English Grammar Rules & Mistakes: Learn All of the Essentials: Writing, Speaking, Literature and Punctuation Rules Complete with 10 Key Skills and Over 200 Common Error Examples

graduate is a verb meaning when you matriculate from college. The second
graduate is a noun meaning you will be a person with a degree. These two
words are heteronyms of each other because they are spelled the same but
sound different. This is very common with lots of verb/noun combinations of
the same word route. For example, insult, abuse, contest, permit, etc. 
A really helpful way to remember how to pronounce these words is to learn
the correct intonation for both the verb and the noun. When it is the verb
version of the world the intonation is placed on the second beat of the word.
In graduate, this means that ‘duate is emphasized. Whereas, with the noun
version, the first beat is emphasized, which in this case is gra’. Try this out
with the different words listed above and you will see that this formula works
every time!
So there we go, you have just had your first introduction into the wonderful
world of the exceptions of the English language. If you are anything like me,
you will enjoy these little idiosyncrasies. If you are not, don’t worry, just set
about learning them thoroughly so you’re not laughed out of the board
meeting for putting ‘your welcome’ in your Powerpoint presentation! 

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RULE 4 – BECOME A PUNCTUATION PRO
I want to write a really clear chapter for you that explains exactly why
punctuation is key because without punctuation we would be faced with
incredibly long sentences that never seem to end or have any direction to
them instead they simply continue onwards until some cataclysmic event
stops them or perhaps the cat comes to sit on the laptop forcing the writer to
pay attention to the cat wanting to have dinner rather than focusing on how to
form a punchy punctuation chapter that inspires people to use punctuation
correctly which whilst the writer pauses to think about the cat at that moment
fortunately puts its tail on the period button.
Wow! That was uncomfortable, wasn’t it? That is because life without
punctuation is uncomfortable as it simply loses meaning and we are unable to
communicate effectively. 
Think of punctuation as the conductor in an orchestra. As part of an
orchestra, you have the strings section, the brass section, the percussion
section, and the wind section. These represent our verbs, nouns, adjectives,
and adverbs. If all of these sections were to play at once, or in an unorganized
way, the sound they would make would be terrible. Enter center stage, the
conductor. The function of this person is to manage all of the different
sections and organize them so they play at different times and for different
reasons. The result is a beautiful, melodic piece of music. 
The same goes for punctuation. It serves as a way to organize our written
language so that the reader knows where one sentence starts and where
another one begins. As well as this, different forms of punctuation can be
used to emphasize certain parts of the sentence, such as an exclamation mark
which indicates surprise or shock to the reader. 
So rather than having long, rambling sentences about your cat, learn how to
become a punctuation pro and you will certainly impress with your writing
skills.

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