A Comprehensive Guide to English Grammar and its Application to Fictional Writing

Introduction

Hello, my name is Owen Glyndwr, feel free to call me Owen. Allow me to tell you a little about myself. I am an American, I was born, raised, and am currently living in the state of California. I am seventeen years old, I am a senior in High School, and am intending to attend college, majoring in History (Actually I'm pursuing the ultimate goal of attaining a PhD, but that's a long way off). I speak English as a first language, in addition, I also speak Spanish, and am learning French and Welsh (sort of). Through my career in school, it has been my finding that, although most people in California speak English as a first language, it is seldom spoken correctly, let alone written so.

About two years ago, I encountered a book in my parents' bookcase called Eats, Shoots, and Leaves by Lynne Truss. The book is written by a Grammarian, that is, someone who is wholly obsessed with proper, grammatically correct speech and writing, to the extent that they go around vandalizing signs (correcting them with permanent marker). In the book, Truss goes through each punctuation marks, along the way, examining their history, as well as how to properly apply them to writing.

The book changed my life; my eyes were suddenly awoken to just how poorly people of my generation talk and speak (A good example is the excessive, incorrect use of the word "like" in California). I soon became obsessed with correct grammar, going so far as to start correcting my friends during casual conversation. Eventually, my friends alienated me, and I was forced to end my crusade, but the knowledge I gained on grammar and punctuation stuck with me.

About a month ago, I started frequenting the Europa Barbarorum section of the forums. I had been a member for awhile, but never really paid attention to the mods. I downloaded the game and started playing. Needless to say, I quickly became addicted to the game. Then a few days ago, I finally got up the courage to start writing an AAR. Additionally, I started reading other people's stories for inspiration. One person's AAR was following the Casse (much like my own) and, although his story ideas were very good, his grammar was poor, and plagued by run-on sentences. He asked me via private message if I could help him with grammar, and that is where the idea for this guide originated.

This guide is a comprehensive guide designed to teach someone who is able to speak the English language fluently how to write grammatically correct in English (and apply it to their writing). In this guide I will start from the absolute basics and slowly add more and more complexity so that by the end of the guide, the reader will hopefully understand the following: the basic parts of speech, what each punctuation mark means and how to use them correctly, how to apply dialogue to story, and how to nicely mix sentence structure to create a definitive rhythm to their stories.


Table of Contents
Chapter 1: The Basics: Parts of Speech
Chapter 2: Starting Slowly: The Simple Sentence
Chapter 3: The Punctuation Marks
Chapter 4: The Next Step: Making two sentences one
Chapter 5: How to Spice Up Your Sentences: The Clause
Chapter 6: Dialogue: Because Everyone Needs to Speak Sometime!
Chapter 7: Common Slip ups of an English Speaker
Chapter 8: Compiling What You Have Just Learned into a Cohesive Form
Chapter 9: Closing Statements




The Basics: Parts of Speech

Introduction
Well, I did say absolute basics, didn't I? Parts of speech are essentially the same for every language, however I am going to address them anyways. The reason for this is that understanding what part of speech each word goes with. (Other wise you'll just end up mixing adverbs and adjectives, and then saying something stupid such as, "I did good". Note: don't say that. Ever.)

There are eight parts of speech that you need to know, these are: Noun, Verb, Adverb, Adjective, Pronoun, Preposition, Conjunction, and Interjection. Below I have defined each one, as well as including an example for each (The part of speech is underlined).

The Parts of Speech, Defined
Noun: A noun is defined as a person, place, thing, or idea.
Examples
The country is beautiful.
My brain wanders freely.

A noun additionally be divided into subcategories: proper nouns and pronouns.

A Proper Noun is a noun which takes the form of a specific person, place, etc.
Examples
John threw the baseball.
Germany is a country.

A Pronoun is a word which is used to substitute for another noun.
Examples
I am so smart.
They run in the park.


Verb: A verb is an action. Verbs come in many forms, and can be conjugated into many tenses, however I will not get into those here.
Examples
Bobby made dinner
My sister lives in a house.


Adverb: An adverb is any verb that enhances a verb. (It's really confusing I know, just refer to the examples).
Examples
The dog ran quickly down the steps
The musician performed well.


Adjective: An adjective is similar to an adverb, but has one distinct difference. While an adverb enhances or modifies a verb, an adjective modifies a noun.
Examples
The blond man wore sunglasses
The athlete did a good job.


Preposition: A preposition is a word which describes the spatial or temporal relationship to the object of the sentence. (Trust me, if this sounds confusing, it'll make more sentence later, just regard the examples.)
Examples
The dog hid in the woods (Spatial relationship)
The boys attended class during the day (Temporal relationship)


Conjunction: A conjunction is any word which links two words phrases or clauses (See Ch 5)
Examples
Dogs and cats do not get along very well.
Baseball is an interesting sport, but I think soccer is better.


Interjection: An interjection is a word which conveys emotion. It is sometimes followed by an exclamation mark (see Ch. 3). Interjections are generally used most often in quotation.
Examples
"Ouch! That hurts!"
"Music is pretty cool, eh?
(One more just for kicks)
"Hark! I hear the cannons roar!" (Insert extreme Brooklyn accent here:laugh4:)

Closing Statements of Chapter 1
Well, that's it for the first chapter, pretty informative, if I do say so myself. Note: these are just the bare bones basic parts of speech, and there are many, more specific ones (ex: transitive and intransitive verbs), however, I will not go into them in detail here. If you want to learn more about the parts of speech, look at the University of Ottawa sites, or, better yet, watch some Schoolhouse Rock. These videos are great for education, and those tunes are pretty catch (conjunction junction, what's your function? :laugh4:)


Starting Slow: The Simple Sentence

Introduction: Alright, so we have read and reviewed the basic parts of speech, now lets get started writing those single sentences covering a half page, right? No, we're going to have to start with baby steps first so let's start by identifying what on earth defines a sentence.

