The Right Word: A Writer's Toolkit of Grammar, Vocabulary and Literary Terms

By Bloomsbury Publishing

This three-in-one guide is the perfect addition to any professional or amateur writer's bookshelf. Aimed at those who use language in their day-to-day lives, it is divided into three parts. The Grammar Guide provides clear, comprehensive guidance on sentence structure, parts of speech and punctuation; the Vocabulary Builder helps you choose the right word by listing commonly confused, misused and cliched words; the dictionary of Literary Terms provides concise definitions of linguistic forms. The budding writer can use this guide to quickly enhance their style and improve their word power. The rules and advice provided are accompanied by usage examples throughout.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
• Release date: Apr 15, 2021
• ISBN: 9781472986962

Book preview

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Other Writers & Artists Titles Include

Writers’ & Artists’ Guide to Writing for Children and YA by Linda Strachan

Writers’ & Artists’ Guide to Getting Published by Alysoun Owen

Writers’ & Artists’ Guide to How to Hook an Agent by James Rennoldson

Writers’ & Artists’ Guide to Self-publishing by self-publishing experts

The Organised Writer by Antony Johnston

Upcoming Titles Include

Writers’ & Artists’ Guide to How to Write by William Ryan

The Writer’s Journal Workbook by Lucy van Smit

Writers on Writing: The Writers’ & Artists’ Book of Quotations

The Writers’ & Artists’ Yearbook and the Children’s Writers’ & Artists’ Yearbook

are published annually in July

You can buy copies of all these titles at your local bookseller or online at www.writersandartists.co.uk

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Contents

INTRODUCTION

PART I

Grammar Guide

CHAPTER 1: Grammar and the parts of speech

CHAPTER 2: Words working together

CHAPTER 3: Punctuation

CHAPTER 4 : Spelling

CHAPTER 5: Breaking the rules

CHAPTER 6: Glossary of grammatical terms

PART II

Vocabulary Builder

CHAPTER 7: Choosing the right word

CHAPTER 8: Commonly confused words and word pairs

CHAPTER 9: Commonly misused words

CHAPTER 10: Word families

CHAPTER 11: Just the opposite

CHAPTER 12: Clichés and redundancy

PART III

Dictionary of Literary Terms

Literary terms

LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS

MAIN TEXT (chapters 1 – 12) edited and rewritten

by Sarah Waldram, based on text by the Bloomsbury

Encarta Dictionary team.

Sarah Waldram is an editor who has worked on languagereference

books for Bloomsbury, Oxford University Press and

Collins among other publishers.

DICTIONARY OF LITERARY TERMS written by Alysoun Owen

with research and additional content from

Lauren MacGowan and Elaine Owen.

Lauren MacGowan joined the Writers’ & Artists’ team as

an editorial assistant in 2019 shortly after graduating from

Oxford Brookes University with a Masters in Publishing.

Alysoun Owen is the Editor of the Writers’ & Artists’ Yearbook

(published every July) and author of the Writers’ & Artists’

Guide to Getting Published (2019).

Introduction

Words matter. An appreciation of their subtle power is vital for anyone who seeks to use them.

David Hewson, Writing: A User Manual (2012)

This book is for writers: anyone who gathers words together in order to educate, or to entertain or to inform. Words – and the ways in which they combine and mingle in a phrase, a statement, a sentence or a paragraph – are the essential tools of any writer’s workbox: the ways in which they are grouped become the author’s ‘style’. They can be used to be concise and precise or deliberately to obfuscate or shock, to confuse or amuse.

Between these pages are definitions, wordlists and the ‘rules’ of English grammar – how language is structured, how words are used and spelt and the typical ways in which sentences can be arranged and punctuated. Rules can be straitjackets. Creative writers – novelists, dramatists and poets – know that rules exist to be broken and circumvented. For example, the standard approach when punctuating speech in a novel might be to include single or double quotation marks, usually so it is clear who is speaking to allow the reader to follow the narrative. An experienced and talented writer can overturn such a convention for stylistic effect, to create greater immediacy and naturalistic speech patterns. An inexperienced writer might find it sensible to adhere to the conventions until they are more used to marshalling their text. Knowing the standard styles, formats and usage can be helpful. Once mastered they might be successfully sidestepped. Being au fait with grammatical norms makes life easier for you as a writer in your efforts to convey mood and meaning in prose.

