User:Connel MacKenzie/rules to remember

Paraphrased rules from various children's grammar guides (Kindergarten through 6th grade: American elementary school basics.) It is with great humor that I observe Wiktionary getting most of these wrong, particularly on WT:RFV, consistently. The texts the various rules are paraphrased from are usually textbooks used to teach children here. Usually there are no single authors, rather, entire teams of (PhD level) linguists conspire to simplify the explanation of the rules, so that they are understandable to children. Other times, they are merely reviewed by editorial staff. If you wish to dispute any of these, please be aware that I may need a considerable amount of time to stop laughing at your guys's [sic] mistakes, before being able to discuss it reasonably.

1. Proper nouns (the specific name of a person, place or thing) must use a capital letter.
2. Plurals: add an "s", or,
   1. If noun ends in consonant followed by "y", change the "y" to an "i" and add "es".
   2. sibilants ("ch", "sh", "ss", "x") add "es". Note that the "es" makes a new syllable.
   3. Nouns ending in "f", change the "f" to a "v" and add "es".
   4. mouse/mice
   5. deer/fish
3. Possessive nouns always contain an apostrophe
   1. Add "'s" to singular nouns
   2. Add "'" after the "s"
   3. Add "'s" if last letter is not "s" ("men's")
4. Possessive pronouns never use "'s"
   1. Always use objective pronouns after prepositions and as recievers of verb actions. ("me" vs. "myself")
   2. User reflexive pronouns to reflect only the person previously mentioned.
5. Subjective pronouns act as the subject of the sentence: he, I, it, she, that, these, they, those, we, who, you
6. Objective pronouns can be the object of a transitive verb: her, him, it, me, them, whom, you
7. Possessive pronouns show ownership: my, mine, your, yours, her, hers, his, its, our, ours, their, theirs, whose
8. Plural pronouns refer to more than one person or thing: we, us, our, ours, you, your, yours, they, them, their, theirs
9. Demonstrative pronouns: point out specific things: this, that, these, those
10. Relative pronouns: connects parts of sentence: that, what, which, who, whose, whoever, whom, whomever, whatever, whichever
11. Reflexive pronouns: refer back to the subject: myself, yourself, himself, herself, itself, ourselves, yourselves, themselves
12. Indefinite pronouns: used when specific person is not known: someone, somebody, something, no one, nobody, nothing, any, anybody, anything, all, everyone, everybody, everything
13. Verbs identify what the subject does or is.
14. Action verbs describe things that can be done.
15. Linking verbs tell what the subject is or what it seems to be.
16. Helping verbs help other verbs express the time of the action: is, be, am, are, was, were, been, has, have, had, do, does, did, can, could, shall, should, will, would, may, might, must, being
17. Verbs agree in number with the subject not the object nor complements.
18. Infinitives are the basic form of verbs preceded by "to".
19. Present participle ends in "ing"
20. Past participles end in "ed" or "en" with has, have, had before the verb
21. Simple past ends in "ed"
22. Verbals are infinitives and participles used as nouns.
23. Gerunds are present participles used as nouns.
24. Contractions are words from two wordss, one of which has been shortened by replacing some letters with "'". Contractions have apostrophes in place of missing letters, possessive pronouns do not.
25. Adjectives add detail to nouns or pronouns.
26. Possessive nouns and pronouns are used as adjectives when they indicate ownership of an object.
27. Present and past participles can be adjectives when they describe something.
28. Adverbs tell where, when, how or to what extent.
29. Negative adverbs should never be used with negative verbs (e.g. "didn't".) barely, scarcely, rarely, never
30. Comparative (adj, adv) compares two things, to identify the one that has more (or a given quality.)
31. Superlatives (adj, adv) identifies the one that has more of that quality, for more than two objects
32. Comparatives: add "er" to end if less than two syllables, precede by "more " (or "less ") if more than two syllables.
33. Superlatives: add "est" to end if less than two syllables, precede by "most " (or "least ") if more than two syllables.
34. Irregular comparatives/superlatives: good/better/best, bad/worse/worst, less/lesser/least, some/more/most
35. Prepositions connect nouns or pronouns with the rest of the sentence by telling "when, where, why"
36. Conjunctions join sentences or parts of sentences.
37. Coordinating conjunctions form compound subjects from multiple nouns or compound verbs from multiple verbs. and, but, or, for, yet, so, nor
38. Interjections add emotion to what is being said.
39. Capitalize the first letter of a sentence.
40. Capitalize proper nouns.
41. Capitalize the pronoun "I".
42. User a period at the end of a sentence and at the end of abbreviations.
43. A question mark signals a request for information.
44. Exclamation point is used to signal surprise or for emphasis.
45. Commas signals a pause within a sentence, group words that belong together and separate them from the rest of the sentence.
    1. Use comma after introductory phrases, words or clauses.
    2. Use commas in lists
    3. Use a comma when two independent clauses are joined by a coordinating conjunction
    4. Use a comma when adding interruption words: unfortunately, however, nevertheless, inasmuch as, namely, for example, that is, especially
    5. Use commas within dates (December 5, 2006), addresses (123 Main Street, Anytown, NY), and numbers over one thousand (1,001.)
    6. Do not use a comma between a verb and its object
    7. Do not use a comma to join a dependent clause to the independent clause it describes.
46. A Colon introduces a list, a semicolon groups items in a list, commas separate items within those groups.
47. Compound words with same letter at interface: leave them in (e.g. glowworm, bookkeeper, overrun)
48. Compound words with same letter resulting in triple letters: hyphenate only (e.g. still-life)
49. Use hyphens for number pairs (twenty-one) and fractions (three-fourths)
50. Do not divide reflexive pronouns with a hyphen (myself, himself)
51. Drop the e before adding -ing if verb ends with a silent e.
52. Doubling rule for -ing and -ed: if the verb ends in one vowel followed by one consonant, double the consonant before adding -ed or -ing.

References

The list on this page started from only a couple excellent children's books. Yes, CMOS backs these rules up, but I find it infinitely more satisfying to cite "baby" books for you instead.

• 1998, The Kid's Guide To Good Grammar, Lowell House (NTC/Contemporary Publishing Group) by Dorothy McKerns, M.Ed., Ph.D., CCC-SLP and Leslie Motchkavitz

• 1992, How to Make Grammar Fun — (and Easy!), Troll Associates, by Elizabeth A. Ryan

• 2002, Goof-Proof Grammar, Learning Express, LLC., by Felice Primeau Devine

• 2002, Verbs, Verbs, Verbs, Scholastic Inc., by Marvin Terban