Definition of a Sentence
A sentence is a phrase in writing which, in English, is initiated by a capital letter, ended by a poem and contains at least a subject, including a noun, and a predicate, including a verb. A sentence can entail a number of different ideas, and can come in a myriad different styles, but right now we'll start with a simple sentence.
The Simple Sentence
The simple sentence is just that, it is very basic, and involves one subject, and one predicate. For the entirety of this section, we will use the following sentence:

The boy eats.

At present, "He eats" fits the requirements of a sentence. It contains a noun, the subject of the statement (Colored in red), and a verb, which constitutes the predicate (colored in blue). Now, using something as simple as this isn't very interesting, is it? Don't worry, through the course of this chapter, we will add more elements to this sentence until it looks more interesting. Let's start by modifying what we already have.

Adding on: Adjectives and Adverbs
Adjectives and adverbs spruce up your writing by adding important detail to what your writing, making it more interesting. Now, if you recall from chapter one, an adjective modifies a noun, and an adjective modifies a verb, so lets give it a try, starting with adding an adjective to the noun:

The American boy eats

Once again, this is a sentence, and it isn't a fragment because, as above, it still contains a subject and a predicate. For the purpose of aiding in your education, I have kept the colors consistent, the only difference is that I added the adjective "American" (colored in dark green). Now as you can see, the adjective adds information about the boy, now we know he's American. (Oh, and just in case any of you are wondering, the word "the" is an article, as are the words "a" and "an", but I won't talk about that here.)

Now let's try an adverb:

The American boy eats quickly

Well, look at that. It is still a sentence; it has a subject and predicate. However, now we have even more information about the scene, which is always helpful when writing fiction.

Now, adjectives and adverbs are all fine and dandy, but don't these sentences still seem boring to you? I know I wouldn't want to read a book full of sentences like these. Lucky for us, there are other things to add to this sentence.

The Object of a Sentence: The Nightmare of Every Middle School/High School Student

One way to further add to your sentences is by adding objects to your sentences. There are three types of objects, but for the purposes of this section, we'll only deal with two of the three, the third will come later on in the chapter. The two objects we will deal with here are the Direct and Indirect objects.

Direct Objects
Objects of sentences are some of the more difficult things for native speakers to understand in the language. This is probably because the English language places less of an emphasis on it that other language (Spanish, for example). Now, an object is a noun, and comprises part of the predicate of the sentence. The first object we shall be dealing with here is the Direct object. The Direct object to which the verb of the actiondirectly affects. Here is an example, adding on to our little sentence:

The American boy eats the pancakes quickly

Once again, the Direct object (colored in purple) adds further detail to the sentence. Now not only do we know the boy is American, and that he is quickly eating, but that he is eating pancakes. We could go even further an add another adjective to describe the pancakes:

The American boy eats the warm pancakes quickly

There you go, and it's still a sentence. Does this make sense to you? I hope so, because now we're going to introduce the indirect object.

Indirect Objects
Indirect objects are usually when people get bogged down in this part of grammar. Indirect objects are nouns, and tell us to whom, or for whom the direct object is intended for. (In essence who receives the direct object. Now, it's a bit hard to incorporate an indirect object into the above sentence, so I'll just make a new sentence.

The handsome mailman immediately sent me the lengthy letter

So here I made a sentence with an indirect object (Colored in Brown). In this sentence, the direct object is the letter (think about what was sent), and the person receiving the direct object, me (Think about to whom the letter was sent), is the indirect object. It is really important that the sentence is just "me" and not "to me", because "to me" is a prepositional phrase (keep reading to learn about those!)

Also, just so you know, you can use a pronoun in place of a direct object (As with other languages)
Example:

I did it


So there you have it, direct and indirect objects. What was that? You want to know about the third type of object? Alright, you asked for it!

The Prepositional Phrase

A preposition is similar to an object (in fact it's considered an object) Like above, a preposition resides within the predicate of the sentence and contains two parts:prepositional phrase (in, during, around, under, etc), and the object of the preposition (That to which the prepositional phrase refers.) Refer to the example sentence:

The American boy quickly eats the warm pancakes at home

In this sentence the propositional phrase (colored in olive green), and the object of the preposition (colored in cyan) are added to the predicate of the sentence. Notice that the prepositional phrase "at", when combined with the the object of the preposition "home" informs the reader of the spatial location of the subject. Remember a preposition doesn't have to refer to location, it can also refer to time:

The American boy quickly eats the warm pancakes during breakfast

Here instead of telling us where the boy is, it tells us when the boys is eating the pancakes, during breakfast.

Hopefully, by now you at least have a grasp of what objects are, and how they can fit into your sentences. Now, let's identify some things to watch out for:

Common Mistakes: The Run-on and the Fragment

Run on sentences and fragments are probably going to be your biggest problem in writing. In my opinion, nothing ruins a story for me more than seeing an excessively long run on sentence. Similarly, a fragment will ruin a sentence as well, because it won't give the reader enough information. So let's start by identifying what each of these is, and then we might better avoid them:

Run-on sentence: In a simple sentence, there can only be one subject and one predicate. Anymore than one of each, and you have yourself a run-on. Once you learn this concept, it becomes easy to identify them. Try some examples:

Baseball is very exciting my brother plays baseball.

In this sentence, the run-on is blatant. Notice that "Baseball is very exciting" contains a subject (Baseball) and a predicate (is very exciting). The sentence becomes a run-on as soon as the second subject is introduced (My brother), the sentence becomes a run-on. The way to make this grammatically correct is to separate the two sentences with a period (Put a period after exciting, and capitalize My).

This one is a bit trickier:
I went running in the park and swimming in the pool
This sentence is a run-on as well, because it has two predicates. Even though there is only one subject, the fact that the subject is doing two actions makes it a run-on. For the English language, this idea is extremely important: you cannot have multiple subjects or multiple predicates as seen above without either separating the two by a period, or combining them into either a compound or complex sentence. Now let's take a look at fragments:

Fragments: Just as run-on sentences result from more than one subject or predicate, a fragment is lacking one of these. Here are some examples of fragments in simple senteces:
This one lacks a subject:
Runs in the park
It may work in Spanish, but certainly not in English.
This one lacks a predicate:
He
Pretty silly, right? Definitely. (Note the fragments here)
This one lacks a verb:
He quickly on the roof.
Well, that was fun, wasn't it? Now that that is over, let's wrap this lengthy chapter up, shall we?

