Grammar

1
Grammar

• The Basics

2
Identifying VERBS

• A verb can be inflected for tense, person and
  number
• Today I walk
• Yesterday I walked
• Tomorrow I will walk.
• He walks.
• They walk.

3
Helping Verbs

• Appears with action or linking verbs.
• Erica can speak six languages
• The train will be late.
• Am been could have
• Be being will has
• Is may should had
• Are must do shall
• Was might does can

4
Action Verb

• Activity, movement, thought or process

5
Linking Verb

• Joins the subject to something that renames or
  describes the subject.
• Erin was my hairdresser.
• Jean is the best skier in the group.
• Am was appear taste
• Be were feel smell
• Is been seem look
• Are being sound become

6
Linking and Helping

• The food is too spicy
• The food is cooking in the oven.
• The plane has been delayed.
• She will have been married by then.

7
Complete Verb

• The main verb action or linking verb
• Action or linking helping complete verb
• The candidates will debate the issues on Friday.
• Main verb
• Helping verb
• Complete verb

8
Infinitives

• A verb that follows to will NEVER be a part of
  the complete verb.
• I hesitated to answer the question.
• Complete verb hesitated.

9
Practice

• The tornado had struck before the warning
  sounded.
• The class asked the instructor when the final
  exam would be given.
• If I were you, I would eat at Joes house.

10
Subject Nouns

• Subjects are DOERS.
• Who or what is DOING the verb subject.
• Ivan earned the highest grade in the class.
• Before Halloween, my cat was ill.
• I run five miles every morning.
• Today, my run was cut short by the rain.

11
Object Nouns

• Who or what is having the verb DONE TO them
  object.
• The quarterback threw the ball to the receiver.
• She graded the papers until midnight.

12
Practice

• Champagne is often drunk at celebrations.
• This alcoholic beverage was invented by Dom
  Perignon, a Benedictine monk.
• Is the soup hot enough?

13
Multiple subjects

• The money and the credit cards were stolen from
  my wallet.
• Greg slid into home plate as the shortstop made a
  play at second base.

14
Prepositions

• Shows how two things relate to each other in time
  or space.
• Most anything a baseball can do to a box.
• About before inside through
• To behind toward under
• Over for on out
• Around from with during
• Among along off up

15
Prepositional Phrase

• A preposition and the words that work with it.
  About this time
• Among my friends
• At noon
• Over the rainbow
• Under the moon
• The subject of a sentence will NEVER be part of a
  prepositional phrase

16
Practice

• The leader of the scout is a wilderness expert.
• A box of old clothes is on the kitchen table.
• In the middle of the night, heavy winds damaged
  the orchard.

17
Inverted Order

• Questions
• Is the book on the table?
• There were twenty people on the list.

18
Clauses

• A group of words with a subject and a verb.
• The snow fell softly.
• After the marathon runner crossed the finish line
• Helen was not invited to the reception.

19
Phrases

• Word groups that do not have both a subject and a
  verb.
• Seeing the monster in his path
• In the pantry
• Behind the sofa in the den
• Frightened by the angry dog

20
Practice

• Before Lorenzo could finish his sentence
• Around the corner from my house
• Against the wishes of her parents
• She means well

21
Independent (Main) Clauses

• A clause that can be a sentence is a MAIN clause.
• The movie ended very late.
• The lady drove the red car.
• Her advice was not helpful.

22
Dependent (Subordinate) Clause

• Dependent clause cannot be a sentence because it
  is incomplete. It is missing either
• A subject
• A verb
• A sense of completeness
• More on this is a minute

23
Joining Independent Clauses

• Coordinating Conjunctions
• For (meaning because)
• And (addition)
• Nor (means not either one)
• But (show contrast)
• Or (alternatives)
• Yet (contrast)
• So (as a result)
• Main clause comma and coordinating conjunction
  main clause

24
Practice

• To earn money, Joe dropped out of school for a
  semester. He took a job as a landscaper.
• The highway department received 30 revenue
  increase. The road remains in disrepair.

25
Joining Independent Clauses

• Conjunctive Adverbs
• However (but)
• Furthermore (plus)
• Thus (as a result)
• Nevertheless (but)
• Moreover (plus)
• Consequently (as a result)
• Nonetheless (but)
• Therefore (as a result)
• Main Clause semicolon and conjunctive adverb
  and comma main clause

26
Practice

• The temperature only went up to 65 degrees. Most
  of us decided to go swimming anyway.
• Anna is a beautiful woman. She is intelligent,
  loyal and caring.