This book is not a checklist of what you should follow every time you put pen to paper or tap on a keyboard. It is a celebration of words in all their magnificence. The English language makes claim to more than a million words, including terms that have fallen out of use and variant forms, of which it is estimated that around 170,000 are in current use. This lexicon can be fashioned and bent to each writer’s will to evoke atmosphere, tone, tension, emotion and meaning to suit their narrative.

Words change and usage develops. New words get created, others die back to become archaisms or anachronisms or less legitimate forms to do with shifts in spelling or meaning because of fashion or changes in culture and society. But there remain some underlying and unifying patterns and facts about grammar, structure, forms and the terms we use to describe these elements. You don’t need to know the definition of an oxymoron or chiasmus to make use of such literary devices effectively. You won’t be judged wanting if you are unaware that a sentence can include a subject, a predicate, and subordinate clauses or that there are five basic types of adverb. You can be a skilled writer who has great command of their work, and not know or care what transitivity means or how to identify an auxiliary verb. (Though you can find out what these are in this book’s Glossary.)

But knowledge of parts of speech and punctuation, literary devices, clichés to avoid for example, combined with an interest in how words are formed might make you understand your craft better. This knowledge is likely to improve your writing and might mean you enjoy being a writer even more.

Why does grammar matter to the writer? Apart from the joy that words can bring, it matters because text should be meaningful and achieve what it sets out to do for the audience for which it is intended. The right word is le mot juste for the context in which it is used. It’s the word that feels right and reads right to its writer-creator and to its readers.

PART I

Grammar Guide

CHAPTER 1

Grammar and the parts of speech

He who writes badly thinks badly.

William Cobbett

A Grammar of the English Language (1819)

The controversial English pamphleteer William Cobbett, in a letter to his son James, observes the link between clarity of thought and clarity of writing. He emphasises paying attention to grammar as a means of dispelling confusion, and pours scorn on those in public life who omit to do so.

Whatever one makes of Cobbett’s political views, his ideas on grammar still resonate today. This is especially true for writers looking to connect with their readership. Put simply, grammar enables users of language to combine words in ways that convey meaning clearly.

There is no mystery to grammar. Those who learn English as their first language from native speakers absorb its essentials while they are picking up the vocabulary required for basic communication. For writers, however, there are good reasons to explore English grammar more deeply. Getting to grips with grammar improves one’s understanding of the English language and consequently enriches one’s writing.

As a starting point, this chapter looks at the basic elements of the English sentence and explains terms used to describe these elements. We’ll present these in the traditional way, as parts of speech, even though, as touched on in chapter 2, some experts favour other approaches to analysing the language.

The parts of speech

The parts of speech, sometimes referred to as word classes, comprise (in the order they appear in this chapter):

• nouns

• verbs

• adjectives

• adverbs

• pronouns

• prepositions

• conjunctions

• interjections.

It’s worth remembering that a word’s part of speech gets defined only in use. Of course, it’s safe to say that a word like plumber is a noun, because it’s difficult to think of a case where it could be anything else. But a word like up can be a preposition, a verb, an adjective or an adverb, depending on the context:

The cat climbed up the tree and can’t get down. [preposition]

Introducing that proposal will really up the stakes. [verb]

The up escalator is on the other side. [adjective]

Send John right up as soon as he gets here. [adverb]

Therefore, in this book, when we identify a word as a verb, conjunction, adjective or other part of speech, our focus is on the role it fulfils in the context under consideration.

Nouns

A noun is a word that names something: a person, place or thing.

Nouns are the largest word class in English.

• A noun can be a single word (car, truth) or a compound word made up of two or more single words (pruning shears, playwright, double-decker).

• A group of words that acts as a noun in a sentence is called a noun phrase.

• A proper noun is one that begins with a capital letter and usually names a person or some other unique thing: Mary Seacole, Windsor Castle.

• A common noun names a class of things: book, music.

Most nouns have two possible forms: singular or plural. The plural is usually created by adding -s, sometimes along with other changes to the word’s ending. There are only a small number of irregular plurals (ones that aren’t formed by adding -s), for example, child → children.

The system by which nouns

agree

with verbs – that is, a singular noun takes a singular verb form, and a plural noun takes a plural verb form, we cover in more detail in chapter 2 (see here).

