ClickcGREFS for links
to the old Grammar REFerenceS to see where all the vacant Courses are going.

FOR THE SELF TESTER, CLICK HERE.

.. .. .Punctuation, Grammar, Usage . . . .Basic and.Intermediate e. . . e. . . . .. . .. . . . .Trophy . . . . . .. .Quick Clicks .Main-Menu .and bonus points for extras. . . . . . Writing, Grammar, Usage . . Intermediate and Advanced e. . . . .. . .. . . . . Trophy . . . . . . .. Grefs1 A to E Grefs 2 A to E Grefs 3 A to E Grefs 4 A to E Grefs 5 A to E Grefs 6 A to E Grefs 7A Grefs 7E Grefs 8A Grefs 8E .Ready .CourseA1 Ready .CourseA2 Ready .CourseA3 Ready .CourseA4 *Horizontal for Continuity Ready .CourseA5 Ready .CourseA6 Ready * .CourseA7 Next .CourseA8 CourseB1 CourseB2  CourseB3   CourseB4  . .....Vertical for . . . . .Variety  CourseB5   CourseB6   CourseB7  .CourseB8 CourseC1 CourseC2 CourseC3 CourseC4 CourseC5 CourseC6 CourseC7 CourseC8 CourseD1  CourseD2  CourseD3  CourseD4 Black with display in AP Classes *Eventually  CourseD5  CourseD6  CourseD7  CourseD8 CourseE1 CourseE2 CourseE3 CourseE4 CourseE5 CourseE6 CourseE7 CourseE8 !  *But !to save !until AP ! !records !!!work !*8 horizontal choices: a straight row across 8 levels (best 5) will be a Trophy as always. *8 Random choices within 1, 2, 3, 4 (OR 5,6,7,8) are each, one Trophy, not yet allowed. Maximum two trophies per person, unless the rules change, but bonus points are good!               .                                                           *                                                                                 We need to invent a way to link *5 to 8 randomly!completed courses for Trophies A 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 B 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 C 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 D 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 E 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 With these it will be possible to get two trophies entirely with five to eight assignments each. A copy of this chart goes into the folder of each student who starts this set, and my bonus points flow. Hand-updated, your numbers turn dark when work is successfully completed. As for trophies... we beg? Even without Kevin's miracles, Random-trophies can become more than a figment of creative imagination. (or if I can't manage it, % of 250 points per Trophy you earned.) If you EVER started and had to discontinue before finishing, a Trophy may wait for you! Click Random Record . .

. Navigate by clicking the places above. Be Grammar-Confident GrammarGURU Leisurely Crash Course in Written English (oxymoron anyone?) Euphemistically called Updated Usage Both British and American Forms Grefs.htm SEE what you knew, --- and possibly didn't. ......(Are you sure? Check it out, decide what your answers ......would be in a self-test in the box below, ..................and then click to find the answers! ......Note, this gives help before taking 'The Test' !. . TAKE the TEST If you get them all right, (or 12 or more.... ......please tell me! I may need a second assistant someday. ) ......Detailed answers and help follow the test.. .. History of Language: It is almost too late. ......WWhat happened to our language, Why, and How to help. . .Turbulent History of all www.mattaweb.ca websites ......WWhen it heals and sites become available, feel free to visit ......WKaleidoscope ( poetry ), Two novels, ( for and by kids ) ......Wand other more useful sites. About like who presumes to teach the rest of us? Please respect Copyright . Can you proofread what you wrote?

Quick Clicks

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Playing with our language: Exploring the writers' toolbox Can you spot the spelling mistakes that spell-check software cannot find because they are real words, just the wrong words? What is the difference: its and it's, your and you're, lay and lie? To, too, and two? Who's and whose? Could you use them correctly in sentences? Do you know how to avoid mistakes in these? Which are right: Give it to me and him. The flock of geese flies south. Everyone has their own way. Between you and I, he's right ? Do you know how to paragraph and punctuate conversation? Important if you'd like to learn how to write good stories. Do you believe plural's need apostrophe's? (Some local newspapers do!) Do you feel secure with verb tenses, regular and irregular, when to use "may" and "might" and know why it matters? Are you sure? TAKE the TEST Check it out, click answers! And for dessert, to be treated like puzzles: Can you analyze all sentences from whatever source and show what makes them tick? Jobs as publishers' editors need this. You will. .

