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The Little Green Grammar Book
What really goes on inside a sentence? What is your subject, and where is your verb, and what is its tense, and where is your modifier, and why does it matter? Where do you need a comma, and where do you not? Why are dashes and semicolons so misunderstood? When is it which and when is it that? In The Little Green Grammar Book , Mark Tredinnick asks and answers the tough grammar questions—big and small—with the same verve and authority readers encountered in The Little Red Writing Book . The Little Green Grammar Book does for grammar what The Little Red Writing Book did for style. It will have you writing like a writer in no time.
255 pages, Paperback
First published September 1, 2008
20 people are currently reading
214 people want to read
About the author
Mark Tredinnick
29 books30 followersMark Tredinnick (born 1962) is a celebrated Australian poet, essayist and teacher. Winner of the Montreal International Poetry Prize in 2011 and the Cardiff International Poetry Competition in 2012. He is the author of thirteen books, including four volumes of poetry (Bluewren Cantos, Fire Diary, The Lyrebird, The Road South); The Blue Plateau; The Little Red Writing Book and "Writing Well: the Essential Guide." For twenty years he has taught poetry, grammar, creative nonfiction and business prose in Sydney and around the world.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
October 14, 2012
This author is very talented.
Grammar is one of the most important aspects of writing. So when I picked up this book, I found myself devouring it, because he did such a tremendous job in explaining rules in a light-hearted fashion. His writing is informative, but not heavy, and most importantly it is so unique compared to other grammar books that only have questions...without any real detail. I preferred this book over other grammar books.
Well done, Mark Tredinnick, and I will definitely go and read, 'The Little Red Grammar Book,' which was written before this one.
Grammar is one of the most important aspects of writing. So when I picked up this book, I found myself devouring it, because he did such a tremendous job in explaining rules in a light-hearted fashion. His writing is informative, but not heavy, and most importantly it is so unique compared to other grammar books that only have questions...without any real detail. I preferred this book over other grammar books.
Well done, Mark Tredinnick, and I will definitely go and read, 'The Little Red Grammar Book,' which was written before this one.
January 1, 2016
The Little Green Book of Confused Rants
On Mark Tredinnick's website, which contains numerous spelling mistakes, including the misspelling of the word language ('langauge'), he states that The Little Green Grammar Book is 'fun' and 'useful' and quotes his own media release, 'It is a book, like Lynne Truss's Eats, Shoots and Leaves, to be enjoyed, not merely used'. This is a brave comparison; critics savaged Eats, Shoots and Leaves for its inconsistencies, grammar and punctuation errors, and for failing to follow its own advice. It is an apt comparison, however, because The Little Green Grammar Book—Tredinnick's follow up to The Little Red Writing Book—is fundamentally inconsistent and capricious.
Tredinnick adamantly claims that The Little Green Grammar Book is a book for writers—that it is not a reference book, and he rages against 'a cardigan-wearing cadre of joyless pedants' (p. 14) and 'cardigan-wearing grammar nazis' (p. 199). Maybe he thought this 'langauge' would appeal to his readers, but such comments would be at home alongside others such as 'I'm not racist, but…' or 'feminazi', and, as such, are inappropriate. His repeated outbursts about cardigans (what have cardigans ever done to him?) and pedants are at odds with large sections of the book that are prescriptive and specifically tell us the 'dos and don'ts' of grammar and punctuation.
Of the four main parts of the book, 'Part Three—Keeping the Pieces Apart', and 'Part Four—Twenty-one Grammar Gaffes and How to Avoid Them', for example, specifically tell us what we can and cannot do with grammar and punctuation. However, Tredinnick's approach is erratic. Amid telling us what is acceptable, he throws a tantrum about his editors telling him how to use quotation marks correctly (p. 188–189), yet then goes on to complain about TV news getting grammar wrong (p. 212) and how incorrect usage 'defies logic' (p. 213).
His confusion about the aim of the book climaxes in 'Epilogue—Learn the Rules; Forget the Rules', where he tells readers to learn and observe the grammar and punctuation 'disciplines' and to look them up 'in this book or another'. Despite this inconsistency, these sections and their examples—unlike other sections of the book—are somewhat useful. However, there are other issues—he breaks his own advice on using bullet points (p. 37), his reasoning for not using a full stop for abbreviations contradicts his reasoning for insisting on commas, and, for some reason, many of the words in italics seem to randomly change font/size (e.g. p. 154, p. 177).
In parts one and two of the book, Tredinnick awkwardly tries to straddle the line between traditional grammar and modern linguistics and jumps straight into complex discussions about syntax and grammar. The result is confusing and overwhelming, and he usually only defines what he is talking about as an afterthought.
