10 Tips on How to Approach Grammar

Exercises
http://www.whitesmoke.com/blog/grammar-exercises

1. Make sure you use as many kinds of grammar exercises in textbooks and websites so you get
to target as many grammar skills as possible.
2. Always read the instructions well and make sure you know which language structures or
grammar rules you are supposed to use in each exercise.
3. In sentence fill-ins, always read the whole sentence up to its end, understand the context, and
only then address the grammar point at hand.
4. In longer cloze passages (paragraphs with missing words to complete), read at least 5 lines
without completing anything in order to get clues from the context. These clues will help you
with the grammar completions.
5. Do not over-drill simple one sentence grammar exercises. Try to get context-based full-text
exercises that include your target language structure. These should be real-life texts, such as a
letter to a friend or a paragraph detailing DVD instructions.
6. Try and actively use every new structure you learn in free speech and in writing. Make a
checklist of structures you want to master in order to make sure you include them in your
English writing.
7. Some language students get too obsessed with grammar and neglect vocabulary, reading, and
writing activities. You must realize that grammar without vocabulary is like a necklace without
colorful beads – boring…
8. Make sure you constantly review and recycle previously learned grammar structures with the
new ones you learn. Practice with exercises in a rising level of difficulty as even simple grammar
rules can be implemented in more advanced and complicated contexts.
9. Get hold of, or better yet, create your own grammar tables for reviewing. Have these tables in
easy access when doing new grammar exercises.
10. Another good grammar exercise is to identify grammar structures in your reading and trying
to explain why the author has chosen them over other structures.
Grammar is an important part of a language and is very important for a well written piece of
writing.
3 No-Nos in English Grammar
There are mistakes that people commit quite frequently when speaking or writing in English,
three of which are listed here. Watch out for these three, and you are on your way to better
English grammar. 

 1. Use of the Dangling Participle

This is a common mistake. The dangling participle or misplaced modifier can change the
meaning of a sentence entirely. Check out these examples:

o A: After falling from the tree, my uncle picked up the apple.

o B: My uncle picked up the apple after it fell from the tree.

In example A, the dangling participle makes it seem as if the uncle fell from the tree.
Example B shows the proper position of the modifier, which describes that the apple fell
from the tree.

 2. Confused Use of Homophones

Homophones are words that sound alike but are spelled and used differently. Examples of
commonly misused homophones are the words “its” and “it’s”. See the following
examples:

o A: I put the laptop back in it’s case.

o B: I put the laptop back in its case.

Example A uses “it’s”, the contracted form of “it is”. In effect it says, “I put the laptop
back in [it is] case”, which is totally wrong. Dropping the apostrophe makes the sentence
correct, as in example B.

 3. Using a Non-Parallel Sentence Structure When Giving Lists

o A: She likes taking long walks, baking cakes, and books.
o B: She likes taking long walks, baking cakes, and reading books.

Use parallel sentence structure when you are enumerating something. Example A shows
a non-parallel sentence structure. Example B shows a correct parallel sentence structure
wherein all the items in the list begin in the ‘-ing’ form: taking, baking, reading.

Do not be overwhelmed by all the rules you have to remember. Avoid these three common
mistakes, and you are on your way to having perfect English grammar.
Negative Sentences
A negative sentence (or statement) states that something is not true or incorrect. A negative
adverb has to be added in order to negate or “cancel” the validity of the sentence. This
“negation” element is created according to the following general rule.

The Negation Rule: In English, in order to claim that something is not true, you form a negative
sentence by adding the word not after the first auxiliary verb in the positive sentence. If there is
no auxiliary verb in the positive sentence, as in the Present Simple and Past Simple tenses, then
you add one (in both these cases, the auxiliary verb do).

Pay attention:

 • When an auxiliary verb (including modals) is used, the main verb is not inflected (no s
or ed ending), meaning that either the base form or past participle is used.
 • The verb to be uses a different negation pattern.

Review the following table for examples of negation in English. Some examples use the
contracted forms more used in informal writing and speech, and some others use the full forms.

Tense Negative Element + Contracted Forms Examples

do+not = don’t I do not play.
Present Simple
does+not = doesn’t She doesn’t play.
Past Simple did+not = didn’t I didn’t play.
am + not (*no amn’t)
Present Progressive is+not = isn’t I am not playing.
are+not = aren't

 He is not playing.
 We aren’t playing.

