Grammar

The purposes of identifying the subject(s) in questions, directions, and sentences using inverted-word order are for students to recognize that in sentences that give orders or directions, the subject is understood to be “you”; that in questions, the subject often follows the verb, and that the words “here” and “there” are never the subject of a sentence; that the use of inverted sentences are often designed to bring attention to the last words in the sentence.

The purpose of identifying direct objects, indirect objects, and objects of prepositions is for students to realize that the these items complete the meaning of the predicate of a sentence, that they are collectively known as complements, that they are divided into three categories, that complements are not to be confused with phrases or with clauses which are punctuated differently, that complements are never the subject or predicate of a sentence, that complements provide additional information about the subject/predicate, and that complements can be put into the wrong location in a sentence and thereby create a misplaced modifier.

Nouns

Noun: A word that names a person, place, or thing. Nouns give a name to things that can be seen and touched, as well as to things that cannot be seen and touched.

• People: Aunt Mary, Richard, neighbor, children
• Places: Canada, library, garden, city
• Tangible items: bee, trees, store, ants
• Ideas and Actions (intangibles items): justice, rebellion, peace, election
• Conditions and Qualities (intangible items): joy, illness, beauty, bravery

Collective Nouns: A word that names a group, cluster, or collection of items is called a collective noun.

• Some nouns are collective; most nouns are NOT collective.
• Swarm, the one word for a group of bugs. Crowd, the one word for a group of people (or audience, or gallery). Family, the one word for a group of people who are related to each other. Herd, a group of animals. School, a group of fish.
• A collective noun is considered one unit, so they take singular verbs when they refer to the group as a whole: (A) The audience showed its [not their] appreciation by clapping. (B) The jury returned its verdict.

Single and Plural Nouns: Single nouns represent one item (dog). Plural nouns represent more than one item (dogs).

• Important: Adding an s to a word makes the word plural--NOT collective. A group of birds is called a flock. We have one flock. If another group of birds come by, we now have two flocks. Bird is singular. Birds is plural. Flock is singular. Flocks is plural. Both flock and flocks are collective; neither bird nor birds is collective.
• All nouns are either singular or plural; some nouns are both (rice, salt, flour).

Compound Nouns: A noun that is made up of more than one word is a compound noun. A name such as Uncle Mike is a compound noun. Any group or pair of words that must be combined to name a person, place, or thing is called a compound noun.

• Separated: bubble bath, station wagon, hard drive, Empire State Building
• Hyphenated: daughter-in-law, hand-me-down, cure-all, cha-cha
• Combined: shipwreck, handstand, congresswoman, network, classroom
• Words with prefixes (ex-president, audiocassette) are NOT compound

Common and Proper Nouns: A common noun names any one item (person, place, or thing) of a group of items (people, places, or things). A proper noun names a specific person, place, or thing.

• Inventor is common; Alexander Graham Bell is proper. Town is common; Sanborn is proper. Story is common; Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets is proper.
• All nouns are either common or proper
• All proper nouns are capitalized. All capitalized nouns are proper nouns.

Pronouns

Pronouns: A pronoun is a word that takes the place of a noun or a group of words that acts as a noun.

• In same sentence: Mark opened his files.
• In earlier or later sentences: Mark opened his e-mail first. He could not wait.
• Substituting for a group of words: Making the team is hard work. It takes practice.

Antecedents: An antecedent is the noun that the pronoun refers to. In the above example, Mark is the antecedent. His and he are the pronouns. Making the team is the antecedent, and it is the pronoun.

Types of Pronouns

Pronouns are divided into seven groups: personal, demonstrative, relative, interrogative, reflexive, intensive, and indefinite.

Personal Pronouns

Describe the person speaking, being spoken to, or spoken about

Examples: I, me, my, mine, / you, your, yours / he, him, his, she, her, hers, it, its / we, us, our, ours / you, your, yours / they, them, their, theirs

Sentence: You and I can go with him and her to the store.

Demonstrative Pronouns

Demonstrative pronouns identify the specific person, place, or thing

Demonstrative pronouns: this, that, these, those, such

Sentence: This is the book I want. I want that book. I like those books. Those are the books I like.

Relative Pronouns

Relative pronouns connect groups of words to nouns or other pronouns; in other words, relative pronouns connect/relates the subject to the verb in a sentence.

• A relative pronoun begins a subordinate clause. A subordinate is a group of words that could be a sentence but is not a sentence--it has one too many words. A subordinate clause always has two words (a subject and a verb) that could be a sentence but are not a sentence only because the relative pronoun prevents it from being a sentence.
• Sara is the girl that Alan likes. “that Alan likes” is a subordinate clause. Alan is the subject. Likes is the verb. A subject and verb make a sentence: Alan likes is a sentence.