'I suppose I should have added that there might be more than one subject, verb, object and/or modifier on stage, as here, at any given time. There might be two or more leads, and two or more support actors, and two or more verbs and any number of modifiers, or none at all. And to be completely honest, there are a couple of other quasi-functions that I’ll come to later: or at least there are a couple of fancy names for bit parts that occur often enough and closely resemble the main ones. I’m thinking of appositive and complements.' (p. 27)
Tredinnick borrows much of the information in parts one and two from linguistics. Unfortunately, he picks and chooses the bits that suit him and doesn't seem to fully understand the linguistic functions he is discussing.
'Pam Peters notes (p. 788) that, in mainstream contemporary grammatical thought, the entire predicate of a clause may be referred to as a verb phrase, which is not, perhaps, the same thing as a verbal phrase. Huddleston’s book is an example of this approach. He gives this example,
Cats like water,
Describing like + water as the VP, that is, the verb phrase, and predicate; he then calls like the ‘verb’ and ‘predicator’, and water the ‘object’ and ‘noun phrase’.
I’m not sure it helps to call the predicate anything else than the predicate, so I won’t be calling it a ‘verb phrase’ here. (I should also note that the usage noun phrase for a noun, when it is a single word, doesn’t make much sense to me...)' (p. 61)
Commentators have described The Little Green Grammar Book as 'light-hearted', 'humorous', and 'a pleasure to read', but many readers will find that adjectives such as confused, rambling, and awkward would be more appropriate. While some sections do have merit, other books—such as The Professional Writing Guide: Writing Well and Knowing Why or Style: Ten Lessons in Clarity and Grace—will prove more useful for writers.
Website Reference:
Tredinnick, Mark. 'The Little Green Grammar Book.' Tredinnick, 2 Jan. 2010. Web. 2 Sep. 2014. http://www.marktredinnick.com.au/inde...
On Mark Tredinnick's website, which contains numerous spelling mistakes, including the misspelling of the word language ('langauge'), he states that The Little Green Grammar Book is 'fun' and 'useful' and quotes his own media release, 'It is a book, like Lynne Truss's Eats, Shoots and Leaves, to be enjoyed, not merely used'. This is a brave comparison; critics savaged Eats, Shoots and Leaves for its inconsistencies, grammar and punctuation errors, and for failing to follow its own advice. It is an apt comparison, however, because The Little Green Grammar Book—Tredinnick's follow up to The Little Red Writing Book—is fundamentally inconsistent and capricious.
Tredinnick adamantly claims that The Little Green Grammar Book is a book for writers—that it is not a reference book, and he rages against 'a cardigan-wearing cadre of joyless pedants' (p. 14) and 'cardigan-wearing grammar nazis' (p. 199). Maybe he thought this 'langauge' would appeal to his readers, but such comments would be at home alongside others such as 'I'm not racist, but…' or 'feminazi', and, as such, are inappropriate. His repeated outbursts about cardigans (what have cardigans ever done to him?) and pedants are at odds with large sections of the book that are prescriptive and specifically tell us the 'dos and don'ts' of grammar and punctuation.
Of the four main parts of the book, 'Part Three—Keeping the Pieces Apart', and 'Part Four—Twenty-one Grammar Gaffes and How to Avoid Them', for example, specifically tell us what we can and cannot do with grammar and punctuation. However, Tredinnick's approach is erratic. Amid telling us what is acceptable, he throws a tantrum about his editors telling him how to use quotation marks correctly (p. 188–189), yet then goes on to complain about TV news getting grammar wrong (p. 212) and how incorrect usage 'defies logic' (p. 213).
His confusion about the aim of the book climaxes in 'Epilogue—Learn the Rules; Forget the Rules', where he tells readers to learn and observe the grammar and punctuation 'disciplines' and to look them up 'in this book or another'. Despite this inconsistency, these sections and their examples—unlike other sections of the book—are somewhat useful. However, there are other issues—he breaks his own advice on using bullet points (p. 37), his reasoning for not using a full stop for abbreviations contradicts his reasoning for insisting on commas, and, for some reason, many of the words in italics seem to randomly change font/size (e.g. p. 154, p. 177).
In parts one and two of the book, Tredinnick awkwardly tries to straddle the line between traditional grammar and modern linguistics and jumps straight into complex discussions about syntax and grammar. The result is confusing and overwhelming, and he usually only defines what he is talking about as an afterthought.
