Download Basic Review Elements - Franklin High School

Basic Review Elements
Grammar, usage, and
mechanics (GUM) that you
should already know.
Capitalization
• When to capitalize:
– Proper nouns and proper adjectives
• Names of people – Mr. John Smith
• Geographic names – Africa, Mount Everest,
Mars, The Chrysler Building, Detroit,
Franklin High School
• Directional words only when part of the
name – American Southwest – but not drive
east on I-96.
When to capitalize
continued…
• Titles- Mayor Jack Kirksey but not
the mayor of Livonia
• Family relationships when attached
to a name – Grandma Alice but not my
grandma’s house
• Titles and subtitles of books,
magazines, movies, songs, etc.
When to capitalize
continued…
• First word in a direct quotation
– Julie said, “Your last move was sloppy.
Do it again.” but not Julie said that our
last move was sloppy.
• The first person pronoun – I
• Historical, special events, documents,
and periods
Plurals of nouns
• Add an -s to form the plural of most words.
– elephant—elephants, stereo—stereos
• For words that end in a "hissing" sound (-s, -z, -x,
-ch, -sh), add an -es to form the plural.
– box—boxes, church--churches
• If the word ends in a vowel plus -y (-ay, -ey, -iy, oy, -uy), add an -s to the word.
– tray—trays, key--keys
Plurals Continued…
• If the word ends in a consonant plus -y, change
the -y into -ie and add an -s to form the plural.
– enemy—enemies, baby--babies
• For words that end in -is, change the -is to -es to
make the plural form.
– synopsis—synopses, thesis--theses
• Some words that end in -f or -fe have plurals that
end in -ves.
– knife—knives, self--selves
Plurals Continued…
• The plurals of words ending in -o are formed by either
adding -s or by adding -es. The plurals of many words can be
formed either way. To determine whether a particular word
ends in -s or -es (or if the word can be spelled either way),
check your dictionary or the list below. There are two
helpful rules:
– All words that end in a vowel plus -o (-ao, -eo, -io, -oo, -uo) have
plurals that end in just -s:
• stereo—stereos, studio—studios, duo--duos
– All musical terms ending in -o have plurals ending in just -s.
• piano—pianos, cello—cellos, solo--solos
Plurals Continued…
• The plurals of single capital letters, acronyms,
and Arabic numerals (1,2,3,...) take an -s WITH an
apostrophe:
– Z (the capital letter Z)—Z’s
– UPC (Universal Product Code)—UPC’s
– ATM (Automatic Teller Machine)—ATM’s
– GUI (Graphical User Interface)—GUI’s
– 3 (the Arabic numeral 3)—3’s
Contractions
• We often "contract" or shorten words in English.
For example, we may say "he's" instead of "he is".
Note that we usually insert an apostrophe (') in
place of the missing letter or letters in writing.
Here are some example sentences:
– I haven't seen him. (I have not seen him.)
– Who's calling? (Who is calling?)
– They're coming. (They are coming.)
• We do this especially when we speak. We do not
contract words so much in writing.
Contraction Examples
•
shortened forms of words from which one or more letters have been
omitted
–
it's
–
we'll
–
they've
–
can't
–
he'd
–
aren't
–
she'd've
–
won't
•
it is or it has
•
we will or we shall
•
they have
•
can not
•
he would or he had
•
are not
•
she would have
•
will not
Odd Examples
• A few words which were contractions long ago are still
conventionally written with apostrophes, even though the
longer forms have more or less dropped out of use.
– o'clock
• of the clock
– Hallowe'en
• Halloweven
– fo'c's'le
• forecastle
– cat-o'-nine-tails
• cat-of-nine-tails
– ne'er-do-well
• never-do-well
Old Examples
• Some examples are those that we run across in
older written pieces of literature:
– ‘tis
• it is
– o'er
• over
– 'twas
• it was
– e'en
• even
Contractions in Speech
–
–
–
–
'Fraid so.
'Nother drink?
I s'pose so.
'S not funny.
Commonly Misused
Words
•
•
•
•
•
There/their/they’re
Who’s/whose
Affect/effect
Then/than
To/too/two
There/Their/They’re
• "The book is over there."
"That's their book."
"They're getting the book."
Remember, their is possessive. You're talking
about who owns what.
They're is a contraction. If the sentence sounds
fine when you reword it with they are, you know
you're using the right pronoun.
There refers to where someone or something is.
Who’s/Whose
• Whose is the possessive form of
who (or, occasionally, which). It
means "belonging to whom or
which."
• Who's is a contraction of who is or
who has. Notice the apostrophe
replacing the missing letters.
Affect/effect
• Affect is usually a verb meaning to
influence. Effect is usually a noun
meaning result. The drug did not
affect the disease, and it had several
adverse side effects. Effect can also
be a verb meaning to bring about.
Only the president can effect such a
dramatic change.
Then/Than
• Then refers to a point in time, usually
after something has happened or
some condition is met. "First we mix
the flour and sugar, then we add the
butter.“
• Than is used for comparing things,
such as length, height, weight, etc. "I
think this dog weighs more than me."
To, two, too
•
Two is a number.
•
Too is an adverb that can mean also.
•
Too is an adverb that can mean more than enough.
•
To plus a noun or noun phrase is a preposition.
•
To plus a verb is an infinitive.
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
She counted, "One, two, three."
He wanted to go too.
This is too much for me!
Take me to the ball game.
I went to bed early that night.
She wanted to go.
He decided to run away.