C UZ U A I N ’ T G O T N O C H O I C E .

GRAMMAR BOOT CAMP

DIRECTIONS

• Move through each slide of grammar boot camp sequentially taking notes as needed. • Remember, all information is fair game for the ACT, so you

are responsible for taking the notes you need to make your learning meaningful and memorable.

• Any underlined word or phrase is a hyperlink that will allow you to drill down and learn more about a particular concept, if you need it.

• You are done with a particular page when you have explored it in its entirety. You should then click on the GOT IT! arrow, each of which is a hyperlink.

• Ask Ms. Kott if you have any questions.GOT IT!

REALLY. WHY MUST WE DO THIS?

GOT IT!

PARTS OF SPEECH

Noun• Proper• Common• Collective• Singular

v. Plural

Pronoun• Personal• Relative• Indefinite• Interrogative• Demonstrativ

e

Verb• Tense• Voice• Singular

v. Plural• Linking• Verbal

Adverb• Positive• Comparative• Superlative

Adjective• Proper• Predicate• Positive• Comparative• Superlative

Conjunction• Coordinating• Subordinating• Correlative

Preposition• Prepositional

phrase• Functions• Types

Interjection

Yes. Use an exclamation!

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PUNCTUATION

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USAGE

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GRAMMAR

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SPELLING

Sincerely Beginning

Character Description Definitely

Conclusion Probably Interesting Different Believe

Analyze Dialogue A lot Accommodate Weird

Happened Necessary Pursue Exhaust Every

Maybe Friend Accumulate Achieve Separate

Until Author Because Occasion Thorough

These words are commonly misspelled. You are responsible for spelling them correctly from now on! Yet another reason to proofread your work carefully. Spell check will not necessarily catch all errors…who knows, you might be writing by hand or it might be a homophone.

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NOUNS• Proper: names a particular person, place, thing, or

idea. Always capitalized. • Examples: New York, English, Abraham Lincoln

• Common: any noun that does NOT name a particular person, place, thing, or idea• Examples: city, subject, language, president

• Collective: names a group or a unit• Examples: United States, team, crowd, community

• Singular v. Plural: one versus more than one. This matters when the noun is the subject, which must agree in number with the verb.

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VERBS• Tense

• Past, present, future• Present perfect, past perfect, future perfect: indicates action that begins and ends at a specific

time.• By this time tomorrow, the hurricane will have smashed into the coast.

• Voice: indicates whether the subject is acting or being acted upon.• Active voice indicates that the subject of the verb is DOING something.

• The sun shined down on the mountain tops as it set.• Passive voice uses the verb TO BE and a past participle.

• The sun was shining down on the mountain top as it set.

• Linking: Not all to be verbs are passive. Linking verbs link the subject to a noun or adjective in the predicate.• On his skateboard, the boy felt cool. He was somebody.

• Singular v. Plural: one versus more than one. This matters because the verb must agree in number with its subject. • The flock of seagulls is flying south.

• Verbal• Gerund: a verb that ends in –ing and is used as a NOUN.

• Smoking cigarettes rotted my lungs.

• Infinitive: a verb form introduced by to; may be used as a NOUN, ADJ, or ADV.• To smoke for a long time costs some people their health and their lives.

• Participle: a verb that ends in –ing or –ed and can function as a ADJ.• The pile of smoked cigars grows each day that my grandfather and uncle spend together.

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PRONOUN

• Personal: indicates whether that pronoun is speaking, is spoken to, or is spoken about• I, me, mine/ we, us, our, ours

• The pronoun I is ALWAYS capitalized!• You, your, yours/ they, them, their, theirs• He, him, his, she, her, hers, it, its• Myself, himself, herself, itself, yourself, themselves, ourselves

• Relative: relates one part of a sentence to a word in another part of the sentence.• Who, whose, whom, which, what, that

• Indefinite: refers to unnamed or unknown people or things• All, anything, each, everyone, few, many, some, several

• Interrogative: asks a question• Who, whose, whom, which, what

• Demonstrative: points out people, places, or things without naming them• This, that, these, those GOT IT

!

ADVERB• Positive: form of an adverb that describes a verb,

adj, or other adv without comparing it to anyone or anything else.• Superman runs fast. Superman thinks quickly.

• Comparative: (-er) form compares two persons, places, things, or ideas.• Tarzan runs faster than Superman. Tarzan thinks more

quickly than Superman.

• Superlative: (-est) form compares three or more nouns.• But I, Big Bird, run fastest of all! But I, Big Bird, think

most quickly of all! GOT IT!

ADJECTIVE

• Proper: ADJ created from proper nouns. Always capitalized.• Canada the noun becomes Canadian the adjective.

• Predicate: ADJ follows a form of the verb TO BE (or other linking verb) and describes the subject.• The tree is gnarled and weathered.

• Positive: describes a noun or pronoun without comparing it to anyone or anything else.• Wonder Woman is fast.

• Comparative: (-er) compares two persons, places, things, or ideas.• Cheetarah is faster than Wonder Woman.

• Superlative: (-est) compares three or more nouns.• But I, Dash, am the fastest of all.