Count and non-count nouns

Singular nouns in English can be classified as one of two types: those that have a plural form and those that do not:

• Nouns that can be pluralised are called count nouns (because they can be preceded by a number):

one shirt, two shirts

one mouse, two mice

one alumnus, two alumni

For some words, such as sheep, the plural form is the same as the singular, but they are count nouns nonetheless:

one sheep in the north pasture; a hundred sheep in the south pasture

• Singular nouns that cannot be pluralised are known as non-count nouns: music, happiness, fuss. A non-count noun denoting something such as a feeling or substance that cannot be quantified is called a mass noun: envy, air. One feature of mass nouns is that they can be preceded by words such as some, any and no.

Many mass nouns can be used as count nouns, however, when they refer to a particular type or quantity of what they denote:

French cheeses

Two coffees and five teas, please.

Collective nouns

A distinctive group of nouns are known as collective nouns. Examples of collective nouns are:

audience, committee, crowd, flock, government, jury and orchestra

These nouns are singular in form but refer to a group made up of a number of individuals or things.

When the group is spoken of as a unit, the collective noun takes a singular verb:

The jury has handed down a unanimous verdict.

‘The best government is no government at all.’

Henry David Thoreau, Civil Disobedience (1849)

However, when the emphasis is on the individuals or things that make up the group, the noun takes a plural verb:

The jury have been arguing among themselves for twelve hours, and no verdict is expected.

A collective noun that denotes a class of objects, for example, furniture or luggage, is always singular:

My luggage is missing.

When using collective nouns, it is important to ensure agreement between verbs and pronouns. The following example, for instance, is inconsistent:

The committee has [singular] decided to reject the proposal and will give their [plural: should be its] reasons in writing tomorrow.

‘The jury eagerly wrote down all three dates on their slates, and then added them up, and reduced the answer to shillings and pence.’

Lewis Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865)

(It’s more common for a collective noun to take a plural verb in British English than in American English.)

Verbs

A verb is a word that indicates an action or a condition. In English, verbs also express whether the action or condition is associated with the past, present or future.

English verb forms are relatively simple. As outlined immediately below, verbs have only three principal parts, which are predictable, apart from those for a significant number of irregular verbs. Despite this, English

tenses

, when taken to include such features as

aspect

, are capable of rich, varied and complex expression. (For more detail, see here).

Principal parts

The three principal parts of the verb are the forms from which all other forms are derived.

• The main or root part of a verb is the infinitive. This is the form of the verb to be found in a dictionary. Because the derivative inflected forms (marked by changed endings or other variation), of English verbs are on the whole not complicated, many forms of the verb are actually identical to the infinitive.

Examples of infinitives are be, see, dig, automate, thrill. Since many uses of the infinitive in English require the preposition to before the verb, to is sometimes – erroneously – thought to be part of the infinitive.

• The second principal part of the verb is the simple past. Except for irregular verbs, English adds -ed or -d (for verbs already ending in e) to the end of an infinitive to form the simple past tense: thus, using our examples above, automated, thrilled. The others noted above are irregular and have different past tenses: be → was and were; see → saw; and dig → dug.

• The third principal part of the verb is the past participle. It’s used only in combination with

auxiliary verbs

(see here). In regular verbs, the form of the past participle is identical to that of the simple past tense: automated, thrilled. In irregular verbs, it may be identical to the simple past of those verbs, or it may be a different word: thus, be (was and were) → been; see (saw) → seen; and dig (dug) → dug.

Verbs have another part – the present participle, but it’s usually not included among the principal parts because it’s always regular. The present participle is formed by adding -ing to the infinitive. Like the past participle, it’s used only in combination with auxiliary verbs. Examples of present participles for our group of sample verbs are being, seeing, digging, automating, thrilling. Note that verbs ending in a single consonant usually double the consonant before the -ing (as in digging), and verbs ending in silent e drop the e before the -ing (as in automating).

Transitivity

A common way to classify verbs is by whether or not they are followed by an object (a noun, noun phrase, or pronoun) to complete their meaning.

• Those verbs that do not take an object – and relatedly do not form

passives

(see here) – are called intransitive verbs:

You’d better leave.

He snores.

In dictionaries, these verbs are often indicated by the letters vi.

• Verbs that are followed by an object – the person or thing that receives or experiences the action of the verb – are transitive verbs:

Do you love me?

Put your books away.

In dictionaries, these verbs are often indicated by the letters vt.

