Helpful Grammar Guide
Jun. 5th, 2005 04:28 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jadesfireThis was created by Darkseid, the moderator of the writing group I used to belong to, The Exercise Yard, over at Writers Dock. It's not mine!
Consider the following:
So what?
No.
Thank you.
Fantastic!
Are these sentences? No; they’re phrases. They don’t have verbs. Verbs are action words, like, To Do, To Be, To Make, To Have, To Run, To Lift, and To Bake. They make things occur to people and objects. For instance, take Me and A Cake. What’s the verb that makes sense of Me and A Cake? There are thousands of verbs that apply – I ate a cake, I dropped a cake, I squashed a cake, I adored a cake, I bought a cake...etcetera. With the addition of a verb, a phrase is magically transformed into a sentence. To Eat, To Drop, To Squash, To Adore. To Buy...they’re all verbs. A phrase has no verb, and a sentence always has a verb.
Phrases and sentences share the basic building blocks of English: They begin with a capital letter and end in a full-stop (or question-mark, exclamation-mark, ellipsis, or em-dash – though these also have other uses that don’t necessarily end a phrase or sentence. More on this later.)
There are two types of sentence:
A simple sentence (which has only one verb).
A complex sentence (which has more than one).
A simple sentence is where one, and only one, thing happens. "I bought a model train" and "My foot is sore."
A complex sentence is nothing more than two or more sentences or phrases that are directly related as cause and consequence, joined together with a conjunction (a binding or glueing word, such as, but, though, so, and, or, because and perhaps. There are loads of these.) No matter how complex a sentence is – and complexity is determined by how many sentences and phrases are joined together – they’re still bound by the rules: They begin with a capital letter and end with a full-stop (or question-mark, exclamation-mark, etcetera).
Each sub-sentence or sub-phrase in a sentence is called a clause. "I went to the shops, it was sunny" is a sentence with two clauses (there are two verbs – To Go (went) and To Be (was)) but there’s no conjunction (a joining word that makes them relate to each other) here. "I went to the shops, (because) it was sunny" makes a lot more sense. Would I have shopped if it wasn’t sunny? Seems not. "I went to the shops, (but) it was sunny" gives an entirely different perspective – that I don’t like shopping if it’s sunny.
More on complex sentences: when you’ve got more than one clause, separate them. Use commas. There are other ways to separate them, such as a semi-colon, but always separate them. You can’t go wrong with commas. They make complex sentences much, much easier to read. Would you the reader rather read a long sentence with commas such as this without proper guides than to for instance one where each part is broken up into parts easily distinguishable than just prattling on like a train with no brakes? (I had trouble writing this, let alone reading it.) Would you, the reader, rather read a long sentence with commas, such as this, without proper guides, than to, for instance, one where each part is broken up into parts easily distinguishable, than just prattling on like a train with no brakes?
Not a brilliant sentence, I admit. Somewhat contrived, in fact – but it illustrates my point, I think.
Stop that.
Pardon?
Stop that. Who’s saying this? Let’s go further: Stop that he said. Ah, it’s quoted speech. He said it. But...To Stop and To Say are two verbs, aren’t they? Yes, they are. A comma is needed, because there are two clauses. Stop that, he said. You’re quite right – quoted speech has to be marked with quotation- or speech-marks. "Stop that," he said. The rule is to write the speech, including the punctuation at the end of the quoted speech, before wrapping it in quotation-marks. Consequently, "Stop that", he said – is wrong, but "Stop that," he said – is right. It’s just a convention in English, but them’s the rules.
Should I use "double quotes" or ‘single quotes’? It’s entirely personal. As long as you use them consistently, that’s fine. To me, it’s easier to use double-quotes, because nested quotations are easier. "So she said to me, she said, ‘Go for it,’" she said. I also prefer to use italics for internal dialogue, ie, thought, He thought.
Again, that’s by convention only, and a personal choice.
Ending a quoted speech: If a person asks a question or screams, then it’s perfectly valid to end their bit of the sentence with an exclamation-mark, question-mark, ellipsis, or em-dash, without ending the entire sentence. "Sir!" she screamed. "Oh,. no..." he said. "But--!"
I recommend you each own a copy of Strunk & White. I really do!
