Its not interchangeable with other types of dashes. Doesnt is a contraction of does not and should be used only with a singular subject. Read more about using a singular or plural verb with either or and neither nor. A dash is longer than a hyphen and is commonly used to indicate a range or a pause. Note how we use the plural word surfers at the end there to keep everything in agreement. Despite this, id go with the phrasing data are not generated nor transferred which would convey the meaning just as well, while. Online sensation grammar girl makes grammar fun and easy in this new york times bestseller. When each element separated by or is just one or two words, the reader will have little trouble mentally sorting things out with whichever style you choose that said, advocates of the oxford comma do have a strong argument when it comes to the clarity.
Why not set the odds in your favor by learning positive words. Common subordinating conjunctions are because, since, as, although, though, while, and whereas. Home page for english grammar today on cambridge dictionary. When two or more singular nouns or pronouns are connected by or or nor, use a singular verb. Mar 14, 2018 the slippery grammar of spoken vs written english. Grammar at a glance i bet you thought grammar couldnt get any more quick and dirty than it did in the previous pages, but heres the quickest grammar of all, culled from lengthier explanations found elsewhere in this book. Jay had seen neither the snake nor the wasp s nest on the next tree, and was preparing to stake his tarp in that lessthansafe location. We can either eat now or after the show its up to you 2. American, but the chicago manual of style recommends leav. Learn when to use nor instead of or, and how to avoid common mistakes. Nor doesnt necessarily have to appear in a sentence with the word neither. Please note that there are a few other ways of using semicolons i. Some desserts was left by the end of the birthday party. Pdf grammar with answer key anh quynhphan academia.
We are constantly adding new grammar games, learning activities and grammar. Grammar girl presents the ultimate writing guide for students is a complete and comprehensive guide to all things grammar from grammar girl, a. Neither either and neither represent a pair of words frequently used in the english vocabulary. The past tense and participles get so confusing that we made a chart. Mignon fogarty is the founder of the quick and dirty tips network and creator of grammar girl, which has been named one of writers digests 101. Grammar mastery test the blue book of grammar and punctuation. This weeks grab bag of grammar, style and other missteps, compiled with help from colleagues and readers. Mignon fogarty is the founder of the quick and dirty tips network and creator of grammar girl, which has been named one of writers digests 101 best websites for writers multiple times. Eitheror and neithernor beware double negatives the pairings eitheror and neithernor can be used to group two people or things. Some of the dessert were left by the end of the birthday party. A singular subject she, bill, car takes a singular verb is, goes, shines, whereas a plural subject takes a plural verb. Find all the books, read about the author, and more.
For all those instances when either and neither behave like pronouns, the structure of the sentence would be. Mignon fogarty born 1967 is a former faculty member in journalism at the university of nevada, reno, and a former science writer who produces an educational podcast about english grammar and usage titled grammar girl s quick and dirty tips for better writing, which was named one of the best podcasts of 2007 by itunes. The most common types of dashes are the en dash and the em dash. The associated press stylebook, which frequently disagree. In fact, good grammar rules have actually stayed in vogue in todays business world, even at the dotcoms. Capella university 225 south 6th street, 9th floor. New york times bestselling author mignon fogarty shares her weekly grammar girl podcast and video tips about english, grammar, and writing.
If you too feel difficulties with these two conjunctions, read on as this article makes distinctions between nor and or clear. If you too feel difficulties with these two conjunctions, read on as this article makes distinctions between nor and or. As she does in previous volumes grammar girl s quick and dirty tips for better writing 2008 and the grammar devotional 2009fogarty affects an earnest and upbeat tone to dissuade those who think a grammar book has to be annoying, boring, and confusing and takes on the role of grammar guide, intent on demystifying grammar. The reserve bank has sent paypal a list of questions, focusing on whether or not personal payments to people in india qualify as remittances, or wire transfers of cash, paypal said. Im not very good in grammar but this really confuses me. Oct 05, 2015 well, this is a grammar lesson, and i find sometimes grammar can be incredibly boring, so lets make it a little bit fun.
A couple of years ago, she created a weekly podcast to tackle some. He either keeps the keys himself or leaves them with his wife. Coordination and ellipsis coordination conjunctions the coordinators or coordinating conjunctions are a closed class with four members. Listen to this audiobook excerpt and hear mignon fogarty read from her book grammar girl s quick and dirty tips for better writing.