    A few transitive verbs can have two objects: a direct object and an indirect object. The direct object is the one acted on directly by the verb, and the indirect object is the one affected by the action of the verb:

I gave him £100. [the direct object is £100; the indirect object is him]

Many verbs can be either transitive or intransitive, depending on how they’re used and what they mean. In The dealer sells used cars, the verb sell is transitive, but in This used car won’t sell, the same verb is intransitive. In dictionaries, these verbs may be indicated by the letters vti.

‘Do I dare to eat a peach?’

T. S. Eliot, ‘The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock’ (1915)

‘While someone else is eating or opening a window or just walking dully along.’

W. H. Auden, ‘Musée des Beaux Arts’ (1940)

Copulas and complements

A small number of intransitive verbs can be followed by a complement, a noun or adjective that relates back to the subject. These intransitive verbs describe the relationship between the subject and complement and are called linking verbs or copulas:

I am Fred.

I feel sick.

Other copulas are grow, act, look, smell, taste and sound.

The kind of complement that follows an intransitive verb is called a subjective complement , because it describes the subject. In She has fallen ill, she is the subject, has fallen is the intransitive verb, and ill is the subjective complement.

A few transitive verbs can also be followed by a complement. This kind of complement is called an objective complement , because it describes the direct object of the verb:

I find her books fascinating. [the object is her books; the complement is fascinating]

The team elected Sarah captain. [the object is Sarah; the complement is captain]

Person, number and tense

Features such as whether a verb is transitive or requires a complement can be described as lexical features. In other words, they relate to the verb’s meaning and cannot be changed at will. Such features of verbs as person, number and tense, on the other hand, are variable, and these variations are effected by conjugating the verb, that is expressing it in its different forms.

Another way of stating this is that the features of person, number and tense, when present, mark a verb form as a finite verb. Finite in this case means ‘limited’, since these three features limit the reference of the verb to a particular person, number or time. (This contrasts with the

infinitive

(see here), which is not limited. Rather, the infinitive form indicates only meaning – it’s not constrained by person, time or number.)

Person: There are three grammatical persons: the speaker (who is the first person), the addressee or one spoken to (the second person) and someone spoken about (the third person).

On the whole, English verbs aren’t very concerned with person. English uses other features of language to express this concept. The only marker of person in standard English verbs is the -s at the end of the third-person singular form of verbs in the present tense: I sing, you sing, he sings. The irregular verb be is non-standard and so exceptional: I am, you are, he is, etc.

Number: Grammatical number as it relates to verbs is concerned only with whether a verb has as its subject one person or thing (singular) or more than one (plural).

As with person, English verbs aren’t too concerned with number. Instead, English depends on nouns to signify this. The only regular marker of number in English verbs is the same as for person: an -s at the end of the third-person singular form of verbs in the present tense: They sing, she sings. Again, the irregular verb be is exceptional: I am, we are, etc.

Tense: Tense is the feature of a verb that indicates, in a general way, when. The simplest division of English verb tenses is into past, present and future.

• The past tense uses the

simple past

(see here). The only English verb that has variable parts for the past tense is be, which uses was for the first and third persons singular, and were for all other persons and numbers.

• The present tense uses the root form (infinitive) of the verb except, as noted above, for two cases: the third person singular in standard verbs and all forms of be.

• The future tense is also based on the root form together with the auxiliary or

modal

(see here) verbs will or shall:

She will sing.

Shall I sing?

We have already noted that, owing to limited inflection in English, many forms of verbs are identical to the infinitive. Because of this, it only becomes apparent whether a verb is finite or an infinitive when one sees it in context. Take, for example, these three sentences:

I always return library books on time.

You need to return this book to the library by next week.

The letter demanded that he return the book immediately.

The form of the verb is identical in each sentence. But in the first sentence, return is a finite verb: first person singular present tense. In the second sentence, return is an infinitive. In the third sentence, return is another finite verb, this time a

subjunctive

form (for more detail, see here).

Aspect, mood and voice

Further features that English verbs have in common with those in other languages include aspect, mood and voice. In some languages these are expressed using the root of the verb altered by suffixes, changed vowels and the like. In English verbs, these features are mainly expressed through the use of

auxiliary verbs

(see here).

Aspect: Experts differ as to whether to consider aspect a separate feature of verbs, or to regard it as part of tense. Certainly, the two aspects that English verbs show – the perfect and the continuous – cannot be separated from tense. They are always bound up with the finite features of a verb.