The Golden Rule: Clauses in Parsing Sentences
Parsing is breaking sentences into their components - verbs, nouns, adjectives, etcetera, at its lowest level. At a higher level, it means dividing sentences into clauses, which (normally) are the parts separated by commas, colons and semicolons. Frankly, if you want to talk about subjunctives and the pluperfect tense, you'd better buy me a litre of Blue Label Smirnoff, so I can sleep through it.... Let's stick to basic English mechanics, and the Art of Communicating.
The single hardest thing to teach about English is, unfortunately, one of the most common errors - the run-on (AKA comma-spliced) sentences: Two independent sentences welded together by a comma where there should only have been a full-stop. Simple sentences are a single clause, such as "It was sunny." All done; a single unit of information, and that's it. Unfortunately, the sentences we all speak are more interesting and complex and involve subordinate clauses.
"It was sunny, I went to the shops." It happened to be sunny. I happened to go to the shops. They are two separate sentences neither of which has bearing on the other. Consider:
It was sunny so I went to the shops
This implies that I went to the shops because it was sunny. Had it not been sunny, I would not have gone.
It was sunny but I went to the shops
Despite it being sunny, I went to the shops. Maybe I'm a vampire
It was sunny and I went to the shops
It happened to be a sunny day when I went shopping, but I would have gone anyway
Just one choice of word joins two components of a sentence to achieve three different meanings. So, but and and are conjunctions, translated from its Latin roots as "with joining" - in other words, a device to connect ("join with") other parts of a sentence which qualify or modify or further explain the main clause, which imparts the most important piece of information in the sentence.
The Lazy, Two-Stage Fix:
Once you've written your work, go back through it and look for commas
Where you find a comma that is not followed by a conjunction (and, or, because, though, while, if, then, but, during, and so many more the list is exhausting), change it to a full-stop. If it works with a full-stop, keep it!
Please practice this, and you'll never again be run out by run-ons!
(Yes, a run-on sentence is where the first sentence erroneously runs on into the second. It's like an oil-tanker spill, but without the seagulls and detergents.)
Don't forget that em-dashes can also serve as conjunctions. Thus: "She was lovely in every way -- except her bum, which was totally uninhabitable."
Jades' note - Strunk & White is a grammar/style guide. I don't own one but I probably should!
Consider the following:
So what?
No.
Thank you.
Fantastic!
Are these sentences? No; they’re phrases. They don’t have verbs. Verbs are action words, like, To Do, To Be, To Make, To Have, To Run, To Lift, and To Bake. They make things occur to people and objects. For instance, take Me and A Cake. What’s the verb that makes sense of Me and A Cake? There are thousands of verbs that apply – I ate a cake, I dropped a cake, I squashed a cake, I adored a cake, I bought a cake...etcetera. With the addition of a verb, a phrase is magically transformed into a sentence. To Eat, To Drop, To Squash, To Adore. To Buy...they’re all verbs. A phrase has no verb, and a sentence always has a verb.
Phrases and sentences share the basic building blocks of English: They begin with a capital letter and end in a full-stop (or question-mark, exclamation-mark, ellipsis, or em-dash – though these also have other uses that don’t necessarily end a phrase or sentence. More on this later.)
There are two types of sentence:
A simple sentence (which has only one verb).
A complex sentence (which has more than one).
A simple sentence is where one, and only one, thing happens. "I bought a model train" and "My foot is sore."
A complex sentence is nothing more than two or more sentences or phrases that are directly related as cause and consequence, joined together with a conjunction (a binding or glueing word, such as, but, though, so, and, or, because and perhaps. There are loads of these.) No matter how complex a sentence is – and complexity is determined by how many sentences and phrases are joined together – they’re still bound by the rules: They begin with a capital letter and end with a full-stop (or question-mark, exclamation-mark, etcetera).
Each sub-sentence or sub-phrase in a sentence is called a clause. "I went to the shops, it was sunny" is a sentence with two clauses (there are two verbs – To Go (went) and To Be (was)) but there’s no conjunction (a joining word that makes them relate to each other) here. "I went to the shops, (because) it was sunny" makes a lot more sense. Would I have shopped if it wasn’t sunny? Seems not. "I went to the shops, (but) it was sunny" gives an entirely different perspective – that I don’t like shopping if it’s sunny.
