The Editor’s Manual
Free learning resource on English grammar, punctuation, usage, and style.
The subject is the person or thing performing an action, or whom or what a state or event refers to. Subjects may be simple or complete, and compound. They may also be definite and indefinite, fake and real, empty, and implied.
“Who’s” is the contraction of “who is” or “who has,” while “whose” is the possessive form of “who.”
An ellipsis is a series of three dots. In a quotation, an ellipsis signifies omitted words. In a dialogue or narrative, the ellipsis shows faltering speech or a pause.
A period indicates a longer pause than a comma or a semicolon. Use a period to end a sentence and to mark the end of a thought or fragment. Also use periods in abbreviations and to separate initials before a surname.
It’s grammatically fine to start a sentence with a conjunction like “and,” “but,” and “or.” Do this when you want to emphasize the connection between two sentences.
It is grammatically fine to use “because” at the start of a sentence. Just remember to write a complete sentence, and avoid using a pronoun before its noun.
Conjunctions link words, phrases, clauses, and sentences, and show a logical relation between them. Coordinating conjunctions (e.g., “and,” “but”) link elements of equal grammatical status, while subordinating conjunctions (e.g., “because,” “though”) make one clause depend on another for complete meaning.
Prepositions with overlapping meanings: In/into/inside/within, in/during, for/since, on/upon/onto, over/above, over/more than, under/less than, below/beneath/under/underneath, off/of, beside/besides, round/around, to/toward/towards.
It is perfectly acceptable and idiomatic to end a sentence with a preposition. Consider “What are you talking about?” and “This is what I was looking for.”
Prepositions express relations of time (“during the day”) and space (“at the market”), and other abstract relations (“the secret of happiness”) between two parts of a sentence.