• The perfect aspect of verbs is evident in the perfect tenses – those formed using a finite form of the auxiliary verb have plus the past participle (-ed form) of the main verb. The perfect tenses indicate an action or condition existing in more than one point in time. For example,

I have lived here for twenty years

indicates the time when I started living here, and also the present time (because I still live here). In the sentence

When I arrived at the restaurant she had already left

the past perfect is used (she had left) to show that the action of leave happened before the action of arrive.

‘You have stolen my dreams and my childhood with your empty words.’

Greta Thunberg, UN Climate Action Summit (2019)

• The continuous (also called progressive) aspect of verbs expresses a continuing, unfinished action or condition. It’s formed with a finite form of be and the present participle (-ing form) of another verb. The continuous aspect can refer to either things that are going on in the present:

I’m cleaning my shoes.

Or things that were going on in the past:

We were living in Japan then.

Or things that will be going on in the future:

She’ll be waiting there till the train comes in.

‘Sittin’ in the mornin’ sun,

I’ll be sittin’ when the evenin’ come.’

Otis Reading/Steve Cropper, ‘The Dock of the Bay’ (1967)

Not all verbs can be used in a continuous aspect. Notably, verbs that describe a permanent condition and verbs connected with perception cannot. Examples include have, as in Do you have any brothers or sisters? (not Are you having…?), and hate, as in I hate him (not I am hating...).

Both the perfect and the continuous aspects of verbs can be expressed at the same time. For example, in the sentence

She has been working at home for several months now

there is a notion of continuous action starting in the past and still going on in the present.

Mood: Mood is a complex feature of verbs in some languages, but in English it’s relatively simple. There are only three moods associated with English verbs: the indicative, the imperative and the subjunctive.

• The indicative mood is used for ordinary statements and questions, in which verbs simply describe actions or conditions:

Birds sing.

Does he live here?

• The imperative mood is used to give orders or make requests. English has no separate form for imperative verbs; the imperative form is identical to the infinitive:

Go away!

Give me that!

• The subjunctive mood is used for special statements that may express a command, a wish, or something that is unreal. For all verbs except be the subjunctive form is the same as the infinitive, so it’s only evident the mood is subjunctive from the context:

I suggested to her that she drop by for a drink before the concert.

They demanded that he answer their questions.

Notice that the third person singular present omits the final -s (drop rather than drops, answer rather than answers).

The subjunctive form of be is either be or were:

The governor demanded that the letter be published.

If you were to go, you might regret it.

Be is used where the action is hypothetical or in the future. Were is used in clauses introduced by if, as if, as though or suppose:

Suppose I were to meet you outside the theatre.

(For more on

conditional clauses

, introduced by if, and the subjunctive, see chapter 2, here.)

      A typical use of the subjunctive is in clauses introduced by that expressing a wish or suggestion:

We recommend that she be promoted to a supervisory position.

      The subjunctive also occurs in fixed expressions such as: as it were, be that as it may, come what may and far be it from me.

Voice: There are two ‘voices’: the active and the passive.

• In the active voice, the subject of the verb is the one who does the action described by the verb, and the object is the one acted upon:

The waiters will collect the plates.

• In the passive voice, this situation is reversed. The subject of the verb is the one acted upon by the verb, and the one who does the action – if mentioned at all – is relegated to a separate phrase, typically beginning with by:

The plates will be collected by the waiters.

The passive can be used for a variety of purposes, for example, if the identity of the doer of the action is unknown, if the writer wants to conceal the identity of the doer of the action, as in

The vase was broken,

or if the writer wants to put special emphasis on the object or the action rather than on the doer of the action, as in

The bomb was defused by experts.

Formal writing tends to use the passive more frequently than informal writing.

Auxiliary verbs

We’ve already encountered several verb forms that use auxiliary or ‘helping’ verbs. Auxiliary verbs in English perform the work that complex inflections do in some other languages. So, while English has only three principal parts of the verb (the infinitive, the simple past and the past participle), auxiliary verbs enable a broader range of expression.

Do, be and have: The core auxiliary verbs in English are do, be and have. They are used:

• to form questions and negations (a finite form of do plus the infinitive)

• to form the passive voice (a finite form of be plus the past participle)

• to form the continuous tenses (a finite form of be plus the present participle)

• to form the perfect tenses (a finite form of have plus the past