NOUN = person, place, idea, or thing Common – general name Ex: car Proper – name of a particular person, place, or thing Ex: Honda Concrete – a thing that can be experienced thru one of the 5 senses Ex:

ice cream Abstract – idea, feeling, or quality Ex: happiness Collective – names a group Ex: class Singular – names one person, place, thing, or idea Ex: man

child Plural- names more than one person, place, thing, or idea Ex: men

children Possessive – shows ownership Ex: father’s Compound – two or more words working together to make a single

noun Ex: baseball

Why Nouns matter…• Without using the

right noun and the right kind of noun, writing can be too vague and/or not make sense to the reader.

• Every complete sentence must have a subject.

• Only nouns and pronouns can play the part of a subject in a sentence.

PRACTICE:Copy each sentence, underlining any nouns in the sentence and labeling

the type(s) of noun(s) for each.1. The project to land astronauts on the moon was named Apollo.2. I was born on February 9, 1943.3. I noticed that my sister’s purse had been left in the car.4. I worked on my math project for three days!5. My mom spends Sunday mornings clipping coupons from the

newspaper.6. The players took the field and waited for the referee to blow his

whistle.7. The students questioned the professor’s excitement about the

new set of pencils.8. The mice waited for the lab assistant to place the Swiss cheese in

their cage.

Pronoun = takes the place of a noun• Possessive – shows ownership

– Ex: me, mine, ours, yours, theirs• Reflexive – refers back to the subject

– Ex: The girl dedicated herself to being the best.• Interrogative – introduces a question

– Ex: who, whom, whose, what, which• Demonstrative – points out a person, place, or thing

– Ex: this, that, these, those• Indefinite – does not refer to a specific person, place, or thing

– Ex: few, both, all, some, either, everybody, nobody, something, etc.

• Relative - Relative pronouns are that, who, whom, whose, which, where, when, and why. They are used to join clauses to make a complex sentence.

Every pronoun has an antecedent.

• My mother washed her car and then it rained.

“her” refers back to “mother”

Mother is the antecedent to her.

Pronouns must agree with their antecedents

• In gender• In number• In “person” (first person, second person, third

person)

– Mike wanted _____ paycheck to be deposited.– Teachers like _____ students to read.– The visitors realized that _____ were hungry.

Why Pronouns Matter

• Readers get frustrated and may give up if writing is too confusing. To get ideas across, the writer must be clear about who is doing what.

Practice:How many pronoun errors are in this paragraph? How should these be

corrected?

What if my brother and me were abandoned by my entire community on our island home? How would us castoffs survive? What would we do with ourself?

In Island of the Blue Dolphins, by Scott O’Dell, the heroine was left behind with her brother, who was soon killed by wild dogs. It was her who remained on the island for eighteen years. She tamed one of the island dogs herself and named in Rontu; it’s friendship was invaluable to her.

Few of the people I know would take such good care of himself or herself if left alone on an island. Even these who know the wilderness might not have the mental strength to last alone for such a long time. O’Dell’s heroine showed great skill, courage, and patience. Whom else would be so strong?

VERBS ARE CRITICAL IN A SENTENCE!

• Every sentence has to have a verb!– You can get away with writing a sentence that

contains no nouns: • Don’t do that. It’s dangerous and if you do it enough, it’ll

kill you!• He likes her, but I like him more than she does.• Listen closely to what I say and you’ll learn to write right.- If I try to write a sentence without a verb, it’s a

fragment, not a sentence.•Yum. Good food. More cookies anywhere?

Verbs show action or state of being

• Action = run, swim, jump, taste, fall, dream, etc.• State of being (linking verbs) = be, appear, seem,

feel, etc.

Be Verbs: is, am, are, was, were, be, being, beenExamples of state of being verbs: feel, taste,

look, smell, appear, grow, remain, turn, seem, sound, become

Action vs. linking

• The monkey looked hungry.• The monkey looked for food.

• The soup tasted good.• I tasted the soup.

• He grew tired of walking. • He grew into a tall man.

Verb Tense: (When did it happen?)

–Present : I run very fast.

–Past : I ran very fast.

–Future : I will run very fast.

Be careful to stay in the same tense throughout your sentence.• Weak –I got home late and Momfusses at me for notcalling to let her knowwhere I will be.

I got home = past Mom fusses = present Where I will be = future

• Better –

I got home late and Momfussed at me for notcalling to let her knowwhere I had been.

Everything is in the pasttense.