Past Progressive
was+not = wasn’t
were+not = weren’t     I wasn’t playing.
They were not playing.
Present Perfect     have+not = haven’t
has+not = hasn’t     You haven’t played.
She has not played.
Present Perfect
Progressive     have+not+been= haven’t been
has+not+been = hasn’t been     I have not been playing.
She hasn’t been playing.
Past Perfect    had+not = hadn’t     You hadn’t played.
Past Perfect
Progressive    had+not+been = hadn’t been    She hadn’t been playing.
Future Simple     will+not = won’t    I won’t play.
Future Perfect    will+not+have = won’t have    He will not have played.
Conditional     would+not    She wouldn’t play.
Conditional perfect    would+not+have    She wouldn’t have played.
Modals    can + not = can’t or cannot (formal)
should+not = shouldn’t     I can’t play.
I cannot play.
We shouldn’t play.

Note:
In informal writing settings, you can contract the auxiliary verb with either the sentence subject
or the word not. In formal writing settings, refrain from contracting any words.

 She is not playing. [formal]

 She isn’t playing. = She’s not playing. [informal]

3 Main Tenses - Stay Consistent!

No need to feel tension with verb tense.  Just stay consistent!

The tense of a sentence is the time at which the action occured.

The 3 main tenses in English (and many other languages) are: Past, Present and Future.  There
are variations of each of these, but it is best to become totally comfortable and familiar with
these in order to even attempt to understand the others.  

The Rule

Consistency is Key

If you are writing about an event in the past - always use the past tense.  The same applies for
present and future.  If you are unsure about which tense to use, simply refer to the last verb you
wrote.  As with every rule, there are exceptions - but consistency is always your safest bet.

An Example

We found a classic example of tense inconsistency on a website this week.

Here's the sentence, as we found it:

"As chief executive officer, Dorsey saw the startup through two rounds of funding by the
venture capitalists who back the company."

We noticed something sounded wrong toward the end of the sentence.  Try reading it again, and
see if you feel similarly - that something just doesn't quite sit right.

The sentence is describing something that already happened (i.e. the start of a company).  We
know this, because of both the context, and the action verbs.  The first verb of the sentence -
"saw" - appears in the past-tense verb form. 

Yet "back" is a present-tense form of the verb "back", meaning "support".   

The Solution

The verbs must be made consistent.  Since the action is in the past, the verbs need to reflect this. 
Therefore, "back" needs to be changed to "backed", in order to be in the proper, past-tense verb
form. 

(The source of our example error sentence is Wikepedia.com, a site that allows users the option
to fix grammatical errors, which we love.)

Stay Consistent!

If you suspect tense inconsistency in your own writing, or the writing of others.

1) THINK about what "tense" or "time" the overall sentence is in - past, present or future.

2)  LOCATE verbs (action words) in the sentence, and see what tense they are in.

3)  RE-READ the sentence, to make sure you understand what it is saying.

4)  RE-EXAMINE the verbs in the sentence, to make sure they are in a consistent tense.
Adverbs
Adverbs serve to modify or give more information about a verb, an adjective or another adverb. 
They give information on how an action (verb) is being done.  Adverbs often end in ‘ly’.

Examples

 Beautiful becomes beautifully

 Careful would become carefully

Take care - there are some words that end with “ly” that are not adverbs. Examples would be
‘friendly’ or ‘lovely’. These are actually adjectives.

Examples of use of adverbs to describe a verb

 John finishes his work quickly and well.

 My parents will visit tomorrow.
 Let’s go home.
 The child was very unhappy.

The adverbs used here answer questions like: How does John finish? “quickly and well.” When
will my parents visit? “tomorrow.” Where will we go? “home.” To what extent was the child
unhappy? “very”

Interrogative Adverbs

These adverbs ask a question. Interrogative adverbs are ‘how’, ‘when’, ‘where’ and ‘why’.

Examples

 How did Susan get here?

 Why did you break the piggy bank?

You know Susan got here. What the adverb here does is let you ask how she got here. You know
the piggy bank was broken because you can see the pieces. You want to know why it was
broken.

