Complete Thoughts, Complete Sentences

by esltime on December 12, 2012

in Grammar

What’s an incomplete sentence? It’s the moment in the television show just before the last commercial. You know what I mean. The hero slowly edges the door open a few inches, peeks in, gasps, and . . . FADE TO DANCING DETERGENT BOTTLE. You were planning to change the channel, but instead you wait to [...]

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Placing the Proper Pronoun in the Proper Place

November 26, 2012

How do you choose the correct pronoun for a sentence with a linking verb? Think of a linking-verb sentence as reversible. That is, the pronoun you put after a linking verb should be the same kind of pronoun that you put before a linking verb. First, however, I give you an example with a noun, [...]

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I Already Know How to Talk. Why Should I Study Grammar?

November 24, 2012

In the Middle Ages, grammar meant the study of Latin, the language of choice for educated people. In fact, grammar was so closely associated with Latin that the word referred to any kind of learning. This meaning of grammar shows up when people of grandparent-age and older talk about their grammar school, not their elementary [...]

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What grammar is about.

November 22, 2012

Here’s an old children’s rhyme about the eight parts of speech of English grammar. It gives you an idea of what grammar is about. Read and remember it. Every name is called a noun, As field and fountain , street and town . In place of noun the pronoun stands, As he and she can [...]

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AM or p.m.? Capitalizing Abbreviations

June 1, 2012

Abbreviations save you time, but they also present you with a couple of annoying problems, namely whether to capitalize or lowercase and whether a period is needed. The world of abbreviations, I must confess, is prime real estate for turf wars. Some publications and institutions proudly announce that “we don’t capitalize a.m.” whereas others declare [...]

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Getting By with a Little Help from Some Other Verbs

July 29, 2011

In addition to has, have, had, and the be verbs (am, is, are, was, were, and so on) you can attach a few other helpers to a main verb, and in doing so, change the meaning of the sentence slightly. Helpers you need to consider hiring include: Should and must add a sense of duty. [...]

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Shining a Light on Not-So-Perfect Tense

July 29, 2011

The perfect tenses tack has, have, or had onto a verb. Each perfect tense — present perfect, past perfect, and future perfect — also has a progressive form, which includes an -ing verb. The difference between plain perfect tense and progressive perfect is subtle. The progressive perfect is a bit more immediate than the plain [...]

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TENSES

July 21, 2011

TENSES FUTURE FORMS Introduction There are a number of different ways of referring to the future in English. It is important to remember that we are expressing more than simply the time of the action or event. Obviously, any ”future” tense will always refer to a time ”later than now”, but it may also express [...]

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”- ING” FORM

July 21, 2011

”- ING” FORM INTRODUCTION The ”-ing” form of the verb may be a present participle or a gerund. The form is identical, the difference is in the function, or the job the word does in the sentence. The present participle: This is most commonly used: l as part of the continuous form of a verb, [...]

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RELATIVE CLAUSE

July 21, 2011

RELATIVE CLAUSE WHERE TO PUT THE PREPOSTITION IN A RELATIVE CLAUSE There are often prepositions in relative clauses, and the relative pronoun is the object of the preposition. This means that the preposition can sometimes be omitted. 1. The preposition is normally placed at the end of the relative clause: Is that the man (who) [...]

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