Table of Contents
Introduction: What This Book Will Do for You ix
Part 1 Parts of Speech 1
Chapter 1 Nouns 3
What Is a Noun? 5
Proper and Common Nouns 7
Concrete and Abstract Nouns 9
Singular and Plural Nouns 11
Possessive Nouns 16
Functions of Nouns in Sentences 22
Chapter 2 Pronouns 29
What Is a Pronoun? 31
Personal Pronouns 31
Pronoun Cases 36
Possessive Pronouns 41
Reflexive Pronouns 45
Demonstrative Pronouns 48
Relative Pronouns 51
Interrogative Pronouns 55
Indefinite Pronouns 58
Making Pronouns Agree 60
Chapter 3 Verbs 65
What Is a Verb? 67
Action Verbs 67
Linking Verbs 69
Helping Verbs 72
Verb Tenses: Expressing Past, Present, and Future 75
Active and Passive Voice 77
Confusing Verb Pairs 78
Verbals 82
Chapter 4 Modifiers 87
What Are Modifiers? 87
Adjectives 87
Proper and Common Adjectives 90
Improving Your Writing with Adjectives 92
Articles 100
Demonstrative Adjectives 103
Indefinite Adjectives 106
Pronouns as Adjectives 108
Adverbs 110
Recognizing Adjectives and Adverbs 113
Degrees of Adjectives and Adverbs 116
Chapter 5 Prepositions 121
What Are Prepositions? 123
Simple and Compound Prepositions 124
Prepositional Phrases 127
Prepositional Phrases as Modifiers 129
Common Preposition Errors 130
Chapter 6 Conjunctions 137
What Are Conjunctions? 139
Coordinating Conjunctions 139
Correlative Conjunctions 144
Subordinating Conjunctions 147
Chapter 7 Interjections 151
What Are Interjections? 153
Using Interjections 153
Chapter 8 Spelling and Vocabulary 157
Active Listening 159
Learning the Vowel Sounds 160
Learning the R Sounds 175
The Silent Letters 178
The Final E 179
Homophones 180
Parts of a Word 182
Compound Words 183
Part 2 Writing 185
Chapter 9 Sentence Endings and Pauses 187
Sentence Endings 189
Periods 189
Question Marks 190
Exclamation Points 191
Quotation Marks 194
Sentence Pauses 197
Commas 197
Semicolons 202
Colons 203
Dashes 203
Parentheses 204
Chapter 10 Writing Sentences 207
What Is a Sentence? 209
Subjects and Predicates 210
Subject-Predicate Agreement 212
Types of Sentences 217
Writing Simple Sentences 220
Beyond the Simple Sentence 223
More Sentence Writing 225
Watch Out for Run-ons! 228
Chapter 11 Writing Essays and Stories 233
What Is a Paragraph? 235
Writing Paragraphs 235
Essays and Stories 240
The Structure of Essays and Stories 241
The Writing Process 242
Plagiarism 247
It's Up to You 247
Appendix 249
The American Heritage College Dictionary Pronunciation Guide 249
Further Reading 251
Answer Key 253
Index 276