In fact, grammar girl is highly credited with sparking a fresh interest in grammar throughout our culture. Grammar girl presents the ultimate writing guide for. Here are two explanations of using eitheror and neither nor taken form different sources. The ultimate writing guide for students by the grammar girl herself, mignon fogarty. If you prefer to use a negative, then you want to use either. Oct 29, 2012 you may be asking whether there are any rules guiding when to use the word that and when to use the word which. That introduces essential clauses and which introduces nonessential clauses. Either my father or my brothers are going to sell the car. She is also the founder of the quick and dirty tips podcasting network. A preposition sits before a noun or a pronoun to show its relationship to something else in the sentence. To the delight of word nerds everywhere, grammar girl s quick and dirty tips for better writing came out yesterday. In addition, they are also used wrongly quite often, so everything becomes even more unclear. Likewise, she didnt speak slowly or clearly has a better ring to it than she didnt speak slowly nor clearly. How to use either, neither, nor and or kaplan blog.
On the other hand, 1, neither nor is a longstanding clause that fits perfectly into your sentence. Grammar devotional puzzles for those of you who purchased the e book edition of the grammar devotional and want to download the word search puzzles in a format you can print on paper, we have provided a pdf version of those pages from the book. Reviews of the grammar girl s quick and dirty tips for better writing thus far in regards to the publication weve got grammar girl s quick and dirty tips for better writing pdf opinions customers havent yet still left his or her writeup on the action, or not see clearly still. Nor and or are conjunctions in english language that create problems with their usage for non natives as they are unable to differentiate between these two words. Conjunctions like nor and or give you more options for joining two sentences or creating lists. Confusing grammar neithernor, eitheror, etc person of. Subordinating conjunctions join independent and dependent clauses. But when to use either nor or or if, on the other hand, the second part of the negative is a verb phrasenot a verb clausethen you can choose to use nor or or 6. Then that knowledge can be applied in writing, used to discuss poetry or literature, or exercised in the learning of a foreign language. Either or used in a sentence in the affirmative sense when referring to a choice between two possibilities. If two items are coordinated then the coordinator or coordinating conjunction must come between the two conjuncts. Books similar to grammar girl s quick and dirty tips for better writing grammar girl s quick and dirty tips for better writing. When they act as pronouns either means one or the other while neither indicates not one or the other both these roads go to rome. Jan 01, 2010 so neither the men nor the woman is a good surfer is correct, as is neither the woman nor the men are good surfers.
In other words, by high school they should be using grammar knowledge as a tool in other studies rather than. Some of the desserts was left by the end of the birthday party. A hyphen is a punctuation mark thats used to join words or parts of words. For christmas one year, she even bought me the book i judge you when you use poor grammar. But if you use neither, then make sure your sentence does not have any other negatives preceding it. Neither my mother nor my father went to university. When using either or and neither nor, note the following rules. A subject will come before a phrase beginning with of. Grammar girl presents the ultimate writing guide for students. Written with the wit, warmth, and accessibility that the podcasts are known for, grammar girl s quick and dirty tips for better writing covers the grammar rules and wordchoice guidelines that can confound even the best writers. Ten grammar rules every writer should know writing forward. If both elements are singular, then the verb is singular too.
In grammar girl s quick and dirty tips to clean up your writing, mignon fogarty, the woman behind the popular grammar girl podcast, tackles some of the most common mistakes people make while communicating. Grammar girls quick and dirty tips for better writing quick. Buy a cheap copy of grammar girl s quick and dirty tips for. By the way, it is equally correct to say bad grammar. You may either go to the library or a book store to get a copy of the required reading materials. How to use nor correctly grammar girl quick and dirty tips.
There are multiple tenses beyond past, present, and future, and they are worth knowing. Grammar girls quick and dirty tips for better writing by. This topic is explored more thoroughly in the grammar tip entitled that vs. In a straight answer to your questions, 2 is grammatically fine, but not idiomatic. But these two can be used in so many different contexts that their meanings can become confusing.
Each of the students is responsible for doing his or her work. Neither my sisters nor my mother is going to sell the house. Grammar girls quick and dirty tips for better writing book. Fogarty not only offers the grammar rules, but clear and sticky examples that should help. Buy our book smashing grammar 2019 written by the founder of grammar monster, smashing grammar includes a glossary of grammar essentials from apostrophes to zeugma and a chapter on easily confused words from affecteffect to whetherif. While eitheror are positive, the word nor is a negative. The proscription against using or, rather than nor, with neither i was neither here or there instead of i was neither here nor there is likewise not absolute, but nor is most common, and in this case i support the restriction. The noun or pronoun after a preposition is called the object of the preposition. Sep 22, 20 by the end of this video, you will know the basics about using a semicolon. Neither is used as a determiner before a single noun.
