English Grammar Rules

Subjects & Verbs

• 1. If a word follows "to", you need to look in front of "to" for the main verb.

  2. A subject will come before a phrase beginning with "of".

  3. To find the subject and verb, always find the verb first. Then ask "who" or "what" did the verb.

  4. Any request or command such as “Stop!” or “Walk quickly.” has the understood subject "you" because if we ask who is to stop or walk quickly, the answer must be "you".

  5. Sentences often have more than one subject, more than one verb, or pairs of subjects and verbs.

Subject-Verb Agreement

• 1. Two singular subjects connected by "or" or "nor" require a singular verb.

  2. Two singular subjects connected by "either/or" or "neither/nor" require a singular verb as in Rule 1.

  3. When a singular subject is connected by "or" or "nor" to a plural subject, put the plural subject last and use a plural verb.

  4. When "either/or" or "neither/nor" connect a singular and plural subject, put the plural subject last and use a plural verb as in Rule 3.

  5. As a general rule, use a plural verb with two or more subjects when they are connected by "and".

  6. Sometimes the subject is separated from the verb by words such as "along with", "as well as", "besides", "not", etc. Ignore these expressions when determining whether to use a singular or plural verb.

  7. The pronouns—"each", "everyone", "everybody", "anyone", "anybody", "someone", and "somebody"—are singular. Do not be misled by what follows "of".

  8. With words that indicate portions—"percent", "fraction", "part", "majority", "some", "all", "none", "remainder", etc.—you must look at the object of the preposition to determine whether to use a singular or plural verb. If the object of the preposition is singular, use a singular verb. If the object of the preposition is plural, use a plural verb.

  9. When "either" and "neither" are subjects, they take singular verbs.

  10. The words "here" and "there" are never subjects because they are not nouns. In sentences beginning with "here" or "there", the true subject follows the verb.

  11. Use a singular verb with sums of money or periods of time.

  12. If the pronoun "who", "that", or "which" appears as the subject in the middle of the sentence, you must decide whether to follow it with a singular or plural verb. In order to decide, look at the noun directly in front of the "who", "that", or "which". If it is singular, use a singular verb. If it is plural, use a plural verb.

  13. Collective nouns such as "team" and "staff" may be either singular or plural depending on their use in the sentence.

Pronouns

• 1. Subject pronouns are used when the pronoun is the subject of the sentence. You can remember subject pronouns easily by filling in the blank subject space for a simple sentence.

  2. Subject pronouns are also used if they rename the subject. They will follow "to be" verbs such as "is", "are", "was", "were", "am", and "will be".

  3. Object pronouns are used everywhere else (direct object, indirect object, object of the preposition). Object pronouns are "me", "you", "him", "her", "it", "us", and "them".

  4. To be able to choose pronouns correctly, you must learn to identify clauses. A clause is a group of words containing a verb and subject. A strong clause can stand on its own.

     1. A weak clause begins with words such as "although", "since", "if", "when", and

     2. "because". Weak clauses cannot stand on their own.

     3. If a sentence contains more than one clause, isolate the clauses before deciding which pronoun is correct.

  5. To decide whether to use Subject or Object pronouns after the words "than" or "as", mentally complete the sentence.

  6. Possessive pronouns show ownership and never need apostrophes. Possessive pronouns are "mine", "yours", "his", "hers", "its", "ours", "theirs". Note that the only time "it’s" has an apostrophe is when it is a contraction for "it is".

  7. Avoid these pitfalls when using possessive pronouns: Do not write as, “Not one of the neighbors offered their support”; instead, write as, “Not one of the neighbors offered his/her support”. However, in the sentence, “None of the neighbors offered their support”, "none" is a portion word and is plural here because of neighbors.

  8. Reflexive pronouns—"myself", "himself", "herself", "itself", "themselves", "ourselves", "yourself", "yourselves"—should be used only when they refer back to another word in the sentence.

Who vs. Whom

• 1. To choose between "who" and "whom", use the "he/him" technique:

     1. he = who

     2. him = whom

Whoever vs. Whomever

• 1. First of all, use the "ever" suffix when "who" or "whom" can fit into two clauses in the sentence—as in “Give it to whoever/whomever asks for it first.” Give it to him. He asks for it first.” Because we can substitute "him" and "he" into both clauses, we must use the "ever" suffix.

  2. Now, to determine whether to use "whoever" or "whomever", here is the rule:

     1. him + he = whoever

     2. him + him = whomever

Therefore, “Give it to whoever asks for it first.”

Who vs. Which vs. That

• 1. "Who" refers to people. "That" and "which" refer to groups or things.

  2. "That" introduces essential clauses while "which" introduces non-essential clauses.

  3. If "that" has already been used in the sentence, use "which" to introduce the essential clause that follows.

  4. If the essential clause starts with "this", "that", "these", or "those", use "which" to connect.

Adjectives & Adverbs

• 1. Generally, if a word answers the question "How?", it is an adverb. If it can have an "-ly" added to it, place it there.

  2. A special "-ly" rule applies when four of the senses—taste, smell, look, feel—are the verbs. Do not ask the "How?" question to determine if "-ly" should be attached. Instead, ask if the sense verb is being used actively. If so, use the "-ly".

  3. The word "good" is an adjective while "well" is an adverb.

  4. When referring to health, always use "well".

  5. A common error in using adjectives and adverbs arises from using the wrong form for comparison. For instance, to describe one thing we would say "poor", as in, “She is poor.” To compare two things, we should say "poorer", as in, “She is the poorer of the two women.” To compare more than two things, we should say "poorest", as in, “She is the poorest of them all.”

  6. Never drop the "-ly" from an adverb when using the comparison form.

Problems with Prepositions

• 1. You may end a sentence with a preposition. Just do not use extra prepositions when the meaning is clear without them. Prepositions are: "about", "above", "across", "after", "against", "along", "among", "around", "at", "before", "behind", "below", "beneath", "beside", "between", "beyond", "but", "by", "despite", "down", "during", "except", "for", "from", "in", "inside", "into", "like", "near", "of", "off", "on", "onto", "out", "outside", "over", "past", "since", "through", "throughout", "till", "to", "toward", "under", "underneath", "until", "up", "upon", "with", "within", and "without".

  2. Use "on" with expressions that indicate the time of an occurrence.

  3. "Of" should never be used in place of "have".

  4. "Between" refers to two things. "Among" is used for three or more things.

  5. "Into" implies entrance, "in" does not.

Effect vs. Affect

• 1. Use "effect" when you mean "bring about" or "brought about", "cause" or "caused".

  2. Use "effect" when you mean "result".

  3. Also use "effect" whenever any of these words precede it: "a", "an", "the", "no", "any", "take", "into". Note that these words may be separated from "effect" by an adjective.

  4. If none of the above fit, use "affect".

Effective Writing

• 1. Use concrete rather than vague language.

  2. Use active voice whenever possible. Active voice means the “subject” is doing the “verb”.

  3. Avoid overusing "there is", "there are", "it is", "it was", etc.

  4. Avoid using two negatives to make a positive because they cause confusion.

  5. Use similar grammatical form when offering several ideas. This is called parallel construction.

Misplaced & Dangling Modifiers

• 1. If you start a sentence with an action, place the actor immediately after.

  2. Place modifiers near the words they modify.

Writing Numbers

• 1. The numbers "one" through "ten" should be spelled out; use figures for numbers greater than ten.

  2. With a group of related numbers where one number is above 10 in a sentence, write them all in figures. Use words if all related numbers are 10 or below.

  3. If the numbers are unrelated, then you may use both figures and words.

  4. Use figures for tables and statistics.

  5. Always spell out simple fractions and use hyphens with them.

  6. A mixed fraction can be expressed in figures unless it is the first word of a sentence.

  7. The simplest way to express large numbers is best, as in: “4 million dollars OR $4 million OR four million dollars (not $4,000,000)”

  8. Write decimals in figures. Put a zero (0) in front of a decimal unless the decimal itself begins with a zero.

  9. When writing large numbers of five or more digits, use a comma where the comma would appear in the figure format. Use the word and only where the decimal point appears in the figure format.

  10. Write like this when using dates: “The meeting is scheduled for June 30.” “The meeting is scheduled for the 30th of June.” “We have tricks played on us on April 1.” “The 1st of April scares some people.”

  11. Hyphenate all compound numbers from "twenty-one" through "ninety-nine".

  12. Do not hyphenate "one hundred", "two hundred", etc.

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