Applying What You Have Learned
Well there you have it, you now know what constitutes a basic sentence. You know that a sentence must contain a subject (containing at least a noun) and a predicate (containing at least a verb). After that, you can spruce up your sentence with adjectives, adverbs, direct objects, indirect objects, and prepositions. This is pretty neat, isn't it? Now you can give it a try yourself, practice writing sentences, adding in various elements as you go along. In addition, you also know the definition of a run-on sentence and a fragment. A good way to get good at avoiding them is two a.) read examples of them, or think them up yourself (intentionally, of course), and b.) Any time you see a run-on/fragment, just read it aloud to yourself. Eventually you will develop an internal monologue while writing that will violently yell at you when you do one of those (or at least it does for me :sweatdrop:). Good luck, and happy writing.




The Punctuation Marks

Introduction
So, now that we know how to formulate a basic senetence, we can finally get into the real meat of writing. Simple sentences are great, don't get me wrong, but you didn't honestly believe you could skate by on sentences like those alone, right? Haha, that's just funny. So therefore, to make your writing truly interesting, we're going to have to introduce two new sentence types, they're called the compound and complex sentences, and we'll be introducing them in that respective order. Now, in order to do this, we're going to have to brush up on our punctuation. Now, allow me to ask a question: when I said punctuation mark, did you find yourself doing this (:wall:)? Don't worry, you're not alone, a lot of people have trouble with punctuation. (Just what on earth do you do with a semicolon anyways?) Don't worry guys, by the time my friend Lynne Truss and I get through with you, you'll find yourself doing this instead: :2thumbsup:. (For those of you who are familiar with punctuation, just sit still and keep reading, who knows, maybe you'll learn something, eh?)

The Basic Four: Capital Letter, Period, Exclamation Mark, and Question Mark

Ok, we're going to start simple, the above four still pertain to simple sentences, and are used to (with the exception of the first one) end sentences, and denote the overall expression intended with the sentence.

The Capital Letter
Well, this isn't so much of a capital letter, and more of just something you should remember. A capital letter has two main purposes:
1. The capital letter is used to initiate a sentence. One should always, and I do mean always start every sentence with a capital letter.
2. Capital letters are used in titles. One should always capitalize the first letters of (get this, this is why I love English Grammar) the important words in the title. Now what constitutes an important word? Well, it's never really seriously defined, but it is generally understood to mean any word that isn't unimportant, i.e words such as "the", "a", "for", "by" (etc.). Basically unimportant words are the ones that you use all the time, and are really small (in letter content). Oh, and by the way, just to confuse you further: The only exception of the whole unimportant words stuff is that the first word of a title is always capitalized.
3. Also important is that any proper noun is always capitalized.
3 (Well, sort of). There is one more way that some writiers make use of capitalized letters. Occasionally, some writers will write dialogue in all caps to convey anger, or someone shouting. Now this I highly recommend you do not do, as I feel it's unsofisticated, and generally just irritating. Besides, there are far better ways of conveying emotion in dialogue (See: Chapter 6).

The Period
The period is a very important little mark, and I can guarantee you that you will use this little mark more than anything else (Unless you're like Virginia Woolf or something, and even then, it would probably be close). The period, is a sentence ending mark, that is, it denotes the end of the statement. Because of the fact that there are three marks used to denote the end of sentences, a period has some distinct roles:
1. A period is used when a sentence is simply a statement, and doesn't convey any emotion (Basically anything that isn't a question or an exclamation).
Ex:
My eyes are blue.
As you can see, the sentence is a statement, and as such, does not require anything more than a period.
2. A period can also be used in a command. (Note: exclamation marks can also be used in commands, so you have to use your own personal judgement in deciding which to use.)
Example:
Do your homework.
Brush your teeth.
3. A period is also used to end an indirect question (Meaning that the person asking the question isn't present. As always, if you don't understand, examples make everything better.
Example:
Owen asked the teacher why the class was boring.
The teacher asked Owen why he complains so much.
Generally these types of statements are for when you (the writer) want to reveal information after the fact, or to emphasize a specific tone, (Or just when you're to lazy to bother writing dialogue).
4. The final usage of the period is for abbreviations. All you have to remember is that after a title, or abbreviation. Most of these are just things you memorize.
Ex: Titles
Mr., Dr., Mrs., Mme., Msr., St..
Abbreviations
etc.
abbrev.
Important Note:
Acronyms are a little funky. Most acronyms (Those that you pronounce like a real word) do not require periods after each letter. Examples include: NATO, SEATO, SCUBA, or LASER. However, words in which you pronounce each letter individually are generally just random, and you have to memorize these. Examples of acronyms without periods include: FBI, CIA, PM, and NAACP. Words that do require periods include: D.C., A.D., U.S., U.K., U.S.S.R., U.N., and U.N.I.C.E.F. Happy hunting with that stuff!


Question Mark (?)
The question mark is very simple. You put it at the end of a sentence, and it is used to inform the reader when a question is being asked. It's that simple (And you don't even have to remember to put one before the sentence like they do in Spanish).
Examples:
Does Owen really have to explain this to you?
That was a rhetorical question, let's check out a real one:
How are you today?
That's it, I certainly hope that this section doesn't require more than what I just wrote.


Exclamation Mark (!)
An exclamation mark is sort of like a question mark. An exclamation mark is used to convey just that: an exclamatory statment (emphatic declaration or command). It is also often used with an interjection (You remember what an interjection is, right?). Finally an interjection within a parenthesis (!) can be used to emphasize a specific word or though within a sentence.
Examples
As an emphatic declaration:
I will not go to sleep!
As a command:
Go to bed!
As an interjection:
Hey! I told you not to do that!
I hope that this sufficiently explains what an exclamation mark is, so that way we can move on to the harder stuff.