For each of the following, choose the correct sentence. The construction no nor is certainly understandable but not common. Consider the longer series of coordinating items in this sentence. Books similar to grammar girls quick and dirty tips for. Both john and fred dont like doing the dishes i want neither the red shirt nor the blue shirt. Improve your english with our grammar guides and notes. The topic of tense warrants an article of its own or maybe an entire book. Difference between nor and or compare the difference. I have read in several sources that in agreement with a negative statement one can use either, for instance i am not a child, and my cousin isnt either.
English speakers do this, too see type 2, but the unmarked form of an english yesno question, like 1, requires rising intonation and a different word order from a statementone that inverts the subject and the operator. It is usually used with no article, though some is sometimes used before it. He did not find the key either on or under the mat. Neither nor used in a sentence in the negative sense when you want to say that two or more things are not true. When a compound subject contains both a singular and a plural noun or pronoun joined by or or nor, the verb should agree with the part of the subject that is nearer the verb. Simply paste or write your text below and click check my writing to get feedback on your writing. Confusing grammar neither nor, eitheror, etc person of verb. Ive been a longtime fan of the website grammar girl s quick and dirty tips for better writing. Some of the dessert was left by the end of the birthday party. Welcome to the english grammar site of woodward english. Grammar girl, is determined to wipe out bad grammar but shes also determined to make the process as painless as possible. Fowler dismissed andor as an ugly device that may be common and convenient in some kinds of official, legal, and business documents, but should not be allowed outside them. Neither the forwards nor the scrumhalf, all of whom were within 10 metres of the tackle, nor the crowd appealed for a foul. If you know that list is the subject, then you will choose is for the verb.
Grammar girls quick and dirty tips for better writing by mignon. At the same time, there is the word neither that can be used here. Improve your english with our interactive vocabulary games. Although the classic rule is to use neither and nor together, grammar girl writes. Some verbs can be either transitive or intransitive, depending on how they are used in the sentence. Grammar books generally disregard the slash, but most of them have a lot to say about andor. For example, if youve just mentioned that you dont usually wake up at 6 a. The clerk or the secretary has the keys to the rover. Eitheror neither nor either or used when referring to a choice between two possibilities.
You must commit to memory some of the basic rules governing the correct use of. They do not have a direct object to complete or receive the action. However, its often hard to determine which one to use. Grammar girls quick and dirty tips for better writing. Grammar rules appear antiquated, irrelevant, or overly scholarly. But i found one this year that i love so much that i am requiring that my coop students purchase it. I want to see the wildlife and i must meet the scientists who. The grammar girl podcast has also won best education podcast multiple times in the podcast awards, and mignon is an inductee in the podcasting hall of fame.
If so, youll fall head over nubucks for mignon fogartya. Each entry starts with a simple explanation and basic examples before moving to reallife, entertaining examples. Get the grammar girls take on correctly using nor in a sentence. Although not a major grammatical error, the grouping of more than two things is frowned upon by followers of some style conventions. In fact, grammar girl has appeared or been mentioned on the oprah winfrey show, the new york times, and usa today, to name a few. My mother seems to appreciate having a grammar lover in the family. Each episode of grammar girl is available in both audio and text format. Neither the publisher nor author shall be liable for any loss of pro. Nor after negatives the conjunction nor can serve either as a coordinating conjunction or as part of the correlative conjunction neither. While either has a positive connotation, neither holds a negative significance. Last week, my mother emailed to ask if she was using the word nor correctly, which brings me to todays post. Be especially careful of mixing up simple past tense i danced all night and past perfect tense i had danced all night. So neither the men nor the woman is a good surfer is correct, as is neither the woman nor the men are good surfers.
Mignon fogarty, whose popular podcasts have been downloaded over twenty million times and whose first book, grammar girl s quick and dirty tips for better writing, was a new york times bestseller. I said, i like and not love grammar, which allows ones interest. A year or two of grammar instruction done in middle school can be sufficient to learn the material. If you want to learn how to write a book, join our writers write course. In this book, i tackle many of these infuriating words most. A subordinating conjunction can signal a causeandeffect relationship, a contrast, or some other kind of relationship between the clauses. April 16 is the 50th anniversary of the publication of a little book that is loved and admired throughout american academe. He will neither come here nor send a representative. Read more about using a singular or plural verb with eitheror and neithernor.
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