Conjunctive Adverbs

Conjunctive adverbs join two ideas together. Conjunctive adverbs can also help you transition by
the way they link the two ideas. They can give emphasis to one of the ideas. They can also
answer how the two ideas are related. Though they are often mislabelled conjunctive adverbs are
very useful when you need to link ideas and paragraphs. Some of the more common conjunctive
adverbs include ‘besides’, ‘however’, ‘indeed’, ‘moreover’, ‘nevertheless’, ‘otherwise’ and
‘therefore’.

Examples

 The weatherman said it would rain; however, we forgot to bring our rain gear.
 Some children do not like to read; nevertheless, they should learn how.

For proper punctuation you should use a semicolon before the conjunctive adverb and a comma
should be used after it. For more information on punctuation look for an online punctuation
checker or English proofreading and editing software. Either should help you to better
understand punctuation.

Comparative adverbs

These adverbs offer a comparison to one or more other things. In the English language the
comparative or superlative forms of adverbs aren't usually formed by adding “ly”. Since they are
comparative they are most often formed by adding “er” or “est” to the end of the base word.
Other common comparative adverbs include ‘more’, ‘most’, ‘least’ and ‘less’.

Examples

 Bob is the fastest runner in his class.

 The blue dress is prettier than the pink one.

In these sentences there are comparisons made. In the first, Bob is compared to his class. In the
second one the blue dress is compared to the pink one.

Linking Verbs
http://www.whitesmoke.com/english-verbs-more-terms.html

Table

Linking verbs are a sub-group of stative verbs that denote a state of being, connecting the subject
with a complement, usually an adjective describing the subject (not the verb). Dynamic verbs, by
contrast, are followed by adverbs modifying them, rather than by adjectives.

Linking Verbs with Typical Adjectives Following Them

State of Being     Senses     Transformation

be (happy)
appear (upset)
stay (calm)
prove (difficult)
remain (silent)
seem (satisfied)
keep (quiet)     look (young)
smell (bad)
taste (good)
sound (nice)
feel (tired)     become (suspicious)
get (dark)
grow (old)
turn (blue)
go (red)
come (true)
fall (silent)

His new girlfriend looks really good.

[looks (Present Simple form of look) as linking verb meaning to have the appearance of, as a
state]

He has been frantically looking for his glasses all morning.

[has been looking (Present Perfect Progressive form of look) as dynamic verb meaning to search
for something, as an action]

How to Recognize A Verb in A Sentence?

http://www.whitesmoke.com/english-verbs-basic-terms.html

1. Tests for verbs: A good way to identify a verb when a word is in doubt is to ask, Can I do it? I
can succeed (do it) is correct but I can success is incorrect. This means succeed is a verb and the
related part of speech success is not a verb; in this case, success is a noun.
Another test for verbs is to use the word in question in a different verb tense. If the sentence still
makes sense, the word is a verb.
Original: That’s the updated version of the software.
Test:     That’s the will update version of the software.
[The word updated here is not a verb because using it in the future simple tense in the second
sentence does not result in a logical sentence; it is an adjective describing the noun version]

2. Verbs can also be recognized by some common verb suffixes and prefixes.
Suffix or Prefix    Meaning     Examples
-ate     to cause, make     to activate, to differentiate
-fy or -ify     to transform into     to signify, to clarify
-ize (British -ise)    to make like     to realize, to criticize
-en    to make/turn into     to redden, to soften
be-    forms transitive verbs that mean "cause"    to befriend, to beseech
en-    to bring into the condition of    to encode, to engender

Clauses: Independent versus Dependent

Every properly constructed English sentence contains at least one clause.  A clause is a section,
or a part of a sentence, which includes a subject and some kind of description of the subject.

Sentences can contain one or more clauses.   

For example:

The leaves in the tree turned yellow, caused by the changing of the seasons.

There are two clauses in this sentence:

(1)  The leaves in the tree turned yellow (2)  caused by the changing of the seasons.

Independent Clauses
The independent clause is the dominant, main clause of the sentence.

When only one clause is contained in a sentence, it is known as an independent clause. 

Independent clauses can be combined in the same sentence as dependent clauses. If the sentence
were broken apart, the independent clause would still make sense, although the dependent clause
would be merely a sentence fragment.

Dependent Clauses

Dependent clauses only serve to modify (describe, or provide information about) independent
clauses. 

