Nobody
Knows How to Write a Grammar Book Better Than Me
With Really Amazing Examples from Donald
Trump
by Jane Hanser
Illustrated by J.C. Duffy
DETAILED TABLE OF CONTENTS
PART I: PARTS OF SPEECH
Chapter 1: Island Oceans, and Walls: Nouns and Pronouns
What Is a Noun? What Is a Pronoun?
1-1 Countable Nouns
1-2 Singular Countable Nouns
1-3 Plural Countable Nouns
1-3a Regular Plural Nouns
1-3b Irregular Plural Nouns
1-4 Noncount Nouns
1-4a Subject-Verb Agreement with Noncount Nouns
1-5 Noun Phrases
1-6 How to Quantify a Noun
1-6a How to Quantify a Countable Noun
1-6b How to Quantify a Noncountable Noun
1-6c How to Count a Noncountable Noun
1-6d How to Intensify a Noun Phrase: someand such
1-7 How to Use a Noun to Modify Another Noun
1-8 Characteristics of Pronouns
1-8a Subject Pronouns
1-8b Object Pronouns
1-8c Reflexive Pronouns
1-8b Possessive Pronouns
1-8e Demonstrative Pronouns
1-9 Pronoun/Noun Agreement
1-10 Pronouns and Improper Use of Double Negatives
1-11 Noun Clauses
1-11a Noun Clauses and Subject-Verb Agreement
Chapter 2: The Wall Articles
What Is an Article?
2-1 Articles and Countable Nouns
2-1a The Singular Countable Noun: a and an
2-1b Singular Countable Nouns: the
2-2 Articles and Plural Countable Nouns
2-2a No Article
2-2b the
2-3 Articles and Noncountable Nouns
2-3a No Article
2-3b the vs. no article
2-4 Names of -
2-4a Languages
2-4b Countries and Geopolitical Entities
2-4c Nationalities and Ethnic Groups
Chapter 3: I Will Build the Wall Verbs and Modals
What Is a Verb?
Verb Vocabulary
3-1 Subject-Verb Agreement
3-1a Who and Indefinite Pronouns
3-1b Subject-Verb Agreement and Prepositional Phrases
3-2 Action Verbs vs. be Verbs
3-3 Auxiliaries (Helping Verbs)
3-4 Simple Present Tense
3-4a Simple Present Tense – Positive
3-4b Simple Present Tense – Negative
3-4c Contractions
3-5 Simple Past Tense
3-5a Regular Action Verbs
3-5b Irregular Action Verbs
3-5c be Verb
3-6 Progressive (Continuous) Tenses: Past, Present, Future
3-7 Present Progressive (Continuous) Tense
3-8 Simple Present vs. Present Progressive Tense
3-9 Past Progressive (Continuous) Tense
3-10 Non-progressive Verbs
3-11 Perfect Tenses
3-11a Present Perfect Tense
3-11b Past Perfect Tense
3-11c Present Perfect Continuous Tense
3-12 Future Time Reference
3-13 Commands (Imperatives)
3-14 Our Big and Beautiful Chart of Verb Forms and Their Uses
Introduction to Modals
What is a Modal?
3-15 The Uses and Forms of Modals
3-16 Would
3-17 Troublesome and Frequently Misused Verbs got/have; fell/felt; going to/“gonna”; say/ tell
3-18 say vs. tell
3-19 Double Negatives Revisited
Chapter 4: I Will Build a great, Great Wall on our Southern Border Adjectives and Adverbs
What Is an Adjective?
4-1 Adjectives in Noun Phrases
4-2 Descriptive Adjectives
4-3 When a Noun Functions as an Adjective
4-4 Possessive Adjectives
4-5 Demonstrative Adjectives
4-6 Comparative and Superlative Forms of Adjectives
4-6a One Syllable Adjectives
4-6b Multi-syllable Adjectives that End in ~y
4-6c Multi-syllable Adjectives that Do Not End in ~y
4-7 Word Order: Using Two or More Comparatives or Superlatives
4-8 Adjective (Relative) Clauses
What Is an Adverb?
4-9 Adverbs as Intensifiers and Limiters
4-10 How to Form an Adverb That Has an Adjective as its Root
4-11 Comparative and Superlative Forms of Adverbs
Chapter 5: Michael Is My Attorney Possessives
What Is a Possessive?
5-1 Possessive Nouns
5-2 How to Form a Possessive Noun
5-3 Possessive Pronouns
5-4 Possessive Adjectives
5-5 Commonly Confused
5-5a Plurals and Possessives
5-5b Contractions and Possessives: you’re, your, he’s, his, it’s, its, they’re, their, there, who’s, whose
Chapter 6: "Lock Her Up" Is Right! Prepositions
What Is a Preposition?
6-1 Adjectives and Prepositions
6-2 Transitive Verbs and Prepositions
6-2a Transitive Verbs That Do Not Take a Preposition
6-2b Transitive Verbs That Take a Preposition
6-3 Two-word Verbs and Prepositions
6-3a Separable Two-word Verbs
6-3b Nonseparable Two-word Verbs
6-4 Commonly Confused
6-4a believe in, believe (that)
6-4b think about, think (that)
6-5 Modals and Prepositions
Chapter 7: He Wrote Me Beautiful Letters. We (fell or felt?) in Love Commonly Confused Words
7-1 time, times, some time, sometimes
7-2 real, really, very
7-3 other, others, another
7-4 use, (to be) used to
PART TWO: Putting It All Together
Chapter 8: I'm President and They're Not Sentence Structure
What Is Sentence Structure?
