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GRAMMAR

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DEFINEDEFINE

WHAT IS GRAMMAR?

According to Dictionary.com, grammar is a set

of rules that is applied to a language.

Ms. Valentine’s10 Parts of Speech

Eight parts of speech make up the English language.

Noun AdverbPronoun VerbAdjective PrepositionDeterminer Conjunction Interjection Appositives

Nouns are words that represent people, places, things, and ideals.

PRONOUNS! This gets tricky. Pronouns represent nouns (antecedents).

Ian went to English class today.He went to English class today.

Above is a personal pronoun. Here are some more:

#1 I, you, he, she, it, we, they, me, you #2 him, her, it, us, them

#3 my, mine, your, yours, his, her, hers, its, our, ours, their, theirs

Pronouns#1 These are pronouns that go in the subject, subjective case pronouns.

#2 These are pronouns that go in the object places of the sentence, objective case pronouns.

#3 these pronouns represent antecedents that show ownership, possessive case pronouns.

Reflexive Prounouns

Have you ever seen “theirself,” “hisself,” “herself?”

Why does this sound weird?

RULE: Never use “hisself” or “theirself.”

It is a rule that used to be relevant in Old English. Now it is a rule because it is a rule. That is it.

USE: Myself, yourself, himself, herself, itself, oneself, ourselves, yourself, themselves

NOT – hisself or theirself

Reflexive Pronouns Used as Intensive

Pronouns

These are simply used for emphasis.

• If Ms. Phillips was really proud of organizing her house, she might say, “I organized my house myself!”

• Each group write down four sentences that have intensive pronouns in them!

4 MINUTES! GO!

Demonstrative pronouns

This, that, these, those

They “demonstrate” or “point out” certain nouns.

These are my children. (Children is the antecedent)

that is my donut. (Donut is the antecedent)

This is going to be the best week ever! (Week is the antecedent)

Those are my chocolates. (Chocolate is the antecedent)

Indefinite pronouns

For the most part, I would love for you to forget the following exists when

writing…..

Any, anyone, all, each, everybody,everyone, anybody, some, someone, none, no one, both, etc.

These words make sweeping generalizations too easy to make or are too vague. Avoid these!

THEIRThe English language has changed so much that we often have rules that don’t seem to make much sense anymore. We also have some gaps in the language.

What is wrong with the following sentence?

Nobody knows that eating chocolate-broccoli muffins is a good way to provide their bodies

with vitamin C.

“NOBODY” is actually a SINGULAR pronoun. (Body vs. Bodies)

Here are some more singular pronouns that we think of as plural that are actually singular.

Any, anyone, each, everybody,everyone, anybody, someone, no one

What happens when we need to write a sentence like this:

Anyone who wants to join must sign ________ name on the

paper.

Nobody knows that eating chocolate-broccoli muffins is a good way to provide their bodies with vitamin C.

“Their” is used for plural possession.

No word in the English that can close the gap for gender neutral singular posession. Thus, we say:

Anyone who wants to join must sign his or

her name on the paper.

Nobody knows that eating chocolate-broccoli muffins is a good way to provide his or her body with vitamin C!

Gender neutral, singular pronoun

Since we have to match the pronoun with the antecedent, we need to know our options!

Gender Singular Plural

Masculine His Their

Feminine Her Their

Neutral Its/ his or her Their

Its, Their, His, Her, His or Her

These words modify nouns. Adjectives answer the questions: Which? What

kind? How many?Pretty girlFast carSmelly trashRinging phoneFun homeworkSpirited teacherExcited Edison Eagles

Adjectives

The dog ran along the road.

The spry, young dog ran along the dusty, lonely dirt road.

The old, ragged dog ran along the busy, deadly street.

Is “ragged” and adjective?Can you put it in front of a noun?

The ragged girlThe ragged streetThe ragged bike

YES! Then, it must be an adjective!

