Download The Little Rules You NTK

The Little Rules You NTK
What’s in a Name?—The Noun
Proper
February
Egypt
Mrs. Duffy
Common
?
?
?
Concrete
Star, water, album
Abstract
freedom, warmth,
capitalism
Compound
John William Pearson III
Franklin County Community
And Technical College
Collective
Army, herd, family
Pithy Pronouns
When Mrs. Anne Marie Shreiner came into
the room, Mrs. Anne Marie Shreiner thought to
Mrs. Anne Marie Shreiner’s self. “Is the situation
just Mrs. Anne Marie Shreiner, or is the
temperature really hot in here?” Mrs. Anne Marie
Shreiner went to the window and opened the
lower part of the window, only to have a number
of mosquitoes quickly fly right at Mrs. Anne
Marie Shreiner. Mrs. Anne Marie Shreiner said
a few choice words, and then hit a few of the
mosquitoes when the mosquitoes came to rest
on Mrs. Anne Marie Shreiner’s arm.
Pronoun Classifications
Personal—people or things: I, me, you, he, him, she, her, it, we, us, they, them
Possessive—show ownership: mine, yours, hers, his, theirs, ours
Demonstrative—point out: this, that, these, those
Relative—relate one part of the sentence to another: who, whom, which, that,
whose (One country that I’d like to visit someday is France.)
Reflexive (intensive)—reflect back to someone/something in the sentence:
myself, yourself, himself, herself, itself, ourselves, yourselves, themselves
(You must ask yourself that question.)
**a pretentious mistake—using the reflexive pronoun when a personal pronoun
will do: (Please call Allan and myself at your earliest convenience. Here,
“myself” isn’t necessary because you haven’t said who “myself” is. It should
be replaced with “me.”)
Interrogative—ask questions: who, whom, which, whose, what
Indefinite—contrary to their name—sometimes refer to a definite noun that has
already been mentioned in the sentence: all, another, any, both, either, few
most, no one, nothing, others, several, something)
Adjectives—3 Little Questions
• Which one?
• What kind of?
• How many?
Articles—a, an, the
Indefinite—a, an
Definite—the
Da, Da, Daahh: Adverbs!
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
How?—She strolled happily.
When?—We left yesterday.
Where?—They ran backwards.
Why?-Under what circumstances?
How much?
How often?—I raised my hand twice.
To what extent?—He answered quickly.
Try Some Tom Swifties!
“Punny” ways (adverbs) Tom is quoted as saying something specific:
Ex. “Which way is the cemetery?” Tom said gravely.”
1.
“Would you turn out that light?” Tom asked________.
2.
“That’s nothing; I’ve had a transplant,” Tom’s father countered
_________.
3.
“I can’t tell if that is sleet or hail,” Tom said ________.
4.
“You’re driving too fast!” Tom cried _______.
5.
“The florist has run out of flowers,” Tom lamented _________.
6.
“This is the end of our relationship,” Tom declared __________.
7.
“Let’s go see a baseball game in Atlanta,” Tom suggested
__________.
8.
“Don’t stick your finger out at me,” Tom roared _______.
9.
“Oh-oh. We need a spare tire,” Tom proclaimed _________.
10. “May I have some splenda?” Tom requested ___________.
Show Me the Action and the Being
Action Verbs—Transitive and Intransitive
Lie/lay
Sit/set
State of Being verbs—am, is, are, was, were, be,
being, been, has been, should have been, may
be, and might be
*We’ll deal with verb tense a little later.
The Junction in Conjunction
• “Joining words”
• Coordinating: and, but, or, nor, for, so, yet
(BOYSFAN)
• Correlative: (PAIRS—MUST HAVE A
“relative”) both/and, neither/nor, not
only/also, not only/but also
• Subordinating: too many to name—
although, before, once, since, so long as,
unless, whenever, while
What’s Your Position on
Prepositions?
• A word that links a noun or pronoun to
some other word in the sentence
– Jack and Jill went up the hill.
• (Up is the prep. connecting went and hill.)
• Some preps are compound:
–
–
–
–
In spite of
Next to
On top of
Together with
Try This
• If the word in question will fill this sentence
and make sense, it is most likely a
preposition:
• It went__________the thing(s).
– “of” is the most notable exception
*Never end a sentence with a preposition?
Heavens to Betsy!
• Use far more often in dialogue than formal
writing, these little expressions indicate
surprise or emotion. They do not change
the meaning of the sentence and can be
taken out freely.
• Like, totally.