7 Parts of Grammar

By THE DUCK KILLERS

Double negatives

• Standard written English never uses two negative words when one will work.

Examples:

• I Told them I had to skip the movie because I don’t have no money for the ticket. Don’t and no are both negative. only one is necessary.

Parallel Structure

• Parallel structure is a fancy way of saying that all the language is in the same form. Usually these tricks appear when a sentence contains a series of actions or prepositions.

Example:• Before I could

go to the lake with my friends, I had to do my chores, walk the dog, and finishing my homework.Finishing is incorrect because it does not match the form of the other verbs in the series.

Pronoun Antecedents

• A pronoun is a word that stands in for a noun, which is called its antecedent. You should be able to clearly connect a pronoun to its antecedent. Singular pronouns ( I, he, she it) stand in for singular nouns, and plural pronouns (We, they) stand in for plural nouns. A pronoun’s gender should match its antecedent as well.

E x

a m

p l

e:• Alicia went to

lunch alone, and they has been gone a long time.

Alicia is a singular, female person, so the pronoun should be she, not they.

• Alicia went to lunch alone, and her has been gone a long time. Never use the objective pronoun form (Her, him, them, us, me) as the subject of a verb.

Subject-verb agreement

• Make sure subjects and verbs agree. This means that if the subject is singular (Referring to just one thing) the verb should be singular, too.

Example:

• The Child’s pleasant demeanor make my baby-

sitting job easy.

Make is the plural form of the verb. The

subject Demeanor is singular and should take

the singular verb makes.

Verb Tense• Verb tense tells you when an

action takes place- in the past, the present, or the future. Sometimes the error in a question will be the incorrect use of the tense. Normally, the tense of a sentence stays the same. If a sentence begins by telling about something that happened in the past, then the sentence will probably not switch to present or future.

Example:

• The Team from Hyde Park Middle School went to the park and practice soccer. Because the first part of the sentence takes place in the past, the second part should also be in the past tense.

Words often confused

• Sometimes the sentence will have the correct structure and grammar, but a word will be used incorrectly. For example, an adverb could be used in place of an adjective, or vice verso. A commonly confused word might be used. Or, the wrong preposition may be used.

Example:

• When the local hockey team won its second championship, the fans were proud for it. The preposition of, not for, normally follows the adjective proud.

Misplaced words or phrases

• Sometimes, the only thing wrong with a sentence is that the words are out of order. Sometimes, words or phrases that modify or describe something are not placed near the thing described.

Example:

• Dennis put the clean sheets away in the hall closet folded neatly in squares.Who or what is folded neatly? The Sheets, not the closet, and not Dennis.