English grammar has a million confusing and contradictory rules. The language has so many words in so many forms that it can be bewildering to figure out which one to use and why. This page will help.
Look below for specific tips and links on commonly-misused words, why you should avoid the passive voice, ESL and college-level writing labs and grammar courses, and other grammar topics from the basic to the complex. If you don't find what you're looking for, let me know and I'll post an answer or research and write one for you.
Take a look at the Table of Contents below and wander through some of the various sections. If you don't find what you're looking for, please contact me or post in my guestbook and I'll post the answers.
Where to Look for Help
Since this topic covers a lot of ground, I've separated the links into general categories. If you click on the one in which you are interested, you don't have to scroll all of the way down to it. You're still welcome to do so, of course.
- Grammar Rants and Pet Peeves
- Back to Basics: Parts of Speech
- Less Basic: Specifics about the Parts of Speech
- -Tion Words: Examples and Discussion
- Grammar and Writing Resources
- Give the Passive Voice a Pass
- Get Active: Read All About It!
- Display Your Inner Grammar Geek
- Corral Your Words: Punctuation
- My Take on Grammar Rules.
- Build Your Vocabulary
- Word Tidbits
- Versus: Commonly Confused Words and How to Use Them
- Big Grammar Resources on the Internet
- Do you have a grammar tip or question?
- More Great Grammar and Writing Books
Grammar Rants and Pet Peeves
Why do you need grammar and language skills?
- Writing to Communicate
- I wrote about Michael Moser writing about the importance of communicating clearly.
- Why Do I Care about Grammar?
- You know you're curious. Go ahead, find out why I care enough about English grammar to write a whole blog about it.
- Why Do We Need Good Grammar?
- Now that you know why I care, find out why you should care about language and grammar.
- Why Grammar and Style Matter
- Discover what a difference using clear language and writing can make in communicating your ideas.
- A Personal Grammar Rant
- In this post, I take a slight about grammar pickiness personally.
- Rants and Pet Peeves from Others
- Proof that I'm not the only touchy one
- Alright Is Not a Word
- It's all right, you can remember this apparently little-known fact.
- Companies that Can't Spell
- Why would you purposely include a spelling error in the name of your corporation?
- Don't Try to Drive Me
- I explain why the phrase "drive traffic to your site" offends.
- Funnest Is Not a Word
- A post wherein I explain Apple's marketing problem.
- Hear! Hear!
- Another occasion where the history of a phrase makes its spelling and use clear. Let's hear it for clarity!
- I Could Not Care Less
- Really, I couldn't. Why would I say that I could?
- "Interviewed" Should Not Be Used
- A new way to misuse a simple verb. Just don't do it.
- A Little Pile of Peeves
- Snarky responses to language abuses that recently irked me
- They're Iced, People
- An explanation of iced tea and iced cream. Truly, the most pet of my peeves.
- Using Per Se
- It's a phrase, it has a proper spelling, and it's time that people learned about it.
- Find the Error: A Game for the Whole Family
- Examples of bad writing from various sources, all places where the people posting call themselves writers.
- Bad Examples of Writing
- More poor writing to help you know it when you see it, including my own mouthy responses.
Back to Basics: Parts of Speech
Whether you need to start learning grammar from scratch or you would like to review some fundamentals, this section will help you get a handle on the various parts of speech. These are the main posts on the eight parts of speech. If you still have questions, contact me (through the blog, my profile here, or in the guest book below) and I'll get you an answer.Nouns
Verbs
Pronouns
Adjectives
Adverbs
Prepositions
Conjunctions
Interjections!
And to bring it together: what makes a sentence?