The Versatile Comma
Well folks, I hope you're comfy, because this one is a doozy. Well, we might as well get started with. As I was hinting at, the comma has about a billion uses:
1. A comma is used for listing things in a sentence (must be more than three items)
Examples:
In my pocket I found a wallet, some car keys, and my cell phone.
My best friends are Jim, John, and Jacquie.
The most populous countries in the world are China, India, the United States, and Indonesia.

However, listing isn't just delegated to nouns, you can also list predicates in a sentence.

When Owen came home from school he had a snack, did his homework, and starting writing this guide.

Adjectives are a little different in that when listing adjectives, you always include commas, regardless of how many adjectives you are using:

The man was tall, blonde, and handsome.
He was a tall, ugly, stupid man.
It was a dark, stormy night.

According to Eats, Shoots, and Leaves, a good rule of thumb for listing is that the comma is just used in places where you would normally write an and or an or:

The man was tall and blonde and handsome.

Now there is a problem with listing, and this comes in the form of the Oxford Comma. Heres the difference. When listing you can do one of two things; you can either not include a comma before the final and, or you can include a comma before the final and (The "Oxford" Comma)
Observe:
Ordinary:
For breakfast, the truck driver had cereal, eggs, bacon and pancakes.
Oxford:
For breakfast, the truck driver had cereal, eggs, bacon, and pancakes.

It doesn't really make a difference which one you decide to use, it's really a matter of who you learned from and your own personal preferences (For example, I use the Oxford variant)

2. A comma is used to combine two independant clauses into a compund sentence. We'll get to this a little later, but yes, a comma, when combined with a conjnction is used to make two sentences into one compound sentence:
Examples
Baseball is a very popular sport. It is America's national pastime.
Baseball is a very popular sport, and it is America's national pastime.
My computer is very powerful. It isn't working right now.
My computer is very powerful, but it isn't working right now.

3. A comma can be used to separate an introductory clause and the main clause it is attached to. (I know I might be losing you with this grammar mumbo-jumbo, but just hang in there, just look at the examples if this is the case, I'll get to clauses later.)
Examples
Although I was the tallest in my class, I was not the most intelligent.
Because it was raining, I had to stay indoors all day.

It can also be used with introductory phrases:
Yelling at the top of his lungs, Frank finally alerted the lifeguard of his distress.
To run for President of the U.S., you have to have been a natural born U.S. citizen.

You can also use introductory words:
Arnold Schwarzenegger wanted to be President, however he was born in Austria.


4. A comma is also used to separate an appositive from the rest of the sentence (An apositive is a parenthetical element that introduces additional information to the sentence.

Examples
Arnold Schwarzenegger, the Governor of California, is also an actor.
Soccer, the world's most popular sport, is very entertaining to watch.

5. A comma can be used to initiate and end quoted elemtents of a sentence:

Examples
John asked, "Why is the internet such an incredible thing?"
"Life is an illusion," said the Guru.

There are a lot more examples and ways to introduce dialogue, but those are for another chapter.

6. Commas can be used to set off contrasting phrases. To do this, you put a comma after the first statement, and then follow it up with the contrast or opposing statement.

Examples
For dinner, Owen wanted to eat Mexican, not Italian.
Owen owns an X-Box, not a PS3.

You get the point.

Well, those are the do's of the comma, let's take a look at the do nots.

1. Do not put a comma between a subject and its verb. Don't do this:

Owen, ran down the street.
Believing in oneself, is the key to success.

2. Do not, and I do mean this, do not overuse commas. This problem is almost as big a deal as using run-on sentences. It takes a bit of practice, just make sure you excercise restraint, and always be aware of how you are using the commas you place in the sentence (The excuse, "because it sounds right," is not a good reason to put a comma in.)


The Colon (:)
Colons only have two major uses:
1. Colons are used to introduce a long list.
Examples:
While at the grocery store, Owen purchased the following: A loaf of French Bread, a wedge of cheese, a gallon of milk, and a chocolate bar. (Also notice the commas used in the list)

An important thing to remember is that the clause preceding the colon aught to be able to stand on it's own as an independant clause. Observe these sentences which do not use colons, and try to identify why colons are not used here:

At the grocery store Owen bought a loaf of French Bread, a wedge of cheese, a gallon of milk, and a chocolate bar. (No colon after bought)

2. A colon can be used to give an explanation, or elucidate on a subject.
Examples:
With the match finally over, there was only one thing left to do: celebrate a job well done.

An important rule to learn with the colon is this: To capitalize, or not to capitalize (The independant clause following the colon). To answer that question, just follow these rules:

1. If the clause following the colon is a quote (i.e. in quotation marks), the first letter is capitalized.

The college professor had this to say: "Do the work!"

2. If the elucidation following the colon consists of more than one sentence, the first letter is capitalized.

The President's new economic plan was twofold: First, he wanted to decrease unemployment. Second, he wanted to reduce military spending.

3. If the clause preceeding the colon is very short, and the main point of the statement in fact follows the colon, then the first letter is capitalized:

Be careful: If you don't watch your step, you may slip and fall.

4. If the introductory clause does nothing more than introduce, then the first letter of the following clause is capitalized:

I think we have learned a valuable lesson today: Stealing, no matter how justified you think it is, is wrong.

There are other uses of the colon, but I will not mention them here, as I do not believe they pertain to the topic at hand.

The Semicolon (;)
The semicolon is a very tricky little mark, and it is not uncommon for most people you meet to not know how to use it correctly (No, using it to denote winking in an emoticon is not using it correctly). However, when one does learn how to use it, it can be a very powerful asset, and I think using it is pretty neat to boot. Now a semicolon has several uses:
1. A semicolon can be used in listing, when the comma is already being used for another purpose, like so:
Examples
The tour group visited London, England; Paris, France; Berlin, Germany; Munich, Germany; Venice, Italy; and Rome, Italy.

