Author: MikeZ

You say you want a “revelation” . . . Apologies to John Lennon, but you, Reader-student, are now about to emerge out of the “Helter Skelter” of your piecemeal knowledge of grammar. And, to get started on the transformation, you can, right now, dig in to the first “stage” of my three-stage program of learning…

Read More “Stage 1-b: What “one thing” does every sentence need?” »

Subjects and predicates — “simple” or “complete”? While we’re defining technical grammatical terms, let me point out that subjects and predicates, both, come in two forms: simple and complete. That’s a pretty minor technicality, but understanding the difference will soon prove helpful. So let’s differentiate. The simple forms of both subject (S) and predicate (P)…

Read More “Stage 1-c: “Simple” vs. “complete” subjects & predicates” »

Q: Are there exceptions to this “foundational” rule? A: Yes. Before we move on to Stage 2, where we will explore the possibilities (and rules) regarding using more than one main clause in your sentences, let me point out right now that English grammar allows for several quite-common exceptions to our foundational (and I might even…

Read More “Stage 1-d: Exceptions to the rule (that MCs are “essential”)” »

Get ready to take a closer — and fuller — look at the predicate. Crucially, it makes for “half” of the all-important (not to mention essential) grammatical building block of the sentence, the main clause. Yes, our sentences usually present the subject first, then the predicate, as shown and exemplified throughout my Stage 1-b post,…

Read More “Stage 1-e — on Predicates — up close” »

In this final post in Stage 1, we’ll wrap up our foundation, as I’ve been calling this stage, with a much-closer look at the subject, the predicate’s mate in the main clause (aka independent clause).  But, before we get into this “subjective” exploration (and that’s more than a pun, as you will soon see), let’s…

Read More “Stage 1-f — on Subjects — up *real* close” »