GRAMMAR, PUNCTUATION & USAGE

GRAMMAR, PUNCTUATION & USAGE

Student Workbook

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Table of Contents

Parts of a Sentence 5

Subject 5

Noun 5

Adjective 5

Pronoun 5

Verb 5

Adverb 5

Verb Phrase 6

Clauses 6

Independent Clause (IC) 6

Dependent Clause (DC) 6

Dependent Marker Word (DM) 6

Connecting dependent and independent clauses 6

Coordinating Conjunction (CC) 7

Independent Marker Word (IM) 7

Preposition 7

Count and Noncount Nouns 7

Count or Noncount? 7

Pluralizing 8

COUNT vs. NON-COUNT STUDENT EXERCISE 10

Pronouns 12

Subject Pronouns 12

Object Pronouns 12

Possessive Pronouns 13

Reflexive Pronouns 13

PRONOUN STUDENT EXERCISE 14

Simple, Compound & Complex Sentences 15

SIMPLE SENTENCE 15

COMPOUND SENTENCE 15

COMPLEX SENTENCE 16

COMPLEX SENTENCES / ADJECTIVE CLAUSES 16

SIMPLE, COMPLEX & COMPOUND SENTENCES STUDENT EXERCISE 17

Subjects and Verbs 19

Definition of a Verb 19

Definition of a Subject 19

SUBJECTS & VERBS STUDENT EXERCISE 21

Making Subjects and Verbs Agree 22

MAKING SUBJECTS & VERBS AGREE STUDENT EXERCISE 1 24

SUBJECT AND VERB AGREEMENT STUDENT EXERCISE 2 25

Who and Whom / Whoever and Whomever 26

Who/Whom 26

WHO, WHOM, WHOEVER, WHOMEVER STUDENT EXERCISE 28

Accept vs. Except 29

Accept and Except 29

ACCEPT VS. EXCEPT STUDENT EXERCISE 30

Adjectives and Adverbs 31

Adjectives 31

Adverbs 31

ADJECTIVES & ADVERBS STUDENT EXERCISE 33

Semicolon ; 34

SEMI-COLON STUDENT EXERCISE 35

Apostrophes ‘ ’ 36

APOSTROPHES STUDENT EXERCISE 39

Commas 40

COMMAS STUDENT EXERCISE 42

Capitals 43

PUNCTUATION & CAPITALIZATION STUDENT EXERCISE 45

Writing Numbers 46

WRITING NUMBERS STUDENT EXERCISE 48

Colon : 49

Parenthesis () 49

Dash - 50

Quotation Marks “ ” 50

PUNCTUATION STUDENT EXERCISE 52

Sentence Fragments 53

SENTENCE FRAGMENT STUDENT EXERCISE 55

Spelling: MISUSED WORDS 57

MISUSED WORDS STUDENT EXERCISE 62

Parallel Structure 63

PARALLEL STRUCTURE STUDENT EXERCISES 66

A or An? 66

‘A’ OR ‘AN’ STUDENT EXERCISE 68

Spelling: IE/EI 69

SPELLING: EI/IE STUDENT EXERCISE 70

Parts of a Sentence

The information below is provided for your information & review – the following terms will be used when discussing grammar, punctuation, sentence structure & spelling.

Subject

The word or words in a sentence about which something is said

Examples: Children read.

Friends and neighbours stopped by to offer help after the event.

Noun

Person, place, or thing

Examples: paper, dog, magazine, desk

Adjective

A word that describes a noun

Examples: pretty, ugly, wet, green

Pronoun

A pronoun is a word standing for a noun. There are different kinds of pronouns, including the following:

Indefinite pronouns ("some," "any"),

demonstrative pronouns ("this," "those"),

interrogative pronouns ("who," "which"),

personal pronouns ("I," "you," "she"),

Verb

A verb is an action word.

Examples: walking, jump, run

Adverb

An adverb is a word that modifies the meaning of a verb, an adjective, or another adverb. They answer the questions "how?" "when?" "where?" “what?” “who?”

Example: The little girl climbed quickly up the very tall tree.

Verb Phrase

A verb phrase is the combination of a verb and an adverb whose combined meaning cannot be deduced from their individual meanings.

Example: Friends and neighbours stopped by to offer help after the event.

Clauses

Independent Clause (IC)

An independent clause is a group of words that contains a subject and verb and expresses a complete thought. An independent clause is a sentence.

Example: Jim studied in the Sweet Shop for his chemistry quiz. (IC)

Dependent Clause (DC)

A dependent clause is a group of words that contains a subject and verb but does not express a complete thought. A dependent clause cannot be a sentence. Often a dependent clause is marked by a dependent marker word.

Example: When Jim studied in the Sweet Shop for his chemistry quiz . . . (DC)

Dependent Marker Word (DM)

A dependent marker word is a word added to the beginning of an independent clause that makes it into a dependent clause. Some common dependent markers are: after, although, as, as if, because, before, even if, even though, if, in order to, since, though, unless, until, whatever, when, whenever, whether, and while.

Example: When Jim studied in the Sweet Shop for his chemistry quiz, it was very noisy. (DM)

Connecting dependent and independent clauses

There are two types of words that can be used as connectors at the beginning of an independent clause: coordinating conjunctions and independent marker words.

Coordinating Conjunction (CC)

The seven coordinating conjunctions used as connecting words at the beginning of an independent clause are and, but, for, or, nor, so, and yet. When the second independent clause in a sentence begins with a coordinating conjunction, a comma is needed before the coordinating conjunction:

Example: Jim studied in the Sweet Shop for his chemistry quiz, but it was hard to concentrate because of the noise. (CC)

Independent Marker Word (IM)

An independent marker word is a connecting word used at the beginning of an independent clause. These words can always begin a sentence that can stand alone. When the second independent clause in a sentence has an independent marker word, a semicolon is needed before the independent marker word. Some common independent markers are: also, consequently, furthermore, however, moreover, nevertheless, and therefore.

Example: Jim studied in the Sweet Shop for his chemistry quiz; however, it was hard to concentrate because of the noise. (IM)

Preposition

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