'I suppose I should have added that there might be more than one subject, verb, object and/or modifier on stage, as here, at any given time. There might be two or more leads, and two or more support actors, and two or more verbs and any number of modifiers, or none at all. And to be completely honest, there are a couple of other quasi-functions that I’ll come to later: or at least there are a couple of fancy names for bit parts that occur often enough and closely resemble the main ones. I’m thinking of appositive and complements.' (p. 27)
Tredinnick borrows much of the information in parts one and two from linguistics. Unfortunately, he picks and chooses the bits that suit him and doesn't seem to fully understand the linguistic functions he is discussing.
'Pam Peters notes (p. 788) that, in mainstream contemporary grammatical thought, the entire predicate of a clause may be referred to as a verb phrase, which is not, perhaps, the same thing as a verbal phrase. Huddleston’s book is an example of this approach. He gives this example,
Cats like water,
Describing like + water as the VP, that is, the verb phrase, and predicate; he then calls like the ‘verb’ and ‘predicator’, and water the ‘object’ and ‘noun phrase’.
I’m not sure it helps to call the predicate anything else than the predicate, so I won’t be calling it a ‘verb phrase’ here. (I should also note that the usage noun phrase for a noun, when it is a single word, doesn’t make much sense to me...)' (p. 61)
Commentators have described The Little Green Grammar Book as 'light-hearted', 'humorous', and 'a pleasure to read', but many readers will find that adjectives such as confused, rambling, and awkward would be more appropriate. While some sections do have merit, other books—such as The Professional Writing Guide: Writing Well and Knowing Why or Style: Ten Lessons in Clarity and Grace—will prove more useful for writers.
Website Reference:
Tredinnick, Mark. 'The Little Green Grammar Book.' Tredinnick, 2 Jan. 2010. Web. 2 Sep. 2014. http://www.marktredinnick.com.au/inde...
September 23, 2011
The Little Green Grammar Book is a great guide but not necessarily a great teacher.
Tredinnick draws together a lot of what I already knew about English grammar, so I enjoyed the read. But as I discovered when I had to make quizzes based on this book, and teach it to university students, the line between traditional grammar and modern linguistics is straddled uneasily, at least if you're looking for definitive answers. It can be done, and for anyone interested in grammar needs to be done to some extent, if only to make sense of the many competing perspectives on grammar. For someone without much knowledge of grammar, though, it would be easy to read this and walk away thinking they'd learned a lot. I'm not sure how much they'd actually remember. Tredinnick skates over a lot, and chooses his examples carefully, only to (sometimes) return to things later; it's worth re-reading if this is your only introduction to grammar.
Having said that, it is an easy read, and I like Tredinnick's approach, which is very much geared towards writers and concerned with what works more than what is "right". As long as you're not expecting the One True Grammar of English--which doesn't exist--there's a lot of useful material in here.
Tredinnick draws together a lot of what I already knew about English grammar, so I enjoyed the read. But as I discovered when I had to make quizzes based on this book, and teach it to university students, the line between traditional grammar and modern linguistics is straddled uneasily, at least if you're looking for definitive answers. It can be done, and for anyone interested in grammar needs to be done to some extent, if only to make sense of the many competing perspectives on grammar. For someone without much knowledge of grammar, though, it would be easy to read this and walk away thinking they'd learned a lot. I'm not sure how much they'd actually remember. Tredinnick skates over a lot, and chooses his examples carefully, only to (sometimes) return to things later; it's worth re-reading if this is your only introduction to grammar.
Having said that, it is an easy read, and I like Tredinnick's approach, which is very much geared towards writers and concerned with what works more than what is "right". As long as you're not expecting the One True Grammar of English--which doesn't exist--there's a lot of useful material in here.
July 21, 2019
Comprehensive, but a little too technical to be useful for the non-writer.
May 18, 2016
Bit devo as I expected this to be amazing and I was fairly disappointed by how overly technical this book was considering it is a guide (I kind of wanted to expand or fill in gaps of knowledge I have and all it did was leapfrog those gaps and continue on as if I knew what was still happening).
However, plan to come back to once I find a guide that can explain things right from A, all the way to Z.
However, plan to come back to once I find a guide that can explain things right from A, all the way to Z.
February 21, 2022
As someone with dyslexia, grammar is not my strongest suit. Tredinnick's book brings together many different grammatical rules in one place, leading to a comprehensive resource for those seeking to learn more about grammar.
The book is filled with humour which made the book all the easier to read, considering it was the assigned reading for a university course.
The book is filled with humour which made the book all the easier to read, considering it was the assigned reading for a university course.
July 27, 2011
Considering that I had to read this book for University, I really enjoyed it. I didn't expect that the book would be as humorous or interesting as it was, and it made me love grammar just that little bit more.
September 30, 2016
Excellent and engaging review of the structure of the English language. Colorful, memorable examples and a series of gentle reminders of why the rules exist.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews