Guide
to
Grammar
and
Usage
383
•
Interrogative pronouns begin a question.
Examples:
who,
what,
which, whom, whose
•
Indefinite pronouns refer to people, places, objects, or things
without
pointing
to a specific one. Here are the most common indefinite pronouns.
Singular
Plural
Singular
or
Plural
another
anyone
each
everyone
everybody
everything
much
nobody
nothing

other
someone
anybody
anything
either
little
neither
no one
one
somebody
something
both
few
many
others
several
all
any
more
most
none
some
Punctuation
Using
the correct punctuation is more than following the grammar
rules—it
enables
your audience understand your ideas more
clearly.
•

Periods
Use a period after a complete sentence.
Example:
My dog is named Spot.
Use a period after a command.
Example:
Fasten your seatbelt.
38*t
Appendix
(
Use
a period after most abbreviations.
Examples:
Dr.,
Ms.,
Jr.
Use
a period after an initial.
Example:
John F. Kennedy
Use
a period after each Roman numeral,
letter,
or
number
in an outline.
Example:
I.
A.
B.

1.
2.
•
Question marks
Use
a question mark after a question. Place the question mark inside closing
quotation marks if it is
part
of the quotation. If not, place it outside the quota-
tion marks.
Examples:
"Where
are you
going?"
Chris asked.
Do you know who
wrote
"The Raven"?
•
Exclamation marks
Use
an exclamation mark after an exclamatory sentence.
Example:
What
a terrible day!
•
Commas
Use
a comma to separate items in a
series.

Example:
Shoppers need comfortable shoes, patience, and money.
Use
a comma to set off interrupting words and expressions.
Examples:
Oh, my back aches from lifting weights.
My
baby, a light sleeper, awakens
easily.
Use
a comma after introductory words and expressions.
Examples:
Along
the
route
from the stadium, the crowd cheered loudly.
When
I graduated
college,
I started paying back my
loans.
Guide
to
Grammar
and
Osage
385
Use
a comma to separate parts of
a

compound sentence. Use the comma before
the coordinating conjunction.
Example:
Henry didn't pay for dinner, but he promises
that
he will pay
next
time
we go out.
Use
a comma to set off
a
direct quotation.
Examples:
"Tomorrow I will start my diet," she
said.
"Tomorrow," she
said,
"I will start my diet."
Use
a comma after the greeting of an informal
letter
and the close of any
letter.
Examples:
Dear
Sammi,
Dear Mudface, Yours truly, Sincerely,
Use
a comma between the day of the

month
and the year.
Examples:
December 7,
1941,
July
20,
1969
Use
a comma to separate the parts of an
address.
Do not use a comma before
the ZIP Code.
Example:
She lives at 763 Main Street,
Farmingdale,
New York
11735.
•
Semicolons
Use
a semicolon to separate items in a series when the items contain commas.
Examples:
We elected Courtney
Kassinger,
president; Shelby Kravitz, vice presi-
dent;
Elisabeth Fink, secretary; and Joe Schulman, treasurer.
Use
a semicolon between main clauses when the conjunction (and, but, yet, so,

for,
or) has been
left
out.
Example:
We have made many
suggestions
for your
landscaping;
you haven't
accepted a
single
one.
•
Colons
Use
a colon before a list.
Example:
The grader will be looking for the following elements: a topic sen-
tence, specific details, and a strong conclusion.
•
Parenthesis
Use
parentheses to enclose additional information.
Example:
The decline in literacy has been astonishing (see the following chart).
Use
parentheses to enclose numbers or letters.
Example:
A book owned by a public library is usually catalogued by (1)

title
card,
(2)
author card, (3) subject card.
386
Appendix
(
•
Hyphen
Use
a hyphen to show a word break at the end of
a
line.
Example:
By
the
time
he
finishes
this book, your grandfather will be an octo-
grammarian.
Use
a hyphen in certain compound nouns.
Examples:
pint-size, great-grandmother
Use
hyphens in
fractions
and in compound numbers from twenty-one to ninety-
nine.

