April 2018
Beginner
336 pages
9h 3m
English
Content preview from English Grammar Workbook For Dummies, with Online Practice, 3rd Edition
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Chapter 15
Going for the Gold: The Finer Points of Verb Usage
IN THIS CHAPTER
Selecting active or passive verbs
Getting a handle on verb moods for facts, commands, and condition-contrary-to-fact sentences
Choosing strong verbs
If a grammar Olympics took place every four years, mastering the material in this chapter would give you a shot at a gold medal in verb usage. You can speak and write reasonably well without this knowledge, but you’ll be on a much higher level if you have it. Think of the difference between the track times of a high-school champ and those of an Olympic sprinter. Which would you rather have? In this chapter I explain voice (active or passive), mood (yes, verbs have moods), and strength (finding verbs that give much more information than, for example, be or have).
Voicing an Opinion: Active and Passive Verbs
In the world of grammar, verbs have a voice — either active or passive. With active voice, the subject performs the action or is in the state of being expressed by the verb: “Millie cracked the priceless vase.” (cracked = active-voice verb) With passive voice, the subject receives the action: “The priceless vase was cracked.” (was cracked = passive-voice ...
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O’Reilly covers everything we've got, with content to help us build a world-class technology community, upgrade the capabilities and competencies of our teams, and improve overall team performance as well as their engagement.Julian F.
I wanted to learn C and C++, but it didn't click for me until I picked up an O'Reilly book. When I went on the O’Reilly platform, I was astonished to find all the books there, plus live events and sandboxes so you could play around with the technology.Addison B.
I’ve been on the O’Reilly platform for more than eight years. I use a couple of learning platforms, but I'm on O'Reilly more than anybody else. When you're there, you start learning. I'm never disappointed.Amir M.
I'm always learning. So when I got on to O'Reilly, I was like a kid in a candy store. There are playlists. There are answers. There's on-demand training. It's worth its weight in gold, in terms of what it allows me to do.