As you can see above, the comma is already being used to separate the city from the country, so the semicolon is used to sort out the separate entities.

2. A semicolon can also be used to separate two closely related independant clauses:
Tim Lincecum was unable to play in the baseball game last Friday; he had broken his leg.

In this case, it may appear that the semicolon greatly resembles a colon. Now, you are right, the two marks are very similar except for one important facet. The important thing to remember is that a colon is used to combine a dependent and an independant clause (Meaning one part of the sentence cannot stand on its own.), whereas a semicolon is used to linke two similar independant clauses.

3. You can also, though it is seldom done, use a semicolon two separate two independant clauses which are already joined as a compound sentence by a conjunction. However, this is seldom done, and really only used when there are excessive commas being used already (such as in a list).

Examples:
Owen emptied the contents of his lunchbag, and he found the following: An apple, a peach, and some grapes; but all of them were rotten. (That's right, I implemented colon, semicolon, and commas all in the sentence)

Things to be wary of:
When you start implementing semicolons into your writing, be careful not to get addicted to them (And trust me, once you use one, you can never stop), for as Lynne Truus says: "Many writers hooked on semicolons become an embarassment to their families and friends." That being said, I'm not telling you to never use them, just, as with commas, exercise restraint, and if you find yourself activly looking for excuses to use a semicolon, seek help.

The Apostrophe ['] (Not to be Confused with the Literary Element)

The apostrophe is slightly more cut and dry than the last couple marks. An apostrophe has three uses:

1. The apostrophe is used for contractions, such as can't, won't, I'm, she's, they're, who's, etc.

2. The apostrophe is used to denote possesion. It comes in two forms: singular and plural.
For singular words, you simply add an 's to the end of the word to denote possession:
Owen's dog
Emily's computer
Lincoln's America
If the word is singular, but ends in s, then you still add an 's:
James's car
Terrel Owens's football

For plural words, you add an apostrophe to the end of the word if it ends in s, and an 's if the word does not:
witches' brooms
the computers' data
The men's bathroom
The deer's forest.

Note there is one irregular: Remember that its is possessive, while it's is a contraction if it is or it was. (See: Chapter 7)

3. The apostrophe is also used to denote the plural form of lower case letter which stand on their own, and numbers written in the arabic form:

For his performance, John recieved 10's all around.
Mind your p's and q's.

Capital letter do not require apostrophes, and certain other phrases such as dates (1720s), degress (MDs), among other certain abbreviations do not require apostrophes (although they once did).


Parenthesis ()
A personal favorite of mine, a parenthesis is used to either de-emphasize a statement, or to provide an aside within a statement. Parentheses do not require periods within it (unless it is a self contained statement, unlike this one), but they might require question marks, or exclamation marks if the situation should demand it (do you understand?) Also remember: you do not have to capitalize the first letter of a parenthetical statement.


Elipsis (...)
The final mark I will cover is the elipsis. I always love the elipsis, because it's a mark that everyone uses, but noone ever really knows the name for it (it's usually referred to as "dot dot dot..). One lesser know fact about the elipsis is that if the elipsis is used at the end of the sentence, it comes before the period, and thus you would actually end up seeing four periods in stead of three.
1. An ellipsis can be used to denote the passing of time:

Owen cooked some pasta...finally it was finished.

2. An ellipsis in dialogue, and occasionally in ordinary sentences, can denote speech trailing off:

"I just thought..." said Owen meekly.


Closing Thoughts
Well there you have it. Finally, after three days of writing, you have a decent primer to the basic punctuation. Unfortunately, I did not cover hyphens or dashes, however, I do not believe that they are absolutely imperative for your writing. Nevertheless, hopefully now you have a grasp on the uses of such marks as the comma and the semicolon, and the more adept of you may now be able to incorporate them into your writing. If not, then just continue reading, and you can learn about how to write and utilize compound and complex sentences. Aditionally, if this chapter interested you, I highly encourage you to go out and pick up Eats, Shoots & Leaves by Lynne Truss. Even if you aren't a grammarian, it is an extremely entertaining read, and will undoubtedly improve your writing abilities.






Anyways, whatever the case, go forth and prosper. There will be more to come when (if) I find the free time.






More to come later

Bibliography

Macfadyen, Heather. "Parts of Speech." University of Ottawa. 16 August 2007. University of Ottawa. 9 Feb 2009 <http://www.uottawa.ca/academic/arts/writcent/hypergrammar/verbs.html>

Sabin, William A.. The Gregg Reference Manual. New York: McGraw Hill, 2001.

Truss, Lynne. Eats, Shoots & Leaves. New York: Gotham Books, 2003.

Like, I know a lot of people on here don't have, like, good grammar and stuff, and I think that this guide will, like, help them a lot. It's helpful, because, like, you describe a lot of stuff, so people can talk good, like what you do.

I'm sorry, does that bother you? :laugh4::smash:

Yeah dude that like, totally makes me, like pull out my hair 'n' stuff. :furious3:
In regards to the comments I made on people I live around, I have no regrets. There was one person who, and I counted this, said the word "like" 45 times in the period of about a minute and a half.

On a more serious note, what do you think so far, should this idea of mine be pursued?

Well, so far, your guide would only be helpful to English 101 students in foreign countries.
You need to add more...grammar words...like gerund and past participle and...arggh :wall:

If I ever do that, it'll probably be an addendum later on, right now, I'm probably just going to cover the basic stuff so people can sound intelligent while avoiding easily evitable run-on sentences.

(Odd, the spell checker on my computer has never heard of the word evitable)
Man it's hard to find good help these days! :wall:

Like, what is your problem, dude?

GRAMMAR NAZI!!!

jk

Y3$ Y U gott4 b 4 Gr4mm4r N4z1??
1337 sp34k RULEZORZ!!!!!

