Tip #7 Grammar Questions

.•Give a selection of sentences
•Only one is right
Eg
•Which one is correct
a.Yesterday I went to the store and drink cola with a few friends.
b.That’s a very good lesson I had about coding.
c.I wish I could play but I couldn’t.
d.If I were young, I would play basketball.

Strategies
1. Take off any immediately that you feel sound wierd or unconfortable. Often your instincts are very good with this
2. Strategy 2: Know Your Structural Clauses so that you get punctuation sty;e questions correct
Main Clause
•I eat rice
Direct relative clause (Identifying clause)
•I eat rice that is healthy for me
Prepositional clauses
•I eat rice with a fork in the evening
•In the evening, I eat rice with a fork
Contrast Clause
•Although tired, in the evening, I eat rice with a fork
Adjective …ing clause
•Although tired, in the evening, being very hungry, I eat rice with a fork.

Strategy 3: Check to see indirect clauses have proper commas
Indirect relative Clause
•Although tired, in the evening, being very hungry, I eat rice with a fork, a meal which always fills me up.
•That girl over there, Mary, is dead
•That girl over there, the one who is always so annoying to everyone, is dead

Strategy 4: Know your rules of punctuation
Questions relating to :
•commas, semi colons, colons, capitals, apostrophe, dashes, question marks, dialogue conventions
Tips:
•Know function of commas, colons, semicolons, dashes
•If sentence looks grammatical it may be capitals or question marks
•Don’t get rattled by north south east west or by professional names like doctor or professor
•Look to see lists are separated with commas
•Know the conventions of dialogue
Eg where do the quotes and commas go in the following example:
– I must insisted John see you at once
        –“I must,”  insisted John, “see you at once.”
- I am tired said Grace the mouse wants to kill Nevin
         –“I am tired!” said Grace. “The mouse wants to kill Nevin.”

Strategy 5: Check tense consistency

•Many wrong sentences are wrong because of tense
E.g. My friend is tired because he is studying for two weeks.
–Here we mix present continuous with for…..
–Usually this is mixed with past tense or present perfect continuous
–….because has been studying for two weeks
–….because has been studying for two weeks
E.g. I think I would go but I couldn’t.
–Here we mix present and past
–I thought I would go but I couldn’t
E.g. I will see the teacher, when suddenly I decided not to.
–The ‘when’ clause is used with past continuous not future tense.
–I was going to see the teacher, when suddenly I decided not to.

Strategy 6: Take off fake indirect clause commas  (i.e. they are actually direct clauses)
•Take off any comma splices that give fake clauses
•If it connects to the main clause and doesn’t just add information, it shouldn’t have a comma.
What’s wrong with these?
•E.g. You need to find a water source, in the ground near your house.
•E.g. I tried getting it open, by using a clamp.
Answer: In both cases no commas are needed since all the phrases (ie "in the ground", "near your house" and "by using a house" are all direct modifying phrases. They are not indirect clauses. 

Strategy 7: Take off plural and singular mismatches
•Is the subject singular or plural
•Is the verb singular or plural
•Do they match?
E.g. John and Mary is meeting their friends.
E.g. Of the whole neighbourhood, only Felix and Karen is opposed to the new development.
E.g. Each of the birds are here.
E.g. Eating 10 hot dogs are hard 
E.g. There are less people today than yesterday. 

Strategy 8: Keep sentences parallel
What’s wrong with these?
•I like playing, dancing, and food.
•I like to eat, dance and playing.
•I dance, sing and am praised.
•I watch tv, movies and eat.

Strategy 9
Know your dialogue rules
•“I like,” said Mary, “lots of chocolate.”
•“I like them,” said Mary. “They are great!”

What’s wrong with these quotes?
1. I like them Mary said “Lots of chocolate.”
2.1.“I like them” Mary said!
3.“I like,” said Mary, “Lots of chocolate.”
4.“I like them,” said Mary, “they are great.”

Corrected Answers
3. "I like them," Mary said. “Lots of chocolate.”
2. “I like them!” Mary said.
3. "I like,” said Mary, “lots of chocolate.”
4.“I like them,” said Mary. “They are great.”