Less Basic: Specifics about the Parts of Speech
Now that you know which parts of speech do what, it's time to dig into the details. Some of these can be tricky or sneaky. Learn to drive them straight to your meaning without losing your audience along the way.Collective Nouns and Verb Agreement
Abstract Nouns
Choosing Your Pronouns (An Introductory Rant)
Step One: Subjective Pronouns
Step Two: Objective Pronouns
Step Three: A Pronoun Wrap-Up
Reflexive Pronouns and How Not to Use Them
Transitive and Intransitive Verbs
Direct and Indirect Objects
The Types of Abbreviation
What do you end a sentence with? and the other side of the coin,
With what do you end a sentence? It's the age-old debate about ending a sentence with a preposition.
When to Capitalize
What are modal verbs and why you should usually avoid them.
Collective Nouns and Pairs of Pants
Collective Nouns and the Word News
Learn about grammar particles that aren't exactly parts of speech and grammar particles as a part of intransitive verbs.
-Tion Words: Examples and Discussion
- Verbs Gone Soft
- What are -tion words? Verbs that could have described action but that have been turned into weak nouns. Words that end in "tion" plague writers because they look impressive but they turn your fascinating, active sentences into boring pap.
- More -Tion Words and the Passive Voice
- Take another look at nominalization, passive sentences, and a discussion of what "passive voice" means. Add your voice!
- Wasting Words with -Tion and -Sion
- With several examples, this post explores how making nouns out of your verbs weakens your writing and bores your readers.
- A Specific Example
- How can you convert "Participation is required" into an active, interesting sentence? Read about my efforts.
- Why -Tion Words Hurt Your Writing
- Three excellent reasons why you should not use the -tion version of verbs when you write, in case you have not yet been convinced.
Grammar and Writing Resources
Find books that will sharpen your mental pencil.
English Grammar for Students of Latin
You can't learn Latin without a solid foundation i more...0 points
Grammar in Plain English
Twenty-two lessons cover the various aspects of En more...0 points
How English Works: A Grammar Handbook
This book uses readings from newspapers, works of more...0 points
Give the Passive Voice a Pass
Activate your writing to engage your audience.
While technically more a matter of style than grammar, knowing what the passive voice looks like lets you use grammar to make your sentences more interesting and your story more exciting to your audience.I have declared war on the passive voice in my writing and have researched it often. Below are some of my findings. I will write more, without a doubt. I'll post those here, as well. Please share your tricks for stirring up the action in your writing in my guestbook, as well.
If you want more information or would like to share your opinion about the passive voice, what it is, and if or when to use it, please chime in on the discussion.
Get Active: Read All About It!
- Passive Voice Re-Write
- An example of some passive voice sentences re-written to make them active, including an explanation of what made them passive in the first place.
- Seek and Destroy: The Passive Voice
- An explanation of how and why the passive voice hurts your writing, with a link to the University of Calgary's page on the matter.
- Gerunds and the Passive Voice
- Learn how gerunds rob your verbs of action and bore your readers. This one also contains a specific example of a passive sentence re-written for action.
- Another Tip for Finding Passive Sentences
- Another post that gives a sign of the passive voice. It give you one more tool in your arsenal for fighting passivity.
- Passive Voice Analysis
- This one includes a link to a lengthy analysis of the passive voice and how to tell the difference between passive sentences and verbs of different tenses, a critical skill!
- Tips for Considering the Passive Voice As You Write
- I posted about my own struggles with eliminating the passive voice from my writing and offered some tips on composing with action in mind.
- Why Find the Passive Voice?
- Learn why you have trouble editing the passive voice from your own writing and find some tips on how to make it easier.
- Copular Verbs and Feeling
- Find out why you feel bad about not feeling badly.
Display Your Inner Grammar Geek
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Corral Your Words: Punctuation
Basic, Obscure, and Subtle Punctuation Clarified
Punctuation marks help your reader make sense of your words. The longer your sentences, the more punctuation you need to keep your clauses from merging and your tenses in agreement.As a part of my Back to Basics series, I am writing about punctuation. This section will grow as I post articles. I also have sections on proposed new marks, little-known punctuation, and more subtle uses of punctuation.
The Oxford Comma: Use It in Your Lists Today
A Quick Guide to Hyphen Use
Em-Dashes and Hyphens: Who Knew?