Unlike independent clauses, dependent clauses cannot exist by themselves.  Dependent clauses
do contain a subject and a verb, but they don’t form a complete thought.  Alone, they are only
sentence fragments - and form serious grammatical errors.
Examples of Both Clause Types

Read over these examples to become comfortable with spotting independent versus dependent
clauses. 

Remember: Independent clauses can survive as correct sentences on their own, independent from
the dependent clauses.

After he graduated from college, Daniel got a job in a bank.

INDEPENDENT CLAUSE DEPENDENT CLAUSE

Daniel got a job in a bank After he graduated from college

I take the bus everyday to school, but I missed it yesterday because I woke up too late.

INDEPENDENT CLAUSE DEPENDENT CLAUSE(s)

I take the bus everyday to school but I missed it yesterday

  because I woke up too late

Readability, Run-On Sentences and Fragments

When writing sentences with multiple clauses, it is important to keep in mind the readability of
your writing, and making sure each sentence is structured clearly and correctly.

To attain maximum readability, pretend as though you were your own audience, look at your
sentence, and ask yourself:

1.  Is this sentence too long? 

2.  Is there a complete thought expressed, or is it fragmentary?

If the sentence is too long : separate it into smaller sentences, read over each new sentence and
make adjustments.

If the sentence is fragmentary : adjust accordingly so that it makes grammatical sense. This
usually entails adding or removing connector words.
Recap:  Clauses Matter

Telling the difference between independent and dependent clauses equips you with a powerful
editorial tool, so you can avoid making such classic, glaring grammar mistakes like run-on
sentences and sentence fragments. 

Just by reading this post, you are already well on the way to avoiding these mistakes.  For
practice, read a few sentences over again from this very post, and see if you can spot the
independent versus dependent clauses.  Train your eye and your brain to know the difference,
and it will likely become automatic. 

This means, pretty soon you can kiss run-ons and sentence fragments good-bye!

So What Is A Gerund Anyway?

Understanding the Parts Of Speech
Traditional English grammar divides words into eight parts of speech: verbs, nouns, pronouns,
adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions, and interjections.  There are a few more terms
also often used to define words, such as articles and gerunds.

Verbs

Verbs describe actions (eat, dance) or states of being (am, remain).  Every sentence contains at
least one verb.

Nouns

A noun is a person, place, thing, idea, or feeling.  Every sentence has a subject, which is a noun.

Pronouns

Pronouns replace nouns in a sentence to avoid repetition.  Examples include she, it, and them. 
Pronouns can be possessive (mine, ours) or interrogative (who, what).

Adjectives

Adjectives describe or modify nouns.  Big, old, hungry, blue, and vague are adjectives. 
Adjectives can be possessive (my cat), demonstrative (that cat), interrogative (which cat?), or
indefinite (some cats).
Adverbs

Adverbs modify or describe verbs (he ran quickly), adjectives (the sun was very bright), or other
adverbs (he ran fairly quickly).

Prepositions

Prepositions link nouns, pronouns, and phrases to the rest of the sentence. The preposition
usually indicates a relationship in time (I swept the stairs before lunch), space (my socks are
under the bed), or logic (there is no business like show business).

Conjunctions

Conjunctions link words (I like jam and bread), phrases (do you want to wash the dishes or take
out the garbage), and clauses (dinner is ready, so we should go in).

Interjections

Interjections are words or short phrases added to a sentence to convey emotion.  They are often
followed by an exclamation mark. Interjections are informal.

Wow!  This is great!

Hey, come on.

Articles

Articles introduce nouns.  Common articles are the, a, and an.

Gerunds

A gerund is a verb form that functions as a noun.  Gerunds always end in “ing,” although not
every verb ending in “ing” is a gerund.  The verb is a gerund if it is acting as a noun.

I am running - regular verb

Running is good for you - gerund
The Grammar Rules for Clauses in English
http://www.whitesmoke.com/grammar-rules-sentence-structure-sentence-clauses.html

1. A clause is a group of words that contains both a subject and a predicate but cannot always be
considered as a full grammatical sentence. Clauses can be either independent clauses (also called
main clauses) or dependent clauses (also called subordinate clauses).

