Contents

Grammar

Adjectives and adverbs
Nouns
Prepositions
Pronouns
Sentence structure
Verbs

Punctuation

Apostrophes and Quotation Marks
Commas
Hyphens
Other punctuation
Sentence Punctuation

Spelling

Sound-alike words
Noun Plurals
Suffixes

Exercises

Grammar
Spelling
Punctuation

Grammar, Punctuation, and Spelling

Brought to you by the Purdue University Online Writing Lab.

In this section of our site, we offer you handouts and exercises on grammar, spelling, and punctuation. We also have PowerPoint presentations related to grammar, and we have an entire section of handouts and resources for English as a Second Language learners that might also prove useful.

We now have printer friendly versions and Adobe PDF versions of all of these handouts available. Visit our printer-friendly grammar, spelling, and punctuation index to download and print any of these handouts, or click on the link on any of the handouts to visit the printer-friendly version.

Grammar

Adjectives and adverbs

• A or An?: with exercise and answer key
• Adjective or Adverb?: with 2 exercises and answer keys
• Adjectives with Countable and Uncountable Nouns
• Using Articles (A/An/The): with 2 exercises and answer keys

Nouns

• A Little Help with Capitals
• Count and NonCount Nouns (with Plurals, Articles, and Quantity Words): with 2 exercises and answer keys
• Count and NonCount Nouns (with Articles and Adjectives): with exercise and answer key
• Writing Numbers: with exercise and answer key

Prepositions

• Prepositions of Direction: To, On(to), In(to) with exercise and answer key
• Prepositions of Location: At, In, On with exercise and answer key
• Prepositions of Time, of Place, and to Introduce Objects
• Spatial Relationships of Prepositions

Pronouns

• Using Pronouns Clearly
• Pronoun Case

Sentence structure

• Appositives : with exercise and answer key
• Dangling Modifiers
• Independent and Dependent Clauses (definitions)
• Making Subject and Verbs Agree
• Parallel Structure
• Run-ons, Comma splices, and Fused Sentences
• Sentence Fragments: with 3 exercises and answer keys
• Sentence Punctuation Patterns
• Some Strategies for Improving Sentence Clarity

Verbs

• Active/Passive Verbs
• Irregular Verbs
• Sequence of Tenses
• Tense Consistency: with an exercise and answer key
• Two-Part (Phrasal) Verbs- (Idioms)
• Verb Tenses
• Verbs with Helpers (Perfectives and Auxilliaries)
• Verbals: Gerunds, Participles, and Infinitives
• Voice and Mood

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Punctuation

Apostrophes and Quotation Marks

• Apostrophes with exercise and answer key
• Quotation Marks: with exercise and answer key

Commas

• Commas after Introductions: with exercise and answer key
• Commas vs. Semicolons in Compound Sentences : withexercise and answer key
• Commas with Essential and Non-essential Elements: with3 exercises and answer keys
• Proofreading for Commas
• Using Commas:with 5 exercises and answer keys

Hyphens

• Using Hyphens

Other punctuation

• Brief Overview of Punctuation: Semicolons, Colons, Parentheses, Dash, Quotation Marks, and Italics: with exercise and answer key

Sentence Punctuation

• Sentence Punctuation Patterns
• Run-ons, Comma splices, and Fused Sentences

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Spelling

• Spelling: Sound-Alike Words
• Spelling: Accept/Except and Affect/Effect: with 2 exercises and answer keys
• Spelling: i/e rules: with 2 exercises and answer keys
• Spelling: Noun Plurals
• Spelling: Suffixes–-ible vs. —able: with exercise and answer key

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Exercises

Try our interactive exercises index for interactive versions of some of these exercises.

• A or An?
• Adjective or Adverb?
  • Exercise 1
  • Excerise 2
• Apostrophes
• Appositives
• Articles (A/An/The):
  • Exercise 1
  • Exercise 2
• Commas:
  • Exercise 1
  • Exercise 2
  • Exercise 3
  • Exercise 4
  • Exercise 5
• Commas after Introductions
• Commas Set Off Nonessential Elements:
  • Exercise 1
  • Exercise 2
  • Exercise 3
• Commas vs. Semicolons in Compound Sentences
• Exercises for Eliminating Wordiness
• Count and NonCount Nouns Exercises
• Quantity Terms with Count and Noncount Nouns
• Writing Numbers:Exercise
• Practice Exercises in Paraphrasing
• Making Subjects and Verbs Agree
• Prepositions of Direction:To, On (to), In (to)
• Prepositions of Location: At, In, On
• Punctuation Exercise 1
• Quotation Marks
• Sentence Fragments
  • Exercise 1
  • Exercise 2
  • Exercise 3
• Spelling: accept/except
  • Exercise 1
  • Exercise 2
• Spelling: i/e rules
  • Exercise 1
  • Exercise 2
• Spelling:Exercises for -ible vs. —able
• Tense Consistency

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