When do you need an apostrophe after an s?
How do you when to indicate possession with an apostrophe?
Obscure Punctuation Marks and What They Indicate
The Ellipsis: Rules and Questions of Style
A Little More on Commas
Quotation Marks and Speech
Commas versus Semicolons
Using Commas when Writing Dates
Tips for using bullet points
Why You Don't Need More Punctuation Marks
My Take on Grammar Rules.
There's no pattern, just a near-daily dose of writing and grammar advice
I've moved my grammar blog to its new home, one-step-forward.net, but you can still read everything linked to here.
Fetching RSS feed... please stand byBuild Your Vocabulary
The more words you know, the less people can use them against you. The less they can sneak nasty things past you, anyway. Check these posts for ways to build your vocabulary and more reasons why you should.A Word Toy to Fight World Hunger
More Words = Less Confusion
A Strong Vocabulary Equals Safer Insults
Three Cheers for the Thesaurus
A New Game for Language Lovers
Knowing More Words Equals Better Writing
Some words of caution to remember when you reach for the Thesaurus
Some links to fun word posts that I discovered.
More vocabulary-building toys.
George Orwell weighs in on vocabulary and its importance in writing.
Word Tidbits
I've begun a new series on my blog, adding little-known facts (unknown to me, at any rate) about some of my favorite words. Generally, these posts include synonyms and examples. I'll put these in alphabetical order from the start.
Versus: Commonly Confused Words and How to Use Them
Below you will find sets of words that writers often misspell confuse. I've left the most common ones at the beginning of the list and have alphabetized the rest of them.
Of course, if I'd reversed the words in the title then some of them would land in different places on the list. Please be patient when looking for a specific topic. If you can't find what you need, please let me know. I'll either send you a link or write a post to address the question.
Of course, if I'd reversed the words in the title then some of them would land in different places on the list. Please be patient when looking for a specific topic. If you can't find what you need, please let me know. I'll either send you a link or write a post to address the question.
- A Classic Battle: Good Versus Well
- Feel good about using these words well.
- Its Versus It's: One Simple Rule
- As the title suggests, learn the rule for remembering which form to use.
- Your Versus You're: An Epic Struggle
- One of the most frequently misused word pairs, these two have been duking it out for centuries. Learn to tell them apart and which to use, once and for all.
- Lay, Lie, Lay, Lied
- Figure out why lay and lie are confusing, which means what, and how to remember the difference.
- There Versus Their Versus They're
- Tips on distinguishing which version of this word you should use in your sentence. Ask yourself a question and the answer will tell you whether you're using the right one.
- A Few More Commonly Confused Terms
- Short explanations for learning the differences between continuous versus continual, desert versus dessert, flaunt versus flout, and stationary versus stationery.
- More Confusable Vocabulary
- Understand the differences between discomfort and discomfit, practical and practicable, and refer and allude.
- That Versus Which
- Yes, it makes a difference. Find out how to tell them apart and when to use them.
- Too Funny To Take
- Learn the difference between "too" and "to" and when to use each of them.
- Adverse versus Averse
- I find myself averse to making errors with these two words.
- Affect versus Effect
- A specific example of using effect wrong and an explanation of how to know.
- Alternate versus Alternative
- Alternate between getting it right and the alternative.
- Assure versus Ensure versus Insure
- Learn the difference between these three terms and see examples of how to use them.
- Autumn versus Fall
- Does autumn fall? Is there a difference between these two terms?
- Because of and Due To
- There's a minor difference. Find it out.
- A Capital Way to Make Sense of Capitols
- Three more sets of reminders: do versus make, imply versus infer, and capital versus capitol.
- Cite versus Sight versus Site
- Understand which of these three applies to the sentence you're writing.
- Everybody and Everyone
- Does it matter which you choose?
- Farther versus Further
- How do these words differ and how can your remember? Find out, here.
