Language for locals
- PreQuiz for Stage 1
- Find out which of the grammar lessons below you need to know more about
- Apostrophes 1
- Indicating when something belongs to, or is associated with, someone
- Colons 1
- Using colons for lists or quotations and for signalling evidence.
- Parallel constructions
- Providing consistency in your sentences when you are listing ideas of similar value
- Modifiers
- Words that modify (influence the meaning of) another word, and what can happen if such words are in the wrong place
- Capitals
- When capitals are used for signalling names, organisations, events, and brands
- Commas
- Separating describing words and making simple lists
- Subjects and objects of sentences - Me or I?
- Can you ever say [someone] and me? Find out when.
- Pronoun-antecedent agreement
- There are rules around when you can use their, and when you must specify his or her
- PreQuiz for Stage 2
- Find out which of the grammar lessons below you need to know more about
- Apostrophes 2
- Really get on top of the difference between its and it's
- Semi-colons
- Used for separating two independent clauses or separating items in a list-like sentence.
- Parallel constructions 2
- The advantages of having consistency in your sentences.
- Modifiers 2
- Avoiding ambiguity or double-meaning in your sentences
- Capitals 2
- When capitals are needed for people's titles
- Capitals extra
- Capitals with book titles
- Commas and complex lists
- When you are making a complex list, and how the placement of commas can change the meaning
- Subjects and objects of sentences 2
- Me, myself, and I: More about the difference between I and me
- PreQuiz for Stage 3
- Find out which of the grammar lessons below you need to know more about
- Apostrophes 3
- Advanced lesson on using apostrophes with multiple nouns, dates, and plural nouns.
- Modifiers 3
- Dangling modifiers (a common problem) and long disruptive modifiers turning up in the middle of an idea.
- Capitals 3
- Acronyms, the difference between acronyms and an abbreviations.
- Commas 3
- Using commas before joining words, and to identify non-essential information.
- Relative clauses
- Extra information in your sentence about someone or something using who,which, or that.
- PreQuiz for Stage 4
- Find out which grammar at this level you need to learn.
- Split infinitives
- The "to infinitive" is a verb made up of "to" + the base form of the verb, like "to sleep". This lesson discusses the debate about whether a modifier is allowed to split the infinitive, as in "to quietly sleep".
- Abbreviations
- This lesson is about the correct use of capital letters when making abbreviations.
- Comma splice
- Comma splices (also known as run-on sentences) are a frequent error in student writing, but they're easy to fix. Find out how in this lesson.
- Who or whom
- Who and whom are relative pronouns. One represents the subject of the sentence and the other the object. Never get them muddled again.
- Sentence fragments
- Sentence frags are also called incomplete sentences, usually meaning that the sentence has no dominant verb.
- PreQuiz for confusing words
- Find out which grammar at this level you need to learn.
- they're, their, or there?
- They all sound the same, but they have different roles in your sentences.
- brought and bought
- One is the past of 'bring' and the other is the past of 'buy'
- than or then
- One is for comparing things and the other is for signalling sequences.
- affect and effect
- One is a verb and the other is a noun (meaning that they behave differently in the sentence).
- accept and except
- One means "to agree to something" and the other means "not including something"
- whose or who's
- One is asking about ownership while the other is asking about identity
- loose and lose
- The first is about when something is about to fall off, and the other is when that thing can never be found again
- past or passed
- One means to travel beyond something, and the other is about being successful in your exams.
Other tools
Here are some tools that we think can work very well to help students become better at grammar.
- Grammarly
- Quite good at helping with punctuation, spelling, and a range of common grammar errors. You'll need to make an account - the free version is quite good.
- Grammar girl
- Good explanations on any grammar conundrum. (Only thing is, you need to know what grammar you want her to explain... so use in conjunction with the Student Learning grammar pages)