Hey, everyone!
Today I am bringing you a post on basic grammar rules and some important ones that are forgotten a lot. I learned all of these in my Writing Fundamentals class at uni, and I felt like they would be very helpful to everyone now since it’s NanoWriMo! Let me know down below what your stories for Nano are about because I love hearing about everyone’s writing journeys.
Also, the book I had to buy for the class is called Writing Tools: 55 Essential Strategies for Every Writer by Roy Peter Clark that you can purchase here. It is unbelievably informative and helpful, so I highly suggest reading it!
So, here are some important grammar rules:
- Punctuation
- Dash
- A dash separates, a hyphen joins
- Dashes have spaces on either side
- Ellipses
- “…” indicates that part of a quote or citation has been removed
- If it follows the end of a sentence, use four periods
- NOT used to create a pause
- Quotation marks
- Periods and commas always go inside the quotation marks
- Question marks and exclamation points go inside if they are part of the quote
- Dash
- Apostrophe
- If compound subjects are shared, only the second item has the possessive
- Ex: “We ate dinner at Harry and Ginny’s house.”
- If the singular word ends in “s” or an “s” sound, add “es”
- For proper nouns:
- Singular word not ending in “s” or “s” sound, add apostrophe “s”
- Singular word ending in “s” sound, use apostrophe “s”
- Singular word ending in “s,” use apostrophe “s” (for journalism, use only the apostrophe)
- Plural words require only an apostrophe
- If the word is possessive, use an apostrophe; if the word is descriptive, do not use an apostrophe
- Ex: The farmers market vendor, Scarlet, sold the farmer’s tomatoes.
- If compound subjects are shared, only the second item has the possessive
- Comma
- The comma is NOT for a pause
- Do not use between a subject and a verb
- Do not use between a title and a name
- Use a comma after a conjunction only if what follows has a subject and a verb
- Place commas on both sides of appositives
- The Night Court, Prythian, is ruled by Rhysand.
- Use commas around years if it follows an exact date
- Use a comma to shift from a quotation to an attribution
- Insert a comma between equal adjectives
- That, Which, Who
- “That” is used with essential clauses and never has a comma
- “Which” is used with nonessential clauses and always has a comma
- “Who” has a comma if the clause is nonessential
- Hyphens
- A hyphen joins, a dash separates
- Compound modifiers are joined by a hyphen if both are true:
- Each word is an adjective, is not an -ly adverb, or “very”
- Words appear before a noun or after a linking verb
- Ex: The chest was dust-covered.
- Suspensive hyphens involve an implicit word in a compound modifier
- Ex: It was a ten- or eleven-month trek across the continent.
- Agreement
- To choose the correct verb:
- If singular, replace the word with “he” or “she” and see which word fits
- If plural, replace with “they” and see which word fits
- Compound subjects joined by “and” are plural except for single units
- Single unit example: Macaroni and cheese
- Subject agreement for words joined by “or” or “nor” depends on the last subject
- “none” is usually singular
- The word “team” is always singular, but team names are always plural
- Cities, states, and nations are always singular
- To choose the correct verb:
- Pronouns
- For compound subjects and objects, get rid of the second person/object then evaluate the pronoun
- Who and Whom
- If the word is used as a subject, use who
- If you would use “he,” use who
- If it is used as an object, use whom.
- If you would use “him,” use whom
- If it can go either way, use it as a subject
- If the word is used as a subject, use who
- Lay and Lie
- Lay means to place
- Lie means to recline
- Affect and Effect
- If the word is a noun, use effect
- If the word is a verb, usually use affect
- To influence = affect; to cause or produce = effect
I hope this was helpful, and thank you for reading!
Taylor