Download Grammar Review

Grammar Review
• THERE ARE MANY THINGS ABOUT
GRAMMAR THAT CAN MAKE YOU
CRAZY!!!
• This is the most important stuff….
Parts of Speech
• ALWAYS CONSIDER THE WAY THE WORD
IS USED IN THE SENTENCE!
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–
–
–
I am going to fly to Chicago. (infinitive)
Birds fly. (verb)
John took a flying leap. (adjective)
There is a fly on the wall. (noun)
Notice how the word fly can be many different parts of
speech.
Finding the Verb
• Verbs express action or condition.
• The verb is whatever the subject of the
sentence is doing (or being).
– Mary kicked the football 72 yards.
– Frank was stunned.
Always try to identify the verb first.
Action Verbs
• Action verbs express action. (Duh!)
• If you are unsure whether a sentence contains an
action verb or not, look at every word in the sentence
and ask yourself, "Is this something that a person or
thing can do?" If so, it is an action verb.
– The magician ate cereal.
• Can you magician? I magicianed yesterday. Nope!
• Can you cereal? I cerealed yesterday. Nope!
• Can you eat? I ate yesterday. Yup! That’s the verb!
True Linking Verbs
• Linking verbs do not express action.
• They connect (link) the subject to additional
information about that subject.
• Common linking verbs are the forms of be (am, is,
are, was, were, be, been, being), seem, and
become.
– Jim is tall.
– That book seems long.
– We were amazed.
Other Linking Verbs
• Appear, feel, grow, look, smell, sound, taste, and
turn are sometimes linking verbs.
• If you can substitute am, is, or are for the verb and
the sentence still sounds logical, you have a linking
verb on your hands. If, after the substitution, the
sentence makes no sense, you are dealing with an
action verb.
– The pie tasted good. (The pie is good.) – Linking verb
– Jim tasted the pie. (Jim is the pie.) – Action verb
Auxiliary (Helping) Verbs
• Be: be, am, is, are, was, were, been, being
– Yes, they are linking verbs too!
• Do: do, does, did, done
• Have: have, has, had
• will, shall, would, could, should,can, may, might,
must, ought
• Auxiliary verbs combine with other verbs to help
express tense, mood, voice, or condition.
– We could have been going, but we declined the
invitation.
Compound Verbs
• Every subject in a sentence must have at
least one verb. But that doesn't mean that a
subject can have only one verb. When a
subject has two or more verbs, you can say
that the subject has a compound verb.
– Jennifer yelled at her sister and punched
her brother.
• Subject = Jennifer
• Verbs = yelled, punched
More on Compound Verbs
• When you combine auxiliary verbs with a
main verb, this too is a compound verb.
– The banker might have broken into the vault.
(The main verb is broken. The auxiliary verbs
are might and have.)
– He could have taken the money and left the
state. (Both types of compound verbs are
illustrated in the above sentence.)
Infinitives
• Infinitives begin with to and are followed
by the simple form of a verb: to run, to be,
to eat, to fly, to learn, to love, to tackle.
• Infinitives can be used as nouns, adjectives,
or adverbs.
– To sleep is all Hamlet wants to do. (noun)
– He always takes a book to read. (adjective)
Participles
• Every verb has five forms: infinitive, simple present,
simple past, present participle, and past participle.
– Present participles end in –ing.
– Past participles usually end in –ed.
• Participles can be parts of verbs, but they can also function
as adjectives or nouns.
– Mr. Greenaway was giving a test when I walked by. (present
participle in a multipart verb)
– Her bruised knee was sore. (past participle used as an adjective)
– Teaching is exhausting. (present participle used as a noun—this is
called a gerund)
Common Nouns
• A common noun is a noun that refers to
general items that have no specific title or
name.
• Common nouns are not capitalized except at
the beginning of sentences.
– Our kitchen is full of appliances, and our living
room is full of furniture.
Proper Nouns
• Proper nouns name specific (usually one-ofa-kind) items.