Regular vs. Irregular Verbs

Regular Verbs follow a pattern when moving from one tense to another:

Today Yesterday Many times

Cook Cooked Cooked

Fix Fixed Fixed

Pick Picked Picked

Jump Jumped Jumped

Run Ran Ran

Sit Sat Sat

Walk Walked Walked

Irregular verbs sometime will seem to follow a pattern, but there is no steadfast rule:

Today Yesterday Many times

Grow Grew Grown

Know Knew Known

Throw Threw Thrown

Sell Sold Sold

Tell Told Told

Ride Rode Ridden

Slide Slid Slid

Take Took Taken

Sing Sang Sung

Fling Flung Flung

Some of the most troubling irregular verbs:

Today Yesterday Many times Note:

Bite Bit Bitten or bit

Bring Brought Brought Brang and brung are not words

Drag Dragged Dragged Drug is a noun – it’s never a verb

Dive Dived Dove or dived

Drive Drove Driven Drived is not a word

Forget Forgot Forgotten or forgot

Get Got Gotten or got

Hang Hung Hung When the verb is used to talk about hanging an object like a picture

Hang Hanged Hanged When the verb is used to talk about hanging a person

Hide Hid Hidden or hid Hided is not a word

Caution – Major Mistake Territory! Confusing lie and lay is probably the #1 mistake in

the English language.

Lie is a “still” verb.• People lie on beds.• Dogs lie on people.• Fleas lie on dogs.

The people, the dogs, and thefleas are in a state of stillness.

TENSES:Lie, lay, lain, lying

Today I lie in bed. Yesterday I lay in bed. I have lain in bed many

times. Yesterday I was lying in bed

all day. Lying in bed all day is

boring.

Caution – Major Mistake Territory! Confusing lie and lay is probably the #1 mistake in

the English language.

Lay shows that the noun is placing something and thus being active

• A person picks up a hen and lays it on the hay.

• A hen lays eggs.• I picked up the eggs and

laid them in my basket.

TENSES: lay, laid, laid, laying

Today I lay the book on the counter.

Yesterday I laid the book on the counter.

Many times I have laid the book on the counter.

Yesterday I was laying the book on the counter.

Laying books on the kitchen counter is against the rules in my house.

Can you find the mistakes?

• When I was a kid, I swang every day on an old tire my dad hanged in a tree for me.

• I wish I’d waken up earlier.• Adam breaks the dish when he tossed it to Omar who is

standing at the sink.• If I was you, I’d buy that gorgeous dress.• I’ve laid awake all night worrying about my math test.• I’m sure I lay my assignment on the teacher’s desk

yesterday.

Can you find the mistakes?• When I was a kid, I swung every day on an old tire my dad hung in a

tree for me. Watch out for irregular verbs!• I wish I’d (waked or woken) up earlier. Waken isn’t a word!• Adam broke the dish when he tossed it to Omar who stood at the

sink. Keep all tenses the same in the sentence!• If I were you, I’d buy that gorgeous dress. Listen to the way the

sentence sounds – your ear will tell you the correct way most of the time.

• I’ve lain awake all night worrying about my math test. Unless you were producing eggs while you were worrying, you didn’t “laid” anything. Remember – you are still in this sentence.

• I’m sure I laid my assignment on the teacher’s desk yesterday. Placing something somewhere is active. You aren’t being still here.

Strong Verb Vs. Weak Verb

My sister pinched a hunkof my arm when Iwouldn’t let her sit by thewindow.

My uncle zig-zaggedacross the yard.

I relaxed in the chair, dozingfrom time to time.

My sister hurt me because I wouldn’t let her sit by the window.

My uncle walked across the yard.

I sat in the chair.

Which verbs energize the sentences?• Melanie weaseled her way into my heart, and later I cursed myself for letting her in.• Melanie weaseled her way into my heart, and later I cursed myself for letting her in.• As he kneaded the bread, he wished it were Harry’s face there on the counter, in a

convenient, doughy lump.• As he kneaded the bread, he wished it were Harry’s face there on the counter, in a

convenient, doughy lump.• She pounded the desk with a frozen fish and demanded complete silence in the

room.• She pounded the desk with a frozen fish and demanded complete silence in the

room.• Doug snapped the head off a match with his thumbnail.• Doug snapped the head off a match with his thumbnail.• Lenny snickered as Angela tiptoed into the room.• Lenny snickered as Angela tiptoed into the room.

Practice:Rewrite the sentence using a more vivid verb to

energize the sentence.

1.) Harold opened is mouth wide and bit off 12 square inches of pizza.

2.) The beauty queen walked up to the judges and placed her crown on the table.

3.) Paula removed her mittens and threw them into the fire.

