Grammar: 1001 Practice Questions For Dummies (+ Free Online Practice)

Geraldine Woods

• Verlag: For Dummies
• Jahr: 2022
• ISBN:
  9781119883760
• Auflage: 2
• Thema: Languages & Linguistics
• Thema: Grammar & Punctuation

Learn to dot your I's and cross your T's with this hands-on grammar practice

The rules of grammar can seem abstract and confusing. But putting them into practice will help you understand and retain grammatical conventions. In Grammar: 1001 Practice Questions For Dummies, you'll get the step-by-step and hands-on experience you need to improve your conjugations, gerund use, punctuation, and more. Each practice question includes detailed explanations and solutions available both in the book and online.

The book also includes:

• Intuitive questions on everything from Oxford commas to verb tense
• Free, one-year access to all 1, 001 practice questions online, and the ability to create customized quizzes and study sessions
• Detailed explanations for every question to help build your understanding

Ideal for self-paced learning and as a companion for students in grammar and English classes in high school and college, Grammar: 1001 Practice Questions For Dummies (+ Free Online Practice) is a must-have resource to improve your written and spoken English communication.

Grammar: 1001 Practice Questions For Dummies (9781119883746) was previously published as 1, 001 Grammar Practice Questions For Dummies (9781118745014). While this version features a new Dummies cover and design, the content is the same as the prior release and should not be considered a new or updated product.

Part 1

The Questions

IN THIS PART …

You may have a love-hate relationship with answering questions; you enjoy challenging yourself, but you don’t like to fail. This part — 1,001 grammar questions — is set up so you won’t fail. When you have trouble, you can check the answer and read the explanation in Part 2 and then return to the questions, better prepared to answer the next one correctly. Specifically, here’s what you’ll find in this part:

• Basic parts of speech and essential elements of a proper sentence (Chapters 1–7)
• Descriptive elements and mechanics of capitalization and punctuation (Chapters 8–13)
• Ways to add style to your writing (Chapters 14–17)
• Considerations when writing for electronic media and varying levels of formality (Chapters 18–19)
• Commonly misused words and expressions (Chapters 20–22)

Chapter 1

Telling Time: Identifying the Verb and Choosing the Correct Tense

What time is it? You can answer that question by glancing at a clock or by looking at verbs. Yes, verbs — words that express action or state of being in the past, present, and future. In this chapter, you practice locating the verb and selecting the appropriate tense, or time, for each. You also tackle singular and plural forms, plugging the right one into every sentence.

The Questions You’ll Work On

Here you find sentences that allow you to sharpen your verb skills in these ways:

• Locating the verb(s) in a sentence
• Selecting simple past-, present-, or future-tense verbs to fit the meaning of a sentence
• Choosing progressive verb forms to indicate ongoing action
• Placing past perfect, present perfect, or future perfect forms where they’re needed
• Finding the right tense to summarize speech and discuss literary or artistic works
• Expressing unchangeable facts in present tense
• Determining whether you need a singular or plural form

What to Watch Out For

Verb tense can be tricky, as can agreement — the matching of singular verbs to singular subjects and plural verbs to plural subjects. When you work through these questions, watch out for these issues:

• Zero in on the time period(s) covered in the sentence.
• Establish a timeline if more than one action or state of being is expressed in the sentence.
• Stay in the same tense unless the meaning of the sentence justifies a shift.
• Check whether the subject is singular or plural and match the verb to the subject.
• Ignore words that resemble verbs but function as descriptions or nouns.

Locating the Verb

1–15 Identify the verb(s) in the sentence.

1. Eric and his band played five songs by the Beatles, to the delight of the audience.

2. Maria slipped out of the room quietly at the end of the lecture on the causes of World War I.

3. The twins will be happy on their birthday when they receive your present!

4. Perhaps because of my brother’s illness, my dog Tweet seems sad today.

5. The child searched for a tissue but found only a dirty candy wrapper.

6. The screaming figure at the left of the painting represents a mother’s grief.

7. Glenn has always carried the sizzling pizza in a special, heat-proof box.

8. The puppies, along with the kittens, were displayed in the shop window for all to see.

9. The last meeting of the council was bittersweet, as the members were now scattering for distant destinations.

10. To go faster, try not to look at the keyboard as you type.

11. Smiling, Barbara wrestled with the math problem until she calculated the correct answer.

12. Daniel’s pen, having run out of ink, sat on the shelf, unused and forgotten.

13. While copying the letter, Mike stuck his finger in the moving paper tr...