I. The Traditional Parts of Speech
5. How did we arrive at the canonical eight?
22. Nouns ending in “-f” or “-fe”.
29. Plural form with singular sense
33. Common case, nominative function
34. Common case, objective function
37. Genitives of titles and names
38. Joint and separate genitives
40. Appositives: definition and use
48. Pronouns without antecedents
52. Exceptions regarding number of the antecedent
53. Pronoun with multiple antecedents
54. Some traditional singular pronouns
58. Nominative case misused for objective
68. Case after “than” or “as–as”
72. Possessive pronouns vs. contractions
Reflexive and Intensive Pronouns
73. Compound personal pronouns: “-self” forms
74. Basic uses of reflexive and intensive pronouns
77. Simple and phrasal pronouns
79. Referent of interrogative pronouns
81. Gender, number, and case with relative pronouns
86. Relative pronoun and the antecedent “one”
87. Function of relative pronoun in clause
90. Compound relative pronouns
93. The indefinite pronoun “one”
Articles as Limiting Adjectives
108. Definite articles and proper names
110. Indefinite article in specific reference
112. Articles with coordinate nouns
114. Omitted article and zero article
115. Article as pronoun substitute
119. Adjective modifying pronoun
122. Distinguishing an adjective from an adverb or participle
126. Forming comparatives and superlatives
127. Equal and unequal comparisons
132. Exceptions for hyphenating phrasal adjectives
135. Other parts of speech functioning as adjectives
136. The weakening effect of injudicious adjectives
138. Transitive and intransitive verbs
140. Dynamic and stative verbs
141. Regular and irregular verbs
144. Principal and auxiliary verbs
152. Forming present participles
157. Distinguishing between participles and gerunds
163. Progressive conjugation and voice
168. Subjunctive vs. indicative mood
180. Backshifting in reported speech
181. Conjugation of the regular verb “to call”
182. Conjugation of the irregular verb “to hide”
183. Conjugation of the verb “to be”
186. Agreement in person and number
187. Disjunctive compound subjects
188. Conjunctive compound subjects
189. Some other nuances of number involving conjunctions
190. Peculiar nouns that are plural in form but singular in sense
191. Agreement of indefinite pronouns
192. Relative pronouns as subjects
194. False attraction to intervening matter
195. False attraction to predicate noun
196. Misleading connectives: “as well as,” “along with,” “together with,” etc.
197. Agreement in first and second person
214. Distinguished from adjectives
215. Standard and flat adverbs
216. Phrasal and compound adverbs
226. Affirmative and negative adverbs
234. Placement as affecting meaning
235. Modifying words other than verbs
236. Modifying intransitive verbs
237. Adverbs and linking verbs
238. Adverb within verb phrase
Limiting Prepositional Phrases
258. Cutting prepositional phrases
259. Cutting unnecessary prepositions
264. Types of conjunctions: simple and compound
265. Coordinating conjunctions
271. Subordinating conjunctions
272. Special uses of subordinating conjunctions
276. “With” used loosely as a conjunction
277. Beginning a sentence with a conjunction
278. Beginning a sentence with “however”
279. Conjunctions and the number of a verb
283. Words that are exclusively interjections
284. Punctuating interjections
Sentences, Clauses, and Their Patterns
289. Some exceptional types of questions.
The Four Traditional Types of Sentence Structures
296. Compound-complex sentence
300. Variations on ordering the elements
303. Identifying the predicate
307. Inner and outer complements
308. Identifying the adverbial element
314. Anaphoric and cataphoric ellipsis
319. Using negating pronouns and adverbs
320. Using “neither” and “nor”
321. Words that are negative in meaning and function
323. Negative interrogative and imperative statements
326. “Any” and “some” in negative statements
334. Verbs and adverbs at the outset
Traditional Sentence Diagramming
362. Diagramming compound sentences
363. Diagramming complex sentences
364. Diagramming compound-complex sentences
367. Terminology of transformational grammar
368. Tools of transformational grammar
369. Universal symbols in rules
Base Rules in Transformational Grammar
373. Functions of noun phrases
376. Numeric and nonnumeric determiners
378. Determiners in noun phrases
380. Noun phrases with determiner and prearticle
384. Number, person, and possession
Different Types of Principal Verbs
396. Adverbials with principal verbs
398. Functions of simple adverbs
399. Prepositional phrase as adverbial
401. Adverbials of place, time, and manner
402. Number and tense of verbs
403. Deep and surface structure
406. Simple-question transformation
407. Imperative transformation
408. Active- to passive-voice transformation and back again
411. Surface-structure ambiguity
413. Active- and passive-voice diagrams
418. Inflectional and derivational suffixes
431. Good usage vs. common usage
432. Using big data to assess linguistic change
434. Glossary of troublesome expressions
438. Invisible gender-neutrality
439. Techniques for achieving gender-neutrality
440. Necessary gender-specific language
441. Sex-specific labels as adjectives
442. Gender-neutral singular pronouns
444. Avoiding other biased language
445. Unnecessary focus on personal characteristics
446. Unnecessary emphasis on the trait, not the person
450. Words and the prepositions construed with them