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CONJUNCTIONS

• Coordinating: connect word to word, phrase to phrase, or clause to clause. The words, phrases, or clauses joined by a coordinating conjunction must be equal or of the same type.• I would sit in front of the fire and eat Clementine oranges.• FANBOYS: for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so

• Subordinating: words or groups of words that connect, and show the relationship between, two clauses that are NOT equally important. Connects a dependent clause to an independent clause in order to complete the dependent clause’s meaning.• A brown trout will study the bait before he eats it.• After, although, as, before, if, since, though, until, whereas, while

• Correlative: conjunctions used in pairs• Neither rain nor sleet nor dark of night shall keep them from their

appointed rounds.• Neither/nor, either/or GOT IT

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PREPOSITION

• Definition: a preposition is a word or group of words that shows the relationship between its object and another word in the sentence.Anything Ant Wanda can do in relation to the log is a preposition.

• There are three kinds of prepositions:• Simple: at, in, of, on, with• Compound: within, outside, underneath• Phrasal: on account of, on top of

A prepositional phrase includes the preposition, the object of the preposition, and the object’s modifiers. • A prepositional phrase may function as an adjective or an adverb. • Watch out for prepositional phrases after subjects; make sure your verb agrees with your subject, not

the object of the preposition.

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SUBJECTS AND VERBS/PREDICATES MUST AGREE

• The subject and verb of any clause must agree in both person (1st, 2nd, 3rd) and number (singular versus plural). • I am doing my homework.• The teenagers run their own business. vs: The teenager runs her own business.

• Watch out for:• Indefinite pronouns

• Singular: each, either, neither, one, everybody, another, anybody, everyone, nobody, everything, somebody, and someone

• May be singular or plural: all, any, half, most, none, some. It depends on whether the object of the preposition that follows is singular or plural.• Half of the bottles were missing.• Half of the movie was over by the time we arrived.

• Collective nouns: may be singular or plural, depending on the context.• The faculty is united in its effort.• The faculty are required to turn in their keys for the summer.

• Words and phrases that come between the subject and the verb!• The flock of seagulls was on the beach. GOT

IT!

PRONOUN/ANTECEDENT AGREEMENT

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PASSIVE VERSUS ACTIVE VOICE VERBS

We have not passed that subtle line between childhood and adulthood until we move from the passive voice to the active voice--that is, until we have stopped saying "It got lost," and say, "I lost it.“

-Sydney J. Harris

Active voice allows your writing to SHOW rather than TELL.

Tips for writing in active voice:• Make sure you’re writing in a who-does-what sequence.• Renaldo ate the pizza.

• Think of how you would say the sentence. We don’t usually speak in passive voice, so try revising your writing by figuring out how you would say the idea aloud.• My car was driven to work by me. (passive)

vs.

• I drove my car to work. (active)GOT IT!

SENTENCES

• Varying Structure: It enriches your writing, like hearing an orchestra rather than a single instrument.• Simple: The dog jumped.• Compound: The dog jumped, and the cat slept.• Complex: The dog jumped while the cat slept.• Compound-complex: The dog jumped while the cat slept, and the bird flew

around its cage.

• Fragments: incomplete ideas that want to be sentences• Missing either a subject or a verb• The thieves around the jewelry store…

• Dependent clauses, which, therefore, do not convey clear meaning• After I fell off the cliff…

• Run-ons: when multiple ideas are joined without adequate punctuation• Comma splices are a common type of run-on. A comma is used where a semi-

colon, period, or comma and coordinating conjunction should go.• The dog jumped, the cat slept. GOT

IT!

CAN YOU CORRECTLY PUNCTUATE AND CAPITALIZE THIS LETTER TO JOHN?

dear johni want a man who knows what love is all about you are generous kind thoghtful people who are not like you admit to bieng useless and inferior you have ruined me for other men i yern for you i have no feelings whatsoever when were apart i can be forever happy will you let me be yours gloria

GOT IT!Think you’re done? Show the teacher

your notes and your corrected version of Dear John.

YOU ARE

DONE

WORKS CITED

• Lampariello, Luca. "How Should We Learn Grammar?" The Polyglot Dream. WordPress, 15 Feb. 2012. Web. 9 Jan. 2014.

• McCall, David. "Schoolhouse Rock." Schoolhouse Rock. ABC. 1973-85. Youtube. Disney Educational Productions, 8 Dec. 2011. Web. 9 Jan. 2014.

• Mills, Bonnie T. "Pronouns and Antecedents." Quick and Dirty Tips. Mignon Fogarty Inc, 26 Feb. 2010. Web. 13 Jan. 2014.

• Sebranek, Patrick, Verne Meyer, and Dave Kemper. "Understanding Our Language." Writers Inc. Burlington, WI: Write Source Educational Pub. House, 1996. 702-74. Print.

• We_have_not_passed_that_subtle_line_between. (n.d.). Columbia World of Quotations. Retrieved January 13, 2014, from Dictionary.com

• All images taken from Google Images on January 9, 2014 and January 13, 2014.

WHAT SHOULD YOU DO NOW?

1. Close Grammar Boot Camp, and put the computer away properly if you don’t need it to complete your English homework.

2. Work on your English homework.3. Read your independent reading book.4. Update your reading calendar.5. Complete any missing work or redo any

assignments on which you’d like to earn a better grade.

Please work quietly out of respect for others who may still be working on Grammar Boot Camp.