In addition to what you’re reading right now, this book comes with a free, access-anywhere Cheat Sheet that includes tips and other goodies you may want to have at your fingertips. To get this Cheat Sheet, simply go to www.dummies.com and type Grammar 1001 Dummies Cheat Sheet into the Search box.
The online practice that comes free with this book offers you the same 1,001 questions and answers that are available here, presented in a multiple-choice format. The beauty of the online problems is that you can customize your online practice to focus on the topic areas that give you trouble. If you’re short on time and want to maximize your study, you can specify the quantity of problems you want to practice, pick your topics, and go. You can practice a few hundred problems in one sitting or just a couple dozen, and you can focus on a few types of problems or a mix of several types. Regardless of the combination you create, the online program keeps track of the questions you get right and wrong so you can monitor your progress and spend time studying exactly what you need.
To gain access to the online practice, you simply have to register. Just follow these steps:
1 Register your book or ebook at Dummies.com to get your PIN. Go towww.dummies.com/go/getaccess
2 Select your product from the dropdown list on that page.
3 Follow the prompts to validate your product, and then check your email for a confirmation message that includes your PIN and instructions for logging in.
If you don’t receive this email within two hours, please check your spam folder before contacting us through our Technical Support website at http://support.wiley.com or by phone at 877-762-2974.
Now you’re ready to go! You can come back to the practice material as often as you want — simply log in with the username and password you created during your initial login. No need to enter the access code a second time.
Your registration is good for one year from the day you activate your PIN.
What you’ll find online
The online practice that comes free with this book offers you the same 1,001 questions and answers that are available here, presented in a multiple-choice format. Multiple-choice questions force you to zoom in on the details that can make or break your correct solution to the problem. Sometimes one of the possible wrong answers will catch you in the act of making a certain error. But that’s great, because after you identify a particular error (often a common error that many others make as well), you’ll know not to fall into that trap again.
You can access this online tool by using a PIN code, as described in the next section. Keep in mind that you can create only one login with your PIN. Once the PIN is used, it’s no longer valid and is nontransferable. So you can’t share your PIN with others after you’ve established your login credentials. In other words, the problems are yours and only yours!
How to register
To gain access to the online practice, all you have to do is register. Just follow these simple steps:
1 Register your book or ebook at Dummies.com to get your PIN. Go towww.dummies.com/go/getaccess.
2 Select your product from the dropdown list on that page.
3 Follow the prompts to validate your product, and then check your email for a confirmation message that includes your PIN and instructions for logging in.
If you do not receive this email within two hours, please check your spam folder before contacting us through our Technical Support website at http://support.wiley.com or by phone at 877-762-2974.
Now you’re ready to go! You can come back to the practice material as often as you want — simply log on with the username and password you created during your initial login. There is no need to enter the access code a second time.
Your registration is good for one year from the day you activate your PIN.
Where to Go for Additional Help
Each chapter begins with short explanations of the tips and traps associated with each topic, and the answer explanations give you still more information about grammar rules. If you need longer explanations and more examples, you may want to check out English Grammar For Dummies, English Grammar Workbook For Dummies, or Grammar Essentials For Dummies, all of which I wrote and Wiley published. My royalty statement and I thank you!
Part 1
The Questions
IN THIS PART …
You may have a love-hate relationship with answering questions; you enjoy challenging yourself, but you don’t like to fail. This part — 1,001 grammar questions — is set up so you won’t fail. When you have trouble, you can check the answer and read the explanation in Part 2 and then return to the questions, better prepared to answer the next one correctly. Specifically, here’s what you’ll find in this part:
Basic parts of speech and essential elements of a proper sentence (Chapters 1–7)
Descriptive elements and mechanics of capitalization and punctuation (Chapters 8–13)
Ways to add style to your writing (Chapters 14–17)
Considerations when writing for electronic media and varying levels of formality (Chapters 18–19)
Commonly misused words and expressions (Chapters 20–22)
Chapter 1
Telling Time: Identifying the Verb and Choosing the Correct Tense
What time is it? You can answer that question by glancing at a clock or by looking at verbs. Yes, verbs — words that express action or state of being in the past, present, and future. In this chapter, you practice locating the verb and selecting the appropriate tense, or time, for each. You also tackle singular and plural forms, plugging the right one into every sentence.
The Questions You’ll Work On
Here you find sentences that allow you to sharpen your verb skills in these ways:
Locating the verb(s) in a sentence
Selecting simple past-, present-, or future-tense verbs to fit the meaning