Four

Common Mistakes

in English Grammar … And How to Avoid Them

1. The Sentence Fragment (SF)A sentence fragment does not contain a subject, complete verb, and lacks meaning and can be misunderstood.

Examples: Made the shot. (Lacks subject, such as, the basketball player.)The basketball player scoring well. (Lacks complete verb, such as, “is scoring” or “was scoring.”

There are “nemesis words” that cause sentence fragments.

These are really “subordinating conjunctions,” such as if, when, after, because, although, unless, until, and many more. They are used properly to show relationships, typically, in time, place, or cause and effect, between ideas. See final slides for more examples.

What’s so bad about “although”?

Like all of these nemesis words, a subordinating conjunction like although can ruin a perfectly fine sentence and make it unable to stand alone, like a two-legged stool.

Read this: It rarely rains in Yuma. That’s a perfectly fine sentence.

But put a subordinating conjunction in front of it, and it falls right over. “Although it rarely rains in Yuma.” That is a sentence fragment, for it needs something else to give it meaning, such as, “Although it rarely rains in Yuma, the washes can flood.”

2. The Run-On Sentence (RO)It is a hot day in Yuma it has not rained in four months the wind blows in the sand it gets everywhere.This sentence has no punctuation. It could be improved by breaking it down into several sentences.

3. Subject-Verb Agreement (SVA)In each complete sentence, there is a subject, the person, thing, or idea that is the cause of the action, and a complete verb, that is the action word.

Read these two sentences:

The basketball player sinks the foul shot.Her team wins the game.

In the first sentence, basketball player is the actor, and sinks is the verb. In the second, team is the actor, and wins is the verb.

The subject and its verb need to agree in person and number. There are three persons in English nouns: first, second, and third. There are two number in English nouns: singular and plural, as in this chart:

Person Singular Plural

First Person I We

Second Person You You

Third Person He, she, it They

The basketball player sinks the foul shot. Her team wins the game.In the sentences above, basketball player and team are both third person, meaning she or it, and singular in number.In the sentence, We win the game, we is first person, plural in number.All verbs sinks, wins, and win agree in person and number with the subjects.

In the following sentences, the subjects and verbs do not agree in person and number.

The basketball player sink the foul shot.

Her team win the game.

We wins the game.

The third person singular is the odd person out, as in this chart.

Person Singular Plural

First I sink, win We sink, win

Second You sink, win You sink, win

Third He, she, it They sink, winsinks, wins

The third person singular is the odd person out in other tenses as well.

Present Progressive TenseI am winning We are winningYou are winning You are winningHe, she, it is winning They are winning

Present Perfect Tense

I have won We have wonYou have won You have wonHe, she, it has won They have won

4. The Comma Splice (CS)This is an incorrect attempt to join together two or more sentences, sometimes called independent clauses, by using only a comma.

For instance:

It is a hot day in Yuma, it has not rained in four months, the sand blows in the wind, it gets everywhere.

Correcting Comma Splices

Comma splices can be corrected by:periodscoordinating conjunctionssubordinating conjunctionssemicolonsadverb conjunctions

Periods

It can easily be corrected, like run-on sentences, by breaking it down into two or more sentences. For instance:

It is a hot day in Yuma. It has not rained in four months. The sand blows in the wind. It is everywhere.

Coordinating Conjunctions

Common coordinating conjunctions are and sobut or yet nor for

For example:It is a hot day in Yuma, for it has not rained in four months. The sand blows in the wind, and it is everywhere.

Subordinating Conjunctions

Examples of subordinating conjunctions, otherwise known as “nemesis” words, can be found in the final slides.

For instance: It is a hot day in Yuma because it has not rained in four months. Because the sand blows in the wind, it is everywhere.In the example above, because is a subordinating conjunction.

Notice that only the second sentence has a comma in the middle. Only if the SC begins the sentence, do you use a comma after the subordinating clause it begins.

Semicolons

Semicolons can be used to join sentences, if they are closely related, such as, a cause and an effect.

For example: It rained in Yuma, the washes flooded.It rained in Yuma; the washes flooded.

Semicolons WARNING LABEL: THE GRAMMARIAN GENERAL HAS DETERMINED THAT OVER-USE OF SEMICOLONS CAN BE DANGEROUS TO YOUR WRITING.

This is a proper use to categorize a list: She went to the grocery and bought chicken, beef, and pork; potatoes, carrots, and onions; and peaches, pears, and apples.

This is an improper way, like comma splices: She went to the grocery; bought meats; vegetables; and fruit.

Adverb conjunctions

These are the coolest part of grammar. Using them correctly improves your writing tremendously and impressively.

Some common conjunctive adverbs are nevertheless and therefore. Others frequently end in –ly, like consequently or subsequently.

To use adverb conjunctions correctly, one must

1. Use a semicolon before the word,

2. Use a comma after the word, and

3. Use the adverb conjunction to join two independent, stand-alone sentences.

For example, these are two complete sentences:

It rained. It flooded.

They can be joined with an adverb conjunction. Try therefore; it shows a relationship of cause and effect.

It rained; therefore, it flooded.

Subordinating Conjunctions

afteralthoughasas ifas long as soon asbecausebefore

ifeven ifin caseoncesinceso thatunlessuntil

whenwheneverwheneverwhereaswhether or notwhile

Adverb Conjunctions

accordinglyanywaybesidescertainlyconsequentlycurrentlydesperatelydefinitelyfinallyfurthermorehencehowever

incidentallyindeedinitiallyinsteadinstantlylatelylikewisemeanwhilemoreovernamelyotherwise

particularlypreciselyneverthelessnonethelesssimilarlyundoubtedlythereforethereafterspecifically