4.) The pigeon sat on the dead branch.5.) Walter walked into the den and fell flat on

his face.

Match up each of the weak verbs on the left with a stronger option on the right.

• Pointed• Walked• Wrote• Poured• Yelled• Rubbed• Teased• Looked• Picked

• Scribbled• Howled• Scoured• Aimed• Bullied• Oozed• Peered• Harvested• Sauntered

As the can turns…

• You are a can of soda. You have been popped, drained, smashed, bashed, and trashed. Tell your story to your psychologist. You are on the couch. Life has been hard. Use vivid, interesting verbs to tell the tale of your miserable aluminum life.

Adjective = a word that modifies, or describes, a noun or pronoun

Adjectives answer questions about nouns or pronouns:

What Kind? A sudden blizzard A brisk wind A destructive flood

Which one(s)? The first warning The Mexican desert The last day

How many/how much?

Several students A few times More ice

Types of Adjectives• Proper – formed from a proper noun and always

capitalized. Ex: English Tea, Colombian Coffee, Italian Espresso

• Predicate – describes the subject of the sentence (only appears after a linking verb) Ex: The students are very intelligent.

• Articles – the most common adjectives

»A, an, the

Why Adjectives Matter…

• Adjectives can be used to supply important details that make the writing more specific and clear. Adjectives can allow a writer to convey a lot of descriptive information in a single word.

A large dinner party is being given in an up-country station by a colonial official and his wife. The guests are army officers and government leaders and their wives, and an American naturalist. -”The Dinner Party” by Mona Gardner

Practice:Rewrite the following passage adding adjectives to

make it more detailed and descriptive.

I just learned that fingerprints are not the only markings that distinguish us. Did you know that the patterns on our skin are also unique? So don’t take off your shoes the next time you rob the bank! Remember, the police have methods to catch you!

What is an adverb?• It is a word that describes a verb, an adjective,

or another adverb and tells these things:– Where: there, here, outside, inside, away– When: now, then, later, immediately, yesterday– How: quickly, slowly, stupidly, gracefully,

effortlessly– How often or how long: frequently, never, twice,

sometimes– How much: hardly, extremely, minimally, greatly,

too, more

You can make most adverbs by adding an –ly to an adjective

Adjective AdverbSad Sadly

Kind Kindly

Quick Quickly

Tender Tenderly

Noisy noisily

Adverb mistakes can make your writing sloppy.

• What wrong with these sentences?

– Meg looks real good in her new dress.– Simon turned the corner too quick and crashed.– We played awesome in our game.– I want to go to the game so bad I could scream.

So what’s the big deal?

What’s the difference between an adjective and an adverb?

Adjective

• Sad• Kind• Quick• Tender• Artistic• Noisy

Adverb

• Sadly• Kindly• Quickly• Tenderly• Artistically• Noisily

Examples:• This sentence is written awful bad.

(you are telling “how” it’s written – you need an adverb!)

• This sentence is written awful badly.(You need another verb to tell “how” badly

it’s written.)• This sentence is not written awfully badly – it’s

perfect!(And it’s grammatically correct! )

Which ones work?• We performed awesome!

• Our performance was awesome!

• We performed really awesome.

• The awesome performance was great!

• We performed awesomely!

Some words can be either an adjective or an adverb depending on how they’re used.

Adjective telling what kind Adverb telling how, when, or where

He played a hard guitar piece. He pounded the drums hard.

I flew past a high building. I flew high in the sky.

We are close friends. Sit close to me.

You’re doing a fine job. You are skiing fine since your lesson.

He dug deep into the earth. She dived deep into the water.

That’s the wrong answer. The teacher said I spelled it wrong.

The best rule to remember:

• Use adverbs with action verbs.• Use adjectives with linking verbs.

Ex: She skates gracefully.He sings well.Tori is tired.David was thirsty.

Mistakes? I’ve made a few…

1. The dog smells badly.

2. This is a real pretty dress.

3. What a nice gesture on your part to greet them so nice when they arrived.

4. Josh’s mom hugged him real sweet and said, “Enough grammar. Let’s eat cake!”

Take the teasing comb and back-comb all your hair until it looks like an electrified Persian cat. To tease your hair, grab a small section and hold it up by the end. Comb downward with the teasing comb in short fast strokes until it gets tangled at the bottom. Pull the teased hair up and out to achieve maximum altitude. Liberally apply the hair spray to hold the teased hair in place. If you can still see the walls, you haven’t sprayed enough. Spray more. All these styles must be taken care of while you sleep. Some women use the beehive hairnet; others use feather pillows to sleep upon; while still others sleep upright in the La-Z-Boy. Your mileage may vary. Just be careful not to put anyone’s eye out.

