Grammar

Denerick

I don't know if this is the right place for this, but I was wondering if someone could link me to a very basic guide to all grammatical concepts. My grammar is poor, to put it mildly, and I'll love to read something brief and accessible that would enable me to improve my general expression. Any links or hints greatly appreciated.

EileenG

How basic do you want?

In general, for creative writing, I don't think you need to get bogged down with the technicalities of grammar. If you remember that your aim is to tell a damn good story, rather than to impress people with your education, you'll find that your sentence structures should be simple and strong.

There is a website called www.grammarly.com which will do a full grammar check. It's a subscription service, but the first month is free, and if you cancel before it's up, you don't pay anything. It will do a comma by comma analysis of your story, and tell you what the problem is.

pickarooney

If you want, Denerick, I can kick this over to the English forum, if your question is not specifically related to writing.

Denerick

Well no actually, I'm applying to do an English language course and there is a language awareness task on the page. Basically I know the errors presented, but don't really know how to explain that they are wrong, if you get me! Which is why I wanted a very basic explanation of grammatical concepts.

pickarooney

To be honest, I find wikipedia really useful for this. You can just use this as a jumping point and go as deep as you like into the various aspects of grammar.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_grammar

ciaranmac

I would recommend reading "Eats, Shoots and Leaves" by Lynne Truss. It's a highly entertaining read as well as being very informative on spelling, grammar and punctuation.

WHU

I too would recommend "Eats, Shoots and Leaves".

stelaR

Wikipedia is best option for me...:)

from_atozinc

I find myself lately using the words "do be"


I am not an expert, and am useless with tenses etc but to me , it just sounds wrong

What can I use instead of these words?


EDIT: this is probably the wrong forum for this, didn't realise it was creative writing

Insect Overlord

from_atozinc wrote: »

I find myself lately using the words "do be"


I am not an expert, and am useless with tenses etc but to me , it just sounds wrong

What can I use instead of these words?


EDIT: this is probably the wrong forum for this, didn't realise it was creative writing

Sounds like you're picking up a bit of Hiberno-English. The habitual present tense of the Irish verb "bí" has that effect.

Can you post a few sample sentences of he you've been using it? That would make it easier to provide alternative approaches.