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NOUN = person, place, idea, or thing Common – general name Ex: car Proper – name of a particular person, place, or thing Ex: Honda Concrete – a thing that can be experienced thru one of the 5 senses Ex: ice cream Abstract – idea, feeling, or quality Ex: happiness Collective – names a group Ex: class Singular – names one person, place, thing, or idea Ex: man child Plural- names more than one person, place, thing, or idea Ex: men children Possessive – shows ownership Ex: father’s Compound – two or more words working together to make a single noun Ex: baseball Why Nouns matter… • Without using the right noun and the right kind of noun, writing can be too vague and/or not make sense to the reader. • Every complete sentence must have a subject. • Only nouns and pronouns can play the part of a subject in a sentence. PRACTICE: Copy each sentence, underlining any nouns in the sentence and labeling the type(s) of noun(s) for each. 1. The project to land astronauts on the moon was named Apollo. 2. I was born on February 9, 1943. 3. I noticed that my sister’s purse had been left in the car. 4. I worked on my math project for three days! 5. My mom spends Sunday mornings clipping coupons from the newspaper. 6. The players took the field and waited for the referee to blow his whistle. 7. The students questioned the professor’s excitement about the new set of pencils. 8. The mice waited for the lab assistant to place the Swiss cheese in their cage. Pronoun = takes the place of a noun • Possessive – shows ownership – Ex: me, mine, ours, yours, theirs • Reflexive – refers back to the subject – Ex: The girl dedicated herself to being the best. • Interrogative – introduces a question – Ex: who, whom, whose, what, which • Demonstrative – points out a person, place, or thing – Ex: this, that, these, those • Indefinite – does not refer to a specific person, place, or thing – Ex: few, both, all, some, either, everybody, nobody, something, etc. • Relative - Relative pronouns are that, who, whom, whose, which, where, when, and why. They are used to join clauses to make a complex sentence. Every pronoun has an antecedent. • My mother washed her car and then it rained. “her” refers back to “mother” Mother is the antecedent to her. Pronouns must agree with their antecedents • In gender • In number • In “person” (first person, second person, third person) – Mike wanted _____ paycheck to be deposited. – Teachers like _____ students to read. – The visitors realized that _____ were hungry. Why Pronouns Matter • Readers get frustrated and may give up if writing is too confusing. To get ideas across, the writer must be clear about who is doing what. Practice: How many pronoun errors are in this paragraph? How should these be corrected? What if my brother and me were abandoned by my entire community on our island home? How would us castoffs survive? What would we do with ourself? In Island of the Blue Dolphins, by Scott O’Dell, the heroine was left behind with her brother, who was soon killed by wild dogs. It was her who remained on the island for eighteen years. She tamed one of the island dogs herself and named in Rontu; it’s friendship was invaluable to her. Few of the people I know would take such good care of himself or herself if left alone on an island. Even these who know the wilderness might not have the mental strength to last alone for such a long time. O’Dell’s heroine showed great skill, courage, and patience. Whom else would be so strong? VERBS ARE CRITICAL IN A SENTENCE! • Every sentence has to have a verb! – You can get away with writing a sentence that contains no nouns: • Don’t do that. It’s dangerous and if you do it enough, it’ll kill you! • He likes her, but I like him more than she does. • Listen closely to what I say and you’ll learn to write right. -If I try to write a sentence without a verb, it’s a fragment, not a sentence. •Yum. Good food. More cookies anywhere? Verbs show action or state of being • Action = run, swim, jump, taste, fall, dream, etc. • State of being (linking verbs) = be, appear, seem, feel, etc. Be Verbs: is, am, are, was, were, be, being, been Examples of state of being verbs: feel, taste, look, smell, appear, grow, remain, turn, seem, sound, become Action vs. linking • The monkey looked hungry. • The monkey looked for food. • The soup tasted good. • I tasted the soup. • He grew tired of walking. • He grew into a tall man. Verb Tense: (When did it happen?) –Present : I run very fast. –Past : I ran very fast. –Future : I will run very fast. Be careful to stay in the same tense throughout your sentence. • Weak – I got home late and Mom fusses at me for not calling to let her know where I will be. I got home = past Mom fusses = present Where I will be = future • Better – I got home late and Mom fussed at me for not calling to let her know where I had been. Everything is in the past tense. Regular vs. Irregular Verbs Regular Verbs follow a pattern when moving from one tense to another: Today Yesterday Many times