More on complex sentences: when you’ve got more than one clause, separate them. Use commas. There are other ways to separate them, such as a semi-colon, but always separate them. You can’t go wrong with commas. They make complex sentences much, much easier to read. Would you the reader rather read a long sentence with commas such as this without proper guides than to for instance one where each part is broken up into parts easily distinguishable than just prattling on like a train with no brakes? (I had trouble writing this, let alone reading it.) Would you, the reader, rather read a long sentence with commas, such as this, without proper guides, than to, for instance, one where each part is broken up into parts easily distinguishable, than just prattling on like a train with no brakes?
Not a brilliant sentence, I admit. Somewhat contrived, in fact – but it illustrates my point, I think.
Stop that.
Pardon?
Stop that. Who’s saying this? Let’s go further: Stop that he said. Ah, it’s quoted speech. He said it. But...To Stop and To Say are two verbs, aren’t they? Yes, they are. A comma is needed, because there are two clauses. Stop that, he said. You’re quite right – quoted speech has to be marked with quotation- or speech-marks. "Stop that," he said. The rule is to write the speech, including the punctuation at the end of the quoted speech, before wrapping it in quotation-marks. Consequently, "Stop that", he said – is wrong, but "Stop that," he said – is right. It’s just a convention in English, but them’s the rules.
Should I use "double quotes" or ‘single quotes’? It’s entirely personal. As long as you use them consistently, that’s fine. To me, it’s easier to use double-quotes, because nested quotations are easier. "So she said to me, she said, ‘Go for it,’" she said. I also prefer to use italics for internal dialogue, ie, thought, He thought.
Again, that’s by convention only, and a personal choice.
Ending a quoted speech: If a person asks a question or screams, then it’s perfectly valid to end their bit of the sentence with an exclamation-mark, question-mark, ellipsis, or em-dash, without ending the entire sentence. "Sir!" she screamed. "Oh,. no..." he said. "But--!"
I recommend you each own a copy of Strunk & White. I really do!
The Golden Rule: Clauses in Parsing Sentences
Parsing is breaking sentences into their components - verbs, nouns, adjectives, etcetera, at its lowest level. At a higher level, it means dividing sentences into clauses, which (normally) are the parts separated by commas, colons and semicolons. Frankly, if you want to talk about subjunctives and the pluperfect tense, you'd better buy me a litre of Blue Label Smirnoff, so I can sleep through it.... Let's stick to basic English mechanics, and the Art of Communicating.
The single hardest thing to teach about English is, unfortunately, one of the most common errors - the run-on (AKA comma-spliced) sentences: Two independent sentences welded together by a comma where there should only have been a full-stop. Simple sentences are a single clause, such as "It was sunny." All done; a single unit of information, and that's it. Unfortunately, the sentences we all speak are more interesting and complex and involve subordinate clauses.
"It was sunny, I went to the shops." It happened to be sunny. I happened to go to the shops. They are two separate sentences neither of which has bearing on the other. Consider:
It was sunny so I went to the shops
This implies that I went to the shops because it was sunny. Had it not been sunny, I would not have gone.
It was sunny but I went to the shops
Despite it being sunny, I went to the shops. Maybe I'm a vampire
It was sunny and I went to the shops
It happened to be a sunny day when I went shopping, but I would have gone anyway
Just one choice of word joins two components of a sentence to achieve three different meanings. So, but and and are conjunctions, translated from its Latin roots as "with joining" - in other words, a device to connect ("join with") other parts of a sentence which qualify or modify or further explain the main clause, which imparts the most important piece of information in the sentence.
The Lazy, Two-Stage Fix:
Once you've written your work, go back through it and look for commas
Where you find a comma that is not followed by a conjunction (and, or, because, though, while, if, then, but, during, and so many more the list is exhausting), change it to a full-stop. If it works with a full-stop, keep it!
Please practice this, and you'll never again be run out by run-ons!
(Yes, a run-on sentence is where the first sentence erroneously runs on into the second. It's like an oil-tanker spill, but without the seagulls and detergents.)
Don't forget that em-dashes can also serve as conjunctions. Thus: "She was lovely in every way -- except her bum, which was totally uninhabitable."
Jades' note - Strunk & White is a grammar/style guide. I don't own one but I probably should!