6-Spelling/Word Choice, Featured Posts

Untangling “which” and “that”

Relative pronouns offer people struggling with grammar a special little brand of torture.

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5-Punctuation, 8-Small Things That Matter, Featured Posts, Hyphens

Small Things that Matter #4: Hyphen Hassles

Perhaps no piece of punctuation gives us more trouble than the hyphen, in particular when we are trying to decide whether to hyphenate a compound modifier. In that realm, the average writer is as consistent as the stock market these days. So, let’s review: When a noun has more than one modifier, the modifiers are hyphenated when [...]

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4-Agreement

Can’t We All Just Get Along?

Posted on 26 June 2009

The first and most important rule in subject verb agreement is that the verb must agree with the intended number of the subject. To accomplish that task, follow two occasionally not so simple tasks. 1. Identify the real subject 2. Determine whether subject is singular or plural Continue Reading

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3-Case

Making the Case

Posted on 26 June 2009

The case of a pronoun indicates whether the pronoun initiates the action (e.g., subjective case), receives the action (e.g., objective case) or conveys ownership (e.g., possessive case). Continue Reading

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4-Agreement, Singular or Plural -- It Depends

Singular or Plural Subjects: It Depends

Posted on 03 June 2009

Collective nouns and certain plural words may take singular or plural verbs depending on the meaning in the sentence. Continue Reading

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1-Parts of Speech, Adverbs

Lolly, Lolly. Lolly Get your Adverbs Here

Posted on 02 June 2009

An adverb modifies--changes, enhances, limits, describes, intensifies, muffles--a verb, an adjective or another adverb. Continue Reading

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1-Parts of Speech, Adjectives

Unpack Your Adjectives

Posted on 02 June 2009

The primary purpose of an adjective is to modify a noun. They typically answer one of these three questions about the noun: What kind? How many? Which one? Continue Reading

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4-Agreement, Always Singular

Agreement: Pronouns that ALWAYS Take a Singular Verb

Posted on 01 June 2009

When used as a subject or adjective these indefinite pronouns are always singular and, therefore, they take singular verbs. Continue Reading

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