2. An independent clause (or main clause) contains both a subject and predicate, can stand alone
as a sentence (a simple sentence), or be a part of a multi-clause sentence. Coordinating
conjunctions (and, but, for, nor, or, so, yet) are used to connect elements of equal weight such as
two independent clauses, using a comma before the conjunction.
We visited Paris last September.
[independent clause functioning as a full sentence]

We visited Paris in September, and then we visited Berlin in October.

[two independent clauses connected by the coordinating conjunction and preceded with a
comma]

3. A dependent clause (or subordinate clause) contains both a subject and a verb but cannot stand
alone as a sentence. It must always be a part of a sentence, on which it depends for meaning.
Reading a dependent clause on its own leaves the reader wondering where the rest of the
information is. The following sections describe the different kinds of dependent clauses.

4. An adverb clause or adverbial clause (also called a subordinate clause) is a type of dependent
clause which starts with a subordinating conjunction (e.g. because, although, when, if, until, as if
etc.). It indicates a dependent relationship with information elsewhere in the independent clause
that it modifies. Similarly to adverbs, adverb clauses usually answer questions such as: Why?
How? When? Under what circumstances? When the adverb clause is written before the
independent clause, separate the two with a comma.

In the following example pairs, see how the same information is given using a word, phrase or a
clause.
We ate dinner at the hotel bistro.
[the adverbial phrase modifies the verb ate; it answers the question where?]

We ate dinner where all the locals usually go to.

[The adverb clause modifies the verb ate; it answers the question where?]

We wanted to go to the Louvre early.

[The adverb modifies the verb phrase wanted to go; it explains when?]

We wanted to go to the Louvre as early as we could.

[The adverb clause modifies the verb phrase wanted to go; it explains when?]
We visited Paris last September due to a business meeting.
[The adverbial phrase explains why?]

We visited Paris last September because we wanted to see the Mona Lisa at the Louvre museum.
[The adverb clause modifies the entire independent clause; it explains why?]

5. An adjective clause (also called a relative clause), just like an adjective, modifies the noun or
pronoun preceding it (also called the antecedent). It starts with a relative pronoun (e.g. who,
which, that, where, when, whose, whom, whoever etc.) which is also the subject of the clause.

In the following example pairs ,see how the same information is given using a word, phrase or a
clause.
This is a great museum.
[the adjective amazing modifies the noun museum]

This is a museum that we visited last year.

[The adjective clause modifies the noun museum; that is a relative pronoun referring to the
antecedent museum]

In Paris, we met good friends.

[the adjective good modifies the noun friends]

In Paris, we met friends whom we haven't seen for years.

[the adjective clause modifies the noun friends; whom is a relative pronoun referring to the
antecedent friends]

6. Use who, whom, whoever and whomever when the adjective clause refers to a person or an
animal with a name. Use which or that when the adjective clause refers to a non-person (thing) or
an animal that is not a pet.
The French lady who was our tour guide turned out to be a distant relative of ours.
[the French lady is a person; who is used]

Our hotel, which was built in 1830, had an excellent bistro.

[our hotel is a thing; which is used]

7. When an adjective clause is non-restrictive (gives an extra piece of information not essential to
the overall meaning of the sentence), separate it with commas from the rest of the sentence. Do
not use that with non-restrictive adjective clauses.
The hotel that was built in 1830 has an excellent bistro
[The adjective clause is restrictive; only the hotel built in 1830 has an excellent bistro. The
adjective clause is essential to the meaning of the sentence]
The hotel , which was built in 1830, had an excellent bistro.
[The adjective clause is non-restrictive; there may be more hotels with excellent bistros. The
adjective clause merely adds extra information]
8. A noun clause functions as a noun, meaning that it can be a subject, object or complement in a
sentence. It starts with the same words that begin adjective clauses: that, who, which, when,
where, whether, why, how.
The Louvre museum was amazing!
[The Louvre museum = noun phrase as subject of sentence]

What we saw at the Louvre Museum was amazing.

[What we saw at the Louvre Museum = noun clause as subject of sentence]

We loved what we saw at the Louvre museum.

[what we saw at the Louvre museum = noun clause as object of the verb like]

The best thing we liked was what we saw at the Louvre museum.
[what we saw at the Louvre museum = noun phrase as complement of the verb was]

9. Do not confuse between adjective and noun clauses, as they begin with the same words. A
word starting an adjective clause has an antecedent to which it refers, whereas a word starting a
noun clause does not.
Our French friends know that we saw the new exhibition at the Louvre.
[that we saw the new exhibition at the Louvre = noun clause as object of the verb know]

The new exhibition that we saw at the Louvre was amazing.

