ELEMENTARY RULES OF USAGE

(Adapted from The Elements of Style by Strunk & White.  

See an excellent on-line version at http://www.bartleby.com/141/index.html )

to Learning English

1.   The possessive singular of nouns is formed by adding “'s”.  (The pronoun possessives hers, its, theirs, yours, and oneself have no apostrophe.)

Follow this rule whatever the final consonant.

• James’s car                           

• The Jones’s house                        

• A witch’s curse

  Exceptions are the possessives of ancient proper names in “es” and “is”, the possessive Jesus', and such forms as for conscience' sake, for righteousness' sake.

2.   In a series of three or more terms with a single conjunction, use a comma after each term except the last.   (See Commas)

• Vincent ate a burger, some fries, and a milkshake for lunch.

•  Football, baseball, and basketball are all very popular in the United States.

  In the names of business firms the last comma is omitted 

• Merrill, Lynch, Pierce, Fenner and Smith

The abbreviation etc., even if only a single term comes before it, is always followed by a comma except if it comes at the end of the sentence.  

• Rod bought the hot dogs, etc., for the picnic.

3.  Enclose parenthetic expressions between commas.

A parenthetic expression is a word or clause that qualifies or explains or digresses a bit from the subject. 

• “Elvis Presley, of course, is dead now.” 

• “Mick, not Mack, is the Australian.”

• “Gordie swears, unless he is desperate, never to shop at Wal-Mart.” 

Note:  Any expression that begins with not should be set off by commas.  "It was Earl, not I, who set off the fire alarm."

Sometimes is it hard to decide if a word such as however or a brief phrase is really parenthetic.  If the addition of the word or phrase interrupts the sentence just slightly, you may omit the commas.  The most important thing to remember is IF YOU ADD ONE COMMA TO SET OFF THE PARENTHETIC PHRASE OR WORD, YOU MUST ADD THE OTHER. 

Other parenthetic examples:

Dates:  (Note that the last date has no commas.  This is the European way to write dates and is much clearer and easier than messing with all the commas.)

A name or title is set off by commas when the person is being directly addressed.  

• “Goodness, Patrick, you gave me a fright!”  (formal)  

• "Gosh, Patrick, you frightened me!" (informal or common usage)

• “Excuse me, Sir Nigel, I believe that you are standing on my cat.”

• “Hi, Ted, how’s it going?”

Abbreviations and titles that follow a name (etc., i.e., e.g., the abbreviations for academic degrees, and titles that follow names are all set off by commas.)

• Nouns, verbs, punctuation, etc., are tiresome to learn sometimes.

• Murielle ate breakfast, e.g., eggs and toast, before she left for work.

• Dr. Payne, D.D.S., just opened a new office.

• Winston Churchill, Prime Minister of England, was a great leader.

4.  Place a comma before a conjunction that introduces an independent clause.

An independent clause is a clause that can stand alone as a separate sentence.  It has its own subject and verb. 

• The sky was blue, and the clouds were fluffy and white.  (The sky was blue.  The clouds were fluffy and white.)

• Sheldon loved Zelda, but Zelda married Scott.  (Sheldon loved Zelda.  Zelda married Scott.)

5.   Do not join independent clauses by a comma. (called a comma splice)

Never, never join two independent clauses with only a comma!  If you do not want to use a conjunction to join them, use a semicolon (;). 

• Incorrect:  Angela has an infectious laugh, she giggles all the time. 

• Correct:  Angela has an infectious laugh; she giggles all the time. 

• Correct:  Angela has an infectious laugh, and she giggles all the time. 

• Correct:  Angela has an infectious laugh.  She giggles all the time.

  Exception:  If the clauses are very short, and are alike in form, a comma is usually permissible

• “Good happens, bad happens.”

6.   Do not break sentences in two.  (Don’t use periods for commas either)

• Correct:  Jack met the girl of his dreams one night at a party.

• Incorrect:  Jack met the girl of his dreams.   One night at a party.   