452. With a conjunction between independent clauses
453. After a transitional or introductory phrase
454. To set off a nonrestrictive phrase or clause
455. To separate items in a series
456. To separate parallel modifiers
457. To distinguish indirect from direct speech
458. To separate the parts of full dates and addresses
459. To separate long numbers into three-digit chunks
460. To set off a name, word, or phrase used as a vocative
461. Before a direct question inside another sentence
462. To set off “etc.,” “et al.,” and the like at the end of a series
463. After the salutation in an informal letter
464. Not to separate a subject and its verb
465. Not to separate a verb and its object
466. Not to set off a quotation that blends into the sentence
467. Not to set off an adverb that needs emphasis
468. Not to separate compound predicates
469. Not to use alone to splice independent clauses
470. Not to use after a sentence-starting conjunction
471. Not to omit after an internal set-off word or phrase
472. Not to set off restrictive matter
473. Not around name suffixes such as Jr., III, Inc., and Ltd.
474. Not to separate modifiers that aren’t parallel
475. To unite two short, closely connected sentences
476. To separate items in a complex series
477. In old style, to set off explanation or elaboration
478. Not where a colon is needed, as after a formal salutation
479. Not where a comma suffices, as in a simple list
480. To link matter and indicate explanation or elaboration
481. To introduce an enumerated or otherwise itemized list
483. Use a colon to introduce a question
484. After the salutation in business correspondence
485. To separate hours from minutes and in some citations
486. Without capitalizing the following matter needlessly
487. Not to introduce matter that blends into your sentence
488. To set off inserted matter that you want to minimize
489. To clarify appositives or attributions
490. To introduce shorthand or familiar names
491. Around numbers or letters when listing items in text
492. To denote subparts in a citation
493. Correctly in relation to terminal punctuation
Preventing Misused Parentheses
495. Not before an opening parenthesis
496. To set off matter inserted in midsentence
497. To set off but emphasize parenthetical matter
498. To tack on an important afterthought
499. To introduce a specification or list
500. To show hesitation, faltering, or interruption
501. Not using more than two in a sentence
502. Not after a comma, colon, semicolon, or terminal period
503. In a range, to show tension, or to join equivalents
504. Not in place of a hyphen or em-dash
505. Not with the wording it replaces
506. To join parts of a phrasal adjective
507. To mark other phrasal-adjective and suffix connections
508. In closely associated compounds according to usage
509. When writing out fractions and two-word numbers
510. To show hesitation, stammering, and the like
511. In proper names when appropriate
512. In some number groups or when spelling out a word
513. With “l-” suffixes (e.g., “-like”) on words ending in “-ll”
514. Not after a prefix unless an exception applies
515. Not in place of an em-dash, even when doubled (“--”)
516. Not with an “-ly” adverb and a participial adjective
518. To indicate the possessive case
519. To mark a contraction or to signal dialectal speech
520. To form plurals of letters, digits, and some abbreviations
Preventing Misused Apostrophes
521. Not to form other plurals, especially of names
522. Not to omit obligatory apostrophes
523. To quote matter of 50 or fewer words
524. When using a term as a term or when defining a term
525. When you mean “so-called” or “but-not-really”
526. For titles of short-form works, according to a style guide
527. To show internal quotation using single marks
528. To signal matter used idiomatically, not literally
529. Placed correctly in relation to other punctuation
Preventing Misused Quotation Marks
530. Not for a phrasal adjective
531. Not to emphasize a word or note its informality
Preventing Misused Question Marks
533. Not after an indirect question
534. After exclamatory matter, especially when quoting others
Preventing Misused Exclamation Marks
535. Not to express your own surprise or amazement
536. To end a typical sentence, not a question or exclamation
537. To indicate an abbreviated name or title
538. Placed properly with parentheses and brackets
539. To show a decimal place in a numeral
540. Not with an abbreviation at sentence end
541. In a quotation, to enclose matter not in the original
542. In parenthetical matter, to enclose another parenthetical
543. To enclose the citation of a source, as in a footnote
544. Not in place of ellipsis dots when matter is deleted
545. To separate alternatives (but never “and/or”)
546. To separate numerical parts in a fraction
547. Informally, to separate elements in a date
548. Informally, as a shorthand signal for “per”
549. To separate lines of poetry or of a song
550. Not when a hyphen or en-dash would suffice
551. To mark listed items of a more or less equal ranking
552. To show that an unfinished sentence trails off
553. To signal rumination, musing, or hesitation
554. To signal an omission of matter within a quotation
555. With following period, to show omission at sentence end
556. With preceding period, to show omission after sentence
Preventing Misused Ellipsis Dots
557. Omitting space or allowing a line break between dots