error even of native
English speakers. They will still need to learn:
Learning those rules is much easier after students can identify the words that are the subjects of the
sentences they write.
Regularly applying these 24 rules of English grammar, punctuation, and spelling is adequate to give most
writers a reputation for using good English.