Helpful Grammar Notes For Sentence Test #3

Transcription

1 Helpful Grammar Notes For Sentence Test #3 Know Your English Definitions We use English definitions to help solve grammatical problems in writing in the same way that math formulas help to solve mathematical problems. You must memorize both English and math definitions/formulas to be successful in each subject area. Follow This Recommended Pattern for Understanding Simple Sentence Structure Find parts of speech in this order: 1. Complete Subjects and Complete Predicates 2. Simple Subjects and Simple Predicates 3. Nouns 4. Adjectives 5. Everything Else Find Complete Subjects Ask "whom" or "what" is being talked about when looking at a sentence. Ask "whom" or "what" is doing the action when looking at a sentence. Find Simple Subjects Look for the main (most important) word in the complete subject. A simple subject is always a noun or pronoun. A simple subject is almost always one word. A simple subject that is more than one word is almost always capitalized. Examples: James Smith, Mary Johnson, New York City, Miss Allen

2 Find Simple Predicates Look for the main (most important) words in the complete subject. Simple Predicates are verbs. Verbs tell time (tense). There are action and being verbs. An action verb tells what the subject does. A being verb tells what the subject is, or is like. More on Verbs Sentences tell time (tense). Look for the words that tell past, present, or future time in a sentence, and you will have found the verb(s). Here is a chart demonstrating verb tense with examples: Present Past Future does is has feels did was had felt Examples will do will be will have will feel He does all of his work. He did all of his work. He will do all of his work. She is a great student. She was a great student. She will be a great student. He has the measles. He had the measles. He will have the measles. She feels healthy. She felt healthy. She will feel healthy again. 2

3 Here is a chart of the most common being and linking verbs: is be am feel was being seem taste are been look smell were become appear Being verbs do not show action. However, some common being verbs look like action verbs. Look for verb phrases (families). Remember that simple predicates can have more than one verb. A simple predicate that has more than one verb is called a verb phrase. A verb phrase has a main verb and one or more helper (auxiliary) verbs. The main verb is the last verb in a verb phrase (family) and is usually an action verb. Look for the helper (auxiliary) verb(s) before or in front of the main verb. Two good strategies for finding main and helper (auxiliary) verbs: 1. a. Find the simple predicate. b. Look to find an action verb. c. Look in front of the action verb for any helper verb(s) that tell the time of the action. 2. a. Look for any words in the sentence that tell time. That will be the simple predicate. b. Separate the simple predicate into main and helper verbs. See your English teacher if these strategies do not work for you. There are other possible strategies. 3

4 Find Nouns in Sentences A noun is a person, place, thing, or idea. A noun is a word that is a name. An idea noun can be named but not touched. Remember that a simple subject is always a noun or pronoun. There are proper and common nouns. A proper noun is a particular or specific noun that is always capitalized. Examples: Mr. Smith, Jane Thompson, New York City, Statue of Liberty, December Nouns that do not name a particular person, place, thing, or idea are common nouns. Examples: desk, window, girl, animal, cat, day, auditorium, house, recess, playground There are singular and plural nouns. A noun that names one person, place, thing, or idea is a singular noun. A noun that names more than one person, place, thing, or idea is a plural noun. Examples of singular and plural nouns: boy boys Eskimo Eskimos city cities Burger King Burger Kings match matches T-shirt T-shirts year years December Decembers There are possessive nouns. A possessive noun names who or what owns or has something. 4

5 Here is a chart demonstrating the rules for forming possessive nouns: Singular nouns Add an apostrophe and s ( s) a dog s life Mrs. Smith s hat the student s answer Plural nouns that end in s Add only an apostrophe ( ) the Jones cars all of the students papers all of the girls teachers Plural nouns that do not end in s Add an apostrophe and s ( s) the men s coats the geese s pond the children s playground Find Adjectives An adjective describes (modifies or changes) a noun or pronoun. Adjectives can tell what kind, which one, or how many. Sometimes adjectives come before the noun or pronoun they describe, and at other times adjectives follow the noun or pronoun they describe. One good strategy for finding adjectives: 1. Always find the nouns first. 2. Ask these three questions about each noun that you find: Are there any words in the sentence that tell what kind? Are there any words in the sentence that tell which one? Are there any words in the sentence that tell how many? Notes: Be sure to ask each question about every word that you think is a noun. Asking these three questions will help you decide if a word is really a noun or adjective. Remember that adjectives can be singular and plural. 5

6 More on Adjectives Recognize adjective phrases. Look for the pattern something of something. The key word to find is of. Examples: Boxes of potatoes, crowds of people, cans of soda, day of September When you discover the adjective phrase pattern, remember that one of the words in the phrase is a noun while the other is an adjective. Ask what kind, which one, and how many about each word in the adjective phrase to find the adjective. Know how to identify proper adjectives. Recognize that proper adjectives come originally from proper nouns. Many proper adjectives have one of three possible endings. They are ish, an, and ese. Examples: Sweden becomes Swedish, Ireland becomes Irish, Poland becomes Polish Italy becomes Italian, Mexico becomes Mexican, Canada becomes Canadian Japan becomes Japanese, China becomes Chinese, Vietnam becomes Vietnamese There are exceptions such as France becoming French and Iceland becoming Icelandic. Find Articles There are three articles. They are a, an, and the. Articles look and act like special adjectives. Find Adverbs When you add an ly to a root word it becomes an adverb. Adverbs describe verbs, adjectives, and other adverbs. 6