Examples:
one-half, sixty-six
•
Quotation marks
Use
quotation marks to set off
a
speaker's exact words.
Example:
"Is
that
poem a
sonnet?"
we asked.
Use
quotation marks to set off the titles of short works such as poems,
essays,
songs,
short
stories,
and
magazine
articles.
Examples:
"The Rime of the Ancient Mariner"
"The Poet"
"We've
Only
Just
Begun"

•
Apostrophes
Use
an apostrophe to show ownership.
Examples:
Lisa's
book,
Jillian's
manuscript, women's room, men's room
Use
an apostrophe to show
that
letters have been left out of contractions.
Examples:
can't,
won't,
I'll
Q
Question
Marks
See
Punctuation.
Quotation Marks
See
Punctuation.
R
Run-On
Sentences
A
run-on sentence is two incorrectly joined sentences.

Example:
The teacher walked into the room
there
was a mouse in her desk.
You
can correct a run-on sentence four
ways:
•
Separate the run-on into two sentences.
Example:
The teacher walked into the room. There was a mouse in her desk.
•
Add a coordinating conjunction. The coordinating conjunctions are
and,
but, or,
for, yet,
and
so.
Example:
The teacher walked into the room, and
there
was a mouse in her desk.
•
Add a subordinating conjunction.
Example:
When
the teacher walked into the room,
there
was a mouse in her desk.
•

Use a semicolon.
Example:
The teacher walked into the room;
there
was a mouse in her desk.
S
Semicolons
See
Punctuation.
Sentence Types
There are four types of
sentences
in
English:
declarative, exclamatory, interrogative,
and
imperative.
•
Declarative sentences state an idea. They end
with
a period.
Example:
Students are made, not born.
•
Exclamatory sentences show strong emotions. They end
with
an exclamation
mark.
Example:
What

a
good
essay
this is!
•
Interrogative sentences ask a question. They end
with
a question mark.
Example:
Which parts of the book do you have to study the most?
Guide
to
Grammar
and
Usage
387
388
Appendix
(
•
Imperative sentences
give
orders or directions. They end
with
a period or an
exclamation mark.
Example:
Sit down and write!
Sentence
Variety

Unless
you are writing certain kinds of
dialogue,
all
your sentences should be gram-
matically
correct. In addition, craft your sentences to express your ideas in the best
possible
way.
Strive for rhythm,
pattern,
and variety
as
well.
Here are some
ideas
to try:
•
Expand short sentences by adding detail.
Short:
The plane took off.
Expanded:
The plane took off, a shrieking golden ribbon in the morning
sky.
•
Combine short sentences.
Short:
O.
Henry
wrote

a short story called "The
Gift
of the
Magi."
A
husband
sells
his watch to buy his wife combs. They are for her beautiful hair.
Combined:
In
O.
Henry's short story "The Gift of the
Magi,"
a husband
sells
his
watch to buy
his
wife combs for her beautiful hair.
•
Change sentence openings.
Sentence:
I unlocked the attic door
with
great difficulty.
Revised:
With
great difficulty, I unlocked the attic door.
Sentences
A

sentence is a group of
words
that
express a complete thought. A sentence has two
parts: a subject and a predicate. The subject includes the noun or pronoun
that
tells
what
the subject
is
about. The predicate includes the verb
that
describes
what
the
subject is doing.
Subject
Predicate
New York City is called the
"Big
Apple."
Subject
and Verb Agreement
See
Agreement of Subject and Verb.
Guide
to
Grammar
and
Usage

389
T
Tense
Avoid shifting tenses in the middle of
a
sentence of
a
paragraph.
Wrong:
I
was
walking
to
class
when a huge
dog
jumps
up and
attacks
me.
Right:
I was walking to
class
when a huge
dog
jumped
up
and
attacked
me.