Examples: who, whom, whose, which, that

Sentence: The book that I lost is on the table.

Interrogative Pronouns

Interrogative pronouns are used to start a question

Interrogative pronouns: what, which, who, whom, whose

Sentence: Who called?

Indefinite Pronouns

Indefinite pronouns refer to a person, place, or thing but do NOT specify (name) which person, place, or thing. Indefinite pronouns leave the listener confused as to which one, which place, how many, or how much was actually done.

Indefinite pronouns: another, much, some, few, little, many, any, most, nothing, somebody, someone, either, several, etc.

Sentence: I found something.

Verbs

Verbs are the action of a sentence; they convey either the idea of being (of existing) or action of a sentence. Nouns and pronouns tell who or what is either doing that action or doing that existing.

Types of Verbs: (1) Action, (2) Linking, and (3) Helping

Action Verbs: Action verbs tell what action someone or something is performing. Action verbs are either mental or physical, also action verbs are either transitive or intransitive.

Examples: run, swim, hike, talk, sketch, travel, unify, segment, sustain, zoom, think, contemplate, dream, surmise, theorize, imagine

Verb or NOT Verb? Answer: The suffix -ing can be added to verbs and the new word makes sense

Action Verbs: Mental or Physical?

Action verbs can be classified as mental actions or physical actions (either the action can be seen or not seen). Mental action verbs: thinking, wishing, day dreaming. Physical action verbs: running, throwing, steering. If any part of the action can be done without physical movement, then the verb is classified as mental, not physical; counting is a mental action. Even though counting can be done as a physical action, such as counting on one’s fingers, it is classified as mental because the the action can be done in one’s head without physical movement.

Action Verbs: Transitive or Intransitive?

Action verbs are classified as transitive or intransitive--either the action (the energy of the verb) is transferred to the predicate or it remains with the subject. [A sentence has two parts: the subject, the predicate. The subject, fish, does an action, swam. The part of the sentence with the action is called the predicate. Fish swam is a sentence.]

Transitive verbs ask/answer the question who or what (Trans = who, what)

Intransitive verbs ask/answer the question where, when, how, why (Intrans = where, when, how, why)

Transitive Verbs:

• Transitive verbs ask/answer the question who or what (Trans = who, what)
• Transitive verbs transfer the energy (the action) of the verb onto something in the predicate half of the sentence, that is, onto something that is after the verb

Example of transitive verb: Steve smells flowers. Steve smells what? Answer: flowers.

Intransitive Verbs:

• Intransitive verbs ask/answer the question where, when, how, why (Intrans = where, when, how, why)
• Intransitive verbs send the energy (the action) of the verb back onto the subject.
• A sentence can end after an intransitive verb.

Example of intransitive verb: Steve smells stinky. How does Steve smell? Answer stinky.

Transitive verbs are action verbs.

Intransitive verbs are action verbs.

Action verbs are either transitive or intransitive.

Linking Verbs: Linking verbs connect words at the beginning of sentence with other words at the end of a sentence.

Example: My birthday present [LINKING VERB] a video game =

• My birthday present could be a video game.
• My birthday present should be a video game.
• My birthday present shall be a video game.
• My birthday present may be a video game.
• My birthday present will be a video game.
• My birthday present must be a video game.
• My birthday present would be a video game.
• My birthday present might be a video game.
• My birthday present is a video game.
• My birthday present was a video game.
• My birthday present could have been a video game.
• My birthday present should have been a video game.
• My birthday present may have been a video game.
• My birthday present might have been a video game.
• My birthday present would have been a video game.
• My birthday present must have been a video game.
• My birthday present will have been a video game.
• If one linking verb works, then all linking verbs will work.

Action Verb or Linking Verb: Some verbs can work as either linking or action: appear, feel, look, seem, sound, tast, turn, stay, smell, remain, grow, become

How can a person determine if the verb is action or linking? Substitute any linking verb for the verb in question

LINKING:

Bob smells stinking.

• Bob is stinky.
• Bob was stinky.
• Bob could be stinky.
• Bob could have been stinky.
• Bob may be stinky.
• Bob should be stinky.

If another linking verb can work in the sentence, then the verb in question is a linking verb. LINKING VERBS: If one works, all work.

ACTION:

Bob smells flowers.

• Bob is flowers.
• Bob was flowers.
• Bob could be flowers.
• Bob could have been flowers.
• Bob may be flowers.
• Bob should be flowers.

If another linking verb does NOT work in the sentence, then the verb in question is a action verb. ACTION VERBS

Helping Verbs: Helping verbs always go with action verbs. NOT ALL action verbs need helping verbs. ALL helping verbs need action verbs. English has 23 helping verbs: can, could, have, has, had, am, are, do, does, did, be, being, been, shall, should, will, would, was, is, may, might, must.

