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HOW TO WRITE WELL!!
GRAMMAR AND PUNCTUATION MATTERS
WHAT ARE THE FOLLOWING GROUPS OF WORDS
CALLED? ARE THEY SENTENCES? WHY?/WHY NOT?
1.the ancient oak tree
2.hitting the window
3.on a jet plane
4 TYPES OF PHRASES – CAN YOU NAME THEM?
1. On the playing field, Ralph was considered to be unstoppable.
2. Alert and focused, Ralph anticipated the next play.
3. Quickly and efficiently, Ralph sprang across the line of
scrimmage.
4. Springing into action, Ralph blocked his opponent.
ANSWERS
1.
Prepositional
2.
Adjective
3.
Adverb
4.
“ing” phrases (participial)
A PREPOSITIONAL PHRASE
… is a group of words that lacks either a verb or
a subject, and that functions as a unified part of
speech. It normally consists of a preposition and a
noun or a preposition and a pronoun.
PREPOSITIONAL PHRASE RULES
 Prepositional phrases always consist of two basic parts at minimum: the object and the preposition.
 In formal English, prepositions are almost always followed by objects.
 Adjectives can be placed between the prepositions and objects in prepositional phrases.
 Prepositional phrases can act as adverbs or adjectives. When they are used as adjectives, they modify nouns
and pronouns in the same way single-word adjectives do.
 When prepositional phrases are used as adverbs, they at the same way single-word adverbs and adverb clauses
do, modifying adjectives, verbs, and other adverbs.
EXAMPLES
Practice:
There are lots of birds nesting _____________________.
1.Under the eaves
2.There
3.Now
After school, the children played tag ________________.
1.At the park
2.Roughly
3.And baseball
AN ADJECTIVE PHRASE (OR ADJECTIVAL PHRASE)
IS…
… a phrase that tells us something about the noun it is modifying. The head (principal) word in an adjective phrase will be an adjective. In the examples below, the
adjective phrase is shaded and the head word (i.e., the adjective) is in bold:
 The nearby motel offers cheap but comfortable rooms.
 These are unbelievably expensive shoes.
 Sarah was fairly bored with you.
An adjective phrase can be used before the noun it is modifying (like in the first two examples above)
or after the noun it is modifying (like in the last example).
ADVERB PHRASE - WHEN, WHERE, OR HOW
SOMETHING HAPPENS.
An adverb phrase, like an adverb, modifies a verb, an adjective, or an adverb by providing
additional details about it.
What parts of speech are the following adverbials modifying?
How do these examples differ?
1.
I will sit quietly.
2.
I will sit in silence.
3.
I will sit like a monk meditates.
EXAMPLES OF PREPOSITIONAL PHRASES AS
ADVERB PHRASES:
CAN YOU FIND THE PART OF SPEECH THEY’RE MODIFYING?
1.
Things are going well at school.
2.
On the way home, I drove past the lakefront.
3.
Christina went to the grocery store.
4.
Dad found his change between the couch cushions.
ARE THESE COMPLETE SENTENCES?
WHAT DO THE PURPLE PHRASES DO?
1.
Crunching caramel corn for the entire movie
2.
Washed with soap and water
3.
Stuck in the back of the closet behind the obsolete computer
4.
The horse trotting up to the fence hopes that you have an apple or carrot.
5.
The water drained slowly in the pipe clogged with dog hair.
6. Eaten by mosquitoes, we wished that we had made hotel, not campsite,
reservations.
“ING” PHRASES - PARTICIPIAL

A participle phrase will begin with a present or past
participle.
 Since all phrases require two or more words, a participle
phrase will often include objects and/or modifiers that
complete the thought.
WHAT DO THEY DO??
•Participle phrases always
function as adjectives,
adding description to the
sentence.
WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE?
1. Walking on the beach, Delores dodged jellyfish that had washed ashore.
2. Walking on the beach is painful if jellyfish have washed ashore.
3. Waking to the buzz of the alarm clock, Freddie cursed the arrival of another
Monday.
4.
Freddie hates waking to the buzz of the alarm clock.
GERUND OR PARTICIPIAL PHRASE??
Gerund and present participle phrases are easy to confuse
because they both begin with an “ing” word.
The difference is that a gerund phrase will always behave as a
noun while a present participle phrase will act as an adjective.