English grammar explained in plain language simple enough to be understood.
Section A: In each sentence below, find the two words that need a hyphen. Write the new hyphenated word. One sentence does not get a hyphen.1. My cousin has twenty three chickens in his backyard coop.2. His home sits on… Read more170. Practice With Hyphenated Words
A dash ( – ) looks like a hyphen. A hyphen is used inside of words. A dash is used between parts of a sentence. Use a dash when you want to show an interruption in thought. I really need… Read more171. Using the Dash
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
A direct quotation is the quoting of someone else’s words. When you write someone else’s words into your own document, you must place quotation marks around those quoted words. Quotation marks always come in a set of two. Here is… Read more173. Quotation Marks in Direct Quotations
Books, plays, poems, stories, songs, and newspaper articles are some of the written works that have a title. Whenever we write a title, certain words in the title must be capitalized. Always capitalize the first and last word of the… Read more461. Capitalizing Words in a Title
In writing, we use italics (slanted writing like this) to designate titles of larger pieces of writing. Use italics for book titles, movie titles, television shows, magazine names, newspaper names. I saw the movie Jaws.My mother has a subscription to… Read more174. Quotation Marks and Italics in Titles
When you resign yourself to something, you make peace with the situation. I am resigned to the fact that I will never be a tall person. The word resign can also be used when you are quitting or leaving a… Read more429. The Difference Between Resign and Re-sign
We’ve talked all week about compound nouns. Yesterday we studied hyphenated compound nouns. It’s important to know that some hyphenated compound words are not compound nouns. These hyphenated compound words are used as adjectives to modify a noun: two-week vacationten-minute… Read more269. Other Hyphenated Compound Words
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
Today is Memorial Day. Today we take time to recognize and remember all military members who have died in service to our country. It’s a good time to also remember that we must capitalize the names of special holidays. Memorial… Read more356. Memorial Day