27
Subordination (as promised)

• A subordinate clause is introduced by a
  subordinating conjunction
• After before when although
• Whenever as where even though
• If as long as since in order that
• As though unless while until
• Because whether as soon as so that

28
Movement Test

• Since the polls do not close for another hour
• We do not know the election results.
• When I graduated from high school, I expected to
  join the army.
• I expected to join the army when I graduated from
  high school.

29
Relative Clause

• Who, whose, which, that
• Restrictive clauses (needed for identification)
  do not have commas
• The police officer who saved the children from
  drowning is my neighbor.
• Non Restrictive Clauses (not needed for
  identification) punctuated with commas
• Officer Johnson, who saved the children from
  drowning, is my neighbor.

30
Practice

• The mayor does not plan to run for reelection.
• The mayor does not get along with the city
  council.
• The kitten is now a member of my family.
• I found the kitten last week.

31
Sentence Fragments

• A sentence (a clause) must have a subject, verb
  and a sense of completeness.

32
Missing Subject Fragment

• There must be a subject that DOES the verb.
• The subject from the preceding sentence cannot
  operate outside of its own sentence.
• The sales clerk told us she would be with us in a
  minute. But spent ten minutes with another
  customer.

33
Corrections

• Add the fragment to the sentence before it
• OR
• Add a subject so the fragment becomes a sentence.
• The sales clerk told us she would be with us in a
  minute but spent ten minutes with another
  customer.

34
Incomplete Verb Fragment

• Missing helping verbs
• The baby sleeping soundly in the crib
• The sun setting in the west

35
Missing Subject and Verb Fragments

• Gloomy weather depresses me. And snowy weather.
• Unable to assemble Leos bike. Steve was
  frustrated.
• I walked across campus. Reading his love letter.

36
Subordinate Clause Fragments

• After the meeting was over. We all went out for
  sushi.
• My flexibility has increased. Since I started
  taking that Yoga class.

37
Run-on Sentences Comma Splices

• A run-on sentence occurs when two main clauses
  are run together without any punctuation.
• A comma splice occurs when the two main clauses
  are joined by a comma.

38
For example

• Two main clauses
• Dave could not wait to tell everyone the news.
• He was accepted to the biology program.
• Run on
• Dave could not wait to tell everyone the news he
  was accepted to the biology program.
• Comma Splice
• Dave could not wait to tell everyone the news, he
  was accepted to the biology program.

39
To Separate Independent Clauses

• Use a coordinating conjunction and a comma.
• Use a semicolon.
• Use a semicolon and a conjunctive adverb

40
Practice

• I left the party at 1100 then I went to a movie.
• We waited for Sara finally, we left without her.
• Melody is the perfect employee, she is reliable
  and efficient!
• In addition to losing my keys, I misplaced my
  wallet!

41
Watch out!

• These words often join main clauses. If you use
  them in this way, make sure you have a semicolon
  before them and a comma after
• As a result furthermore however
• Then thus therefore
• Next hence moreover
• Finally on the contrary in addition

42
Writing Descriptive Sentences

• Use adjectives to modify nouns.
• Use adverbs to modify verbs or to tell how, when,
  or where something occurs.
• The cloudy sky threatened rain.
• The lecturer spoke briefly.
• I finished a difficult job yesterday.

43
Writing Sentences with Variety

• Mother carefully eased the roast out of the oven.
• Can become
• Carefully, mother eased the roast out of the
  oven.
• Softly and sweetly, she sang the lullaby.

44
Present Participle Verbs and Phrases

• Whistling, John walked to work.
• Limping, I crossed the street on my crutches.
• Crying pitifully, the child called for his
  mother.
• Laughing late into the night, the women
  reminisced about their youth.

45
But, BE CAREFUL!

• The ING word or phrase must immediately precede
  the word or phrase it is describing OR you can
  get a silly result
• Walking across the street, the truck nearly hit
  me!
• Here, this sentence says the truck was walking
  across the street.
• This is a Dangling Modifier.

46
Past Participle Verbs

• Frightened, we walked through the cemetery at
  midnight.
• Irritated and annoyed, Mandy slammed her books on
  the table.
• Watch out for Dangling Modifiers here too!
• Delighted by the victory, a celebration was in
  order!

47
Misplaced Modifiers

• Dangling modifiers modify illogical subjects
• Feeling depressed, an evening out was needed.
• Feeling depressed, Boris needed an evening out.
• Misplaced modifiers occur too far away from what
  they modify, the result is confusion
• Andrea bought a silk dress at the thrift store
  with a broken zipper.
• The litterbug threw a plastic wrapper out of the
  window driving down 185.

48
Prepositional Phrases

• On my way out of town, I stopped for gas.
• From now on, everyone must turn in their
  assignments.
• Under the table, I found my glasses.

49
Parallelism

• Words that form pairs or series should all have
  the same FORM
• Alexa enjoys skating and singing.
• Beck and Suvara found the book funny, refreshing
  and interesting.
• How about
• The doctor told the patient to avoid salt and
  that he should get more exercise.

50
Not Parallel

• The doctor told the patient to avoid salt and
  that he should get more exercise.
• One is a verb phrase, one is a clause. These
  arent equal forms.
• The doctor told the patient to avoid salt and to
  get more exercise.
• OR
• The doctor told the patient that he should avoid
  salt and that he should get more exercise.

51
Practice

• This course demands patience, dedication and a
  student must know how to research.
• The committee rejected the proposal because of
  its complexity and it was expensive.

52
Conjunctions that work in pairs

• Eitheror Neithernor
• Bothand Not onlybut
• Whetheror Ifthen
• Either we will earn the money for the wedding, or
  we will ask our parents for a loan.
• Being a student and a parent at the same time is
  both tiring and rewarding.

53
Effective Sentences

• Unnecessary words weaken your style!
• One major key to good writing is effective word
  choice.
• Deadwood, repetition and the use of incorrect
  words can destroy your credibility or bore your
  reader.

54
Deadwood

• Words that add no meaning are deadwood.
• Dianes new car is red in color.
• Two different kinds of meals were offered.
• We rushed quickly to see what was wrong.

55
Repetition

• Purposeless repetition is using two words when
  one will do
• To relax before the test, I watched and viewed
  the movie.
• Julie finally came to the realization and
  understanding that she had to help herself.

56
Slang

• Slang expressions are unsuitable for most
  writingmainly because the forms change so
  quickly and they are usually not understood by
  larger populations.

57
Clichés

• There are two huge problems with clichés.
• They are overused and, thus, they are often
  ignored.
• Secondly, writers are often tempted to substitute
  REAL thinking with familiar clichés!
• Over the hill busy as a beaver green with envy
• Love conquers all white as snow hour of need
• Spring chicken free as a bird call it quits
• In a nutshell worked his fingers to the bone

58
Vocabulary

• Do NOT ever use words that you dont know the
  meaning of it DESTROYS your credibility.
• Do NOT rely on the thesaurus in your word
  processing program or on other on-line
  thesauruses.
• If you are not 100 positive of a words meaning,
  look it up or do not use it!!!!!

59
Compound Subjects and Verb Agreement

• Subjects are joined by AND, verb is plural
• My best friend and I are going to the beach
• Unless, the subjects are considered one unit
• Rock and roll is here to stay
• If subjects are joined by or, eitheror, etc, the
  verb agrees with the closer subject
• Either my hat or my gloves are in his car.
• Either the children or Jane is at the door.

60
Collective Noun Subjects

• Collective nouns refer to groups, but they are
  treated as singular nouns.
• Congregation team band
• Family group audience
• Our family is going to the picnic
• The band plays a song during every time-out.

61
Indefinite Pronoun subjects

• These refer to groups and take singular verbs
• Anyone Anybody Anything Each
• Everyone Everybody Everything One
• No one Nobody Nothing None
• Someone Somebody Something
• Everybody is standing in line for tickets.
• No one is going to the train station.

62
Indefinite Pronouns

• These pronouns always take plural verbs
• Both Many Few Several
• Many believe the storm will miss them.
• Several of the women are at the meeting.
• These pronouns can take a singular or plural
  verb, depending on the sense of the subject
• All More Some Any Most
• Some of my homework is missing.
• Some of the puzzle pieces are missing.

