4,620
edits
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**** ''That is one big, elephant!'' << incorrect | **** ''That is one big, elephant!'' << incorrect | ||
**** ''That is one big, elephant!'' << correct | **** ''That is one big, elephant!'' << correct | ||
*** | *** <u>exception</u>: could be a list of coordinate adjectives that are separated by a comma: | ||
**** ''That is one big, angry elephant!'' | **** ''That is one big, angry elephant!'' | ||
*** or, could be separated by a parenthetical | *** or, could be separated by a parenthetical element: | ||
**** ''That is one big -- and I mean big! -- elephant'' | **** ''That is one big -- and I mean big! -- elephant'' | ||
** '''possessive nouns''' are not separated from the noun they possess by punctuation | ** '''possessive nouns''' | ||
** '''prepositional phrases''' are not separated from the noun or | *** are not separated from the noun they possess by punctuation | ||
**** ''That bird flew right by my friend's, head'' << incorrect | |||
**** ''That bird flew right by my friend's head'' << correct | |||
*** <u>exception</u>: could be part of a list of adjective: | |||
**** ''That bird flew right by my friend's big, old head'' | |||
*** note: see rules below for possessives | |||
** '''prepositional phrases''' | |||
*** are not separated from the noun or verb they modify | |||
****''The book, on that table is interesting'' << incorrect | |||
**** ''The book on that table is very interesting'' << correct | |||
** '''relative clauses beginning with "that"''' | ** '''relative clauses beginning with "that"''' | ||
*** note that some "restrictive relative clauses" may also begin with the relative pronouns, ''which, who, whose'', etc. | *** note that some "restrictive relative clauses" may also begin with the relative pronouns, ''which, who, whose'', etc. | ||
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=== object preposition mistaken for subject === | === object preposition mistaken for subject === | ||
*''A census by park rangers in Australia in 2015 of kangaroos '''show/shows''' population declines'' | |||
* ''A census by park rangers in Australia in 2015 of kangaroos '''show/shows''' population declines'' | |||
** ignore the prepositional phrase/s in order to identify the correct subject for the verb "show/shows": | |||
** ''A census <s>by park rangers</s> i<s>n Australia</s> i<s>n 2015</s> <s>of kangaroos</s> '''show/shows''' population declines'' | |||
** thus ''A census '''<s>show/</s>shows''' population declines'' << singular "census" matches singular verb "shows" | |||
=== parallelism mistakes === | === parallelism mistakes === |