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"Your grammar and diction are seen as clues to your capabilities." Constance Staley and Robert Staley II.
Communicating in Business and the Professions.
Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, 1992. p. 30

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Major Grammatical Errors
Dorotha Norton, University of Tennessee at Martin

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Pronouns

	Personal Pronouns
	Subject Forms		Object Forms		Possessive Forms
	Singular*	Plural*	Singular*	Plural*	Singular*	Plural*
1st person	I	we	me	us	my, mine	our, ours
2nd person	you	you	you	you	your, yours	your, yours
3rd person	he, she, it	they	him, her, it	them	his, her(s), its	their, theirs
	*Singular means one; plural means more than one.

1. When you use a personal pronoun as a subject or as a part of a subject, be sure it is from the "Subject Forms" group. (I talk with people each day. Mary and I talk with people each day.)

2. When you use a personal pronoun as any type of object, be sure it is from the "Object Forms" group. (I called her. I talked with Mary and her. She planned the party for Mary and me.)

3. Them can be used only as an object (I gave the books to them. I gave them the books.). Them cannot be used as a modifier (I want them books - should be: I want those books.).

4. The possessive forms show ownership. Notive that all of the possessives have an s form except my and mine; never add s to my or mine.

5. If the word and occurs before the pronoun, say the sentence without the word and and without the noun or pronoun in front of the and to determine which pronoun you should use. (John and I went home. He gave the keys to John and me.

Other Troublesome Pronouns
Who	subject form	Who is calling? I can't hear the person who is calling.
Whom	object form	Whom have you called? To whom do you wish to speak? The person whom you choose will be listed.
Whose	possessive form	Whose pen is this? The person whose name you give me will be listed.

Verbs

Subject-Verb Agreement

1. Use a singular verb with a singular subject (noun or pronoun naming one person, place or thing).

2. Use a plural verb with a plural subject (noun/nouns or pronoun/pronouns naming more than one person, place or thing).

3. Rules of Thumb
   1. Noun ending in s is plural* (persons, ladies).
      
   2. Verb ending in s is singular* (asks, calls: If any other company calls youŠ).

      *There are exceptions! (People = plural; men = plural; James = singular, Jones = singular.) Even though the pronoun I is singular and even though the pronoun you may be singular, so not use a verb ending in s with I or with you. (I have. I call. You have. You call.)

   3. To determine whether to use a singular or plual verb in a question, use the available words in the question to answer the question. (Is/Are there any other numbers you's like to add? There are any other numbers you'd like to add. Are there any other numbers you's like to add?)
      
   4. When the word there occurs before the verb of a sentence, the verb should "agree with" (be singular or plural) the first noun following the verb. (There is one line open. There are two lines open.)

Principal Parts of Verbs
Present	Past	Past Participle*
(actions or being now)	(action or being before now)	(action or being begun before now)
begin	began	begun
break	broke	broken
bring	brought	brought
burst	burst	burst
come	come	come
choose	chose	chosen
do	did	done
draw	drew	drawn
drink	drank	drunk
eat	ate	eaten
fly	flew	flown
freeze	froze	frozen
give	gave	given
go	went	gone
grow	grew	grown
hide	hid	hidden
hold	held	held
keep	kept	kept
know	knew	known
make	made	made
pay	paid	paid
ride	rode	ridden
ring	rang	rung
rise	rose	risen
run	ran	run
see	saw	seen
shake	shook	shaken
speak	spoke	spoken
take	took	taken
tear	tore	torn
throw	threw	thrown
wear	wore	worn
write	wrote	written
sit (in a chair)	sat	sat
set (to place something)	set	set
lie (in a bed)	lay	lain
lay (to place something)	laid	laid
*When used as a verb in a sentence, the past participle must be accompanied by a "helping" verb. The following are helping verbs: has, have, had, be, am, is, are, was, were.

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