Keentune

Grammar curriculum

9 chapters
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204 concepts
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free
Everything the adaptive question bank can teach and test in Grammar, from foundations through advanced practice. Work through it in order, or start practising and let the questions find your level.
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A free 14-minute primer — the mental model, the mistakes beginners make, and what to practise first.
A. Subject–verb agreement
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A singular subject takes a singular verb; a plural subject a plural verb.
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A phrase between subject and verb never changes the number.
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Team, jury, committee take singular or plural by whether the group acts as one.
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With correlatives the verb agrees with the NEARER subject.
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Order the elements so the nearer one gives the verb you want.
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Two subjects joined by "and" are plural, unless they name one thing.
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Bacon and eggs, law and order: a single notion takes a singular verb.
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"As well as", "along with", "in addition to" do NOT make a subject plural.
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"Many a" is grammatically singular despite its plural sense.
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"More than one" takes a singular verb despite meaning several.
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Fractions and percentages agree with the noun in the "of" phrase.
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"None" takes the number of what it refers to, not always singular.
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Each, every, either, neither, anyone are singular.
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These indefinites are always plural.
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These take number from their referent.
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News, mathematics, measles take singular verbs.
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A title is a single work: plural-form titles take a singular verb.
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With "there is/are" the verb agrees with what FOLLOWS it.
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When the subject follows the verb, find it before choosing number.
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The verb in "who/that" agrees with the antecedent.
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"The only one of those who" is singular; "one of those who" is plural.
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Sums of money and spans of time treated as one unit take singular.
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Agree with the subject, not with the predicate noun.
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"Each" after a plural subject leaves the verb plural.
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"Every X and Y" takes a singular verb.
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A "what" clause takes number from its complement.
B. Pronouns: case, agreement, and reference
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Subjects and subject complements take I, he, she, we, they.
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Objects of verbs and prepositions take me, him, her, us, them.
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A preposition governs the objective case; "between you and I" is wrong.
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Drop the other member to hear the correct case.
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Who is the subject; whom is the object. Test by substituting he/him.
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Case is set by the pronoun's role INSIDE its own clause.
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Interrupting "we believed" does not change who to whom.
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A pronoun in apposition takes the case of the noun it renames.
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Elliptical comparison: the case carries the meaning.
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After a linking verb the subjective case is the formal choice.
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Reflexives require an antecedent in the same clause.
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"Myself" is not a polite substitute for I or me.
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The emphatic use ("I myself saw it") is removable without loss.
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A pronoun agrees with its antecedent in number and person.
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Two candidate nouns leave the reference undecidable; rewrite.
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"This" with no noun leaves the reader guessing the referent.
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"Which" pointing at a whole clause is imprecise in edited prose.
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A pronoun whose noun appears nowhere in the sentence.
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Starting in third person and drifting to "you".
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Its, yours, theirs, whose take no apostrophe.
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"It's" is only ever "it is" or "it has".
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"Who's" is only ever "who is" or "who has".
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A gerund's subject takes the possessive: "his leaving surprised us".
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Who for people; that is acceptable for people but who is preferred.
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The impersonal "one" must be sustained once chosen.
C. Verbs: tense, aspect, mood, and voice
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Habitual action, general truths, and scheduled future.
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Action in progress at the moment of speaking.
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Completed action at a definite past time.
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Ongoing past action, often interrupted.
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Past action with present relevance; incompatible with a finished time.
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Duration up to now, with emphasis on continuation.
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The earlier of two past events; needed only when order is unclear.
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Will, going to, present progressive, and simple present for the future.
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Completion before a specified future point.
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Backshift in reported speech, and its timeless-truth exception.
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Drink/drank/drunk, lie/lay/lain, and the classic confusions.
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Lie is intransitive; lay takes an object.
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Rise is intransitive; raise takes an object.
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Sit is intransitive; set takes an object.
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Contrary-to-fact conditions take "were" in all persons.
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Demand, insist, require take the base form in the that-clause.
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Real future condition: if + present, will + base.
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Unreal present: if + past, would + base.
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Unreal past: if + past perfect, would have + participle.
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Past condition with present result, and the reverse.
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Must, have to, should, ought to and their strength ordering.
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Must, might, could, can't for present and past inference.
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Who acts vs what is acted upon, and where each is appropriate.
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The passive's legitimate use when the actor is unknown or irrelevant.
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Which verbs take which complement, and the meaning shifts.
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These change meaning with gerund vs infinitive.
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Whether the verb requires a direct object.
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Separable and inseparable particles and object placement.
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Verbs of state resist the progressive.
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Unmotivated tense shifts within a passage are a fault.
D. Modifiers and modifier faults
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Which word class modifies which, and the -ly test's limits.
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After feel, seem, taste, use the adjective: "I feel bad".
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Well is the adverb; "I am well" refers to health.
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Two things compare; three or more take the superlative.
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"More better" and "most unique" are faults of degree.
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Unique, perfect, complete resist comparison.
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A participial phrase whose implied subject is absent.
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A purpose infinitive whose actor is not the sentence subject.
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An elliptical clause whose implied subject differs from the main one.
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A modifier next to the wrong noun creates the wrong claim.
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A modifier that could attach forward or backward.
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Only, just, even, almost attach to what immediately follows.
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Moving "only" moves the meaning; the classic six-position example.
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A noun plus participle modifying the whole clause.
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Identifies which one; takes "that" and no commas.
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Adds removable information; takes "which" and commas.
