Really Simple English Grammar (Essential Series) (Paperback)

There are nine chapters: 1) Parts of Speech; 2) Sentences and Punctuation; 3) Changing Words from Singular to Plural; 4) Confusing Words; 5) Words that Sound the Same; 6) Beginnings and Endings of Words; 7) Abbreviations and Capital Letters; 8) Tricky Spellings; 9) Fancy Terminology.

Chapters 1 and 2 cover mainly the sort of things we know about language already, instinctively or unconsciously, because we use it every day. We might not be able to explain in technical detail how to cobble a sentence together but since we construct sentences on the fly, one after another, quickly, we must know most of this stuff, how ever informally. It could be handy to refer to these sections when we need to write something formal or can't remember whether to use "its" or "it's", for example.

Things start to get more interesting at about chapter 3, where the rules for changing singular nouns to plural are categorised by word endings and language of origin (Latin, Greek, French, Italian). The different categories start with a simple heading followed by one or two explanatory sentences then a list of examples. The whole book is set out in this logical, economical way, with text boxes every so often, drawing attention to common errors.

Chapter 4 lists pairs or groups of words in alphabetical order, that are easily confused, together with their definitions, specifying when each should be used. It starts with accede/exceed and ends with who/which. Some of these pairs are more easily confused than others, for example, accept/except, advice/advise, affect/effect (that one always trips me up) and biannual/biennial are often mixed up whereas discover/invent and who/which are more rarely confused. I looked for inbreed/interbreed and tome/tomb which frequently get mistaken for one another, but those pairs were missing. Well, it's a small book and doesn't claim to be definitive.

Chapter 5 also provides a handy list of words that cause confusion because they sound alike. I always have to puzzle about the spelling of 'bear' that means to carry or tolerate something - is it the same spelling as the 'bare' meaning naked or the 'bear' meaning a large furry animal? It takes a couple of seconds to find it here - just after bazaar/bizarre. Unfortunately revue/review (that our contracts manager always gets mixed up) is missing from the list.

Chapter 6 gives lists of prefixes and suffixes in alphabetical order, together with their meaning and an example such as: the prefix 'a', meaning 'not' or 'without' - example 'amoral'; the suffix 'itis', meaning 'inflammatory disease' - example 'appendicitis'. The chapter ends with rules for adding word endings.

Chapters 7, 8 and 9 are very short. Chapters 7 covers such useful information as the meaning of abbreviations like e.g., etc., NB and PS and when to use capital letters. Chapter 8 gives a long list of words with tricky spellings such as anaesthetic, bureaucracy, diarrhoea, haemorrhage, liaison and so on. Chapter 9 explains words like alliteration, cliché, euphemism, metaphor, onomatopoeia - the sort of words you come across from time to time.

I've ordered a second copy of the book because this one isn't leaving my home and we need one at work. It seems to contain most of the words we look up in the dictionary or argue about over the tops of our computers when a word-processor's grammar checker has suggested something silly. I wonder how long it will take my work colleagues to ask where they can buy a copy for home. I recommend this little gem to anyone who prefers quick, simple explanations and doesn't want to trawl through pages of incomprehensible, technical detail in a large scholarly tome.