Learning Express - Grammar Success in 20 Minutes a Day

ADDITIONAL ONLINE PRACTICE W hether you need help building basic skills or preparing for an exam, visit the LearningExpress Practice Center! On this site, you can access additional practice materials. Using the code below, youll be able to log in and get additional grammar practice. This online practice will also provide you with: Immediate scoring Detailed answer explanations Personalized recommendations for further practice and study Log in to the LearningExpress Practice Center by using this URL: www.learnatest.com/practice This is your Access Code: 9315 Follow the steps online to redeem your access code. After youve used your access code to register with the site, you will be prompted to create a username and password. For easy reference, record them here: Username: _________________________ Password: _________________________ With your username and password, you can log in and answer these practice questions as many times as you like. 2, or e-mail us at customerservice@learningexpressllc.com . 2, or e-mail us at customerservice@learningexpressllc.com .

Other Titles of Interest from LearningExpress Algebra Success in 20 Minutes a Day Biology Success in 20 Minutes a Day Chemistry Success in 20 Minutes a Day Earth Science Success in 20 Minutes a Day Physics Success in 20 Minutes a Day Practical Math Success in 20 Minutes a Day Reading Comprehension Success Reasoning Skills Success in 20 Minutes a Day Statistics Success in 20 Minutes a Day Trigonometry Success in 20 Minutes a Day Vocabulary and Spelling Success Copyright 2013 LearningExpress, LLC. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. Published in the United States by LearningExpress, LLC, New York. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Grammar success in 20 minutes a day.Third edition. pages cm ISBN 978-1-57685-931-5 1. I. I.

LearningExpress (Organization). II. Title: Grammar success in twenty minutes a day. PE1112.G676 2013 428.2dc23 2013026866 Printed in the United States of America 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 ISBN: 978-1-57685-931-5 For information on LearningExpress, other LearningExpress products, or bulk sales, please write to us at LearningExpress 80 Broad Street Suite 400 New York, NY 10004 Or visit us at www.learningexpressllc.com INTRODUCTION D o your grammar skills need some brushing up? Perhaps you have an exam on the horizon, or maybe you want to hone your grammar skills to improve your writing or speech. Whatever the case may be, this quick reference guide will help put you well on your way toward accomplishing your grammar goalsno matter how big or small. Because English is so complex, rules and guidelines called grammar and usage are necessary to help us better understand its many idiosyncrasies.

While language is forever changing to meet our needs, the inner workings of a sentence are, for the most part, as constant as the stars, and figuring out these dynamics is like putting a puzzle together (or taking it apart). Understanding the inner workings of a sentence can help you with your speech and writingthe essence of communication and language. And the benefits you get for your efforts far outweigh the 20 minutes of your day youll spend with this book. Before you begin to progress through the book, take the pretest on the next few pages to determine what you already know and what you might need to focus on. You might be surprised by just how much you remember! PRETEST B efore you start your study of grammar skills, get an idea of how much you already know and how much you need to learn by taking the pretest that follows. It consists of 50 multiple-choice questions about what is in this book.

Naturally, 50 questions can not cover every single concept or rule you will learn by working through these lessons, so even if you answer all the questions correctly, it is almost guaranteed that you will find a few things in the book you did not already know. If you get lots of answers wrong on the pretest, do not worrythis book will teach you how to improve your grammar and writing, step by step. Record your answers in this book. If it does not belong to you, list the numbers 150 on a piece of paper and write your answers there. Take as much time as you need to finish the test. When you finish, check your answers against the answer key that follows the test.

Each answer lists the lesson of the book that covers the concept(s) in that question. If you get a high score on the pretest, you may be able to spend less time with this book than you originally planned. If you get a low score, you may find you will need more than 20 minutes a day to learn all that you need to know. Good luck! Pretest Circle the common nouns. chair joy knitted Australia supermarket Ohio Monticello understanding toddlers saucepan dancing hostess Circle the abstract nouns. peace telephone livelihood deceit cheerfulness jungle NASA smile rubber band test eyelash patience Circle the proper nouns.

Texas Work Clock Puzzle Nancy Mr. Klondike Licorice Mexico City Basketball IBM Spiderman Mt. Everest Circle the nouns that are pluralized correctly. halves theorys oxen casinoes inchs dishes valleyes houses mother-in-laws booths tooths hippopotamuses Circle the hyphenated nouns that are spelled correctly. sister-in-laws kilowatt-hours runner-ups forget-me-nots follow-ups sticks-in-the-mud Circle the nouns that have been made possessive correctly. tree/it Anthony/she King Henry/he passenger/it kangaroo/his Alice/her Circle the antecedents/pronouns that agree in number. kids/him everybody/they Kathy and I/it fish/they group/it fish/it each/he or she women/we both/they Circle the interrogative pronouns. who when whose which whom whomever how where what Circle the subjective case pronouns. who when whose which whom whomever how where what Circle the subjective case pronouns.

I went to his house and saw him. She brought me an apple and I thanked her. They went to Pats and called me. Circle the objective case pronouns. He threw it toward me. Pass me the salt.

We made them sandwiches. Circle the reflexive case pronouns and underline the possessive case pronouns. Carlo was angry, but stopped himself before he said something really mean to his brother. I was so tired I couldnt force myself to get dressed and join my friends at the mall. Some people take themselves too seriously and think its their responsibility to solve everyone elses problems! Circle the demonstrative pronouns and underline the relative pronouns. That is the most annoying sound that I have ever heard.

Those are the boxes of blankets that Mom plans to take to the SPCA. Is this the channel that you were watching? Circle the action verbs. wash be hold cook would buy pray gnaw put write loan marry Circle the linking verbs. appear took become sat feel prove call grow study look is lose Circle the regular verbs and underline the irregular verbs. forgive grow buy walk wash hide sew put sit hear play throw Circle the correct form of lay/lie in each
sentence. Joy found her hairbrush (laying, lying) in the suitcase.

The swing has (lain, laid) broken behind the shed for two years. The boy had (laid, lain) awake before getting up to play. Circle the correct form of sit/set in each
sentence. The class (set, sat) patiently as the teacher took attendance. Claudias aunt (sits, sets) the table while Gert cooks dinner. (Setting, Sitting) on the porch on a cool summer night is the best.

Circle the correct tricky verb in each sentence. Sandy carefully (hanged, hung) her new curtains on the window. Peter tried to (accept, except) Jims explanation, but it was difficult. You (can, may) take another glass of lemonade if you like. Identify the tense of each verb as present, past, future, present perfect, past perfect, future perfect, present progressive, past progressive, or future progressive. will drive am driving had driven drove drive has driven drives will have driven Circle the common adjectives in the following sentences.