[that we saw at the Louvre = adjective clause referring to the antecedent exhibition]

10. An elliptical clause may seem incorrect as it may be missing essential sentence elements, but
it is actually accepted grammatically. As these clauses must appear together with complete
clauses which contain the missing words, repetition is avoided by leaving the same words (or
relative pronoun) out in the elliptical clause. This conciseness actually adds to the flow of the
text and promotes writing that is more elegant.

In the following examples, the omitted words are given in parenthesis.

The Louvre museum was one of the sites (that) we did not want to miss.
[The relative pronoun that is omitted from the adjective clause]

After (we visited) the Louvre, we went out to dinner at a French bistro.
[subject and verb omitted from adverb clause]

The French make better croissants than the American (make or do).
[second half of comparison omitted]

Though (they) sometimes (appear) impatient and somewhat assertive, most French people are
actually kind and warm-hearted.

[subject and verb omitted from adverb clause]

Special Singular-Plural Cases
http://www.whitesmoke.com/singular-and-plural-nouns.html

Turning a singular noun to plural in English has very specific rules and many exceptions to these
rules. This article will present you with the singular-plural rules in English.

1. Plural-Only Nouns

 Some nouns only have a plural form, ending with s or without.

 The police are looking for the robbers.

 I like these pants / jeans / shorts.
 Use either scissors or nail clippers.
 Binoculars are stronger than any glasses.

 Other nouns ending with s only have a plural form only with certain meanings.

customs (at the airport, not practices), guts (courage, not intestines)
quarters (lodgings, not 1/4s), clothes (garments, not fabrics)
goods (merchandise, not the opposite of bad), arms (weapons, not limb)

2. Singular Nouns with an S Ending

Pay attention!
• Some nouns end with s but are usually singular. They take a singular verb with an s ending in
the Present Simple.
Diseases: measles, rabies.
Fields of study and occupation: economics, ethics, linguistics, politics, physics, gymnastics.
Games: dominoes, darts, cards
I study mathematics, which is very difficult. Dominoes is my favorite pastime.
• Some nouns have an identical form for singular and plural that both end with s.
Barracks, means, headquarters, crossroads,

 a TV series – many TV series,

 Money is a means to an end.
 Newspapers and TV are means of mass-communication.
 There is one species of humans but many species of cats.

3. Plural Nouns from Other Languages

As English has constantly borrowed words from other languages throughout its history, there are
many nouns with plural endings taken from the source language. Some of these, notably Latin
and classical Greek nouns, have been anglicized and may also have an English plural s ending.
Others have both forms, where the original is used in formal language or by specialists, while the
anglicized is for more common use. Some of these are now almost only known or used in the
plural form, which is treated as singular for subject-verb agreement (third person verb with s in
the Present Simple). In the table below, the more common forms are underlined.

Endings     Singular     Plural

um – ia    

 •    One bacterium can multiply into millions.

 •    one datum
 •    The Internet is the newest medium.
 •    Each school should have a curriculum.     •    Bacteria multiply rapidly.
 •    Use this data for your calculations.
 •    The media is everywhere.
 •    Curricula.

on – a    

 •    one criterion

 •    a natural phenomenon     •    several criteria
 •    natural phenomena

is – es    

 •    psychological analysis

 •    the oil crisis
 •    the basis for the hypothesis     •    financial analyses
 •    many life crises
 •    the bases of the hypotheses

a – ae    

 •    the TV antenna

 •    sea alga     •    TV antennas, insect antennae
 •    sea algae

us – i    

 •    a circle’s radius

 •    a fungus
 •    an alumnus     •    the circles’ radii
 •    fungi
 •    alumni

ex/ix – ices    

  •    an index
 •    The matrix
 •    appendix     •    Indices, indexes
 •    matrices
 •    Book appendices, appendixes in the abdomen

o – i    

 •    graffito
 •    concerto
 •    virtuoso     •    graffiti
 •    concerti
 •    virtuosi

This has been a general review of singular and plural nouns in English. There are many more
unique cases and usages. Whenever in doubt, use the dictionary for more specific information.