Chapter 1. Subjects and Verbs

Transcription

1 Chapter 1 Subjects and Verbs In this chapter, you will learn to identify nouns and pronouns and subjects and verbs. You will also learn about different types of verbs, including helping verbs, linking verbs, and action verbs. Finally, you will learn about the relationship between subjects and verbs. 1 R oyer Grammar and Punctuation

2 A sentence is a group of related words that contains both a subject and a verb and expresses a complete thought. Before you can find the subject of a sentence, you need to be able to identify nouns and pronouns because the subjects of sentences will usually be nouns or pronouns (or, occasionally, other words or groups of words that function as nouns). A noun names a person, place, thing or idea. Nouns that name concrete things we can see, hear, smell, taste or touch are easiest to identify. Noun Noun Noun Noun Noun The student put the new textbooks, notebooks, and pens in her backpack. Noun Noun Noun Noun I like my pizza with pepperoni, olives and mushrooms. In the sentences above, the concrete nouns student, textbooks, notebooks, pens, backpack, pizza, pepperoni, olives and mushrooms are tangible; they are objects we can touch. Abstract nouns name emotions, qualities, conditions and other abstractions. Fear, courage, happiness and satisfaction are all examples of abstract nouns. We can have and feel them, but we can t touch them. Noun Noun Noun Noun Noun Noun Americans enjoy many privileges including life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Noun Noun Noun Noun Irene s sadness over losing her mom grew into misery, but she had to have courage. Notice that sadness, happiness, and despair are abstract nouns that express emotion while courage and liberty are nouns that express conditions. Below are a few examples of nouns, arranged by category. Persons Places Things Ideas Emily Mendocino book honesty student beach sun thought woman Sacramento module intelligence politician capital buildings democracy Add nouns of your own to each column: Persons Places Things Ideas 2 R oyer Grammar and Punctuation

3 Practice 1: Use some of the nouns you listed above to write three sentences below. Remember to begin each sentence with a capital letter and use correct punctuation To help you identify nouns remember these three points: 1. Nouns can be classified as proper and common nouns. Proper nouns name specific persons, places, things and ideas. The first letter in each of these nouns is capitalized (Susan, Sacramento, Sentra, Scientology). Common nouns name more general categories. The first letter of a common noun is not capitalized (son, sidewalk, spaghetti, sincerity) unless the noun is at the beginning of a sentence. 2. If you are unsure whether or not a word is a noun, ask yourself if it could come right after a, an, or the and make sense. If it can, it s a noun. A banana and an apple were left on the plate. 3. Words that end in -ment, -ism, -ness, -ence, -ance, and -tion are usually nouns: enchantment, socialism, togetherness, excellence, performance, information. Practice 2: Underline and place an N above all the nouns. Remember to look for noun markers a, an, the. You may also refer to the 3 noun guidelines above to help you identify all the nouns. 1. Joe could not find the keys to the new car. 2. Joe searched all the rooms of the large house without success. 3. Finally, Joe gave up and took the crowded bus to school. 4. Taco Bell serves excellent lunches and dinners prepared by trained chefs. 5. The waiter served the delicious dessert after we finished our wonderful meal. 3 R oyer Grammar and Punctuation

4 Pronouns A pronoun takes the place of a noun. A pronoun allows you to refer to a noun without having to repeat the noun. Example: Heather wrote Heather s paper for Heather s English class, but Heather forgot to put Heather s name on Heather s paper. This sentence is repetitious and confusing. Instead of repeating Heather so many times, we use pronouns to replace the nouns. Notice how much better the correction with pronouns sounds: Heather wrote her paper for her English class, but she forgot to put her name on it. Following is a list of the most common pronouns. Read over this list until you are familiar with these words. Pronouns that refer to specific people and things: I we you he she they it me us your him her them its my our yours his her their mine ours theirs Pronouns that refer to general people and things: some everyone anyone someone no one all everything anything something nothing many everybody anybody somebody nobody each one none Pronouns that end in self or selves: myself ourselves yourself yourselves himself themselves herself itself Other Pronouns: who, whom, whose that this which those these Pronouns that ask questions: who, whom, whose which what 4 R oyer Grammar and Punctuation

5 Practice 3: Underline and place an N above all the nouns and a Pro above all the pronouns in the following sentences. You may refer to the list of pronouns. Be careful possessives are not nouns. Example: Tom s or sister s. 1. Jeffery helped the student understand the lessons on pronouns. 2. Jeffery looks at websites on the computer after he tutors his students. 3. During the summer, Chris works at his father s business. 4. Jodi bought her lunch from the Roost, and everyone wanted to eat it. 5. Mark Twain is Susan s favorite author, and she has every book he wrote. Practice 4: Write three sentences that include nouns and pronouns; place an N above the nouns and Pro above the pronouns. Remember to punctuate your sentences correctly R oyer Grammar and Punctuation

