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[edit]If I'm spewing out false information that hasn't yet been addressed or corrected, please inform me. And I know, my quoting methods aren't perfect.[/edit]

[I will redistrubute the BBCs when I get the time!]

Although grammar policing is a fairly ridiculous pastime done mainly by pseudo-academics without any real understanding of English grammar or linguistics, there are a few guidelines that people should follow so that we can at the very least understand each other. These guidelines can often be violated without becoming totally incomprehensible, but a lot of the time that requires more effort for the readers and making it difficult for the readers doesn't encourage them to like you or your ideas very much.

General Rules
Spelling
-If you don't know how to spell something, please look it up.
-It will sometimes be corrected.

Capitalization
-The first letter of every sentence should be capitalized to make it more obvious.
-The first letter of proper names (people's/places'/institutions' names, the Judeo-Christian God, titles of books, days of the week, months of the year) should be capitalized to distinguish them from regular nouns.
-Acronyms, such as ADD for 'Attention Deficit Disorder', are capitalized, to distinguish them from words that aren't acronyms.

Nouns
-There are different cases of nouns, such as subject, object, and possessive, that tell you the role the noun plays in the sentence.
Ex: In the sentence "Your friend hit him," "Your friend" is the subject, "him" is the object, and "your" is a possessive.
-The pronouns in English change depending on whether they are subjects, objects or possessives:
-I, you, he, she, it, we, they, and who are all subjects.
-Me, you, him, her, it, us, them and who(m) are all objects.
-My, your, his, her, its, our, their, and whose are all possessives.
Note: "mine", "yours", "his", "hers", "its", "ours", and "theirs" and "whose" are forms of the possessive pronouns that don't attach directly to a noun, but rather stand alone with the noun implied; "that house is mine" versus "that house is my house".
-Nouns that aren't pronouns have the same form in the subject and object, and if they don't end in "s" the possessive is formed by adding " 's" to the end; if they do end in "s", the possessive is formed by adding just the apostrophe.

Verbs
-You probably know the basics of verbs. They're very complicated.
-The subjunctive is for when you're speaking of a situation that isn't certain, that is hypothetical, or is desired (but not necessarily real), i.e. sentences that have "if..." or "I wish that..."
-For the subjunctive present tense of "to be", instead of using the present tense, use "were" in all cases: "If I were at home right now", "If they were at home right now", etc.
-For the past tense, use "had" for all verbs: "If I had been at home", "If they had gone home", etc.
-The future tense uses "would", "I wish they would go home".
-The conditional, "would" and "could", comes after the "then" in "if...then" statements: "If I had been at home, then I could have have watched TV". The condition can also be used after "If only...", as in "if only they would go home."

Adjectives versus Adverbs
-Adjectives describe nouns.
-Adverbs describe verbs, adjectives, other adverbs, and phrases.
-An adverb usually ends in '-ly'.
-"He is quick" versus "He runs quickly," and not "He runs quick."
-Usually, "how are you doing" ought to get the response of "well", not "good", in that "well" attaches to "doing", not "you". Unless you are at the moment contributing positively to the welfare of someone, you are probably not doing "good" in particular.

Prepositions
-They include on, off, around, to, with, below, before, between, etc.
-They are usually used to show relations between things, although there are many instances where prepositions have taken on idiomatic lives.
-When the preposition attaches one noun to something else, such as in "near me", the noun that follows the preposition is always in object form.
-In general, try not to separate a preposition from whatever its attached to, i.e. "the wagon that I fell off" should become "the wagon off of which I fell". Despite sounding a bit awkward, it avoids a number of potentially disastrous ambiguities.
-There are cases where a preposition has been absorbed into a verb, such as in "give [object] up" or "let [object] down"; "give up" is a single unit. There are also phrases, such as "from now on", where a preposition has been attached against normal rules. In these cases, the phrase "the wagon that I gave up" is perfectly valid, since "up" is still next to "gave".
-Also when the main verb of the sentence is "to be", a preposition can be the end of the sentence, as in "that's what it's all about".

Periods
-Periods are used in abbreviation, such as Mr. or etc.
-They come at the end of a sentence, such as "I don't like it. It isn't good."
-And they can be used to form ellipses: ...
-Note: ellipses should only be used to mark things left unsaid, such as in lists or when trailing off at the end of a sentence; they do not replace commas.

Commas
-They're used to introduce a clause, as in: "I like it, unless it isn't good."
-Also to separate items in a list, such as in: "We need eggs, milk, and flour."

Exclamation Points
-You only have to use one of them!