Cook Cooked Cooked Fix Fixed Fixed Pick Picked Picked Jump Jumped Jumped Run Ran Ran Sit Sat Sat Walk Walked Walked Irregular verbs sometime will seem to follow a pattern, but there is no steadfast rule: Today Yesterday Many times Grow Grew Grown Know Knew Known Throw Threw Thrown Sell Sold Sold Tell Told Told Ride Rode Ridden Slide Slid Slid Take Took Taken Sing Sang Sung Fling Flung Flung Some of the most troubling irregular verbs: Today Yesterday Many times Note: Bite Bit Bitten or bit Bring Brought Brought Brang and brung are not words Drag Dragged Dragged Drug is a noun – it’s never a verb Dive Dived Dove or dived Drive Drove Driven Forget Forgot Forgotten or forgot Get Got Gotten or got Hang Hung Hung When the verb is used to talk about hanging an object like a picture Hang Hanged Hanged When the verb is used to talk about hanging a person Hide Hid Hidden or hid Hided is not a word Drived is not a word Caution – Major Mistake Territory! Confusing lie and lay is probably the #1 mistake in the English language. Lie is a “still” verb. • People lie on beds. • Dogs lie on people. • Fleas lie on dogs. The people, the dogs, and the fleas are in a state of stillness. TENSES: Lie, lay, lain, lying Today I lie in bed. Yesterday I lay in bed. I have lain in bed many times. Yesterday I was lying in bed all day. Lying in bed all day is boring. Caution – Major Mistake Territory! Confusing lie and lay is probably the #1 mistake in the English language. Lay shows that the noun is placing something and thus being active • A person picks up a hen and lays it on the hay. • A hen lays eggs. • I picked up the eggs and laid them in my basket. TENSES: lay, laid, laid, laying Today I lay the book on the counter. Yesterday I laid the book on the counter. Many times I have laid the book on the counter. Yesterday I was laying the book on the counter. Laying books on the kitchen counter is against the rules in my house. Can you find the mistakes? • When I was a kid, I swang every day on an old tire my dad hanged in a tree for me. • I wish I’d waken up earlier. • Adam breaks the dish when he tossed it to Omar who is standing at the sink. • If I was you, I’d buy that gorgeous dress. • I’ve laid awake all night worrying about my math test. • I’m sure I lay my assignment on the teacher’s desk yesterday. Can you find the mistakes? • When I was a kid, I swung every day on an old tire my dad hung in a tree for me. Watch out for irregular verbs! • I wish I’d (waked or woken) up earlier. Waken isn’t a word! • Adam broke the dish when he tossed it to Omar who stood at the sink. Keep all tenses the same in the sentence! • If I were you, I’d buy that gorgeous dress. Listen to the way the sentence sounds – your ear will tell you the correct way most of the time. • I’ve lain awake all night worrying about my math test. Unless you were producing eggs while you were worrying, you didn’t “laid” anything. Remember – you are still in this sentence. • I’m sure I laid my assignment on the teacher’s desk yesterday. Placing something somewhere is active. You aren’t being still here. Strong Verb Vs. Weak Verb My sister hurt me because I wouldn’t let her sit by the window. My uncle walked across the yard. My sister pinched a hunk of my arm when I wouldn’t let her sit by the window. My uncle zig-zagged across the yard. I sat in the chair. I relaxed in the chair, dozing from time to time. Which verbs energize the sentences? • Melanie weaseled her way into my heart, and later I cursed myself for letting her in. • Melanie weaseled her way into my heart, and later I cursed myself for letting her in. • As he kneaded the bread, he wished it were Harry’s face there on the counter, in a convenient, doughy lump. • As he kneaded the bread, he wished it were Harry’s face there on the counter, in a convenient, doughy lump. • She pounded the desk with a frozen fish and demanded complete silence in the room. • She pounded the desk with a frozen fish and demanded complete silence in the room. • Doug snapped the head off a match with his thumbnail. • Doug snapped the head off a match with his thumbnail. • Lenny snickered as Angela tiptoed into the room. • Lenny snickered as Angela tiptoed into the room. Practice: Rewrite the sentence using a more vivid verb to energize the sentence. 1.) Harold opened is mouth wide and bit off 12 square inches of pizza. 2.) The beauty queen walked up to the judges and placed her crown on the table. 3.) Paula removed her mittens and threw them into the fire. 4.) The pigeon sat on the dead branch. 