63
Phrase in between

• When there is a phrase between your subject and
  your verb, ignore it!
• Your verb goes with the SUBJECT of your sentence!
• The theme of the stories is finding your purpose.

64
Who, Which and That

• These are relative pronouns that refer to nouns.
  Use a singular verb when they refer to a singular
  noun, and a plural verb when they refer to a
  plural noun
• Peter is one of those students who study
  constantly.
• This is the book that has the surprise ending!

65
Consistent Tense

• Since Verbs express time with their TENSE, if you
  change tense without a good reason, it is
  confusing to your reader
• When I left the house this morning, I am going to
  school.
• Frankfurters are named for the city where they
  were first made Frankfurt, Germany.

66
Pronouns

• Subject Object Possessive
• I me My/Mine
• we us our/ours
• you you your/yours
• he him his
• she her her/hers
• it it its
• they them their/theirs
• who whom whose

67
Compounds with Pronouns

• When joining pronouns with compounds, the pronoun
  comes last.
• Choose the pronoun based on whether it is acting
  as a subject or an object.
• John and I went to the movies. (subject)
• John brought Sally and me to the movies. (object)
• John was angry with Sally and me for laughing
  through the movie. (object of the preposition.)

68
So why is Punctuation so important??

• Dear JohnI want a man who knows what love is
  all about.You are generous, kind,
  thoughtful. People who are not like you admit to
  being useless and inferior.You have ruined me
  for other men.I yearn for you.I have no
  feelings whatsoever when we're apart.I can be
  forever happy - will you let me be yours?Gloria

69
Punctuation is Important

• Dear JohnI want a man who knows what love
  is.All about you are generous, kind, thoughtful
  people, who are not like you.Admit to being
  useless and inferior.You have ruined me. For
  other men, I yearn.For you, I have no feelings
  whatsoever.When we're apart, I can be forever
  happy.Will you let me be?Yours,Gloria

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The Basics

• Periods end affirmative statements
• Question Marks end questions.
• But not indirect questions
• I wonder where I will be ten years from now.
• Exclamation points indicate strong feelings!

71
Commas

• Commas for lists
• The colors of the flag are red, white and blue.
• My favorite fruits are oranges, apples, pears and
  grapes.
• The class visited the French Alps, the islands of
  the Mediterranean, and the Baltic Sea.
• In a list, use a comma where an and would be
  appropriate.
• It was a dark, stormy night.
• But not in
• It was an endangered white rhino.

72
Commas

• Commas for joining
• Commas are used when two complete sentences are
  joined together, using the coordinating
  conjunctions (fanboys).
• The boys wanted to stay up until midnight, but
  they grew tired and fell asleep.
• I thought I had the best costume, yet Rob proved
  me wrong.

73
Commas

• Commas setting off interjections interrupters
• Stop, or my mom will shoot!
• The class, if you ask me, is unnecessary.
• Commas after introductory words phrases
• Yes Well In fact First
• After the long day Searching for her car
• Yes, I will go to the party!
• Before eating dinner, we should have a drink.

74
Commas

• For dates and direct address
• I expect to graduate on August 1, 2009.
• Javier, I need to borrow your car.

75
Commas in Pairs

• The first rule of bracketing commas is that you
  use them to mark both ends of a piece of
  additional information or a weak interruption
  to a sentence
• John Keats, who never did any harm to anyone, is
  often invoked by grammarians.
• I am, of course, going crazy in my old age.
• Here, the important element is that the bits
  between the commas can be removed, leaving the
  sentence arguably less interesting, but
  grammatically entire.

76
But be careful!

• Commas can change the meaning of a sentence
• The people in the line who managed to get tickets
  were very happy.
• The people in the line, who managed to get
  tickets, were very happy.
• Dont Forget The grammatical rule of commas in
  pairs always applieseven if you can only see one
  of them as when the bracketed section comes at
  the beginning or end of a sentence.
• Of course, there were not enough tickets to go
  around.
• There were not, of course, enough tickets to go
  around.
• There were not enough tickets to go around, of
  course.

77
Colons

• Basic Rule for Colons
• Colons introduce the part of a sentence that
  exemplifies, restates, elaborates, undermines,
  explains or balances the preceding part.

