10 Tips to Improve Your Grammar

10 Tips to Improve Your Grammar Mind apostrophes: Possessive case or contractions: its vs. it's, they're vs. their. Always use a comma after an introductory or prepositionalphrase: "After a hard day at work, Jean loves to relax in the backyard." Memorise homophones and endings: too vs. two, your vs. you're, accept vs. except. -able when a whole root word is used: fashionable, -ible if a word doesn't make sense without the ending: divisible. Articles: definite or indefinite: For general 'a/an': Someone called a doctor. For specific 'the': Someone called the doctor living the next door. Appositives : these dependent clauses modify the subject and often add non-essential information - offset with commas: "The popular sitcom Brian O'Brien was cancelled after seven years." (Essential) "Brian O'Brien, the popular sitcom, was cancelled after seven years." (Non-essential) That, who, and which - use commas for non-essential information: "No one trusts politicians who lie." (Essential) "Mr. Trout, who is wearing the red shirt, announced his mayoral candidacy this week." (Non-essential) The semicolon replaces a period and links two independent clauses: "The family had never seen Mrs. Baker so mad; everyone thought the maid was going to have a heartattack." Countable and non-countable nouns: many for countables (dress, house, car), much/a lot and little/few for non-countables (money, snow, time). Vocabulary building techniques: Read books, magazine articles and newspaper columns. Spellchecking and proofreading: Use online spellcheckers like http://www.spellchecker.net/spellcheck and quietly read the text aloud to catch more mistakes. - Follow Us on Twitter Grammarnet All rights reserved © 2011 Grammar.net 10 Tips to Improve Your Grammar Mind apostrophes: Possessive case or contractions: its vs. it's, they're vs. their. Always use a comma after an introductory or prepositionalphrase: "After a hard day at work, Jean loves to relax in the backyard." Memorise homophones and endings: too vs. two, your vs. you're, accept vs. except. -able when a whole root word is used: fashionable, -ible if a word doesn't make sense without the ending: divisible. Articles: definite or indefinite: For general 'a/an': Someone called a doctor. For specific 'the': Someone called the doctor living the next door. Appositives : these dependent clauses modify the subject and often add non-essential information - offset with commas: "The popular sitcom Brian O'Brien was cancelled after seven years." (Essential) "Brian O'Brien, the popular sitcom, was cancelled after seven years." (Non-essential) That, who, and which - use commas for non-essential information: "No one trusts politicians who lie." (Essential) "Mr. Trout, who is wearing the red shirt, announced his mayoral candidacy this week." (Non-essential) The semicolon replaces a period and links two independent clauses: "The family had never seen Mrs. Baker so mad; everyone thought the maid was going to have a heartattack." Countable and non-countable nouns: many for countables (dress, house, car), much/a lot and little/few for non-countables (money, snow, time). Vocabulary building techniques: Read books, magazine articles and newspaper columns. Spellchecking and proofreading: Use online spellcheckers like http://www.spellchecker.net/spellcheck and quietly read the text aloud to catch more mistakes. - Follow Us on Twitter Grammarnet All rights reserved © 2011 Grammar.net 10 Tips to Improve Your Grammar Mind apostrophes: Possessive case or contractions: its vs. it's, they're vs. their. Always use a comma after an introductory or prepositionalphrase: "After a hard day at work, Jean loves to relax in the backyard." Memorise homophones and endings: too vs. two, your vs. you're, accept vs. except. -able when a whole root word is used: fashionable, -ible if a word doesn't make sense without the ending: divisible. Articles: definite or indefinite: For general 'a/an': Someone called a doctor. For specific 'the': Someone called the doctor living the next door. Appositives : these dependent clauses modify the subject and often add non-essential information - offset with commas: "The popular sitcom Brian O'Brien was cancelled after seven years." (Essential) "Brian O'Brien, the popular sitcom, was cancelled after seven years." (Non-essential) That, who, and which - use commas for non-essential information: "No one trusts politicians who lie." (Essential) "Mr. Trout, who is wearing the red shirt, announced his mayoral candidacy this week." (Non-essential) The semicolon replaces a period and links two independent clauses: "The family had never seen Mrs. Baker so mad; everyone thought the maid was going to have a heartattack." Countable and non-countable nouns: many for countables (dress, house, car), much/a lot and little/few for non-countables (money, snow, time). Vocabulary building techniques: Read books, magazine articles and newspaper columns. Spellchecking and proofreading: Use online spellcheckers like http://www.spellchecker.net/spellcheck and quietly read the text aloud to catch more mistakes. - Follow Us on Twitter Grammarnet All rights reserved © 