#GrammarSeries – 3 grammar rules you may not have heard of

new-year

It’s time for our Tuesday #GrammarSeries and we hope that like other Tuesdays you will learn as much as you can.

Today we will tell you four grammar rules you probably have not heard of, or maybe you have heard them but you don’t remember.

Rule 1: Use the Semicolon to Join Two Ideas

A number of people are freaked out with the semicolon majorly because they do not know how to use it. However, it’s the easiest thing in the world to use. Say you want to join two ideas but can’t figure out or can’t be bothered to use a coordinating conjunction, you should use a semicolon. In fact, the two ideas can be separate sentences, but if you think that they are so closely connected and they really should be one, then use a semicolon.

Look at this example;

Mary’s dog is hyperactive; it won’t stop barking or sit still.

Rule 2: How to use ‘that’ and ‘which’

There is a huge difference between the two words. If you’ve been using them interchangeably then you are making a mistake.

To understand when to use ‘that’ or ‘which,’ you must understand clauses. A defining clause (also called an essential clause or a restrictive clause) is a clause that gives information essential to the meaning of the sentence. This means that defining clauses can change the meaning of a sentence depending on whether you use them or not.

Here’s an example;

My bag that has two zips in front has been stolen.

The introduction of ‘that’ into the sentence means that the speaker has other bags and is just referring to the one with two zips.

However this statement, ‘My bag, which has two zips in front has been stolen‘, does not necessarily show that you have other bags. It just means you are describing the bag you have.

Rule 3: Spell small numbers out.

This is one rule that most people don’t remember. Small numbers should be spelled out. That’s one rule you can count on. If you don’t spell numbers out it will look like you’re sending an instant message, and you want to be more formal than that in your writing.

So instead of saying, ‘I have 3 shoes in my car,’ you should say ‘I have three shoes in my car.’

Now that you have heard these, we hope you make proper corrections where need be.

2 thoughts on “#GrammarSeries – 3 grammar rules you may not have heard of

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

Gravatar
WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. ( Log Out / Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. ( Log Out / Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. ( Log Out / Change )

Google+ photo

You are commenting using your Google+ account. ( Log Out / Change )

Cancel

Connecting to %s