6 Verbs There are 3 ways to recognize and identify verbs. 1. A verb is a word that expresses action or links one idea to another. An action verb expresses the physical or mental action in a sentence. Examples: The student ran from the parking lot to his class. (ran = physical action) Steve sits in bed and reads his book. (sits, reads = physical action) The student knew the answers to the test questions. (knew = mental action) Practice 5: Underline the physical or mental action verbs in the following sentences. 1. Jeffery believed he could win the race. 2. The class attended the last performance of the play. 3. Jason ate the entire pizza by himself. 4. Tami thought she should have received an A in English. 5. I invited all of my relatives and friends to my graduation party. Linking verbs connect or link words in a sentence. We use linking verbs to say something about a noun. N LV tells about Irene Irene is (an excellent tutor.) N LV tells about Nellie Nellie was (happy.) You might think of a linking verb as an equal sign =. Irene = an excellent tutor Nellie = happy Some of the existence and linking verbs are forms of the verb be: am, is, are, was, were, be, being, been. A special note on prepositions: Students often mistake prepositions for verbs. Words such as in, over, above, beyond, behind, etc. are NOT verbs. They are prepositions. One simple way to differentiate between linking verbs and prepositions is to ask yourself, can a bunny go there? If it can, then it s a preposition. This is not a comprehensive explanation of prepositions, so if you re struggling, ask for help. 6 R oyer Grammar and Punctuation

7 Practice 6: Underline the linking verbs in the following sentences. Then circle the prepositions. Remember prepositions are NOT verbs, but they are often mistaken for verbs. 1. The sky was cloudy on the day of the picnic. 2. Sacramento's weather is usually cold and foggy in January. 3. The instructors were tired. 4. Babies are often tired in the evening. 5. Dogs were my favorite animals when I was a child. Practice 7: Write six sentences of your own. In the first two, use a linking verb. In the next four use an action (physical or mental) verb. Underline the verbs in your sentences Verbs are words that tell when something occurred or will occur. Verbs also show the time the action or the linking takes place. The time a verb relates is called its tense. The most common tenses are present, past and future. Verb tenses are another way of helping us identify verbs in a sentence. You will recognize the verb because it is the word that indicated the time in the sentence. Present Tense Past Tense I talk we talk I talked we talked you talk you talk you talked you talked he, she, it talks they talk he, she, it talked they talked Future Tense I will talk we will talk you will talk you will talk he, she, it will talk they will talk Note that the verb talk can be written as talked to show past tense and as will talk to show future tense. 7 R oyer Grammar and Punctuation

8 3. You can find verbs if you know that verbs sometimes have other verbs that help them. A third way to identify verbs is to know that the verb of a sentence is sometimes more than one word. The main verb of the sentence may be preceded by one or more helping verbs to show time, condition, or mood. Helping verbs do just that they help the main verb to fit in the sentence and express your idea accurately. For example, look at the following sentence that uses the action verb sitting : Jodi sitting on the couch. In this sentence, the verb sitting doesn t fit. It needs help to make sense. So, we must add a helping verb: Jodi was sitting on the couch. By adding the helping verb was, we have created a verb phrase that is, the complete verb is more than one word: was sitting. So, helping verbs are considered part of the verb. Also note that helping verbs ALWAYS come BEFORE the main verb. Examples: (MV = Main Verb, HV= Helping Verb) MV The students type their writing assignment on the computers. HV MV The students have typed their writing assignment on the computers. HV HV MV The students have been typing their writing assignment on the computers. HV HV HV MV The students should have been typing their writing assignments on the computers. Learning to recognize helping verbs can help you identify verbs in sentences. These words are often helping verbs: can may could will must would shall might should These words are sometimes helping verbs and sometimes main verbs: Forms of have Forms of do Forms of be have do am was be has does is were being had did are been Practice 8:Write three sentences using helping verbs. Underline the complete verb (helping verb + main verb) in your sentence R oyer Grammar and Punctuation