The words used for helping verbs are the same that are used for linking verbs. They are used as EITHER helping OR linking, but NEVER as BOTH.

Helping Verb or Linking Verb: Look at what comes after the helping / linking verb. If that word is a noun, then the verb is linking. If that word is another verb, then the verb is helping.

Linking Verb: I had cats.

noun linking verb noun

Helping Verb: I had arrived.

(noun) (helping verb) (main verb)

Adjectives

Adjectives describe nouns: red chair, cold chair, this chair, several chairs

Adjectives provide four types of information about a noun:

1. what kind?
2. which one?
3. how many?
4. how much?

Adjectives describe the kind or type of noun, as well as the amount or number of noun.

Adjectives describe the noun or pronoun’s kind, type, amount, or number.

Some adjectives need commas, some don't. Use a comma if the word AND can go between the adjectives. The words happy, short, and very, are all adjectives.

We had a short, very happy vacation.

Correct: We had a short and very happy vacation.

Incorrect: We had a short, very and happy vacation.

The Royal Order of Adjectives Worksheet.

Absolutes

Adverbs

Adverbs describe verbs, adjectives, and other adverbs.

Adverbs that describe verbs provide four types of information about the verb

1. Where?
2. When?
3. In what way?
4. In what manner?

Adverbs that describe adjectives or other adverbs provide information about one thing: to what extent. Adverbs used this way describe the extent to which something happened.

Compliments

Direct Objects: Direct Objects always go with an action verb. Action verbs do NOT always have a direct object, but a direct object can NOT exist without an action verb.

Must have a transitive action verb

Action verb

intransitive Bob read at night

transitive Bob read a book

Linking verb: Bob is tall (tall is a predicate adjective, answer Bob is what?)

Direct Object: a noun or pronoun

answers question whom or what

Indirect object answers for or to whom OR for or to what

I told him the story

subj transitive action verb I.O. D.O.

Indirect Object: Indirect Objects always go with and in front of a direct object. Direct objects do NOT always have an indirect objects, but an indirect object can NOT exist without a direct object.

1. is a noun or pronoun,
2. goes after action verb
3. names the person or thing to which something is given OR for which something is done To whom? For whom? To what? For what?
4. Goes BEFORE direct object
5. a sentence must have a direct object to have an indirect object

Direct Object or Object of Preposition?

1. both are nouns or pronouns
2. both go after verb
3. Obj. of Prep starts with a preposition
4. I.O. goes before direct object
5. Obj of Prep goes after direct object

Susan sang Julie a lullaby

I.O. D.I.

The crowd gave the referee a mock cheer for his bad call

I.O. D.O. Prep.

Prepositional Phrase

“call” is object of preposition

Phrase

A phrase has NOT enough words to be a complete sentence.

Prepositional Phrase: a group of words that is not enough words to be a complete sentence and the first word is a preposition.

Prepositions

Prepositions: to, in, on, up, under, next to, of, before, down, above through, near

The carton of eggs at the bottom of the bag was crushed.

Clause

A group of words that has both a subject and predicate. TWO types of clauses exist: INDEPENDENT and DEPENDENT.

• Independent Clause can stand as its own sentence: The cat walked
• Dependent Clause can not stand as its own sentence: After the cat walked

Dependent Clauses (also called a subordinate clause) is a group of words that COULD be a sentence but have one too-many words: while I went home is an example. "I went home" is a sentence. "While I went home" is NOT a sentence. A dependent clause always begins with a subordinate conjunctions. These are subordinate conjunctions:

1. Any group of words that (1) starts with a subordinating conjunction, (2) contains a subject, and (3) contains a predicate MAY need a comma
2. All sentences that have those three items will be a complex sentence
3. NONE of this applies to questions.

Sentence Types

Simple: subject and predicate (you have ONE sentence)

Compound: subject and predicate; subject 2 and predicate 2 (you have MORE THAN ONE sentence that shares the end mark)

Complex: add a subordinate clause to either a simple or a compound sentence (you have a simple sentence WITH a clause)

A sentence is either simple or compound.

A sentence is either complex or not complex

Subordinate Clause: after I arrived

“after” is a subordinate conjunction

“I arrived” is a complete sentence

“after I arrived” is NOT a complete sentence

Simple Sentence: The dog barked. NO COMMA

Simple Complex Sentence: The dog barked after I arrived. USE COMMA IF DEPENDENT CLAUSE COMES FIRST

Compound Sentence: The dog barked, and the cat meowed. USE [COMMA and COORDINATING CONJUNCTION] BETWEEN INDEPENDENT CLAUSES

Compound Complex Sentence: The dog barked, and the cat meowed after I arrived. USE [COMMA and COORDINATING CONJUNCTION] BETWEEN INDEPENDENT CLAUSES

Warning--Simple Complex sentences are called “complex.” The “simple” part of its name is left out.

