English Verbs (Barron's Verb): And a Review of Standard English Usage [4 ed.] 0764147854, 9780764147852

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And a Review of Standard English Usage FOURTH EDITION Vincent F. Hopper and George Ehrenhaft Moife than 120 irregular English verbs coiyugated in all tenses An in-depth explanation of correct verb usage Troublesome words and phrases explained A detailed list of idioms and their meanings leviews of parts of speech, sentence structure, and more

Printed in two colors for fast, easy reference

AUG

1 2013

ENG USH

Verbs And a Review of Standard English Usage Fourth Edition by

Vincent F. Hopper Former Professor of English New York University, NY

and

George Ehrenhaft Former Chairman, English Department Mamaroneck High School, NY

BARRON’S BARRON’S EDUCATIONAL SERIES, INC.

L—I

HoP

© Copyright 2012, 2004, 1991, 1975 by Barron’s Educational Series, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means without the written permission of the copyright owner. Al/ inquiries should be addressed to: Barron’s Educational Series, Inc. 250 Wireless Boulevard Hauppauge, New York 11788 www.barroiiseduc.com ISBN: 978-0-7641-4785-2 Library of Congress Control Number: 20/2956059 PRINTED IN CHINA 9 87 6 5 4 3 2 1

Contents Foreword

v

Adjectives and Adverbs 1 Comparison of Actjectives 1 Predicate Adjectives 2 Articles 2 Capitalization 5 Conjunctions 6 Coordinating Cor\junctions 6 Correlative Coiyunctions 8 Subordinating Cor\junctions 9 Conjunctive Adverbs 10 Contractions

11

Glossary of TVoublesome Words and Phrases Diction 12 Avoiding Errors in Diction Idioms 24

12

23

Interjections 34 Negatives in English 35 Double Negatives 35 Nouns 37 Plurals 37 Nouns With Irregular Plurals Possessive Nouns 39 Phrasal Verbs 41 Prepositions 83 Pronouns 86 Personal Pronouns 86 Relative Pronouns 89 Reflexive Pronouns 91 Interrogative Pronouns 91 Demonstrative Pronouns 91 Indefinite Pronouns 92 Pronoun Reference Problems

38

94

iii

Contents Punctuation

95

95

Commas

98

Conventional Comma Usages Pitfalls in Comma Usage Terminal Punctuation Semicolons and Colons

98

99 100

Dashes, Hyphens, and Apostrophes Parentheses and Brackets Quotation Marks

101

103

103

The Sentence and Its Parts

107

Pitfalls in Sentence Construction

111

112 Clarity in Sentence Construction 114

Agreement of Subject and Verb

Normal English Word Order Verbs

117

119

The Power of Verbs Verb Tenses Verbals

119

120

128

Conjugations of Irregular Verbs

iv

133

Foreword To the Reader This book is meant to help both native English speakers and those learning English as a second language to avoid many common pitfalls of English grammar and usage. Many requirements of so-called “standard” written English are described and illustrated within these pages. Spoken language is, of course, less formal than written discourse. Readers should note, therefore, that usages considered incorrect in writing are often perfectly acceptable in casual conversation. It is assumed that readers are somewhat familiar with grammatical terms common to most languages: for example, the parts of speech, such as nouns, adjectives, and conjunc¬ tions, as well as such concepts as plural and singular, verb tenses, idioms, sentence structure, and punctuation. To use the book efficiently, review the Table of Contents, which lists major topics in alphabetical order, from Adjectives to Verbs. Afterward, keep the book by your side as a conven¬ ient guide to using correct English while speaking and espe¬ cially while writing. When in doubt about correct usage, let the book steer you to the proper choice.

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