Transitions
Transitions
are words
that
connect ideas and show how they are linked. The follow-
ing
chart shows some of these transitions and the relationships they create.
Relationship
Addition
Example
Time
Contrast
Comparison
Result
Summary
Place
Transition
Words
also,
and, besides, too, in addition to, further
for
example, for instance, thus, namely
next,
then,
finally,
first, second, third, fourth, afterward, before,
during,
soon, later, meanwhile, subsequently
but, nevertheless, yet, in contrast, however, still
likewise,

in comparison,
similarly
therefore, consequently, as a result, thus, due to this, accordingly
as
a result, in brief, in conclusion, hence, in short,
finally
in
the front, in the back, here, there, nearby
Use
transitions to show how ideas are linked.
Without
transition:
Lisa
completed her research. She started her outline.
With
transition:
After
Lisa
completed her research, she started her outline.
V
Verb
Tense
The
tense
of
a
verb shows its time.
Every
verb has
three

parts.
Verb
Part
Example
Present
tense break
Past
tense broke
Past
participle broken
390
Appendix
(
•
Some verbs are regular. This means they form the past tense by adding -d or
-ed
to the present form.
•
Other
verbs are irregular. This means their form changes in the past tense. The
following
chart shows the most common irregular verbs.
Present
Tense
arise
bear
beat
become
begin
bend

bite
blow
break
bring
burst
catch
choose
come
creep
dig
dive
do
draw
drink
drive
eat
fall
fight
fly
forget
forgive
freeze
get
give
Past
Tense
arose
bore
beat
became

began
bent
bit
blew
broke
brought
burst
caught
chose
came
crept
dug
dived
or
dove
did
drew
drank
drove
ate
fell
fought
flew
forgot
forgave
froze
got
gave
Past Participle
arisen

born
or
borne
beaten
become
begun
bent
bitten
blown
broken
brought
burst
caught
chosen
come
crept
dug
dived
done
drawn
drunk
driven
eaten
fallen
fought
flown
forgotten
forgiven
frozen
gotten

or got
given
Present
Tense
g°
grow
hang
hang
(execute)
hide
hold
hurt
kneel
know
lay
lead
lie
(horizontal)
lie
(falsehood)
lose
prove
ride
ring
rise
run
say
see
shake
show

sing
speak
steal
swim
take
teach
throw
wake
write
Past
Tense
went
grew
hung
hanged
hid
held
hurt
knelt
knew
laid
led
lay
lied
lost
proved
rode
rang
rose
ran

said
saw
shook
showed
sang
spoke
stole
swam
took
taught
threw
woke
or
waked
wrote
Guide
to
Grammar
and
Usage
391
Past
Participle
gone
grown
hung
hanged
hidden
held
hurt

knelt
known
laid
led
lain
lied
lost
proved
or
proven
ridden
rung
risen
run
said
seen
shaken
showed
or
shown
sung
spoken
stolen
swum
taken
taught
thrown
woken
or
waked

written
392
Appendix
(
Verbs
Verbs are words
that
name an action or describe a state of
being.
There are four basic
types of
verbs:
action verbs, linking verbs, helping verbs, and verb phrases.
•
Action verbs tell
what
the subject does.
Examples:
jump,
kiss,
laugh
•
Linking verbs join the subject and the predicate and name and describe the
subject.
Examples:
be, feel, grow, seem, smell, remain, appear, sound, stay, look, taste,
turn,
become
•
Helping verbs are added to another verb to make the meaning clearer.

Examples:
am, does, had, shall, can, did, may, should, could, have, might, will,
do,
has, must, would
•
Verb
phrases are made of one main verb and one or more helping verbs.
Examples:
will arrive, could be looking
w
Word
Choice
See
Diction.
Wordiness
Write
simply and directly.
Omit
unnecessary details or ideas
that
you have already
stated. Use a lot of important detail, but no unnecessary words.
•
Omit
unnecessary words.
Wordy:
We watched the big, massive, black cloud rising up from the level prairie
and covering over the sun.
Better:
We watched the massive, black cloud rising from the prairie and covering

the sun.
•
Rewrite the sentence to eliminate unnecessary words.
Wordy:
Sonnets, which are a beautiful poetic form, have
14
lines and a set
rhythm and rhyme.
Better:
Sonnets are a beautiful poetic form
with
14
lines and a set rhythm and
rhyme.