5.) Walter walked into the den and fell flat on his face. Match up each of the weak verbs on the left with a stronger option on the right. • • • • • • • • • Pointed Walked Wrote Poured Yelled Rubbed Teased Looked Picked • • • • • • • • • Scribbled Howled Scoured Aimed Bullied Oozed Peered Harvested Sauntered As the can turns… • You are a can of soda. You have been popped, drained, smashed, bashed, and trashed. Tell your story to your psychologist. You are on the couch. Life has been hard. Use vivid, interesting verbs to tell the tale of your miserable aluminum life. Adjective = a word that modifies, or describes, a noun or pronoun Adjectives answer questions about nouns or pronouns: What Kind? A sudden blizzard A brisk wind A destructive flood Which one(s)? The first warning The Mexican desert The last day How many/how much? Several students A few times More ice Types of Adjectives • Proper – formed from a proper noun and always capitalized. Ex: English Tea, Colombian Coffee, Italian Espresso • Predicate – describes the subject of the sentence (only appears after a linking verb) Ex: The students are very intelligent. • Articles – the most common adjectives »A, an, the Why Adjectives Matter… • Adjectives can be used to supply important details that make the writing more specific and clear. Adjectives can allow a writer to convey a lot of descriptive information in a single word. A large dinner party is being given in an upcountry station by a colonial official and his wife. The guests are army officers and government leaders and their wives, and an American naturalist. -”The Dinner Party” by Mona Gardner Practice: Rewrite the following passage adding adjectives to make it more detailed and descriptive. I just learned that fingerprints are not the only markings that distinguish us. Did you know that the patterns on our skin are also unique? So don’t take off your shoes the next time you rob the bank! Remember, the police have methods to catch you! What is an adverb? • It is a word that describes a verb, an adjective, or another adverb and tells these things: – Where: there, here, outside, inside, away – When: now, then, later, immediately, yesterday – How: quickly, slowly, stupidly, gracefully, effortlessly – How often or how long: frequently, never, twice, sometimes – How much: hardly, extremely, minimally, greatly, too, more You can make most adverbs by adding an –ly to an adjective Adjective Adverb Sad Sadly Kind Kindly Quick Quickly Tender Tenderly Noisy noisily Adverb mistakes can make your writing sloppy. • What wrong with these sentences? – Meg looks real good in her new dress. – Simon turned the corner too quick and crashed. – We played awesome in our game. – I want to go to the game so bad I could scream. So what’s the big deal? What’s the difference between an adjective and an adverb? Adjective Adverb • Sad • Kind • Quick • Tender • Artistic • Noisy • Sadly • Kindly • Quickly • Tenderly • Artistically • Noisily Examples: • This sentence is written awful bad. (you are telling “how” it’s written – you need an adverb!) • This sentence is written awful badly. (You need another verb to tell “how” badly it’s written.) • This sentence is not written awfully badly – it’s perfect! (And it’s grammatically correct! ) Which ones work? • We performed awesome! • Our performance was awesome! • We performed really awesome. • The awesome performance was great! • We performed awesomely! Some words can be either an adjective or an adverb depending on how they’re used. Adjective telling what kind Adverb telling how, when, or where He played a hard guitar piece. He pounded the drums hard. I flew past a high building. I flew high in the sky. We are close friends. Sit close to me. You’re doing a fine job. You are skiing fine since your lesson. He dug deep into the earth. She dived deep into the water. That’s the wrong answer. The teacher said I spelled it wrong. The best rule to remember: • Use adverbs with action verbs. • Use adjectives with linking verbs. Ex: She skates gracefully. He sings well. Tori is tired. David was thirsty. Mistakes? I’ve made a few… 1. The dog smells badly. 2. This is a real pretty dress. 3. What a nice gesture on your part to greet them so nice when they arrived. 4. Josh’s mom hugged him real sweet and said, “Enough grammar. Let’s eat cake!” Take the teasing comb and back-comb all your hair until it looks like an electrified Persian cat. To tease your hair, grab a small section and hold it up by the end. Comb downward with the teasing comb in short fast strokes until it gets tangled at the bottom. Pull the teased hair up and out to achieve maximum altitude. Liberally apply the hair spray to hold the teased hair in place. If you can still see the walls, you haven’t sprayed enough. Spray more. All these styles must be taken care of while you sleep. Some women use the beehive hairnet; others use feather pillows to sleep upon; while still others sleep upright in the La-Z-Boy. Your mileage may vary. Just be careful not to put anyone’s eye out. Take the teasing comb and backcomb all your hair. To tease your hair, grab a small section and hold it. Comb downward. Pull the teased hair. Liberally apply the hair spray. If you can still see the walls, you haven’t sprayed enough. Spray more. All these styles must be taken care of while you sleep. Some women use the beehive hairnet; others use feather pillows; while others sleep upright. Your mileage may vary. Just be careful not to put anyone’s eye out. What’s the difference? • The first passage is: – more descriptive – creates a visual – Longer How? The first passage makes use of prepositions! Preposition • A word that shows how a noun or pronoun relates to another part of the sentence • Ex: My dog is lying to me. My dog is lying next to me. I am swimming toward the shark’s tummy. I am swimming away from the shark’s tummy. I am swimming inside the shark’s tummy. Don’t overdo it • Don’t use a bunch of prepositional phrases in a row. I went to a store in a town in Ohio in the middle of a flood in June which is during Ohio’s rainy season, and in a matter of minutes found myself knee-deep in water. 