8-1 Basics of Sentence Structure — Part 1
8-2 The Subject Position
8-2a Faulty Double Subjects
8-3 The Verb Position
8-4 There is, there are
8-5 Commonly Confused: there are, they are
8-6 Coordinating Conjunctions: Joining Ideas with and and or
8-7 Parallel Structure
8-8 The Three Basic Sentence Structures
8-8a The Simple Sentence
8-8b Common Problems with the Coordinating Conjunctionbut
8-8c The Complex Sentence
8-9 Subordinate Clauses and Word Order
8-9a The Position of Subordinate Clauses within a Sentence
8-9b Common Problems with the Coordinating Conjunction but
8-9c Using but and although in the Same Sentence
8-10 Run-on Sentences
8-11 Proportional Statements: the more ~, the less ~
8-12 Word Order and Adverbs
8-12a Adverbs of Time and Place
8-12b Adverbs of Frequency
8-13 Adding Emphasis
8-13a Using a Negative Adverb (never, rarely, etc.) to Begin a Sentence
8-13b Using Auxiliaries to Add Emphasis
Chapter 9: "Who's Going to Pay for It?" (Answer: Mexico!) Questions
What Is a Question?
9-1 The Sentence Structure of a Question
9-2 Yes/No Questions
9-2a Thebe Verb Is Simple Present or Simple Past
9-2b The be Verb in All Other Tenses and Action Verbs
9-3 The Sentence Structure of a an Information Question
9-3a When the Main Verb Is a be Verb in Simple Present or Simple Past Tense
9-3b When the Main Verb Is a be Verb in a Progressive, Future or Perfect Tense; An Action Verb; a Modal
9-4 Negative Questions
9-5 Question That Begin with Who
9-5a When the Answer Is the Subject of the Verb
9-5b When the Answer Is the Object of the Verb or Preposition
Chapter 10: I Just Start Kissing Them! Gerunds and Infinitive Phrases
What Is a Gerund?
What Is an Infinitive Phrase?
10-1 Position of Gerunds and Infinitive Phrases in a Sentence
10-2 Gerunds as Object of the Preposition: [Object of the Preposition] + Gerund
10-3 Gerunds and Infinitives as Object of the Verb
10-3a Verb + Either Infinitive or Gerund
10-3c Verb + Infinitive Phrase or Gerund
10-3d Verb + [Noun or Pronoun] +Infinitive
10-3e Causative Verbs: make, have, let
10-3f Verbs of Perception
10-4 Adjective + Infinitive
10-5 Question Word + Infinitive
10-6 Statements of Purpose)
10-7 Reason/Intention
10-8 Statements Indicating How or By What Means
10-9 Special Expressions Requiring the ~ing Form
10-10 Turning a Subordinate Clause into a Gerund
Chapter 11: RIGGED Passive Voice
What Is Passive Voice?
11-1 When Passive Voice Can Be Used
11-2 How to Form Passive Voice
11-3 Our Amazing Chart of Passive Voice for Each Verb Tense
11-4 Adjectives Derived from Passive Voice
11-5 So You Want to Be Evasive?
Chapter 12: I Would Rarely Leave the White House Conditional Sentences
What Is a Conditional Sentence?
12-1 A Closer Look at the Three Types of Conditional Sentences
12-2 1st Conditional
12-3 2nd Conditional
12-3a Action Verbs
12-3b be Verbs
12-4 3rd Conditional
Chapter 13 He Said He Didn't Meddle Indirect Speech and Sequence of Tenses
What Is Indirect Speech and Thought?
13-1 Components of Indirect Speech and Thought
13-1a Change of Punctuation
13-1b Change of Pronouns and Demonstrative Adjectives
13-1c Change of Verb Tenses
13-2 Sequence of Tenses (back-shift)
13-3 Sentence Structure of Indirect Speech
13-4 Our Very Beautiful Verb Tense Chart for Sequence of Tenses in Noun Clauses
13-5 say vs. tell
Chapter 14 A TOTAL WITCH HUNT!!! Punctuation
What Is Punctuation? What Is Capitalization?
Punctuation and Its Connection to Sentence Structure
14-1 Commas with a List of Objects
14-2 Commas When Using a Coordinating Conjunction to Combine Sentences
14-3 Punctuating the Complex Sentence
14-4 Fragments: Introduction
14-4a Fragments and Compound Sentences: Fragments Beginning with and, but
14-4b Fragments and Subordinating Conjunctions: Fragments Beginning with when, because, before, after, although
14-4c Fragments in Conversational vs. Written English
14-5 Run-ons
14-5a however
14-6 Common Errors in the Use of Commas
14-7 Commas and Noun Clauses
14-8 Punctuating a Sentence That Contains an Adjective Clause
14-9 Capitalization
14-9a Proper Nouns
14-9b Quoted Speech
14-9c Indirect Speech
14-9d Names of Books, Short Stories, etc.