:laugh4::laugh4::laugh4::laugh4::laugh4::laugh4::laugh4::laugh4::laugh4::laugh4:

You just made me cry with grateful laughter.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by gamegeek2

Like, what is your problem, dude?

GRAMMAR NAZI!!!

jk

---

Hey, at least you don't see me running around with a sharpie correcting grammatically incorrect road signs, or do you?

Whatever the case, you better not say "like", or I'll follow you around, and correct you on everything you say! (It used to be a bad habit of mine)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Owen Glyndwr

Yeah dude that like, totally makes me, like pull out my hair 'n' stuff. :furious3:
In regards to the comments I made on people I live around, I have no regrets. There was one person who, and I counted this, said the word "like" 45 times in the period of about a minute and a half.

On a more serious note, what do you think so far, should this idea of mine be pursued?

---

It should. i find this to be a simple way of teaching proper english to many over here, who often don't speak english natively. I too also find the overuse of "like" disturbing, as if it is supposed to be used everywhere or something. so yes, we should have a guide like this. perhaps I can learn from this too, as I'm famous for writing badly constructed papers in school :no:

on a similar note, maybe we can go to the appropriate forum, and post instructions on how to learn many a language, can't we?

Thank you, Owen Glyndwr. Since english is not my first language (actually it's not even among the four official languages spoken in my country), a guide like this could come in very useful.

Seconded. This is very helpful for me, because I have learned English more intutitively by extensive reading rather than by having a proper formal training. Therefore my English is almost totally passive. I can read fluently just about anything, but when I am to write or speak myself, I am in a trouble.:embarassed:

It is of course completely my fault, because at the High school I did not care to learn and mostly slept during my English lessons only to find out that ALL my literature at the College is in English. :sweatdrop:

Thank you once more and keep up! :2thumbsup: I am looking forward to an advanced course!:yes::book:

Looks like I shouldn't start an AAR anytime soon, I suck at grammar. At least I think so, maybe I should start one just to see how many errors you find, that would be fun.
I failed english so bad maybe only because I found it boring, food tech, history, geography and accounting were all I needed but only doing subjects that you like is frowned upon. Stupid schools.

I'm sorry. I english speak not so well.
http://blog-imgs-41.fc2.com/w/a/r/waranote/eng68.png

ok, that´s a very good intension!
it really makes me sick that i can´t speak english very well. i "learned" english long time ago in school... but no practise - no professionalism

I'm feeling quite insecure about one thing you wrote, not being a native english speaker myself, so I'd like to ask:

Isn't the following line missing something?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Owen Glyndwr

Applying What Have Learned

---

First: I liked your topic. It had many good examples of grammar. Furthermore, a good simplified example of the main English Language Structure.

Second: You reminded me my first days on my job. :sweatdrop:

Third: The only problem about the grammar of English is: English has no standard in the world.
More than fifty dialects it has. Moreover, many modern linguists trying to solve this problem by standardizing English as "International English" that combines the main specialties of dominant dialects, namely BrE and AmE.

The only problem is that English passed the limits of its roots. The majority of English Speakers are non-native ones, so many linguists are offering the variant usages with the common usages.

So day by day it has been becoming harder and harder to standardize the grammar.
So I must confess that it is impossible to obey a standard grammar. You can see that in grammar many variants "Irregularities" become a rule at the same time.
So it will be better to say I speak French/German/Arabic/Indonesian e.g. English for anyone who lives in which country he/she lives instead of saying I speak English.

Latin may have been, on the other hand English itself was not ready to be used as a worldwide language.

P.S. Thanks for Chomsky who altered the classical perception of the English.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Lysimachos

I'm feeling quite insecure about one thing you wrote, not being a native english speaker myself, so I'd like to ask:

Isn't the following line missing something?

---

Doh!~:doh: Fixed

I didnt pay much attention during english class tbh. Now i have a great vocabulary and i can keep people enchanted with whatever i talk about (yes its very big headed of me but its true) But i left school at 16 and my writing skills detoriated.

Grammar isn't taught properly anymore in british schools and it shows with the younger generations. Also infromal writing such as txt spk and MSN messenager do not help.

I can read and i can speak, i just cant write.

Be my English teacher Owen u big Welshy! I like the irony in that.

Not being a native speaker too, I find guides to english useful. Even if i understand most of the conversation here/post my 2 cents without using a dictionary too heavy I'm faaar away from speaking english fluently.

So - good idea, like (hopefully it's not a banned word now in this topic :laugh4: ) it very much.

And good start for a guide. Clear and precise too. :2thumbsup:

Hey Desert, you´ll never guess what my Spanish class reviewed today: the gerund/participle! I love it.

Very good! I like much!

But on a more serious note: this is really helfpul for people who need help with this. Thank you.

Gerund and participle in the same lesson? WTF :dizzy2:

Well, sort of. I'm in Spanish 4, and in that class we did gerunds (Estoy comiendo, Sigo hablando, etc.). However, I also TA for a Spanish 2 class, and there I was grading tests involving participles (He comido, hemos hablado, etc.)
(I also take a French 1 class, but whatever. The most I can do there is conjugate -er verbs; and the irregulars être, prendre, avoir, and aller. (Just for the record, the French keyboard layout is way more confusing than the Spanish one.)

So yeah, that's what I mean, I suppose I should revise that statement then: "Hey Desert, you´ll never guess what my Spanish classes reviewed today: the gerund and past participle!

Y3$ ! 51ND 1H1$ 4 V3RY H3LP5UL 1HR34D.

:laugh4::laugh4::laugh4::laugh4::laugh4:

I think this a wonderful Idea! I'm a native speaker myself, but my russian gets messed up with my english at times and well that gets confusing. Keep this up.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Owen Glyndwr

you [blank] better not say "like",

---

Sorry, but this one really got in my teeth:embarassed:

Excellent guide, Mr. Glyndwyr, though it is a bit of a monster (and I'm afraid that the users who would most benefit from some instruction in proper grammar are likely the ones who would pass it over).
On the subject of books what teach you how to be speaking the Enlish language more better, though, have you ever read Taggart & Wines' "My Grammar & I (or should that be 'Me'?): old-school ways to sharpen your english"[sic]? I'm sure you'd find it a hoot if you enjoyed "...and Leaves".