• Correct:  Clarise saw her neighbor Tuesday at the store. 

• Incorrect:  Clarise saw her neighbor.  Tuesday at the store. 

7.   Use a colon after an independent clause to introduce a list, an appositive*, or an illustrative quotation.

A colon (:) signals that what follows is closely related to the preceding clause.  A colon is more effective than a comma, has less power to show separation than a semicolon, and is more formal than a dash (--).  Colons should never come between a verb and its complement or a preposition from its object.  *An appositive follows a noun or a pronoun and explains or identifies it.

• Robert Frost wrote a much-loved poem:  A Road Less Taken.  (appositive)

• A truly dedicated cook needs three things:  proper knives, a sense of adventure, and a stove.  (list)

• After getting his face slapped by his date, Paul remembered a quote by Ogden Nash:  “Candy is dandy, but liquor is quicker.”  (quote)  

Colons are also used as follows:  

• Dear Sir:  (following the salutation of a business letter)

• The train leaves at 10:30 am.  (separating minutes and seconds and hours in writing the time)

• Amos 2:15  (separating chapter from verse in a literary work)

• Biology 101:  Learning about the Birds and the Bees  (subtitles of books, plays, academic courses)

 8.  Use a dash to set off an abrupt break or interruption and to announce a long appositive or summary.

A dash is stronger than a comma, but is used mainly in casual and informal writing.  Use a dash only when no other type of punctuation does seems appropriate.  

• Ken thinks a lot about women—tall, short, fair, dark, old, young—when he isn’t around them.

• Television comedy—if it can be called comedy—is often not worth watching.

9.  The subject and the verb must agree in number.

It doesn’t matter how many words are between the subject and the verb, or if those words are plural or singular—the subject and the verb are the two that must agree in number!

• Mike, along with his sisters, his brothers, and all his children, is going to the park. (singular subject, singular verb)

• Most people--no matter what nationality--are basically good I believe.  (plural subject, plural verb)

  Exception:  Some compound subjects are considered as a unit and take a singular verb.

• Bacon and eggs is a filling breakfast.

• After the robbery, the hue and cry for stronger laws was heard across the state.

• "Sex, drugs, and rock ‘n roll" was a slogan for the hippies in the 1960’s.

  Another exception:  Some nouns that look plural are still considered singular and take a singular verb.

• The barracks is over there.   

• Politics is a dirty business too often.

10.  Use the proper case of pronoun

Remember,  the personal pronouns I, she, he, they, we, as well as the pronoun  who, are used as subjects of a sentence.  They may also act as subjects in clauses, depending on the function of the pronoun.  These are pronouns in the nominative case.  (NOTE:  The other personal pronouns, you and it have the same form in nominative or objective case)

The personal pronouns me, her, him, them, us, as well as the pronoun whom,  are used as objects of verbs and prepositions and are pronouns in the objective case.  Remember that the object of an action verb answers the question what or who. (NOTE:  The other personal pronouns, you and it have the same form in nominative or objective case)

11.  A participial phrase at the beginning of a sentence must refer to the grammatical subject.  

A participle is a word formed from a verb and used as an adjective.  They may show action when used in other sentences, but are NOT the verb when used to modify a noun or pronoun. EXAMPLES:

• The babbling brook flowed gently toward the sea.  (even though babbling is a verb, it is used here as an adjective to describe brook. Flowed is verb in this sentence.)

• Andy, excited, cheered for his team.  (excited is a verb, but is used here to describe Andy, so it is used as an adjective.  Cheered is the verb in this sentence.)

  A participial phrase consists of such a participle and any modifiers.  These are examples of participial phrases: 

• Yelling loudly, Linda scared away the mountain lion.

• Carlos, known also as Carl, studies English diligently.

• Looking everywhere, Lance finally found his mouse.

When using a participial phrase, it is easy to confuse your reader or listener.  The phrase must clearly show to whom or to what it is referring.