Nouns A noun is a word that names a person, place, thing, or idea. Nouns may be singular or plural. Nouns may be possessive. Ex: The kitten s tail

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1 Grammar Study Guide The part of speech of a particular word is determined by how it is used in a sentence. Nouns Nouns A noun is a word that names a person, place, thing, or idea. Nouns may be singular or plural. Nouns may be possessive. Ex: The kitten s tail There are six types of nouns 1. Compound: made of two or more words used basketball, filmmaker, drugstore, doghouse; fire drill, as a single noun. May be hyphenated, one word, or more than one word. chain reaction, The Call of the Wild; self-control, fund-raiser 1. Common: names any one of a group of persons, places, things, or ideas 1. Proper: names a particular person, place, thing, or idea poem, country, athlete, ship, newspaper, river, street, day, city, organization The Raven, Spain, Edgar Allan Poe, The New York Times 1. Concrete: names a person, place, or thing that can be perceived by one or more of the senses. hummingbird, telephone, teacher, popcorn, ocean, Golden Gate Bridge 1. Abstract: names an idea, a feeling, a quality, or a characteristic knowledge, patriotism, grace, evil, 1. Collective: names a group audience, brood, batch, chorus, flock, bundle

2 Pronouns Pronouns take the place of nouns or pronouns. The word or group of words to which a pronoun refers is called its antecedent. Pronouns must agree in number with their antecedents. Type of Pronoun Definition Examples 1. Personal Refers to the one speaking, the one spoken to, or the one spoken about First: I, me, mine; Second: you your yours; Third: he, him, it, its, their, theirs 1. Reflexive Refers to the subject and functions as a complement or the object of the preposition Ends in self or selves 1. Intensive Emphasizes a noun or pronoun Ends in self or selves (if you omit it and the meaning stays the same, it is intensive.) Ex: I did it myself. 4. Demonstrative Points out a person, place, thing or idea This, that, these, those 5. Interrogative Asks a question What, which, who, whom, whose 6. Relative Introduces a subordinate clause That, which, who, whom, whose 7. Indefinite Refers to a person place thing or idea that is not specifically named All, anybody, anything, both, each everybody, few, many, more, most, neither

3 1.3 Verbs A verb is a word that expresses action or a state of being and is necessary to make a statement. The primary characteristic of a verb is its ability to express time present, past, and future. Verbs express time by means of tense forms. Examples: Present Tense: They watch the race. Past Tense: They watched the race. Future Tense: The will watch the race. Action Verbs can be either transitive or intransitive. Action Tells what someone or something does. May be physical or mental. Action verbs may be transitive, which means they have a direct object. Direct objects answer the question what? Or whom? Intransitive action verbs do not have a direct object. Linking Joins or links the subject of the sentence Be in all its forms (am, is, with a noun, pronoun, or adjective that are, was, were) is the most identifies or describes the subject. commonly used linking verb Ted waved the signal flag. He hoped for success. The batter swung the bat. (What did he swing? The bat.) The batter swung wildly. (Wildly describes how she swung the bat.) Archery is an outdoor sport. You are the person behind the mask. Verbs that can be linking: look, remain, seem, become, seem, taste, feel (p. 108) Auxiliary or Helping Accompany a main verb to make up a verb Has eaten phrase. May or may not be next to the will be eating main verb. Sometimes separated by will soon be eating adverbs

4 Adjectives Adjectives modify nouns or pronouns by making the meaning more definite. Adjectives modify by telling What kind? Which one? How much? How many? Pronouns can serve as adjectives when they modify nouns. Examples: My kitten: possessive adjective Those bicycles: demonstrative adjective Lucy s report: possessive noun acting as an adjective Leather shoes: noun acting as adjective Type Explanation Examples Articles Most commonly used adjectives A and an are indefinite b/c refer to any member A, an, the Demonstrative adjectives Modify nouns or pronouns This, that, these those (this desk, that book) Proper Formed from a proper noun and begins w/ a capital letter Canadian citizen, Carter administration, New Jersey coast Adjectives in sentences may come before or after the word they modify. Adverbs An adverb is a word that modifies a verb, an adjective, or another adverb by making its meaning more specific. Adverbs modify by answering the questions, When? It should arrive Saturday. Where? Leave your coat there. How? I counted them carefully. To What degree? We were very sorry. Prepositions A preposition is a word that shows the reslationship of a noun or a pronoun to another word in a sentence. A prepositional phrase is a group of words that begins with a preposition and ends with a noun or a pronoun and is called the object of the preposition. Example: The diamonds in the vault are priceless. (In shows the relationship between diamonds and the object of the preposition, vault.)

5 Conjunctions A conjunction is a word that joins single words or groups of words. Coordinating conjunctions Joins words or groups of words tha FANBOYS (for, and, nor, but, or, have equal grammatical weigh in a yet, so) sentence. Correlative conjunctions Subordinating conjunction Work in pairs to join words and groups of words of equal grammatical weight in a sentence Join two clauses, or thoughts in such a way as to make one grammatically dependent on the other Both.and; either... or; just as...so; neither...nor; not only... but also; whether... or We can skate on the pond when the ice is thicker. Interjections An interjection is a word or phrase that expresses emotion or exclamation. It has no grammatical connection to other words. Oh, my! What is that? Yikes! I ll be late! Ouch! It s hot!

