English grammar explained in plain language simple enough to be understood.
Common nouns name people, places, and things that don’t need to be capitalized. Proper nouns are names for actual people, actual locations and buildings. Common nouns are names for plain, unspecific people, places, and things. A proper noun is Chicago,… Read more192. Common Nouns
Italics are most often used for titles and names. However, we sometimes use italics when we want to emphasize certain words in our writing. Italicizing the words makes them stand out to the reader. Here is an example of using… Read more189. Use Italics to Emphasize Words
Look at this sentence: He likes ice cream more than me. Do you know what the writer is trying to say? Here are two possibilities: He likes ice cream more than he likes me.He likes ice cream more than I… Read more183. Pronoun Problem
The word hard works as an adjective when it modifies a noun.That was a hard test.You took a hard fall down the stairs. The word hard acts as an adverb when it modifies a verb.The team played hard but they… Read more179. Using Hard and Hardly
An adverb modifies a verb by telling more about the action. Be sure to put the adverb as close to the verb as possible. Sam walked to his room dejectedly. In this sentence, the adverb dejectedly is separated from the… Read more177. Mistakes with Using Adverbs
Parentheses ( ) are a type of punctuation. Parentheses always come as a pair – in twos. We put parentheses around words and information that are not of major importance. The words in a parentheses can be left out and… Read more172. Parentheses
Section A: Decide which words in each sentence should be capitalized.1. My cousin was born in february, the day after valentine’s day.2. We have a softball game on tuesday, and my piano lesson is on friday.3. My family will celebrate… Read more455. Practice with Proper Nouns – Days, Months, Holidays
A period is used as stop punctuation. Every time you reach the end of a statement sentence, you should put a period. Today is Thursday.I bought a new sweater yesterday.Sam’s brother is a teacher.Although it is raining, the sun is… Read more404. The Period
The apostrophe (‘) has two basic uses. 1. In a contraction. When we push two words together to make one word, we contract the two words by taking out some letters. An apostrophe goes into the space where the letters… Read more403. The Apostrophe – Use it Correctly
A comma is used as a piece of pause punctuation. A comma is not stop punctuation. Therefore, you cannot use a comma to stop a complete thought. When you use a comma between two complete thoughts, we call that a… Read more401. Mistake: The Comma Splice