78
Colons

• For Announcements
• A colon is nearly always preceded by a complete
  sentence, and theatrically announces what is to
  come.
• This much is clear, Watson it was the baying of
  a hound!
• Rob has only one rule in life never eat anything
  which, in the wild, is capable of eating you.
• 2. The more-than-meets-the-eye colon (also known
  as the "ah" colon)
• I loved licorice as a child no one else did.
• You can do it and you will do it.

79
Colons

• 3. List starters
• There were three things he disliked about the
  book the beginning, the middle and the end.
• 4. Long quotation starters
• She could hear the full text of the Gettysburg
  Address echoing in her mind "Four score and
  seven years ago..."

80
Semi-Colon

• The semicolon tells you that there is still some
  question about the preceding full sentence
  something needs to be added. The period tells you
  that that is that if you didn't get all the
  meaning you wanted or expected, anyway you got
  all the writer intended to parcel out and now you
  have to move along. But with the semicolon there
  you get a pleasant feeling of expectancy there
  is more to come read on it will get
  clearer. - Lewis Thomas, The Medusa and the
  Snail.

81
Use Semi-Colons

• 1. Between two related sentences where there is
  no conjunction
• I loved Opal Fruits they are now called
  Starburst, of course.
• I remember her when she couldnt write her own
  name now shes president!

82
Use Semi-Colons

• 2. Between two related sentences when there is a
  conjunction
• Your conjunction must always be sandwiched
  between a semi-colon (on the left) and a comma
  (on the right).
• Conjunctive Adverbs
• However Therefore Nevertheless Moreover
• We had front row seats to the game nevertheless,
  my mom wouldnt let me go.
• I didnt like Marcia when I met her however, she
  has really grown on me.

83
Use Semi-Colons

• To police the bar fights of commas
• Fares were offered to Corfu, the Greek Island,
  Morocco, Elba, in the Mediterranean, and Paris.
  Mindy thought about it. She had been to Elba
  once and had found it dull, to Morocco, and
  found it too busy.
• Fares were offered to Corfu, the Greek Island
  Morocco Elba, in the Mediterranean and Paris.
  Mindy thought about it. She had been to Elba
  once and had found it dull to Morocco, and
  found it too busy.

84
Use Dashes

• To set off added explanation or illustration, and
  to add emphasis and clarity.
• The information contained within your dashes is
  important stuff it just doesnt fit neatly in
  the sentence in another way. Stuff that isnt so
  important can be put in parentheses. The
  difference is readers generally sweep over
  parentheses, but they read things within
  dashesso let that be your guide.
• Fame, Fortune and a Ferrarithese were his goals
  in life.
• Her acting gave an extra touch of humor to the
  playan added sparkle!

85
Use Dashes

• 2. To mark an interruption
• These dashes mark a sudden break in thought, or
  an abrupt change or surprise.
• According to her way of looking at thingsbut not
  minethis was a worthwhile cause.
• He wasI still cant believe thistrying to climb
  in the window!

86
Dashes

• 3. To set off a phrase or clause with a comma
• Tracy always has interesting games to
  playMonopoly, Pictionary, Yahtzee and Craniumat
  his house.

87
Still Confused?

• Gene locked himself in the shed. Miami lost to
  Florida State.
• These two statements, as they stand, could be
  quite unrelated. The only thing they share in
  common might be that they occurred in the past.
• Gene locked himself in the shed Miami lost to
  Florida State.
• Here, we can infer from the semi-colon that
  these events occurred at the same time although,
  it is possible that Gene locked himself in the
  shed because he couldnt bear to watch the game
  and, thus, still doesnt know the outcome.
• Gene locked himself in the shed Miami lost to
  Florida State.
• All is now clear. Gene locked himself in the
  shed because Miami lost to Florida State.

88
Apostrophes

• Indicate a possessive
• The boys hat.
• The childrens playground.
• The boys hats.
• Indicate the omission of figures in dates
• The summer of 69.
• Indicate omission of letters
• Its your turn
• Indicate the plurals of letters and words
• How many as are in Alabama?
• What are the dos and donts?

89
Whats wrong here?

• Adult Learners Week
• Mens Toilets
• Lands End
• Cyclists only
• Your 21 today!
• Whos books are these?
• The 1960s were a wild time!