Say what You Mean: Everyman's Guide to Diction and Grammar

abbreviations accepted action word adjective adverb Anglo-Saxon antonym apostrophe become called capitalized clause colloquial colon comma compound confusion connection consonant correct correctly dash denote dependent clauses diction dictionaries double English especially example expres expression expressional former give grammatical Greek Harry hyphened idea idiom idiomatic imperfect tense implies inasmuch indicate inflected instance italics John kind language Latin letter logical malapropism Mary means ment misuse modifying never noun omission omitted parentheses past participle period person pertains phrase plural possessive preceding predicate preferably prefix preposition present pronounced pronunciation punctuation quotation marks regarded repetition rule semicolon sense sentence separate silent e singular sion slang sometimes speak speaker speech spelling subjunctive suffix syllable synonyms tence thing thought tion tive usage usually verb vowel vulgarism waste word group writing written