• They are always capitalized.
– Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of
Independence.
– The Great Salt Lake is in Utah.
Abstract Nouns
• Abstract nouns cannot be detected by the
five senses.
• They are not tangible.
• Examples: bravery, freedom, love, deceit,
dedication, responsibility, trust, relaxation
Concrete Nouns
• Concrete nouns can be detected by the
senses.
• They are tangible.
• Examples: student, pencil, firefighter, dog,
computer, desk, flower, money
Collective Nouns
• Collective nouns name groups of things (usually
people).
• They are singular words that represent more than
one thing or person.
• They can take singular or plural verbs depending
on the context.
• Examples: team, committee, army, jury, class,
company, corporation, audience, group, herd
Count Nouns
• Count nouns can be counted.
• They have a number before them and an –s
at the end.
• cookie, computer, beach, house, man,
television, day
Noncount Nouns
• Noncount nouns cannot be counted with
numbers.
• They have only a singular form.
• advice, homework, meat, water, baggage,
vocabulary, blood, chalk, cloth, dirt
Personal Pronouns
• A personal pronoun refers to a specific person or thing
and changes its form to indicate person, number, gender,
and case (subject/object).
•
•
•
•
•
•
I, me, my, mine
You, your, yours,
She, he, her, hers, his
We, our, ours
They, them, their, theirs
It, its
Reflexive Pronouns
• A reflexive pronoun "reflects" a noun or pronoun
by taking the place of its antecedent when the
noun or pronoun is doing something to itself.
• They are formed by adding –self or –selves.
• Myself, yourself, himself, herself, themselves,
ourselves
• The words hisself and theirselves do not exist.
Demonstratives (Pronouns)
• A demonstrative is a pronoun or adjective
that points out which item is being referred
to.
• In English there are only four
demonstratives: this, that, these, and those.
– Hand me that. (pronoun)
– Hand me that pencil. (adjective)
Interrogative Pronouns
• An interrogative pronoun is a pronoun used in
order to ask a question.
• In modern English there are five interrogative
pronouns: what, which, who, whom, and whose.
– What did you say?
– Who said that?
– To whom did you say it?
Indefinite Pronouns
• Indefinite pronouns are words that replace
nouns without specifying which noun they
replace.
• Singular: another, anybody, anyone, anything, each,
either, everybody, everyone, everything, little, much,
neither, nobody, no one, nothing, one, other, somebody,
someone, something
• Plural: both, few, many, others, several
• Singular or Plural: all, any, more, most, none, some
More on Indefinite Pronouns
•
Singular indefinite pronouns take singular verbs or singular personal
pronouns.
– Correct: Each of the members has one vote. (The subject, each, is singular.)
– Incorrect: One of the girls gave up their seat.
– Correct: One of the girls gave up her seat. (Her refers to one, which is
singular.)
•
Plural indefinite pronouns take plural verbs or plural personal pronouns.
– Correct: A few of the justices were voicing their opposition. (Few is plural.)
•
For indefinite pronouns that can be singular or plural, it depends on what
the indefinite pronoun refers to.
– Correct: All of the people clapped their hands. (All refers to people, which is
plural.)
– Correct: All of the newspaper was soaked.
(Here all refers to newspaper, which is singular.)
Possessive Pronouns
• Possessive pronouns show ownership. Some are
used alone; some describe a noun.
• Used alone: mine, yours, his, hers, ours, theirs,
whose
– Correct: That computer is hers.
• Modify noun: my, your, his, her, its, our, their,
whose
– Correct: That is her computer.
• None of the possessive pronouns are spelled with
an apostrophe.
Pronoun-Antecedent Agreement
• The antecedent of a pronoun is the word
which the pronoun stands for.
• The pronoun and its antecedent must agree
in number.
– Mary ate her dinner. (Mary is the antecedent;
her is the pronoun.)
– Each student must see his/her counselor before
the end of the term. (Student is the singular
antecedent, so the pronoun must be singular.)
