***  Correct Grammar Usage ***

English grammar is a boring subject to many students, and somewhere between boring and

class are the students who got left behind. They may be old or young, but for some reason,

they did not get the learning out of the way so they could speak and write proper English.

If you are one of those students, there are still ways to learn grammar. Here are a few

suggestions that may help.

 ^^ Importance of Correct Grammar Usage ^^

By using correct English grammar and punctuation, the people who read our written content

would be able to understand it immediately. Correct sentences are those in which there are

no spelling mistakes and the writer has taken care to use the right tense. Using commas,

inverted commas, hyphens, full stops, colons, semicolons, etc. at the right place is necessary

to term a sentence as a 'grammatically correct one'. One can avoid making errors,

only if we know the rules of grammar thoroughly.

 A sentence should ideally contain a subject and a verb which is actually a word suggesting

an action. One should strictly avoid stereotyping, as it is against grammar rules. The use of

gender specific words should be avoided while referring to different

occupations and instead, we must use universal terms which are

neutral in gender. For example, instead of saying officer, we

can simply say police official.

Examples of Correct Grammar Usage

Understanding the difference between correct and incorrect usage of grammar is very essential for all those wishing to learn the language. Given below are the examples of right and wrong ways of writing sentences:

Example 1

Incorrect way:    John where were you yesterday.
Correct way:     "John, where were you yesterday?"

This example illustrates how inverted commas and commas should be used while writing

sentences in a grammatically correct way. When we write dialog in which one person says

something to another person, the content is started off using inverted commas and they are

ended once the sentence completes. If a question is asked, then giving a question mark at

the end is imperative. While we orally say the above sentence, a pause is taken after the word

John and that's where the comma has been placed.

Example 2

Incorrect way:    where are you going?
Correct way:     "Where are you going?"

The above examples illustrates that the first letter of a sentence should be in title case or a

capital letter. So, here the letter 'W' must be capital.

Example 3

Incorrect way:   He has kept the book in the table.
Correct way:      He has kept the book on the table.

Prepositions are one of the most important parts of speech in the English language. A precise use of prepositions is a must for the sentences to make sense. In the above example, the preposition on is more correct and relevant.

Example 4

Incorrect way:   Sam is a good boy. Sam does his homework everyday.
Correct way:     Sam is a good boy. He does his homework everyday.

Nouns are the names of persons, places, animals or things. Nouns are of many types-common nouns, proper nouns, collective nouns and abstract nouns. So, here Sam is a proper noun.

The word which is used instead of a noun is known as a pronoun. The pronouns in English

literature can help to avoid the monotonous repetition of nouns. The word He is being used as a pronoun in the above example.

Example 5

Incorrect way:   He worked hard. He could not succeed.
Correct way:     He worked hard but could not succeed.

Conjunctions are the words which join two independent sentences or phrases. So, in the

above sentence, the word but is acting as a conjunction. Conjunctions can be of two types -

coordinating conjunctions and subordinating conjunctions. The major coordinating conjunctions are and, but, for, on, so, nor, or and yet. Coordinating conjunctions are also known as

simple conjunctions. Thus, the above sentence has a coordinating conjunction.

The conjunctions which join the subordinate clause with the main clause are known as

subordinate conjunctions. Examples of some common subordinate conjunctions are after,

as, lest, although, when, wherever, while, etc.

Example 6

Incorrect way:   Hurrah We won the game.
Correct way:     Hurrah! We won the game!

In the above sentence, the word Hurrah is an interjection. Interjections are those words which are used for sudden expression of joy, sorrow or any sort of emotions. Hence, they must be

followed by an exclamation mark '!'.

Active and Passive Voices

The usage of active and passive voices depends on the situation and context. In active voice, the subject in the sentence is at the beginning, while the object is at the end. In the passive voice, the subjects goes at the end of the sentence, while the object comes at the beginning. These can be explained with the help of examples as follows:

Active voice:     He missed the train
Passive voice: The train was missed by him.

Tenses

Proper use of tenses is essential to give the desirable meaning to sentences. Let us study

this with the help of following examples:

Present tense:  He is singing a song.
Past tense:        He sang a song.
Future tense:    He will sing a song.