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  • Syntax
    • Syntax in Motion
    • Subjects and Finite Verbs
    • Completers
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    • Nouns, Verbs, Adjectives and Adverbs
    • Prepositional Phrases and Particle Verbs
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    • Introducing Complex Sentences
    • Subordinating-Connective Clauses
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  • Correctness
    • Active and Passive Verbs
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    • Could of, Would of, Should of
    • Problems with Modifiers
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    • Sequence of Tenses
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  • Punctuation
    • Beginning and Ending Sentences
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    • Where NOT to Punctuate
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Grammar Once and for All

A comprehensive course in English grammar.

This course has been designed to enable you to acquire a conscious, analytical understanding of the structure of English grammar. Well beyond correctness, such an understanding gives you confidence in your self-expression and sustains your reading and writing.

About this site

Ron Rower's Bookshelf

Cat and Adverb

When reading prose, we usually can follow the train of thought without having to pay particular attention to syntax. But poems often require us to deal consciously with syntax -— in fact, I originally wrote Grammar Once and for All to help my poetry students with this crucial aspect of reading.

Is the Adjective Endangered?

In a recent letter to the editor of a Montreal newspaper, a retired advertising copywriter amusingly pretends to deplore what he called “attacks on the sanctity of the adjective,” which, he said, reflects “a loss in the battle to save the poor adjective, which has recently been subjected to maddeningly overcute usage by a growing number of copycat advertisers who blithely turn these perfectly useful modifiers into pseudo-nouns.”

THAT and WHICH

A reader wrote asking about the correct use of the relative pronouns that and which. I give quite a number of examples of their use in relative clauses but had overlooked listing the rules governing their use. I’ve now added that information to the Pronoun Problems page under the heading Relative Pronouns: That, Which, Who, Whose, Whom.
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