6 Parts of the Sentence I. Simple Subjects and Simple Predicates a. Subject- names whom or what the sentence is about. b. Predicate- says something about the predicate c. Simple subject--key noun or pronoun that tells what the sentence is about. d. Simple predicate--verb or verb phrase that expresses action or a state of being about he subject. Examples: Simple Subject Taylor Swift Dogs Things Simple Predicate will perform. were barking. change. II. Complete Subjects and Complete Predicates A. Compound subjects: two or more simple subjects joined by a conjunction and joined by the same verb. B. Examples: 1. Cookies and candy are my favorite foods. C. Compound predicate: two or more verbs that are joined by a conjunction and have the same subject. 1. Turner opened a book, grabbed a pencil, and started his homework. III. Order of Subject and Predicate A. In the English language, the subject usually comes first. B. Exceptions: 1. In commands and requests, the subject is usually not stated. The predicate is the entire sentene. The pronoun you is understood to be the subject. a. Examples. Sit down. Be quiet. Do your work. 2. Questions: a. Did you study? Have you done the reading? C. Remember: the subject is never in the prepositional phrase. D. When the word There or here is at the beginning of a sentence, the subject follows the verb. Predicate Subject There is a chill in the air.

7 Complements Here are my thoughts on the matter. I. Complement completes the meaning of a verb a. Object Complements i. Direct objects Indirect objects b. Subject Complements i. Predicate Nominatives Predicate Adjectives II. Direct objects a. Answers the question what or whom after a transitive action verb b. Follow action verbs c. Only transitive action verbs have direct objects d. Are nouns (or words acting as nouns) or pronouns e. Examples: i. Martin Luther King changed the world. III. Many people admire him deeply. i Many people joined his marches and protests. Indirect Objects a. Answers the questions to whom, for whom, to what, and for what after an action verb. b. Follow action verbs c. Can only have an indirect object if it has a direct object d. The indirect object always comes between the verb and the direct object. e. Examples: i. Jesse Owens gave people hope. The KKK sent people a message through their terrorist acts. IV. Object Complements a. Answers the question what? after a direct object. It completes the meaning of a direct object by identifying or describing it. b. Occur only in sentences with direct objects & usually follows d.o. c. May be an adjective, noun, or pronoun. d. Occur only in sentences with the following action verbs or similar verbs that have the general meaning of make or consider. (appoint, call, choose, consider, elect, find, make, name, prove, render, think, vote) e. Examples: i. Citizens found the protests peaceful. (adjective) The president appointed him spokesperson. (noun) i My grandmother considers the property hers. (pronoun) V. Subject Complements a. Follows a linking verb and identifies or describes the subject. b. Predicate Nominatives a noun or a pronoun that follows a linking verb and names or identifies the subject. i. Sopranos are singers.

8 c. Predicate Adjectives an adjective that follows a linking verb and describes the subject. i. Firefighters are brave.

9 Chapter 3: Phrases--A phrase is a group of words used as a single part of speech. p. 145 I. Prepositional Phrase II. A. A group of words that begins w/a preposition and ends w/a noun or pronoun i. After the Civil War, many Southerners resisted change. The battle for equal rights has been fought for many decades. B. Usually function as adjectives or adverbs. C. Adjective phrase (answers questions what kind? Which one? How much? How many?) i. They used the staircase on the left. Which of the staircases leads downstairs? D. Adverb phrase (answers when? Where? How? To what degree?) i. At midnight, I went downstairs to the kitchen. My grandfather explained that a daily walk is healthful for him. E. Writing tip: Place adverb and adjective phrases as close as possible to the words they modify. Appositive and Appositive Phrases A. An appositive is a noun or pronoun that is placed next to another noun or pronoun to identify it or give additional information about it. B. An appositive phrase is an appositive plus any words that modify the appositive. i. Rosa Parks, an ordinary woman, changed the world with one small act. Jesse Owens, a modest, humble man, accomplished great things. C. Use commas to set off any appositive or appositive phrase that is not essential to the sentence. D. Usually appositives follow the nouns they identify or explain, but sometimes they come first. i. A hard worker, Matthew always does his best. III. Verbal and Verbal Phrases p A. A verbal is a verb form that functions as an adjective, noun, or adverb. B. Participial phrases begins with verb form ending in ing, -ed, or an irregular past tense of a verb. i. The running water overflowed out of the tub. C. Gerund begins with a verb form ending in ing. Acts as a noun. i. Smoking is dangerous to your health D. Infinitive a verb form preceded by the word to and acts as a noun, adjective, or adverb. i. His goal is to graduate.

10 Clauses and Sentence Structure. I. Main/Independent clauses: include a subject and predicate and can stand alone. II. III. Subordinate/Dependent clauses: include a subject and predicate and cannot stand alone a. Adjective clause: modify a noun or pronoun i. Begin w/ a relative pronoun (who, whom, whose, that, which) or word where or when Usually follow the word they modify i Sometimes the relative pronoun is dropped b. Adverb clause: modify verb, adjectives, or adverbs i. begin w/ subordinating conjunction (p. 174) tells when, where, how, why, to what extent, under what condition c. noun clause: used as a noun w/in the main clause of the sentence i. can be the subject, direct object, indirect object, object of preposition, or predicate nominative Sentence Structure a. Simple: 1 main clause b. Compound: 2 or more main clauses c. Complex: 1 main + 1 or more subordinate d. Compound/Complex= 2 or more main + at least 1 subordinate