Meh, I'm just trying to cover all the bases. It's not as if they have to read the whole thing! (Though you'd probably come out better in the end.)

Hoh-oh! Excellent! I haven't seen any examples on this forum, but I've seen posts that are completely incomprehensible, due to the belief that forums are in fact, instant messaging services,and unbelievable disregard for basic grammar. I thank you sir..

As they say on Youtube, "dis is te Inretnet not f!%*#(g english clas bitch dont tel me gramer!" :shame:

Ah, yootoob! Last refuge of the intelligentsia/cultural élite...

I almost forgot to ask, Owen: does the "grocer's apostrophe" exist on that side of the pond? Here in the ewekay we're working on a way to turn them into renewable fuels (that is, the country is rife with stray "apostrophe's").

Nope, people in the U.S. are probably just as bad the the British. Perhaps moreso, Americans are very stubborn, and don't appreciate this whole concept of "rules" telling them how to write things.

I'd just like to mention that Truss's first and second chapters deal extensively with those problems. In fact in the second chapter, she wrote page after page of examples of people using apostrophes improperly.

save this page, and study it for my next TOEFL test....:2thumbsup:
Good work, very much thanks......

Its like... enlightening to finally meet an American that actually cares about the English language. being Danish I detest American English and try as much as I can to use the language used in The United Kingdom. Good to see some Americans care.

Now I said "like" for the first time in my life (well, wrote actually, but...), I expect to be followed around and corrected ;-)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Macilrille

Its like... enlightening to finally meet an American that actually cares about the English language. being Danish I detest American English and try as much as I can to use the language used in The United Kingdom. Good to see some Americans care.

---

More Americans care than you think. In fact, for some of us (like me and, apparently, Owen), the popular use of the English language in this country is seen as absolutely atrocious. I don't mean to suggest that Americans should use British English; the two languages are similar, but have diverged enough to be distinct in many ways. Still, a little straightening up of American grammar would behoove us all.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by desert

As they say on Youtube, "dis is te Inretnet not f!%*#(g english clas bitch dont tel me gramer!" :shame:

---

or tell them how to spell. they can spell the word "car", even if their lives depended on it. depend on it.

Great stuff, Owen. Keep it up!

:balloon2: Cimon
:balloon2::balloon2: Owen

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Owen Glyndwr

Hey, at least you don't see me running around with a sharpie correcting grammatically incorrect road signs, or do you?

Whatever the case, you better not say "like", or I'll follow you around, and correct you on everything you say! (It used to be a bad habit of mine)

---

You forgot to use a full stop at the end of your sentence.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Gaivs

You forgot to use a full stop at the end of your sentence.

---

Are you referring to the parenthetical aside? If that is the case, then yes I did forget. :oops:

People who butcher grammar tend to commit the sin of upsetting the word order and/or tend to include joker verbs. [Guilty as charged.]

There also tend to be a lot of confusion regarding words that sound very similar, but are in fact completely different:

there
their
they're

its
it's

affect
effect

good
well

who
whom

whose
who's

etc.

This is a modern affliction, brought to us by the ubiquity of automated spell-checkers (curse them!)

In days gone by, people had to proof-read what they had written before it was (expensively) committed to public view. But now, when the spell-checker gives your prose a clean bill of health, you are subtly tempted to assume that it actually is what you intended to write and to not bother reading what is really there.

Sadly, even if your magnum opus doesn't have any words underlined in red, you cannot then draw the conclusion that it is without error.

In my experience, spelling checkers cause two types of problem: They fail to highlight use of the wrong variant of a word (there/their etc.), and they also fail to draw your attention to missing words.

On many occasions I have finished a paragraph, then on reviewing it, while still basking in the internal wonder of the idea I was trying to convey, found to my horror that I had missed out whole phrases as my mind raced on ahead of my typing.

By the way, great guide :2thumbsup:, I hope you are going to extend it with tips on how to write clearly at a scale larger than the sentence (like how to organise paragraphs etc.).

I have a bad tendency towards the repetitive use of words in text, mostly because proof reading isn't really one of my talents.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Juvenal

This is a modern affliction, brought to us by the ubiquity of automated spell-checkers (curse them!)

In days gone by, people had to proof-read what they had written before it was (expensively) committed to public view. But now, when the spell-checker gives your prose a clean bill of health, you are subtly tempted to assume that it actually is what you intended to write and to not bother reading what is really there.

Sadly, even if your magnum opus doesn't have any words underlined in red, you cannot then draw the conclusion that it is without error.

In my experience, spelling checkers cause two types of problem: They fail to highlight use of the wrong variant of a word (there/their etc.), and they also fail to draw your attention to missing words.

On many occasions I have finished a paragraph, then on reviewing it, while still basking in the internal wonder of the idea I was trying to convey, found to my horror that I had missed out whole phrases as my mind raced on ahead of my typing.

By the way, great guide :2thumbsup:, I hope you are going to extend it with tips on how to write clearly at a scale larger than the sentence (like how to organise paragraphs etc.).

---

I most likely will eventually, given that I can find the time of course. I find writing these chapters to be very time consuming. I don't know why, but it seems to take me well over an hour or two to write them (the last one was written over the course of three days, and took about 4 or 5 hours to do cumulatively, if I recall correctly), probably a combination of the length of the work, and all the fact checking I end up doing.

Don't forget the lay-lie dilemma. No matter how many times I read about it, I can never remember the correct usage! :wall:

Me too. No matter how many times I check, I seem to get lay-lie and affect-effect wrong.

I also never use whom. I think whom has basically become archaic in my local dialect, anyways.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by desert

Don't forget the lay-lie dilemma. No matter how many times I read about it, I can never remember the correct usage! :wall:

---

IIRC:

Lie -> Lay -> Laid
That one lay somewhere beneath a layer which now lies on top of everything.
Lie -> Lied -> Lied:
Here's one for you: can you lie you lied?
Lay -> Laid -> Laid:
Lay something back where it laid before.

