English Grammar For Dummies, UK Edition

If you're confused by commas, perplexed by pronouns, and plain terrified by tenses, English Grammar For Dummies will put your fears to rest. Packed with expert guidance, it covers everything from sentence basics to rules even your English teacher didn't know - if you want to brush up on your grammar, this is the only guide you'll ever need. Discover how to: avoid common grammatical errors; get to grips with apostrophes; structure sentences correctly; use verbs and find the right tense; and decide when to use slang or formal English.

If you're confused by commas, perplexed by pronouns, and plainterrified by tenses, English Grammar For Dummies will put yourfears to rest. Packed with expert guidance, it covers everythingfrom sentence basics to rules even your English teacher didn't know if you want to brush up on your grammar, this is the only guideyou'll ever need.Discover how to: avoid common grammatical errors; get to gripswith apostrophes; structure sentences correctly; use verbs and findthe right tense; and decide when to use slang or formalEnglish.

Introduction 1Part I: The Parts of Speech and Parts of the Sentence7Chapter 1: I Already Know How to Talk. Why Should I StudyGrammar? 9Chapter 2: Verbs: The Heart of the Sentence 17Chapter 3: Relax! Understanding Verb Tense 33Chapter 4: Who's Doing What? Finding the Subject 51Chapter 5: Having It All: The Complete Sentence 63Chapter 6: Handling Complements 73Part II: Avoiding Common Errors 83Chapter 7: Getting Hitched: Marrying Sentences 85Chapter 8: Do You Feel Bad or Badly? The Lowdown on Adjectivesand Adverbs 99Chapter 9: Prepositions, Interjections and Articles 115Chapter 10: Everyone Brought Their Homework: Pronouns 125Chapter 11: Just Nod Your Head: About Agreement 137Part III: No Garage, but Plenty of Mechanics 153Chapter 12: Apostrophes 155Chapter 13: Quotations: More Rules than Revenue & Customs171Chapter 14: The Pause That Refreshes: Commas 193Chapter 15: Adding Information: Semicolons, Dashes and Colons203Chapter 16: CAPITAL LETTERS 215Part IV: Polishing without Wax - The Finer Points ofGrammar 229Chapter 17: Pronouns and Their Cases 231Chapter 18: Fine-Tuning Verbs 243Chapter 19: Saying What You Want to Say: Descriptive Words andPhrases 259Chapter 20: Good, Better, Best: Comparisons 265Chapter 21: Keeping Your Balance 279Part V: Rules Even Your Great-Aunt's Grammar TeacherDidn't Know 289Chapter 22: The Last Word on Verbs 291Chapter 23: The Last Word on Pronouns 301Chapter 24: The Last Word on Sentence Structure 313Chapter 25: The Last Word on Punctuation 327Part VI: The Part of Tens 341Chapter 26: Ten Ways Two to Improve Your Proofreading 343Chapter 27: Ten Ways to Learn Better Grammar 347Index 351