The Ten Commandments of English Grammar

Have subject-verb agreement all the time

• make sure the simple subject agrees with the verb

  One of the children love me. ❌

  • “One of the children” is the complete subject

  • “One” is the simple subject which is singular so the verb must agree

  One of the children loves me. ✅

  Smacking and skinning Davis is fun. ❌

  • “Smacking and skinning Davis” is the complete subject

  • “smacking and skinning” is the simply subject which is plural so the verb must agree

  Smaking and skinning Davis are fun. ✅

Only have one verb tense in a sentece

• UNLESS there is a signal to write otherwise

  Becky walks for ten minutes and ran for five minutes everyday. ❌

  Becky walks for ten minutes and runs for five minutes everyday. ✅

  Becky walked for ten minutes and ran for five minutes everyday. ✅

Have a perfect match for everything in a sentence

• Everyone brought their partners. ❌

  • “everyone” is singular so everything else in the sentence has to be singular

• Everyone brought his/her partner. ✅

  Singular:

  • every

  • any

  • no

  Plural:

  • some

  • most

  • all

Prepositional phrases (lovey-dovey couples)

• know which verbs go with which prepositions

  Commonly Tested Verbs and Prepositions:

  • abide by

  • abide in

  • accuse of

  • agree to

  • agree with

  • agree on

  • apologize for

  • apply to

  • apply for

  • approve of

  • argue with

  • argue about

  • arrive at

  • believe in

  • blame for

  • care about

  • care for

  • charge for

  • charge with

  • compare to

  • compare with

  • complain about

  • consist of

  • contribute to

  • count (up)on

  • cover with

  • decide (up)on

  • depend (up)on

  • differ from

  • differ over

  • differ about

  • discriminate against

  • distinguish from

  • dream of

  • dream about

  • escape from

  • excel in

  • excuse for

  • forget about

  • forgive for

  • hide from

  • hope for

  • insist (up)on

  • object to

  • participate in

  • pray for

  • prevent from

  • prohibit from

  • protect from

  • provide with

  • recover from

  • rely (up)on

  • rescue from

  • respond to

  • stare at

  • stop from

  • subscribe to

  • substitue for

  • succeed in

  • thank for

  • vote for

  • wait for

  • wait on

  • work with

  • worry about

Know the usage of adjectives and adverbs

• Adjectives modify nouns

• Adverbs (generally end in -ly) modify 3 things

  1. Adjectives → MS is very beautiful.

  2. Verbs → MS stabs Davis repeatedly.

  3. Other adverbs → Ms smacks Davis very violently.

  I did good on the test. ❌

  I did well on the test. ✅

  • adjectives only describe nouns so you need to use an adverb

Homophones, homographs, and similar words

• Homophone is Same sound, different meaning

• discrete vs. discreet

  • discrete means seperate

  • discreet means secretive

• eminent vs. imminent

  • eminent means famous and well-respected

  • imminent means something about to come

• lay vs. lie

  • lay means to put; needs to be accompanied by an object in the sentence

  • lie means to recline or to decieve

• raise vs. rise

  • raise is to pull something up; also needs to be accompanied by an object in the sentence

  • rise is to stand

Avoid ambiguity in everyway possible

• Don’t use unclear antecedents

Build a parallel structure for your sentence

• Children in Poland are smarter than those in Korea. ❌

• Children in Poland are smarter than children in Korea. ✅

• Children in Poland are smarter than those in Korea. ✅

Be careful of misplaced modifiers

• modifier is a description of the subject of the sentence

• should come in the beginning

• always followed by a comma

• Having studied all night, Eric’s English test score was 100. ❌

  • This implies that the modifier is modifying Eric’s English test score which is incorrect

• Having studied all night, Eric got 100 on his English test. ✅

Watch out for comma splices

• splice means to connect

• don’t connect two sentences using a comma without a conjunction