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Sentence basics

Using the correct verb with a subject

Pronouns - singular or plural two

Compounded and non-compounded subjects

Pairs of things

Quantity describing expressions

Expletive constructions

Abbreviations

I.e. versus e.g

Mr and Mrs Smith

Date and time abbreviations

Name initials

Abbreviations of units

Avoiding sentence fragments

When its OK to use sentence fragments

Capitalisation

Proper nouns

The first word of any sentence

Capitalisation of titles

I gets capitalised

Using italics

To make something stand out

Onomatopoeia

Titles

When you are talking about the word itself not using it for what it represents

Names of vehicles

Short sentences

Joining parallel sentence subjects or objects

Compounding parallel objects

Compounding parallel subjects

Linking two sentences together more closely

The simple linking relationship

The contrast relationship

Intentionally subordinating a clause to another

Connecting using an absolute phrase

Connecting using appositive phrases

Connecting using a participial phrase

Using the correct sequence of tenses

Writing numbers correctly

Numbers of units

Decimal and fractional numbers

The number zero

Approximate numbers

Common phrases

Starts of sentences

Multiple numbers one after the other

Writing lists

Lists

Bullet point lists

Numbered lists

Connecting using an absolute phrase

An absolute phrase contains a noun or a pronoun followed by a participle and any other words that are needed to give extra information about the noun or pronoun. Now, normally when you have a subject and a verb, you have an independent clause. However, in the case of an absolute phrase, the participle doesn’t actually fill the role of a ‘proper’ verb. So the words stay as a phrase, rather than a clause.

In this case the noun or subject of the phrase is ‘his chores’, and the participle is the past participle ‘finished’. The absolute phrase is a nice way to lead in to the rest of the sentence. An absolute phrase tells you extra information about everything in the clause, before or after it. In this case, the phrase ‘his chores finished’ tells us not only about the subject of the sentence ‘Billy’, but also about the circumstances when he ‘went to the movies’.

Click here to move on to the next topic: Connecting using appositive phrases