Pronoun-Antecedent Agreement
• “Someone left their bag on the floor.”
• In informal speech, that sentence may be
okay, but many people (including those who
currently write the SAT) object to its being
written that way because somebody is
singular and their is plural.
• You’ve heard it said incorrectly your whole
life, so you believe it is correct. It’s not.
Articles
• There are three articles in English
– Indefinite articles: a, an
– Definite article: the
– Articles are adjectives.
– They are often called “noun markers” because
they indicate that a noun is soon to follow.
• The car is parked on a hill.
Adjectives
• Adjectives answer three questions:
– What kind?
– Which one?
– How many?
Two green cars are parked on that hill.
Adjective Clauses
• An adjective clause is a subordinate clause* that
modifies a noun or pronoun.
• It answers one of the three questions adjectives
answer.
– Example: An adjective clause is a subordinate clause
that modifies a noun or pronoun. (What kind of a
clause?)
*A subordinate clause has a subject and a verb, but it
cannot stand alone as a sentence.
Adverbs
• Adverbs answer these questions:
–
–
–
–
How?
When?
Where?
To what extent?
He ran quickly. (How did he run?)
Yesterday I went fishing. (When did you go?)
There it is! (Where is it?)
I was very angry. (How angry? To what extent?)
Adverb Clauses
• Adverb Clauses usually answer the same questions
adverbs do.
• They always begin with a subordinating term.*
– Before you go, sign the log book. (When?)
– Wherever you are, come out. (Where?)
*A subordinating term is a word that turns a complete
sentence into an incomplete idea.
Coordinating Conjunctions
• Conjunctions join words, phrases, and
clauses.
• Here they are: and, but, or, for, so, nor, yet
– I ate this and that.
– There were two ducks but no swans.
– Are you crazy, or are you just tired?
Correlative Conjunctions
• Correlative conjunctions also join similar
words, phrases, or clauses, but act in pairs.
• In modern English the main correlative
conjunctions are either/or, neither/nor,
both/and, whether/or, not/but and not
only/but also.
– I want either this or that.
– I am not only angry but also tired.
Prepositions
• Prepositions are words which relate a noun
or pronoun (called the object of the
preposition) to another word in the
sentence.
• Just memorize them!
– about, above, across, after, against, ahead of,
alongside, along with, amid….
Prepositional Phrases
A prepositional phrase is a phrase beginning
with a preposition and ending with a noun
or pronoun. The phrase relates the noun or
pronoun to the rest of the sentence. The
noun or pronoun being related by the
preposition is called the object of the
preposition. In this box the prepositional
phrases are underlined. The objects of the
prepositions are italicized.
Independent Clauses
• Independent Clauses (often called “Main
Clauses”) contain a subject and a verb and
can stand alone as a complete sentence.
– I am hungry, so I eat.
• (Two independent clauses)
– Because I am hungry, I look in the fridge.
• (Only one independent clause)
Dependent Clauses
• Dependent Clauses (often called
“Subordinate Clauses”) contain a subject
and a verb but do not express a complete
thought. They cannot stand alone as a
sentence.
– Because I was tired, I went to bed.
• Because I was tired cannot stand alone. It depends
on the rest of the sentence to be a complete thought.
Types of Sentences
• There are three main types of sentences:
– Declarative
• These make statements: I am going home.
– Interrogative
• These ask questions: Where have you been?
– Imperative
• These give orders: Go away!
Subject of a Sentence
• In a sentence, every verb must have a
subject. The subject is who or what
does the verb.
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–
–
–
Bob kicked the ball? (Who kicked?)
Shari is in the corner? (Who is?)
The pie smelled good. (What smelled good?)
In that small house lives a family. (Who lives?)
Predicate
• The predicate of a sentence is that part of
the sentence that says something about the
subject. It expresses the action of the
sentence or the condition of the subject.
• The verb is sometimes referred to as the
simple predicate.
– Susan ran all the way home.
– The family across the street is strange.
Is it over yet?
• Yes!