Is-it-an-adjective test

Adverbs modify verbs, adverbs, and adjectives. They answer the questions: Where? When? How? To what extent?

Once, Babe Ruth playfully pointed to the spot where he would hit a home run.

The exceedingly beautiful woman turned everyone’s eyes.

The play put on by the high school drama club was poorly done.

Adverbs

There are three main types of verbs.Action Verbs: The class drove to the fair.Be Verbs: The flower smells pretty.Modal Verbs: The class should have turned in

their work, but they were busy with Edison Week. Linking Verbs: The flower is pretty.

Verbs tell the reader what the subject is doing.

VERBS

We are going to mainly worry about one kind of determiner.Articles: the, a, an

#1 “a” vs. “an”#2 “a” vs. “the”What is the difference between the two words

in #1?What about #2?

Determiners

Prepositions have an uninformative definition. We are going to just recall some of them. Here are some samples.

About Above Across After Against AmongAround As At Before Behind BelowBeneath Beside Besides Between Beyond ByDown During Except For From In InsideInto Like Near Of Off On Out Outside OverSince Through Throughout To Toward Under UntilUp Upon With Without

Well, I am so happy you are here today! Ugh, I really didn’t want to get up this morning.Shucks, I think I forgot my pencil. These words are all used to show emotion, and

they do not fit into any other part of speech. They are called interjections.

WOW! HOLY COW! GOODNESS!

- Hooking up words and phrases and clauses

- Joining words:

- apples and pears, - teachers but not students- neither chicken nor beef - either an essay or a presentation

But, and, or, nor, yet, for, although….

At school and at homeHitting the books and sleeping eight

hoursThey will fly straight home or stop

overnight in Dubuque.

Combining Phrases with Conjunctions!

We went to the fair, and we had a good time.Elmo is mean, and I don’t like him.I disapprove of her spending money on lottery

tickets, and I told her so.

Combining Sentences with Conjunctions

An appositive is a noun or noun phrase that renames another noun right beside it.

The insect, a cockroach, is crawling across the kitchen table.

The insect, a large cockroach, is crawling across the kitchen table.

The insect, a large cockroach with hairy legs, is crawling across the kitchen table.

The insect, a large, hairy-legged cockroach that has spied my bowl of oatmeal, is crawling across the kitchen table.

Appositives

1) Noun + Be Verb + Adverb (SC)2) Noun + Be Verb + Adjective (SC)3) Noun + Be Verb + Noun (SC)4) Noun + Linking Verb + Adjective (SC)5) Noun + Linking Verb + Noun (SC)6) Noun + Action Verb7) Noun + Action Verb + Direct Object8) Noun + Action Verb + Direct Object + Indirect

Object9) Noun + Action Verb + Direct Object + Adjective

(OC)10) Noun + Action Verb + Direct Object + Noun (OC)

Sentence Patterns in English

1) Noun + Be Verb + Adverb (SC)2) Noun + Be Verb + Adjective (SC)3) Noun + Be Verb + Noun (SC)

1) Someone is there. The bag is on the bus.2) She is pretty. It is as beautiful as the

stars.3) He is a doctor. She is a actor on

Broadway.

Be Verb Sentence Patterns

4) Noun + Linking Verb + Adjective (SC)5) Noun + Linking Verb + Noun (SC)

4) The students seem intelligent.5) The students became scholars.

Linking Verb Sentence Patterns

6) Noun + Action Verb

6) The students tested. The students tested in the classroom.

The students studied. The students studied with each other.

Intransitive Verb

7) Noun + Action Verb + Direct Object8) Noun + Action Verb + Direct Object + Indirect

Object

7) The students studied their assignment.8) The students gave the professor their

homework.

Transitive Verb Patterns

9) Noun + Action Verb + Direct Object + Adjective (OC)

10) Noun + Action Verb + Direct Object + Noun (OC)

9) The students consider the teacher intelligent.

10) The students consider the course a challenge.

Transitive verb patterns with OC