9 Identifying Subjects and Verbs Use this tip throughout this chapter to help you identify subjects and verbs. Find the verb 1 st ; then ask who or what (did verb) To identify the subject of a sentence, you need to first find the complete verb. After identifying the verb, it is easy to find the subject by asking yourself Who or what performed the action? Example: S HV V The student with the blue backpack was walking to the parking lot. The complete verb in this sentence is: was walking. When you ask yourself Who or what was walking? the answer is the student; therefore, student is the subject of the sentence. Practice 9 In the following sentences, each verb is underlined. Notice that in some sentences, the verb is more than one word. Find the underlined verb, then ask who or what The answer to that question is the subject of the sentence. Circle the subject. (did verb) 1. The students worked in the library all evening. 2. The road through the desert shimmers in the hot sun. 3. Her mittens warm her hands. 4. Democracy in modern governments takes many forms. 5. Revising essays is a necessary step in effective writing. Compound Subjects and Verbs Sentences may contain more than one subject or more than one verb that work together to express an idea. When this happens, the subject or verb is considered compound or multiple. Examples: S V 1. Jessica fed the neighbor s cat. (Single subject and single verb) S S V 2. Jessica and Chris fed the neighbor s cat. (Compound subject with a single verb) S S V V 3. Jessica and Chris fed the neighbor s cat and cleaned its litter box. (Compound subject with a compound verb) As you can see from these examples, sentences can have different combinations of subjects and verbs. In the second example, we have two subjects, Jessica and Chris, that go with one verb, fed. In the third example, we have two subjects, Jessica and Chris, that go with two verbs, fed and cleaned. 9 R oyer Grammar and Punctuation

10 Practice 10: Identify the subjects and verbs in the following sentences by placing an S over the subject(s) and a V over the verb(s). Hint: First find the verb(s) and ask who? or what? to determine the subject(s). 1. The wind and rain shook the house and rattled the windows. 2. The doorbell and the telephone rang at the same time. 3. Nate and Tina washed and dried the dishes after dinner. 4. Yesterday, I went to Target and bought all of my school supplies. 5. Cooking and gardening are two of my favorite pastimes. Practice 11 In the following sentences, underline the subjects once and the verbs twice. Then in the blanks to the left of each sentence, identify the subject as either simple or compound and the verb as either simple or compound. Example: compound simple The boys and girls played for hours at the daycare. Subject Verb 1. Birds fly through the skies. 2. Smart students study and do their homework. 3. Lies can ruin a relationship. 4. Hard work can pay off. 5. Lollipops and jellybeans filled the candy store window. 6. Tina and Jeffery walked and talked about the concert. 7. My best friend encourages me and shares my joys and sorrows. 8. My first English essay explained my reasons for going to college. 9. I have a headache. 10. Dogs and cats are great pets. 10 R oyer Grammar and Punctuation

11 Practice 12: Write 3 sentences that have either a multiple subject, a multiple verb, or both Practice 13: Identifying Subjects and Verbs Write the subjects and verbs in the spaces to the left of each sentence. Some sentences may have compound subjects and/or compound verbs. [Hint: Find the verb first and then ask, Who or what is doing the action? or Who or what is identified or described? ] Remember that sometimes the subject can be more than one word. Be sure to identify the complete subject. Subject Verb 1. I failed my first essay. 2. Ten other students failed and dropped the class. 3. I kept the class and tried harder next time. 4. The second essay was harder than the first. 5. I went to see the teacher and get some help. 6. Going to the Reading and Writing Center was also helpful. 7. All of my hard work paid off. 8. I earned a good grade on my second essay. 9. None of the hard work I had done was wasted. 10. The Reading and Writing Center and my professor were helpful. Practice 14: In the following sentences, identify the complete verb by placing a V above the verb(s). Then ask yourself Who or what (verb)? and place an S above the noun or pronoun that is the subject of the sentence. Remember that a complete verb can be more than one word (helping verbs count as part of the verb). 1. The cat quickly climbed over the fence to escape the dog. 2. The girl in the blue skirt lives down the street from Joey. 3. The factory did not produce an acceptable car. 11 R oyer Grammar and Punctuation

12 4. The long line at the bank moved very slowly. 5. I bought two expensive textbooks for my class at the bookstore. Practice 15: In the following sentences place a V above the verbs (including helping verbs) and an S above the subjects. 1. My sister s clothes are always scattered all over her room. 2. Your grammar will improve. 3. Susan is not going to the movies with us. 4. A final exam is usually given at the end of the semester. 5. Jeffery has almost completed his college degree. Practice 16: Write 3 sentences; be sure each sentence has a subject and a verb. Identify the subject and verb(s) by placing an S over the subject and a V over each verb Practice 17: Underline the subjects once and the complete verbs twice in the following sentences. 1. The student apologized profusely to the instructor for his lateness. 2. Taco Bell serves tacos all night. 3. Have you registered for next semester s classes yet? 4. The final exams are usually scheduled during the last two weeks of the semester. 5. Yesterday, Jennifer and I took our last test and went out to dinner to celebrate. 6. My computer and printer have made my assignments easier to complete. 7. During the test, my pencil and pen dropped and rolled under the desk. 8. From the back of the house came a loud explosion. 12 R oyer Grammar and Punctuation

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