Exercises in Traditional English Grammar

Click on the name of an exercise to begin. Instructions are included. The skills addressed increase in sophistication as you go down the list.   If you see a button labeled "Next" or one with an arrow => at the end, click on it to reach another exercise in the sequence. Occasionally exercises will invite you to review earlier issues before proceeding. This site is under continual construction.

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I. Understanding Sentence Structure

Standard Curriculum	Special Topics
1. The Sentence as a Structure
2. "Parsing": Some Useful Vocabulary and Concepts
3. Parts of Speech: Word Classes	3a. Review of Verbs
	3b. Review of Adjectives
	3c. Review of Adverbs
	3d. Review of Prepositions
	3e. Parsing Pronouns
4. Adjectives and Possessives
5. Pronouns
6. Sentence Analysis: Verbs, Subjects, Direct Objects	6a. Verbs (1)
	6b. Verbs (2)
	6c. Subjects
	6d. Direct Objects
	6e. Questions
	7. Working with Verbs: Consistency in Tense
8. Auxiliary Verbs	8a. Forming Verbs: Choosing the Right Form
	9. Sentence Structure: Review or Fast-Track Introduction
10. Sentence Patterns: Learning to See the Top Words	10a. Screening Out Secondary Word Groups
	10b. Review of Simple Subjects and Verbs
	10c. Intransitive and Linking Verbs
	10d. Transitive Verbs and Direct Objects
	10e. Indirect Objects
	10f. Objective Complements
	10g. Complements vs. Objects
11. Word Groups: Phrases & Clauses, the Basics
12. Types of Phrase
13. Introducing Subordinate Clauses as Main Sentence Elements
14. Working with Subordinate Clauses as Main Sentence Elements

II. Improving Sentence Variety

1. Relative Clauses: The Basics (who/whom, which, that)

2. Relative Clauses: Advanced (whose, for whom, the best of which, etc.)

3. Punctuating Restrictive and Nonrestrictive Elements

4. Appositives (a common type of sentence fragment)

5. Subordinate Clauses

6. Infinitive Phrases
   
   
7. Absolute Phrases

III. Fine-Tuning Grammar

1. Parallelism in Correlative Constructions

2. Parallelism in Lists

3. Pronoun Case

4. Participles: Use and Abuse

5. Misrelated Modifiers (only, not, even)

6. Avoiding Sexist Language Sensibly

7. Gerunds and Gerund Phrases

IV. Reading Poetry

1. Untangling Syntax in Older Poetry

2. A Short Course in Elizabethan Grammar (Early Modern English Grammar)

 
 

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