Grammar And Punctuation Cheat Sheet (Page 2 of 3) in pdf

Grammar And Punctuation Cheat Sheet Page 2

There are the beagles. (In this case, There refers to where the beagles are—they are there.)

There will be a test tomorrow.

Plurals (more than one)

Most nouns are made plural by adding “s” or “es” if the word already ends in “s”, “sh” or “ch”.

For example:

One dog plus another dog makes two dogs.

One couch plus another couch makes two couches.

One brush plus another brush makes two brushes.

Important: Do not add an apostrophe and “s” to make a noun plural. Doing so implies ownership not plurality.

For example:

We have two dogs—NOT We have two dog’s.

How many CEUs are there?

They are the CEOs of the company.

He was born in the early 1920s.

I have a lot of IOUs.

They are packaged in threes.

They both hold Ph.D.s.

Exception to rule: Add an apostrophe “s” if adding only an “s” leads to confusion.

For example:

You must watch your p’s and q’s.

Here are the do’s and don’ts.

Cross your t’s and dot your i’s.

Possessives (That one is mine; ownership)

Remember that to make a word possessive, the rule is to add “apostrophe-s” and not simply “s” alone.

For example, a bone belongs to the dog, it is the dog's bone. A horse that belongs to Jonathan is

Jonathan's horse.

1) What to do if the noun or name ends with “s” already (or “x”)?

There are two possibilities. One is to add an “apostrophe-s” after the “s” that already exists. The other option is

to add an apostrophe and no additional “s”.

For example, a car belonging to James is James's car or James' car.

Adding both the apostrophe and the “s” is generally considered more correct, although either option is

acceptable. The key is to be consistent.

Grammar And Punctuation Cheat Sheet Page 2