- Fazed by Phases
- Learn the difference between being fazed and going through a phase.
- Four Versus For Versus Fore
- Learn the uses for each of the three forms of this word.
- Less Versus Fewer; Much Versus Many
- A number of examples and explanations for remembering the difference between counting and not.
- Moot versus Mute
- The difference between this pair is far from being a moot point.
- Peak versus Peek versus Pique
- Interest piqued? Take a peek at the post, written at the peak of my ability. ;)
- Parameter versus Perimeter
- What's the difference? Learn the parameters of their use.
Big Grammar Resources on the Internet
Find Grammar Topics that Answer Your Questions
The Language Log at UPenn
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University of Calgary Grammar Pages
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http://www.lousywriter.com/
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Get It Write Online
Online advice and tips for writers.0 points
Daily Writing Tips
Grammar, spelling, misused words, business writing more...0 points
Valentine's Day Adjectives
Fill the day with arts, crafts, science experiment more...0 points
Do you have a grammar tip or question?
Please, share with the group.
submit
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- HorseAndPony HorseAndPony Oct 12, 2009 @ 9:50 am
- Thanks for the info and tips. I will be bake for more.
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- palak palak Aug 25, 2009 @ 3:23 am
- what are the tricks for omission and editing exercises in grammar? how to master them?
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- Josh Josh Aug 24, 2009 @ 11:49 am
- Is there a rule dictating whether you use that or which in a sentence?
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- legbamel legbamel Jul 27, 2009 @ 8:19 am | in reply to Dan
- If you use "we" as the subject, it's plural and you'd use "noses". You could also use "our collective nose", to reinforce the idea of being a group.
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Reply
- legbamel legbamel Jul 27, 2009 @ 8:16 am | in reply to irab
- I'd use a hyphen and write, "He abruptly sat up in bed and squinted at the annoyingly-bright display of the alarm clock." I'll do a post explaining why and drop a link here in a few days. Thanks for asking!
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Reply
- irab irab Jul 26, 2009 @ 4:35 pm
- Which sentence is correct, the one with "annoyingly" or the one with "annoying?"
He abruptly sat up in bed and squinted at the annoyingly bright display of the alarm clock.
or
He abruptly sat up in bed and squinted at the annoying bright display of the alarm clock.
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Reply
- Dan Dan Jul 11, 2009 @ 8:22 pm
- When speaking as part of a group and using a phrase referring to a body part, do you use singular or plural. For example, "We have to keep our nose/noses clean."
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- Brain_Washer Brain_Washer Apr 2, 2009 @ 6:50 am
- Awesome. I was thinking of making a lens on grammar tips and commonly confused words, and came across this lens. I guess it will take me 5 years to build anything like this. But I'll still try to construct a small 'hut' of my own in front of your 'skyscraper' :-)
I'm a Toastmaster and have keen interest in grammar and word usage. This is really good stuff ! Five stars from me and this is going into my favorites.
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Reply
- Ecolicious Ecolicious Mar 17, 2009 @ 12:37 pm
- This is a very helpful lens.
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- awelldressedbullet awelldressedbullet Nov 24, 2008 @ 11:55 pm
- Ah, grammer, one of my most favorite subjects (not) LOL I knew I should have paid more attention in school. I am definitely bookmarking this lens, for a more closer read and reference. Nicely done! Now I just need to pay attention to my speeling LOL - Kathy
- Load More
More Great Grammar and Writing Books
Edit Yourself: A Manual for Everyone Who Works with Words
Amazon Price: $9.86 (as of 02/09/2010)
English Grammar Shower Curtain
Amazon Price: (as of 02/09/2010)
The Only Grammar Book You'll Ever Need: A One-Stop Source for Every Writing Assignment
Amazon Price: $7.95 (as of 02/09/2010)
Standard Deviants: Grammar For All - Learning English Grammar - The Parts of Speech
Amazon Price: $17.99 (as of 02/09/2010)
by legbamel
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