2011 Grammar.net 10 Tips to Improve Your Grammar Mind apostrophes: Possessive case or contractions: its vs. it's, they're vs. their. Always use a comma after an introductory or prepositionalphrase: "After a hard day at work, Jean loves to relax in the backyard." Memorise homophones and endings: too vs. two, your vs. you're, accept vs. except. -able when a whole root word is used: fashionable, -ible if a word doesn't make sense without the ending: divisible. Articles: definite or indefinite: For general 'a/an': Someone called a doctor. For specific 'the': Someone called the doctor living the next door. Appositives : these dependent clauses modify the subject and often add non-essential information - offset with commas: "The popular sitcom Brian O'Brien was cancelled after seven years." (Essential) "Brian O'Brien, the popular sitcom, was cancelled after seven years." (Non-essential) That, who, and which - use commas for non-essential information: "No one trusts politicians who lie." (Essential) "Mr. Trout, who is wearing the red shirt, announced his mayoral candidacy this week." (Non-essential) The semicolon replaces a period and links two independent clauses: "The family had never seen Mrs. Baker so mad; everyone thought the maid was going to have a heartattack." Countable and non-countable nouns: many for countables (dress, house, car), much/a lot and little/few for non-countables (money, snow, time). Vocabulary building techniques: Read books, magazine articles and newspaper columns. Spellchecking and proofreading: Use online spellcheckers like http://www.spellchecker.net/spellcheck and quietly read the text aloud to catch more mistakes. - Follow Us on Twitter Grammarnet All rights reserved © 2011 Grammar.net 10 Tips to Improve Your Grammar Mind apostrophes: Possessive case or contractions: its vs. it's, they're vs. their. Always use a comma after an introductory or prepositionalphrase: "After a hard day at work, Jean loves to relax in the backyard." Memorise homophones and endings: too vs. two, your vs. you're, accept vs. except. -able when a whole root word is used: fashionable, -ible if a word doesn't make sense without the ending: divisible. Articles: definite or indefinite: For general 'a/an': Someone called a doctor. For specific 'the': Someone called the doctor living the next door. Appositives : these dependent clauses modify the subject and often add non-essential information - offset with commas: "The popular sitcom Brian O'Brien was cancelled after seven years." (Essential) "Brian O'Brien, the popular sitcom, was cancelled after seven years." (Non-essential) That, who, and which - use commas for non-essential information: "No one trusts politicians who lie." (Essential) "Mr. Trout, who is wearing the red shirt, announced his mayoral candidacy this week." (Non-essential) The semicolon replaces a period and links two independent clauses: "The family had never seen Mrs. Baker so mad; everyone thought the maid was going to have a heartattack." Countable and non-countable nouns: many for countables (dress, house, car), much/a lot and little/few for non-countables (money, snow, time). Vocabulary building techniques: Read books, magazine articles and newspaper columns. Spellchecking and proofreading: Use online spellcheckers like http://www.spellchecker.net/spellcheck and quietly read the text aloud to catch more mistakes. - Follow Us on Twitter Grammarnet All rights reserved © 2011 Grammar.net 10 Tips to Improve Your Grammar Mind apostrophes: Possessive case or contractions: its vs. it's, they're vs. their. Always use a comma after an introductory or prepositionalphrase: "After a hard day at work, Jean loves to relax in the backyard." Memorise homophones and endings: too vs. two, your vs. you're, accept vs. except. -able when a whole root word is used: fashionable, -ible if a word doesn't make sense without the ending: divisible. Articles: definite or indefinite: For general 'a/an': Someone called a doctor. For specific 'the': Someone called the doctor living the next door. Appositives : these dependent clauses modify the subject and often add non-essential information - offset with commas: "The popular sitcom Brian O'Brien was cancelled after seven years." (Essential) "Brian O'Brien, the popular sitcom, was cancelled after seven years." (Non-essential) That, who, and which - use commas for non-essential information: "No one trusts politicians who lie." (Essential) "Mr. Trout, who is wearing the red shirt, announced his mayoral candidacy this week." (Non-essential) The semicolon replaces a period and links two independent clauses: "The family had never seen Mrs. Baker so mad; everyone thought the maid was going to have a heartattack." Countable and non-countable nouns: many for countables (dress, house, car), much/a lot and little/few for non-countables (money, snow, time). Vocabulary building techniques: Read books, magazine articles and newspaper columns. Spellchecking and proofreading: Use online spellcheckers like http://www.spellchecker.net/spellcheck and quietly read the text aloud to catch more mistakes. - Follow Us on Twitter Grammarnet All rights reserved © 2011 Grammar.net