English grammar explained in plain language simple enough to be understood.
Section A: Read each sentence below. Decide – is it a complex sentence or not?1. I bought a cake mix at the store.2. If you read the directions, it will tell you how to bake the cake. 3. Since you… Read more220. Practice Complex Sentences
There is sometimes confusion about when to use a comma with the conjunction and. Here is a simple rule: use ,and whenever you could have used a period. Let me show you what I mean. John plays baseball, and his… Read more213. Fixing Mistakes with the Comma
Today we’ll talk about four other types of titles that must be italicized. 1- Movie titles are always italicized. Michael J. Fox stars in the 1985 movie Back to the Future.Ten years earlier, Richard Dreyfuss starred in Jaws. 2- Use… Read more187. Italicize Titles: Movies, Plays, Operas, Musical Works and Albums
This week’s topic is italics – a request from one of our regular readers. You can type in italics by clicking on the slanted I at the top of your word processing page. Here are three of the many uses… Read more186. Italics: Book Titles, Newspapers, Magazines
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
Section A: Put a comma after the interjection in each sentence.1. Yikes the water is cold.2. Ooh that mosquito bite itches.3. Well it’s time to close up shop.4. My the time has flown. Section B: Each sentence has an introductory… Read more395. Comma Practice
A compound sentence is two simple sentences joined together. A simple sentence looks like this:Bob rode his bike. This sentence is a simple sentence because it is about one person doing one thing. Here is another simple sentence: Mary rode… Read more396. Use a Comma in a Compound Sentence
A complex sentence combines a subordinate clause with an independent clause.The words after and before are subordinate clause words. We can use those words to begin a subordinate clause. Here is a complex sentence that begins with the subordinate clause… Read more226. Rearranging Complex Sentences
A compound sentence combines two simple sentences. We need a comma after the first simple sentence in the compound sentence. Look at this example: The rain is falling, and the wind is blowing.Notice that there are two separate sentences in… Read more397. Compound Sentence with a Comma – or Not?
When you are writing the words that someone speaks, you must put quotation marks around the words. Quotation marks always come in pairs, and they look like this: ” “. We put one set of quotation marks before the start… Read more417. Use Quotation Marks Around Spoken Words