Complements

Transitive Verb complements:

• Direct Object: Tells who or what of the verb--can only exist with a transitive verb
• Indirect Object: Tells who or what of the direct object; describes the reason for who or for what that the direct object was done--can only exist with a direct object
• Objective complement: is a noun or an adjective and it renames or describes the direct object--can only exist with a direct object

Linking Verb complements:

Linking verb complements are collectively called “subject complement.” English has two:

• Predicate Nominative: Renames the subject
• Predicate Adjective: Describes the subject

Simple: Has one independent clause--one full thought

Simple complex: Full thought + incomplete thought

Compound: Has two independent clauses--two full thoughts

Comp. Complex: Full thought + Full thought + incomplete thought

Main idea Main idea Main idea Minor idea

, for while

, and since

, nor because

The cat ate , but the dog slept. The cat ate although the dog slept

, or after

, yet when

, so until

Minor idea Main idea

While

Since

Because

Although the dog slept , the cat ate.

After

When

Until

Phrase: Not a full thought, missing subject or missing predicate or missing both subject and predicate

Clause: Has both subject and predicate

Dependent Clause: Not a full thought: while the cat slept

Independent Clause: Is a full thought: The dog slept

Simple sentence: One independent clause: The dog slept

Compound sentence: Two independent clauses (two simple sentences) put together:

The cat slept, and the dog slept.

The cat slept; the dog slept.

All sentences that are “complex” have a dependent clause. The only reason that they are called “complex” is because they have a dependent clause.

Simple Complex: One independent clause and one dependent clause:

While the cat slept, the dog slept.

The dog slept while the cat slept.

Compound Complex: Two independent clauses and one dependent clause

The dog slept, and the cat slept while the mouse ate.

The dog slept, and while the mouse ate, the cat slept.

The cat slept while the mouse ate, and the dog slept.

While the mouse ate, the cat slept, and the dog slept.

Phrases

A phrase is a group of words that function in a sentence as a single part of speech. Phrases do not contain a subject or a verb. A phrase has too few words to be a full sentence.

Prepositional Phrase: A prepositional phrase begins with a preposition and ends with a noun or pronoun called the object of the preposition. He walked to the school.

Prepositional phrases can act like adjectives or like adverbs:

Adjective Phrase: An adjective phrase is a prepositional phrase that modifies a noun or pronoun by telling what kind or which one.

Resources:

Capital Community College Foundation One of the best and most comprehensive sources.

Write these sentences. Copy / paste these, then do what it says. Always put in bold complete independent clauses, underline dependent clauses, and bracket [prepositional phrases].

Use different subject / predicates. Save as "16 Sentences." Use your other document titled, "10 Sentences" as a resource. Create new sentences.

1. Simple sentence: one subject, one predicate
2. Simple sentence: one subject, one predicate, one prepositional phrase (phrase can be placed anywhere)
3. Simple sentence: three subjects, one predicate
4. Simple sentence: three subjects, three predicates, three prepositional phrases
5. Compound sentence that uses a total of two subjects and two predicates
6. Compound sentence: use seven subjects and seven predicates anywhere and seven prepositional phrases
7. Compound sentence that uses a semicolon ;
8. Simple Complex sentence with a total of two subjects and two predicates
9. Simple Complex sentence that begins with dependent clause, any number of subjects or predicates
10. Simple Complex sentence that has the dependent clause in the middle of the independent clause
11. Simple Complex sentence that starts with a prepositional phrase, then has independent clause, then dependent clause
12. Simple sentence with 30 words
13. Compound sentence with seven or fewer words
14. Complex sentence with seven or fewer words
15. Compound-complex sentence with any number of words, subjects, or predicates
16. Compound-complex sentence with as many words as possible, the three people with the longest, grammatically correct sentence earns extra credit

1. simple subject and predicate
2. two subjects and 1 predicate
3. two subjects and 3 predicates
4. independent clause, dependent clause

Grammar Test

Paste these questions onto a new document. Answer these questions.

1. What is an independent clause?
2. Write an example of an independent clause.
3. What is a dependent clause?
4. Write an example of a dependent clause.
5. Explain what is a simple sentence?
6. Write a simple sentence.
7. What is a compound sentence?
8. Write a compound sentence.
9. What is a simple-complex sentence?
10. Write a simple-complex sentence.
11. What is a compound-complex sentence?
12. Write a compound-complex sentence.