Painless English for Speakers of Other Languages

by Jeffrey Strausser, Jose Paniza

Overview

Titles in Barron's extensive Painless Series cover a wide range of subjects as they are taught on middle school and high school levels. These books are written for students who find the subjects unusually difficult and confusing—or in many cases, just plain boring. Barron's Painless Series authors' main goal is to clear up students' confusion and perk up their interest by emphasizing the intriguing and often exciting ways in which they can put each subject to practical use. Most of these books take a light-hearted approach to their subjects, often employing humor, and always presenting fun-learning exercises that include puzzles, games, and challenging "Brain Tickler" problems to solve. Both ESL students and teachers of ESL courses have found this book extremely helpful, especially in the way it anticipates and answers students' most frequently asked questions about correct American English usage. This edition is better than ever.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781438000022
Publisher:	Barrons Educational Series
Publication date:	08/01/2012
Series:	Barron's Painless Series
Edition description:	Second Edition
Pages:	288
Sales rank:	889,691
Product dimensions:	8.80(w) x 5.90(h) x 0.60(d)
Age Range:	14 - 17 Years

Table of Contents

Introduction: What This Book Will Do for You ix

Part 1 Parts of Speech 1

Chapter 1 Nouns 3

What Is a Noun? 5

Proper and Common Nouns 7

Concrete and Abstract Nouns 9

Singular and Plural Nouns 11

Possessive Nouns 16

Functions of Nouns in Sentences 22

Chapter 2 Pronouns 29

What Is a Pronoun? 31

Personal Pronouns 31

Pronoun Cases 36

Possessive Pronouns 41

Reflexive Pronouns 45

Demonstrative Pronouns 48

Relative Pronouns 51

Interrogative Pronouns 55

Indefinite Pronouns 58

Making Pronouns Agree 60

Chapter 3 Verbs 65

What Is a Verb? 67

Action Verbs 67

Linking Verbs 69

Helping Verbs 72

Verb Tenses: Expressing Past, Present, and Future 75

Active and Passive Voice 77

Confusing Verb Pairs 78

Verbals 82

Chapter 4 Modifiers 87

What Are Modifiers? 87

Adjectives 87

Proper and Common Adjectives 90

Improving Your Writing with Adjectives 92

Articles 100

Demonstrative Adjectives 103

Indefinite Adjectives 106

Pronouns as Adjectives 108

Adverbs 110

Recognizing Adjectives and Adverbs 113

Degrees of Adjectives and Adverbs 116

Chapter 5 Prepositions 121

What Are Prepositions? 123

Simple and Compound Prepositions 124

Prepositional Phrases 127

Prepositional Phrases as Modifiers 129

Common Preposition Errors 130

Chapter 6 Conjunctions 137

What Are Conjunctions? 139

Coordinating Conjunctions 139

Correlative Conjunctions 144

Subordinating Conjunctions 147

Chapter 7 Interjections 151

What Are Interjections? 153

Using Interjections 153

Chapter 8 Spelling and Vocabulary 157

Active Listening 159

Learning the Vowel Sounds 160

Learning the R Sounds 175

The Silent Letters 178

The Final E 179

Homophones 180

Parts of a Word 182

Compound Words 183

Part 2 Writing 185

Chapter 9 Sentence Endings and Pauses 187

Sentence Endings 189

Periods 189

Question Marks 190

Exclamation Points 191

Quotation Marks 194

Sentence Pauses 197

Commas 197

Semicolons 202

Colons 203

Dashes 203

Parentheses 204

Chapter 10 Writing Sentences 207

What Is a Sentence? 209

Subjects and Predicates 210

Subject-Predicate Agreement 212

Types of Sentences 217

Writing Simple Sentences 220

Beyond the Simple Sentence 223

More Sentence Writing 225

Watch Out for Run-ons! 228

Chapter 11 Writing Essays and Stories 233

What Is a Paragraph? 235

Writing Paragraphs 235

Essays and Stories 240

The Structure of Essays and Stories 241

The Writing Process 242

Plagiarism 247

It's Up to You 247

Appendix 249

The American Heritage College Dictionary Pronunciation Guide 249

Further Reading 251

Answer Key 253

Index 276