To the Rescue: The Truly Amazing GrammarGURU You believe that? Not likely, but in a world that has forgotten more than it ever knew, all things are relative. Achieving the Age of Literacy For hundreds of years in human history the English language struggled to emerge from the Dark Ages where only the scribes and certain clergy.knew how to read and copy scriptures. Beowulf, author unknown, is the earliest written fiction, illegible today except by scholars. Translations do exist, but it was not until the 1200's that another piece of fiction came: The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer. In it we can decipher that human nature and motivations have not changed much over millennia. Considering archaic "Saxon" spelling and vocabulary of Chaucer's Middle English it is a magnificent achievement that by the 1500's it.could coalesce into the beautifully articulate English of Milton and William Shakespeare. So it continued, for more than four centuries, appreciated by multitudes and easily within the living.memory of this writer!.......... ....................................................................................... Return of the Oral Tradition It was quick but very subtle. At first the advent of Television fascinated the population. Years passed and no one noticed that more and more, we watched and listened instead. of reading for news and entertainment. Fifteen years, that's all it took here. where I live, for the school system to respond to demands to modernize.... .. Something had to be dropped from the curriculum to make room for new technology; where tape recorders replaced written record keeping, kids wrote less. Cassettes, videotapes soon were all needed to be included in the new Computer literacy. That it added a new visual component to research when connected to a printer, copying the work of others.. During the almost two generations since.the 1960's when intensive. formal teaching of Grammar was dropped, we hardly noticed a quietly surreptitious slide to "anything-goes" acceptance of the oral tradition:. "spelling doesn't matter if it sounds right."... .... It has reached a stage where to many, the correct form looks wrong. It is sad. A beautiful language that took hundreds of years to perfect will have been eroded in less than half a century to mere utility. chart ...

It's time to give the dog its supper. Its time to give the dog it's supper. .

Your right if you're answers match these. You're right if your answers match these. .

The dog lay all day on the floor. The dog will lie all day on the floor. Please lay the books on that table. He lied where he laid the documents. Chickens lay eggs which lie in the nest, truthfully. .

Two boys went to play ball too. Too boys went two play ball to. Too many boys went to play ball. .

Whose going to find who's coat was left? Who's going to find whose coat was left? .

Give it to me and him. Give it to him and I. Between you and I, it is not true. He is smarter than you and me. .

The flock of geese fly south. The flock of geese flies south. .

Everyone has their own way. All have their own way. .

She will not forgive my having to go. She will not forgive me having to go. .

The difference between us Liberals and the others... The difference between we Liberals and the others... .

If only he had arrived sooner, he may have saved her If only he had arrived sooner, he might have saved her

Furthermore . . .
Do you know how to avoid mistakes in their choice?
Which (ones) are right?
Find out why, click answers!

Challenge-answers and more information

It's time to give the dog its supper. (It's means it is. Pronoun possessives have no apostrophe. . . . . . . . . . . . . Remember, in "He found his wallet," we do not put an apostrophe in "his" either.) You're right if your answers match these. (means you are. Pronoun possessive). The dog lay all day on the floor. (Yesterday it lay there. Past of verb "lie." ) The dog will lie all day on the floor. ( Future of verb "lie.") Please lay the books on that table. ( The present form (now) of verb "lay" must have an object.). . . . . . . . He lied where he laid the documents. ( Past of "to lie", tell untruths, Past of verb "to lay") Chickens lay eggs which lie in the nest, truthfully.( "lay" must have an object, eggs, to lie is to rest.. . . . . Two boys went to play ball too (Two, number, to play, infinitive of verb, to is a preposition, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . "too" means also, remember it has "too many o's"). Who's going to find whose coat was left? ( Who's means who is. whose Pronoun possessive He got a ticket to a Leafs game.( This is the name of a hockey team, and does not take an an. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . apostrophe). Give it to me and him. ( It means to me and to him. ) More polite, Give it to him. and me. The flock of geese flies south.( The flock flies. of geese tells us that sheep have not sprouted wings.. . . All have their own way. ( A plural subject needs a plural possessive, One is singular, his, her.). She will not forgive my having to go. ( "having" acts as a noun, and needs possessive my ) The difference between us Liberals and the others... ( between us and the others ). If only he had arrived sooner, he might have saved her ( May is present, might is past-- . . . . . . .. . . . . . .. . . . . . .. . . . . . .. . because he did not get there in time, the past is needed,)