Question Marks
-You usually use them when the statement is in question form: "Do you like it?" or "Where is the bank?"
-Questions are formed from statements in two ways:
-The first is the yes/no form; for sentences whose main verbs that aren't some form of "to be", attach the appropriate form of "do", "shall", "will" or "can" to the front of the sentence, modifying it to match the subject and the tense, and changing the main verb to the infinitive (the "to [verb]" form, without the "to"). If the main verb of the sentence is some form of "to be", simply move that verb to the front of the sentence.
-The second form is made from the first question form, with the the part of the sentence being questioned taken out and the appropriate question word, "who", "what", "where", "when," "how", "why", "which" added to the front of the sentence.

Apostrophes
-They're used to contract certain words: "do not" becomes "don't", "will not" becomes "won't".
-And are used between a singular ending and an "s" to show possession: "The dog's toy..."
-Also used after a plural ending with "s" to show possession: "The dogs' toys..."
-And between a plural not ending with "s" and an "s" to show possession: "women's clothes".
-Don't use them for dialogue; that's what quotation marks are for.

Semicolons
-They're used when two clauses coincide with one another and a conjunction is not used.
-"She is nice, and I like her," or "She is nice; I like her," not "She is nice, I like her," or "She is nice; and I like her."

FAQ

Then or Than?
-'Then' means 'at that time' or can be used in 'if... then...'
-'Than' is a helping comparative word, as in "It is better than the last."

They're, Their, or There?
-'They're' is a contraction of 'they are'.
-'Their' is the genitive of 'they', and it means, roughly, 'belonging to them'.
-'There' means "at that place"
-'Over there' and not 'over they're' or 'over their'
-'Their dog" and not 'they're dog' or 'there dog'
-'They're tired' and not 'their tired' or 'there tired'

You're or Your?
-'You're' is a contraction of 'you are'.
-'Your' is the possessive form of 'you' meaning, roughly, 'belonging to you'.
-'You're upset' and not 'your upset'.
-'Your hand' and not 'you're hand'.

Who's or Whose?
-"who's" is a contraction of "who is"
-"whose" is the possessive form of "who" meaning "belonging to whom"
-"Whose is it?" and not "Who's is it?"
-"Who's there?" and not "Whose there?"

It's or Its?
-"it's" is a contraction that means "it is"
-"its" is the possessive form of "it" meaning "belonging to it"
-"its tail" and not "it's tail"

Affect or Effect?
-they come from the same root, but are different
-"affect" is a verb
-"effect" is a noun
-in rare cases, they can be used in different forms. As in "to effect a change" which means to create or to cause. Affect, in a certain sense, can be a noun, meaning 'a feeling associated with an action'. It's not likely that you'll use it like that.
-"What effects does it have?" and not "What affects does it have?"
-"What affects it?" and not "What effects it?"

Alot or A lot?
-"alot" is not accepted in proper English
-"a lot" is a real term meaning "much"

OK or Okay?
-either is acceptable
-you don't need to use periods in "OK"

Two, To, or Too?
-"two" is a number: 2
-"to" is a preposition, as in "Give it to him"
-"too" can mean "in addition" or can be used in comparatives like "too heavy"

Lay or Lie?
-"lay" is a transitive verb meaning "set something down"
-past tense of "lay" is "laid" or "had laid"
-"lie" is a intransitive verb meaning roughly "set oneself down"
-past tense of "lie" is "lay" or "had lain"
-"lie down on it" and not "lay down on it"
-"lay it down" and not "lie it down"

Different From or Different Than?
-most people are inclined to say "different than," but this is incorrect
-"different from" is always the correct form to use
-"hers is different from yours" and not "hers is different than yours"

Sorry, zz1000zz, but I have to make a few corrections for you.

The word "god" with a lowercase 'g' is a noun. It means a deity in a polytheistic religion.

"Alright" isn't a word. It's an assimilation of "all right" and is used only in strictly informal speech, and is not accepted formally as a real word. In my unabridged dictionary (copyright 1954) it does not have "alright" as a word. Just "already."

And I don't even know what you're saying about the nouns.

And look, we're not trying to dictate to you how to speak. We're simply trying to improve people's grammar, presuming they want to write in proper English. You can have whatever style you want.

The form you used was imperative. It doesn't need the "you" at the beginning.

And here is an equal-sided argument:
http://www.randomhouse.com/wotd/index.pperl?date=19990604

No, there's a difference between that and the imperative. "You jump," would be a normal sentence, saying that the person jumps. "Jump," is the imperative, telling the person to jump.

You have missed the point again. Honestly, I have no idea what you are thinking for those posts, so I am going to try this again. You said:



In an imperative sentence, such as, "Jump," there is no noun. This is acceptable because the sentence is understood to have a "You" in it, even though it is not written.

I wish to kill you, and I shall.