But yes, I think this is probably the most difficult one. I try to use put instead, can't go wrong with that one. :grin:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by MarcusAureliusAntoninus

Me too. No matter how many times I check, I seem to get lay-lie and affect-effect wrong.

I also never use whom. I think whom has basically become archaic in my local dialect, anyways.

---

And you are from an English speaking country! Try to imagine what us, who don't speak/write/read English everyday, must feel! :inquisitive:

Yes, imagine what burden is laid upon us, who do not speak English. We learn from you. It affects us all, to whom we speak. What an effect could it have, if even native speakers have troubles. :laugh4:

To be serious, I also have problems with lay - laid

Everyone does. Apparently some grammarians have just said "**** it" and decided that it doesn't matter anymore.

I don't want English to be simplified. It is the very complexity and ambiguity which give it richness.

This was all a happy accident. English has acquired a huge number of loan words from other languages over the centuries, and as a result many concepts often have several words that should theoretically be interchangeable. But thanks to the magic of usage, those words have acquired unique overtones and subtle shades of meaning. As a result, English poetry has an embarrassment of riches to draw upon (although it can be hard to find rhymes at times [clearly not this time though]).

English has always been a mongrel language, Germanic roots, first overlaid with Latin and French, and then peppered with a fusillade of words from all the languages of Empire. It may be frustrating because of all the broken syntactic rules, but it is also endlessly fascinating.

Nicely done, SwissBarbar!

I used to be pretty slick when it came to affect/effect (this was in my early teens, for example), but my ability to distinguish one from the other seems to have taken a thumping of late. I've never felt very confident in my grasp of rules, and it can even take me a few seconds to recognise whether a word is e.g. an adjective or a verb (or something else altogether) in a particular context—my skill in English (can you hear that? That's my trumpet, that is) is something I've long considered attributable to intuition; e.g. I'm fairly competent at identifying the worst kinds of errors in other people's usage and avoiding them (errors, not people, ho ho) in my own, but bloody useless at explaining why for example you should not say:

"LESS EMISSIONS, NOT LESS STYLE!"


(It has just occurred to me, actually, that the problem with the above is that Mr. and Mrs. Vauxhall (or whichever car it was) are using the plural form of "emission". Perhaps they reasoned that the more correct "fewer emissions, not less style" wouldn't sound as catchy, or that by using poor grammar they create a stronger affinity with the type of idiot consumer who believes that buying a new, "greener" car is the best way to save the planet?)

"Less Emissions, not less style!"

There are some major errors in the sentence that I can see presently.

1. Subject: The sentence has no subject. It has a noun, "emissions", however emissions here, I would assume is being used as a direct object and not a subject, and it's the same thing with style.
2. Verb: There is no verb in the sentence, not one. Let's identify the parts of speech of this sentence, shall we? Less can be used as a noun, adjective, adverb, or preposition, however in this case, it's being used as an adjective to describe "emissions", and style. "Emissions" and "style", as I said, are nouns which I would assume are being used as the D.O. of a nonexistant verb. "Not" is an adverb as well. So there's a problem there, isn't there? We have a fragment. Now, fixing it can be a bit tricky, as in normal speech we wouldn't use a subject here, but, in order to be grammatically correct, every English sentence (or at least most) demands a subject.

"One should make less emissions and not less style."

1. Notice that I added a subject (One) to the first part of the sentence, as well as a verb (make). This turns the first statement into an independent clause, and with it, we can now make the sentence grammatically correct. Also notice that I added a conjunction (and) and removed a comma. Since we are combining an independent clause and a dependent clause, rather than two independent clauses, no comma is required.


However there is one more problem, and is, for most, probably the focus of the sentence. One of the hardest things to understand in the English language is the difference between the words less and fewer. Less is used with mass nouns, whereas fewer is used with counting nouns. Although most use less for emissions, it is a counting noun, and as such, should be used with fewer. Style, however, is a mass noun, and thusly less can stay where it is.

"One should make fewer emissions and not less style."

Of couse you can see why the phrase is grammtically correct; it doesn't sound as catchy, does it? Well that's how it should be!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Owen Glyndwr

"One should make fewer emissions and not less style."

---

It still doesn't quite make sense, how can you "make... less style"? I believe we need to add something for style to be a property of. The simplest adjustment to the original fragment I can think of is this:

"Produce fewer emissions without having less style."

I have expressed it as a command, does it have everything required of a sentence?

Yes, you are right, the word "not" doesn't make sense in the context, as does make.

As with lay/lie, there is a group of grammarians who advocate removing the distinction between less and fewer.

Hey, you could use it as an answer:

"Ok, so it's a. more cookies and b. less style..."

"Less emissions, not less style!"

Quote:

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Originally Posted by desert

As with lay/lie, there is a group of grammarians who advocate removing the distinction between less and fewer.

---

"Urge to kill: growing!"

I think the lesson here is that advertising executives (or whatever they want to call themselves) are pretty damn stupid.
(oh, and it was a Volvo ad, by the way, not Vauxhall)

I can see where this guide would be useful (for non-native speakers who are trying to write a AAR) but I think pestering someone for minor mistakes is a bit excessive.

The grammarian lifestyle not something I am advocating, nor is this guide intended to be a grammarian's bible. This guide is solely intended to assist up and coming writers with the improvement of grammar in their stories, thereby improving the "readability" of the story overall.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by SwissBarbar

Yes, imagine what burden is laid upon us, who do not speak English. We learn from you. It affects us all, to whom we speak. What an effect could it have, if even native speakers have troubles. :laugh4:

To be serious, I also have problems with lay - laid

---

As an English/English native speaker with a good grounding in American English (thanks to an American wife and the movies)

That quote above had me absolutely cracking up :laugh4::laugh4::laugh4: :google:

*cough* sorry