10 PREPOSITIONS IN ONE SENTENCE! EEK! Better: Last June, I visited a small Ohio town during the rainy season. When I went into a flooded store, I quickly found myself knee deep in water. THAT’S ONLY 3 PREPOSITIONS. MUCH BETTER! In doubt? • If you are ever not sure whether a word is a preposition or not, use this trick. • If you can successfully put the word in the blank of this sentence, it’s more than likely a preposition: The bird pooped ___________ the bush. The bird pooped ________ the bush. About Against At Beneath Down From instead of Of on top of Past Toward above along before beside during in into off out of since under across among behind between except in front of like on outside through underneath after around below by for inside near onto over to until Up upon with within How would prepositions help these sentences? • The dog barked. • The car sped. • The stairs were high. Now how about a vivid verb and some adjectives and/or adverbs? • The dog barked. • The car sped. • The stairs were high. Interjection • is a big name for a little word. • are short exclamations like Oh!, Um or Ah! • They have no real grammatical value but we use them quite often, usually more in speaking than in writing. • An interjection is usually followed by an exclamation mark (!) when written. • • • • • • • • • • • Aha! There's my bookbag. Argh! I messed that model up again! Bravo! You managed not to fall this time. Cheers! Hope your graduation goes great. Ew, what a gross movie. Gee, I wonder who that could be? Hooray! Score one for the good guys. Oops! That was your pet spider, wasn't it? Ouch! Something bit me! Whew! That was close! We almost got caught. Wow! That airplane ride was awesome! Conjunction Junction...what’s your function? • Conjunction Junction, what's your function? Hooking up words and phrases and clauses. Conjunction Junction, how's that function? I got three favorite cars That get most of my job done. Conjunction Junction, what's their function? I got "and", "but", and "or", They'll get you pretty far. -”Conjunction Juntion” from SchoolhouseRock Coordination Conjunctions FANBOYS FOR AND NOR BUT OR YET SO Coordination Conjunctions • Coordinating conjunctions connect words, phrases, and clauses. • The bowl of squid eyeball stew is hot and delicious. • The squid eyeball stew is so thick that you can eat it with a fork or spoon. • Rocky, my orange tomcat, loves having his head scratched but hates getting his claws trimmed. • Rocky terrorizes the poodles next door yet adores the German shepherd across the street. • A coordinating conjunction can join two main clauses that a writer wants to emphasize equally. The pattern for coordination looks like this: main clause + coordinating conjunction + main clause. • In this case, you put a comma after the first main clause (before the coordinating conj.) While I am at work, my dog Floyd sleeps on the bed , and my cat Buster naps in the bathtub. Coordinating Conjunctions joining words Two Items = no comma • My dog Floyd has too many fleas and too much hair. • My cat Buster has beautiful blue eyes but a destructive personality. Three or more items, put a comma before the conjunction • You need your book, notebook, and pencil. Conjunction Junction, how’s that function? • Conjunction Junction, what's your function? Hooking up two cars to one When you say something like this choice: "Either now or later" Or no choice: "Neither now nor ever" Hey that's clever! Eat this or that, grow thin or fat, Never mind, I wouldn't do that, I'm fat enough now! • -”Conjunction Juntion” from SchoolhouseRock Correlative Conjunctions • Always travel together – like relatives both . . . and not only . . . but also not . . . but either . . . or neither . . . nor whether . . . or as . . . as • Not only did Bob need bread, but he also had to buy butter. • Whether you like it or not, you will need to study. Subordinating Conjunctions • AAWWWUUBBIS After although when where while until unless because before if since Subordinating Conjunctions • Come at the beginning of a dependent clauses and establish the relationship between the dependent clause and the rest of the sentence. It also turns the clause into something that depends on the rest of the sentence for its meaning. • He took to the stage as though he had been preparing for this moment all his life. • Because he loved acting, he refused to give up his dream of being in the movies. • Unless we act now, all is lost. TIME TO SHOW WHAT YOU KNOW!