Exercise 1 - Complete Sentences
Is the group of words a complete sentence? Write Yes or No after each
sentence. The first two have been done for you.
1. Honestly telling everything he knew. No
2. He was honestly telling everything he knew. Yes
3. Eating too many olives for her own good.
4. Sharon wondered why the chicken soup was green.
5. Dogs who think that they’re cats.
6. Putting her gloves on backwards.
7. I saw it.
8. The mud that no one wanted to eat.
9. The boy who kept pudding in his hat.
10. The boy kept pudding in his hat.
11. Jill found the keys in her coat.
12. The keys that Jill found in her coat.
13. Playfully dancing in the snow.
14. Cameras without any film.
15. Moving with great speed.
16. We’ll share the secret with you.
Exercise 2 - Verb Search
Underline the verbs. Here’s some help: In each sentence, there will be two or three
verbs and they will always be in alphabetical order. The nouns and adjectives that are
made from verbs don't count. The first sentence has been done for you.
1. Boris carefully avoided the boiling milk that was on the
stove.
2. While blissfully bathing in his wading pool, Cameron
failed to notice the hungry little shark.
3. Di gazed into her looking glass and studied her
sparkling eyes.
4. Please count your toes every day until the count
exceeds ten.
5. Slow walking is the best exercise for someone
recovering from such an accident.
6. The annoying barking ceased when Dog recognized our
voices.
7. Patricia’s abundant supply of natural gas was the
reason why her invitation to the pajama party never went
out.
8. Be honest and fair when you deal with others.
9. Sammy suddenly saw the sinister spider sitting on his
salad.
10. Garth acts as if he has no knowledge of the criminal
acts that we reported.
Exercise 3 - Contractions
Combine each pair of italicized words into a single contraction.
Remember that the apostrophe is located where letters have been
removed. The first one has been done for you.
1. Trudy does not understand her new assignment. doesn’t
2. Sam rarely laughs while he is sleeping.
3. Bill likes chocolate but he has stopped eating it.
4. We have tried to be fair to everyone.
5. Karen and Kassy think they are cuter than you.
6. Maria refused to admit that she had put the butter in her
pocket.
7. Ashley promised that she would send us an e-mail.
8. The report will be handed in, but it will be late.
9. I wonder if it is proper to eat broth with a fork and
knife.
10. That is the silliest song they have ever sung.
Exercise 4 - Proofreading
There are two mistakes in each sentence. Write the corrected version of each
sentence. The first one has been done for you.
1. Their were ten broken egg’s in the carton.
There were ten broken eggs in the carton.
2. Each of the boys’ are writing a different story.
3. Did Taylor and me borrow the wrong car.
4. how many people seen the strange object?
5. Randall said, “Its too late to go out”!
6. The title of the book is a piece of Toast.
7. I’d like to invite joan to visit us in florida.
8. We will meet every friday during the Summer.
Exercise 5 - Fewer or Less?
The words “less” and “fewer” have similar meanings. However, they cannot be
used interchangeably. Use “fewer” when referring to an amount that could be
expressed as a specific number. Use “less” when making comparisons that do
not lend themselves to numeric amounts.
Here’s an easy rule of thumb:
Use “fewer” to modify a plural noun.
Example: I have fewer papers to write than last year.
Use “less” to modify a singular noun.
Example: You’ll need less paper if you type your report.
Write fewer or less in the blanks. The first two have been done for you.
1. A lighter car will use less gas.
2. There are fewer bugs in the updated software than in the original
version.
3. You’ll make ______________ errors when you take more time.
4. This job is ______________ difficult than I imagined.
5. I would have ordered ______________ alligator nuggets if I had
noticed the price.
6. His speech could have had ______________ words!
7. I’ll have a little ______________ water in my cup, please.
8. Which candidate would spend ______________ money on ineffective
programs?
9. Which candidate would spend ______________ dollars on ineffective
programs?
10. There are ______________ worms in my cream pie than in Angela’s.