Grammar Notes

Fragment – a “piece” of a sentence. Happens when a group of words is missing a subject, verb, does not express a complete thought, or a combination of these things. No subject: Barks a lot. No verb: The girl with the long dark hair. Not a complete thought: Even though I did my work.

Run-on – Two or more sentences that have been put together without using the proper punctuation and/or conjunction. Made several ways:

Sentences slapped together without any punctuation or conjunction between them.Oranges grow in Florida they also grow in California.

Sentences slapped together with only a conjunction between them. Oranges grow in Florida and they also grow in California. Comma splice - Sentences slapped together with only a comma between them.

Oranges grow in Florida, they also grow in California.

Subject – tells whom or what the sentence is about Complete subject – all the words that tell whom or what the sentence is about The orange cat ran up the

tree. Simple subject – the most important word or words in the subject The orange cat ran up the tree. Compound subject – more than one noun is doing the action of the sentence The orange cat and fluffy squirrel ran up the tree. Implied (understood) subject – In a command or request, the subject of the sentence is not stated, but it is

understood that you are to do the action. (You) Listen carefully.

Predicate – includes the verb and is the action of the sentence Complete predicate – the verb and all words that complete the action of the sentence.

The orange cat ran up the tree. Simple predicate – the most important word, the verb or verb phrase The orange cat ran up the tree. Compound predicate (verb) – there is more than one verb or action taking place. The orange cat ran up the tree and jumped on the roof.

Declarative (Declare) – makes a statement or expresses an opinion and ends with a period The dog chased the cat.

Interrogative (Interrogate) – asks a question and ends with a question mark Is that my book?

Imperative (Imperial) – makes a request or gives a command and can end with either a period or an exclamation point Pass your paper to the right. Look

out! Exclamatory (Exclaim) – expresses strong feelings and ends with an exclamation point. That was the best day

ever!

Parts of a Sentence

Kinds of Sentences

Fragments and Run-ons

A person, place, thing, or idea

Ways to classify nouns: Common – general, not specific shoe, dog,

boy Proper – specific, like a name or title. Always capitalized. Nike, Tom, Madison Jr.

High

Concrete – can be seen, heard, touched, tasted, or smelled pie, bird, street

Abstract – feelings, ideas sadness, anger, hope, love

Compound – 2 or more words put together = 1 noun toothpaste, mother-in-law, peanut butter

Collective – names a group class, team, flock, committee

*Hint* NOT the same as a plural noun. It’s ALWAYS a group no matter whether there is only one of them or several.

Jobs nouns do: Subject – Tells who or what is doing the action of the verb The dog is

thirsty. Complements – completes the verb’s meaning

Predicate noun – w/ linking verb; renames or defines subject. This is a ball. * Hint* Think of it like a math equation: Subject = What?

Direct object – w/ action verb; names receiver of action The boy kicked the ball. *Hint* Ask 1 ? – Say the verb and ask, “What?”Indirect object – w/ action verb and direct object; tells to or for whom action is done I gave my friend a letter. *Hint* Ask 2 ?s – Say the verb and ask “What?” then ask “To or for whom or what?”

Nouns in Phrases Object of prepositional phrase at the beach of garbage above the

desk Appositive – identifies or renames another noun. Use commas before and after if it is not required information.

Fido, my dog, chases cats.

A word that is used in place of a noun or another pronoun

Pronoun – antecedent agreement: An antecedent is the noun that a pronoun replaces or refers to.

Types of pronouns: Personal Pronoun – stands in for a person, and sometimes a thing I, them, it, she,

you Possessive Pronoun – shows ownership or relationship my, yours, hers, its,

theirs

Nouns Marks

Pronouns Marks

Reflexive Pronoun – ends in self or selves and directs action of the verb back to the subject The player picked himself off the floor and got back into

the game.

Intensive Pronoun – ends in self or selves; emphasizes a noun or another pronoun within the same sentence. Can be left out and sentence will still make sense. You yourself have lots of pets. Tell Mary to do it

herself.

Interrogative Pronoun – introduces a question (who, whom, what, which, whose). Use who as a subject or a predicate noun and whom as an object. Who used up all the

water? *Hint: if you can substitute the word him, then use whom. To whom did you

speak?

Demonstrative Pronouns – point out a specific noun. this, that, these, those

Indefinite Pronouns – don’t refer to a specific person, place, thing, or idea, and often don’t have an antecedent Singular indefinite – If have one, thing, body, or every as part of it, then is singular anyone, something,

everybody Plural indefinite both, few, many,

several Some pronouns can be both singular or plural, depending on how they are used any, all, some, most,

none

Pronoun Problems: We / Us – We is a subject or predicate noun. Us is an object. Drop the noun next to it so you can hear which is correct.

We kids got our work done.

Pronouns in Compound – Drop the other word in the compound so you can hear the right one. My friend and I went to the mall. He gave it to Bob and

me. Phrases that Interfere – Cross out or ignore phrases that come between a pronoun and the verb or a noun and pronoun. Each of the students is talented. Predicate Nominatives – Goes with linking verbs; is a word or group of words that identifies or refers to the subject. Must use

a subject pronoun instead of an object one. Since, Subject = some word(s), in order to hear the right pronoun, try swapping places with the subject and the predicate nominate. The winners are he and his friend. can also be written He and his friend are the winners.

A word used to express 1.) action, 2.) a condition, or 3.) a state of being.

Kinds of verbs:

Action verbs – tells what the subject does and can be either physical or mental The dog chases the cat. Students enjoy eating chocolate.

Linking verbs – links a word in the subject with a word in the predicate. be, is, am, are, was, were, been, being

Both – Some verbs can be either an action or a linking verb because the word has more than one definition.

*Hint* Ask yourself if the subject is really doing that action of if it’s just “being.” She feels the soft fur on the puppy’s head. (action) She feels tired. (linking)

Helping Verbs – go with action verbs and “help” tell when something happened Verb Phrase – one or more helping verbs w/ the main verb

You may want good grades. The boy must have eaten the cookies. Transitive Verb – action verb that has a direct object He sailed the boat. Intransitive Verb – action verb has no direct object. He sailed across the ocean.

Active Voice – the action is done by the subject Bob caught the ball.

Verbs

Helping Verbs Song(To the tune of “Jingle Bells”)

Helping verbs, helping verbs,There are 23:

Am, is, are, was, and were,Being, been, and be,

Have, has, had,Do, does, did,

Shall, will, should, and would.There are five more helping verbs:

May, might, must, can, could.

Passive Voice – the action is done to the subject. The ball was caught by Bob.

Four Principal Parts of a Verb

Present Present Participle Past Past ParticipleWork (is) working worked (has) worked

Irregular VerbsThere are lots of “irregular” verbs that don’t follow the pattern above. The ones that give people the most trouble are the “i” verbs such as sing, drink, sink, begin, etc. They follow this pattern: Today I sing. (present)

Yesterday I sang. (past)Verb Tenses I have sung. (past participle)

Tense What it Conveys Examplepast already happened I talked to my friend.

present happening now

I talk to my friend.

future will happen in the future I will talk to my friend.past progressive were happening/in progress in the past I was talk ing to my friend.present progressive are happening/in progress right now I am talk ing to my friend.future progressive will continue/be in progress in the future I will be talk ing to my friend.

past perfect happened before another past event. I had talk ed to my friend about going even before that.

present perfect happened in the period leading up to the present I have talk ed to my friend.future perfect will happen before another future event I will have talk ed to my friend by the time I get

home.

A word that describes a noun or pronoun

What an adjective can tell:● color a blue car ● shape a round balloon● condition a dirty shirt ● how many a dozen eggs● size a small house ● texture a sandy beach● what kind a deadly storm ● which ones those shoes

Types of adjectives: Articles – the most commonly used adjectives are the articles a, an, and the

Indefinite article – a and an are indefinite because they don’t name a specific noun Definite article – the is definite because it points to a particular noun

Common adjective – some adjectives are formed from common nouns cloud →cloudy Proper adjective – formed out of a proper noun; always capitalized America → American

Predicate adjective – comes after a linking verb and describes the subject of the sentence Some people are funny.

Pronouns and nouns as adjectives – Many pronouns and nouns can be used as adjectives That movie is excellent. My room is messy.

A word that modifies or describes a verb, an adjective, or another adverb I suddenly tripped. (describes a verb) It was unusually small. (describes an adjective)

The girls worked very quickly. (describes an adverb)

Adverbs can answer these questions:

Adjectives

i a u

Adverbs

Ad verbVerbAdjective

e

● how She smiled cheerfully. ● when He once ate a whole pie.● where The baby fell down. ● to what extent He is extremely tired.

About adverbs: They often end in -ly They can come in several positions:

After the verb Bob ran in the house quickly. Before the verb Bob quickly ran in the house. Beginning of sentence Quickly, Bob ran in the house.

Intensifiers - usually come right before the word they describe and answer the question “to what extent” (make it more intense) almost, especially, very, so, extremely, nearly, quite, really, usually

Adjectives and Adverb Problems: Good – adjective He is a good

student. Well – adverb usually, but adjective when refers to your health. I play basketball

well. I don’t feel well.

Real – Adjective Being kind to others is a real gift.

Really – Adverb If you really work at it, you will improve.

Bad – Adjective Fido was a bad dog.

Badly – Adverb He broke his arm badly.

Dropping the –ly from an adverb and thus making it an adjective. We have HUGE problems with this! For example: He drove slow. NOPE! It should be: He drove slowly.

A word that shows a relationship between a noun or pronoun and some other word in the sentence

Common prepositions - of, at, by, in, for, on, to, as, over, through, near, until Compound prepositions – made up of more than one word according to, instead of

Prepositional Phrases: Start with a preposition, end with a noun or pronoun, and may have other modifiers or describing words in between

object of prep Preposition article noun

behind the tree Compound objects – when there is more than one noun or pronoun joined by and or or by children and adults

Adjective phrase – a prepositional phrase that modifies a noun or pronoun Give it to the girl on the front row.

Adverb phrase – a prepositional phrase that modifies a verb, an adjective, or an adverb He ran across the gym.

Several prepositional phrases can work together in the same sentence. Often, each phrase after the first one modifies the object in the phrase before it.

I ran down the street after the dog with my glove in its mouth.

Placement of Prepositional Phrases – Try to put prepositional phrases as close to the word it modifies as you can so it is not confusing.

On the front row, we watched fifteen members of the audience get soaked.

See the word totally?That’s an intensifier.

Preposition

Are we on the front row, or are the people who were soaked on the front rows? Try this instead:We watched fifteen audience members on the front row get soaked.

Preposition or Adverb – Sometimes the same word can be used as a preposition or as an adverb. If there is no object of the prepositional phrase, then it is an adverb.

The bird flew out. (adv) The bird flew out the window. (prep)

A word used to join words or groups of words

Coordinating conjunctions – connects words that are used in the same way; can be subjects, predicates, objects, or any other kind of sentence. These are the FANBOYS. for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so

For And Nor But Or Yet So Dogs and cats are popular pets.

Correlative conjunctions - pairs of words that connect words used in the same way (create a relationship between them: correlative) both . . . and, either . . . or, not only . . . but also

neither . . . nor, whether . . . orNeither Mom nor Dad will let me borrow the car.

Subordinating conjunctions – relates a dependent clause to the independent clause and makes it a dependent clause that can’t stand on its own. These will not be FANBOYS words!

after, as if, because, even though, when, where, while, thanWhen the lights went out, the students cheered.

A word or phrase that is used to express emotion Wow! That’s amazing!Well, I don’t know about that.

Oops—I didn’t mean to do that.Although interjections often have an exclamation point, they can also be used with commas and dashes.

Verbals and Verbal PhrasesVerbals and verbal phrases – formed from a verb, but are used as a noun, an adjective, or an adverb. (It’s called a verbal when it is just one word on its own, and a verbal phrase when it is more than one word.)

There are 3 kinds: gerunds, participles, and infinitives.

Gerunds – verb forms ending in –ing that are used as nouns. Since childhood, swimming has always been my favorite hobby.

Thinking requires more effort than most people realize.Relaxing with a good book is my idea of a good evening.

One of our family’s holiday traditions is baking cookies.Having a part-time job may interfere with your schoolwork.The townspeople heard the loud clanging of the fire bell.

Participles – verb forms that are used as adjectives. Some end in –ing, others –d or –ed, or irregular forms.

The smiling child waved.

The police officers searched the abandoned warehouse.

The sun, shining on the garden, helps our vegetables.

Flowers grown under lights usually do well.

Conjunctions

Interjections

?s to ask:1. Does it have a partner? Yes = correlative2. Is it a FANBOY? Yes = coordinating

Winning the first race, we entered the second.

Infinitives – verb phrase with the word to before the verb which can act as a noun, an adjective, or an adverb. The infinitive is the to + the verb. An infinitive phrase is the to + the verb and any other describing words or phrases that go with those Noun examples: To drive across town took a long time.

My goal is to earn a good grade on the test.

Adverb examples: The dancers were ready to practice their routine.

The student sat at the desk to do his work

Adjective examples: Peanuts and raisins are good snacks to take.

If you want good information, that is the magazine to read.

*Be careful not to confuse an infinitive with a prepositional phrase beginning with to. A prepositional phrase always has a noun or pronoun object. An infinitive will have a verb after it.

Prepositional phrase: I gave it to my mother. Infinitive: You have to play well to win the game.

Sentence Structure Notes

A group of words that do NOT contain both a subject and a verb a brown dog

A clause is a group of words that DO contain a subject and a verb Independent clause – can stand on its own as a sentence (in bold) The dog barked. Dependent clause (also called subordinate clause) – can’t stand on its own and depends on

another independent clause to help it make sense (underlined) when the cat came in the yard

Simple Sentence – 1 independent clauseI

The team scores a goal.

Compound Sentence – 2 or more independent clauses and NO dependent clausesI I

The team runs up the field, and they score a goal.

Complex Sentence – 1independent clause + 1or more dependent clauses

Types of Sentence Structures

Clauses

Phrases

D IAfter Max ran up the field, he scored a goal.

Compound-Complex Sentence – 2 or more independent clauses + 1 or more dependent clauses

D I I While the player was running, his shoelace came untied, and he tripped.