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No commas when the appositive is needed to identify.
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Hyphenate a multiword modifier before the noun.
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"Two- and three-year terms" keeps the hanging hyphen.
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Small-business owner vs small business owner.
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An -ly adverb never takes a hyphen in a compound modifier.
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Interchangeable adjectives take a comma between them.
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Adjectives that build on each other take no comma.
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Opinion, size, age, shape, color, origin, material, purpose.
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Long noun chains obscure which noun is the head.
E. Parallelism, comparison, and coordination
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Items in a series must share grammatical form.
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Not only/but also, either/or must bracket like elements.
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Move "either" so the two alternatives are grammatically parallel.
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Do not mix gerunds and infinitives inside one list.
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Parallel clauses need repeated subordinators when clarity requires.
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A shared preposition must fit every element it governs.
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"As good as or better than" needs the second "as".
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"More efficient" must say more efficient THAN what.
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Compare like with like: her novels with his novels, not with him.
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Comparing a member with its own group needs "any other".
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"She likes him more than me" is two sentences until disambiguated.
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Two negatives cancel in standard edited English.
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Coordinating clauses of unequal weight buries the main claim.
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Which idea earns the main clause is a meaning decision.
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A subject that cannot logically perform its verb.
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Definitions cannot be completed by an adverbial clause.
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A sentence begun in one structure and finished in another.
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Both/and must join the same grammatical level.
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A colon-introduced list must follow an independent clause.
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Parallel form across list items and headings aids comprehension.
F. Punctuation
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Two independent clauses joined by a comma alone.
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Two independent clauses run together with no punctuation.
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Comma plus and/but/or joining two independent clauses.
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A comma after an introductory phrase or clause.
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The comma before the final conjunction and the ambiguity it prevents.
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Cases where omitting it creates a false apposition.
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Paired commas fence removable information.
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Never separate a subject from its verb with a single comma.
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Set off the person addressed with commas.
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Both sides of the year and of the state get a comma.
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A semicolon joins clauses that could stand alone.
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Conjunctive adverbs need a semicolon before, comma after.
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Semicolons separate items that themselves contain commas.
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What precedes a colon must be an independent clause.
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The colon promises an explanation, list, or quotation.
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Paired dashes fence an interruption more loudly than commas.
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The en dash spans ranges and joins equal compounds.
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Parentheses lower the voice; dashes raise it.
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Add apostrophe-s even after a final s in most styles.
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Plural nouns ending in s take the apostrophe alone.
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Children's, women's, people's take apostrophe-s.
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Anna and Ben's car vs Anna's and Ben's cars.
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"Two weeks' notice" is a possessive, not a plural.
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No apostrophe in decades, acronyms, or family names.
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Periods and commas go inside the closing quotation mark.
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Place it inside or outside by whether the quotation is the question.
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Single marks nest inside double in US style.
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Long quotations are indented and take no quotation marks.
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Three points mark omitted material without altering sense.
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Square brackets mark the quoter's own insertion.
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Three different marks with three different jobs.
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The slash signals alternatives and is rarely right in formal prose.
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In edited prose the exclamation point is rationed.
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Capitalize only when a complete sentence follows, per style.
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Whole works are italicized; parts are quoted.
G. Sentence structure and sentence faults
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A subject and finite verb expressing a complete thought.
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A clause introduced by a subordinator, unable to stand alone.
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Subordinate clause, participial phrase, and appositive fragments.
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Deliberate fragments in informal register vs the graded fault.
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The four sentence types by clause composition.
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Which relative pronoun, and when it can be omitted.
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Dropping "who is" or "that was" and the ambiguity it can create.
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A clause serving as subject, object, or complement.
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Front, middle or end, and the comma consequence.
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Fronting a place phrase inverts subject and verb.
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"It is X that…" shifts emphasis without changing content.
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Expletive openings bury the real subject.
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Verbs turned into abstract nouns drain sentences of action.
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Redundant pairs, empty openers, and prepositional pile-ups.
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New or emphatic information belongs at the end of the sentence.
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Start from what the reader knows; end with what is new.
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Alternating length and opening prevents monotony.
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Period, semicolon, coordinator, or subordination.
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Pronoun, tense and deictic shifts in indirect speech.
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Polarity and auxiliary matching in tag questions.
H. Articles, prepositions, and determiners
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Chosen by the SOUND that follows, not the letter.
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"A" introduces; "the" refers back or points to a unique thing.
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Plural and mass nouns in general statements take no article.
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Rivers, ranges and plural country names take "the".
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Which nouns can be pluralized and quantified directly.
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Fewer for count nouns, less for mass; the measurable exceptions.
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Amount for mass, number for count.
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Register and countability constraints on each quantifier.
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The article reverses the polarity from negative to positive.
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Assertion vs question and negation, with the offer exception.
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Each individuates; every generalizes across the set.
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Two-item determiners and their verb agreement.
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At for clock time, on for days, in for months and years.
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At a point, on a surface, in an enclosure.
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Position vs movement into.
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Between for discrete relationships, among for undifferentiated groups.
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Verbs and adjectives that fix their preposition: differ FROM, consist OF.
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Different from, similar to, compared with.
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Fixed pairings that resist rule derivation and must be learned.
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Repeat the preposition when the objects are not parallel.
I. Commonly confused words
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To receive or agree, against the preposition meaning all but.
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The verb that influences, against the noun that results.
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Comparison, against sequence in time.
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