Grammar Rules 101

BY: ESTEBAN REYES

 Indicates time or quantity: In one years time.

Possessive The Apostrophe Indicates omission of figures in dates: The summer

of 69.
determiners
Possessive determiners and possessive pronouns do Indicates omission of letters: We cant go to San
My Our not require apostrophes. Fran.
Your Your
His Their What the apostrophe does: Indicates strange English:Appen yerd better ave
Her Their this key (44)
Its Their Indicates possessive in a singular noun: The boys
Features in Irish names: ONeil and OCasey
Possessive hat.
pronouns Indicates plural of letters: How many ss in
If possessor is plural but does not end with S, Mississippi?
Mine Ours apostrophe precedes the S: The childrens
Yours Yours Indicates plurals of words: What are the dos and
playground.
His Theirs donts?
Hers Theirs When possessor is a regular plural, apostrophe They are becomes theyre, there is becomes theres,
Its Theirs
follows S: The boys hats. and you are becomes youre, etc.
Make an exception for Jesus, for example: Jesus
disciples
Heres the Comma
Commas divide items in a list: The flag is purple, orange, and green.

Commas are used when two complete sentences are joined together: They wanted to eat ice cream, but instead ate
pizza.

Missing words are implied by a comma: Californias landscape is now dry; Oregons, green.

Setting off direct speech: Rihanna said, Shut up and drive.

Setting off interjection: Gosh, what would we do without you.

The Marvelous Semicolon
The main place for putting a semicolon is between two related sentences where there is no conjunction: I love to
play the flute; I also play the guitar.

Linking words such as however, nevertheless, etc. require a semicolon: he was short a dollar; however, his
friend gave him one.

How one semicolon can change the meaning of a whole sentence: Tom locked himself in a shed. England lost to
Argentina. Tom locked himself in a shed; England lost to Argentina.
The Majestic Colon
A colon is used properly when it signifies what is to come almost immediately.

It can also start a list: In later life, Kerry-Anne found there were three qualities she disliked in other
people: Britishness; superior airs; and a feigned lack of interest in her dusting of freckles.

Colons star off book and movie subtitles: Berks and Wankers: A Pessimists View of Language
Preservation Gandhi II: The Mahatma Strikes Back.

Colons are also used in dialogue, to separate characters: Philip: Kerry-Anne! Hold still! Youve got
some gunk on your face! Kerry-Anne: Theyre freckles, Philip. How many more times?
 The Classy Marks
!
The exclamation point: involuntary cry-outs; Wow! What a show! To invoke turn attention to; O mother! Where will
you be! To exclaim; Heck yes! I love this ice-cream! Drama; Those arent sharks, theyre dolphins! To make a sentence
an attention grabber; I would really love it if no homework was given at school! Reverse misunderstanding of irony;
Oh, I did not mean that!

The question mark: used in a direct question; What is the top speed of a cheetah? If a question is inside quotation
marks; Have you gone to Europe? he asked. An indirect question is posed; What was the commotion at the football

?
game, she curiously asked.

The dash is used to connect or separate phrases and sentences; Finally! I believe that the amazing Mississippi Riv-er
is full of life again.

When citing something, using parenthesis the period goes inside the parentheses. For example: When he finally arrive
she said, Really dude? Late again.

Brackets come in different shapes and specialties: ( ) Parentheses, [ ] Brackets, { } Brace which are derived from math,
and Angle brackets < > used in linguistics.

Italics, used for titles of proper nouns, emphasis of words, foreign words, and examples about writing language

Ellipsis used only to indicated words missing or to trail off in an mysterious/curious manner