Don’t know which way to turn?
Never fear…
Welcome to…
Grammar to Go !!
Grammar Basics
The Academic Skills Center is good…but not that good! We can’t make up for a student ignoring 12 years of English grammar! But…we can show you some of the worst grammar offenders and show you how to make peace with the worst of them!
Even if you learn all the rules…
There are more exceptions to the rules than there are rules.
(Which means you need to know how to use the Penguin Handbook!!)
Verbs and Pronouns
Two irritating parts of speech are the…
Verbs are words that show…
A perfect example of state of being…
Be still and know that I
am God.
BASIC VERB FORMSBase Form 3rd Person
SingularPast Tense Past
Participle(ed added to
verb)
Present Participle
(ing added to verbs)
jump jumps jumped jumped jumping
wish wishes wished wished wishing
P.S. Wouldn’t it be nice if all past tense and past participle verbs were all alike?
Verbs need therapy!
They are transitive, intransitive, shifty in
tense and are moody with indicative, imperative and
subjective moods.
Moody VerbsIndicative mood Imperative
moodSubjunctive mood
State facts Make commands
Expresses wishesHypothetical
situations
Opinions Give advice Requests with “that” clauses
Questions Make requests Suggestions
Ex. The Penguin is a good reference book to use.
Ex. Use your Penguin!
Ex. If you were to use your Penguin, you would be better at solving grammar problems.
Unfortunately…
In fact, some verbs need more fiber because they are not regular!
Base form Past Tense Past Participle
arise arose arisen
become became become
choose chose chosen
do did done
eat ate eaten
go went gone
know knew known
sit sat sat
write wrote written
Confusing Pairs are
Lie or lay?
Set or sit?
Raise or rise?
Really Wild Verb…
Verb “to be”
Base form
Past tense PastParticiple
(I) am(You) are(He) is
(I) was(You)
were(He) was
(I have) been(You have) been
(He has) been(They have been
“Get off my Case,” said the Pronoun to the Verb!
Pronouns that are subjects are “Subjective.”Pronouns that are objects are “Objective.”Pronouns that show ownership are “Possessive.”
Ex. I let him use my laptop, but he lent it to
her, and I haven’t seen it or them since.
Pronouns are evil.
They are personal, possessive,
demonstrative, indefinite, relative, interrogative,
reflexive and reciprocal!
Some psycho pronoun problems.
Is it you and me or you and I?
Us or we before nouns?
Who or whom?
Whoever or whomever?
Pronouns in comparisons using than or as?
Possessive pronouns before “ing”? Ex.. You or your making the team?
Do collective nouns use singular or plural pronouns?
Pronouns with antecedents … singular or plural?
Since pronouns replace or refer to nouns, they must agree in number and gender.
•If the noun is male, the pronoun has to be male.
•If the noun is singular, the pronoun has to be singular.
•If “one” is used as a subject, then the pronoun(s) should be he or she. (Better not to use “one.”
Vague Pronoun References
A pronoun can refer to more than one noun and it gets confusing.
Ex. The coach rushed past the injured player to yell at the referee. She was hit in the face by a stray elbow.
Does the “she” refer to the coach, the player or the referee?
More confusing pronouns to avoid.Any
Either
More
Most
Every
Each
They
Everybody
Anybody
Everything
Neither
None
Somebody
Something
This
That
These
Those
Some
One good way to avoid pronoun problems?
Stronger, better, more specific writing uses nouns instead of pronouns.
Unless you have a photographic memory…
you
cannot memorize all the rules and all the exceptions to the
rules.
And now…after this G2G…
You know
what to do about it!!
Check the index in your Penguin
handbook!
More G2G10.14.09
II. Back to BasicsA. Basic structure of college writing (from Chapters 2, 3)B. Different types of college writing (from Chapters 6-9)C. Using effective style and language (from Chapters 27+)
11.11.09III. ResearchA. Use databases, Web sources, print sources (from Chapters 16+)B. Documentation and citation (from Chapters 23a)C. Differences in MLA and APA styles (from Chapters 23+)
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