Take the teasing comb and back-comb all your hair. To tease your hair, grab a small section and hold it. Comb downward. Pull the teased hair. Liberally apply the hair spray. If you can still see the walls, you haven’t sprayed enough. Spray more. All these styles must be taken care of while you sleep. Some women use the beehive hairnet; others use feather pillows; while others sleep upright. Your mileage may vary. Just be careful not to put anyone’s eye out.

What’s the difference?

• The first passage is:– more descriptive–creates a visual–Longer

How?The first passage makes use of

prepositions!

Preposition• A word that shows how a noun or pronoun

relates to another part of the sentence

• Ex: My dog is lying to me. My dog is lying next to me.

I am swimming toward the shark’s tummy.I am swimming away from the shark’s tummy.I am swimming inside the shark’s tummy.

Don’t overdo it• Don’t use a bunch of prepositional phrases in a

row.I went to a store in a town in Ohio in the middle of a flood inJune which is during Ohio’s rainy season, and in a matter ofminutes found myself knee-deep in water. 10 PREPOSITIONSIN ONE SENTENCE! EEK!

Better:Last June, I visited a small Ohio town during the rainy season. When I went into a flooded store, I quickly found myself kneedeep in water. THAT’S ONLY 3 PREPOSITIONS. MUCH BETTER!

In doubt?• If you are ever not sure whether a word is a

preposition or not, use this trick.

• If you can successfully put the word in the blank of this sentence, it’s more than likely a preposition:

The bird pooped ___________ the bush.

The bird pooped ________ the bush.About above across after UpAgainst along among around uponAt before behind below withBeneath beside between by withinDown during except forFrom in in front of insideinstead of into like nearOf off on ontoon top of out of outside overPast since through toToward under underneath until

How would prepositions help these sentences?

• The dog barked.

• The car sped.

• The stairs were high.

Now how about a vivid verb and some adjectives and/or adverbs?

• The dog barked.

• The car sped.

• The stairs were high.

Interjection

• is a big name for a little word. • are short exclamations like Oh!, Um or Ah! • They have no real grammatical value but we

use them quite often, usually more in speaking than in writing.

• An interjection is usually followed by an exclamation mark (!) when written.

• Aha! There's my bookbag. • Argh! I messed that model up again! • Bravo! You managed not to fall this time. • Cheers! Hope your graduation goes great. • Ew, what a gross movie. • Gee, I wonder who that could be? • Hooray! Score one for the good guys. • Oops! That was your pet spider, wasn't it? • Ouch! Something bit me! • Whew! That was close! We almost got caught.• Wow! That airplane ride was awesome!

Conjunction Junction...what’s your function?

• Conjunction Junction, what's your function?Hooking up words and phrases and clauses.Conjunction Junction, how's that function?I got three favorite carsThat get most of my job done.Conjunction Junction, what's their function?I got "and", "but", and "or", They'll get you pretty far.

-”Conjunction Juntion” from SchoolhouseRock

Coordination Conjunctions

FANBOYSFOR AND NOR BUT OR YET SO

Coordination Conjunctions

• Coordinating conjunctions connect words, phrases, and clauses.

• The bowl of squid eyeball stew is hot and delicious.• The squid eyeball stew is so thick that you can eat it with a

fork or spoon.• Rocky, my orange tomcat, loves having his head scratched but

hates getting his claws trimmed.• Rocky terrorizes the poodles next door yet adores the

German shepherd across the street.

• A coordinating conjunction can join two main clauses that a writer wants to emphasize equally. The pattern for coordination looks like this:

main clause + coordinating conjunction + main clause.

• In this case, you put a comma after the first main clause (before the coordinating conj.)

While I am at work, my dog Floyd sleeps on the bed ,and my cat Buster naps in the bathtub.

Coordinating Conjunctions joining words

Two Items = no comma

• My dog Floyd has too many fleas and too much hair.• My cat Buster has beautiful blue eyes but a destructive

personality.

Three or more items, put a comma before the conjunction

• You need your book, notebook, and pencil.

Conjunction Junction, how’s that function?

• Conjunction Junction, what's your function?Hooking up two cars to oneWhen you say something like this choice:"Either now or later"Or no choice:"Neither now nor ever"Hey that's clever!Eat this or that, grow thin or fat,Never mind, I wouldn't do that,I'm fat enough now!

• -”Conjunction Juntion” from SchoolhouseRock

Correlative Conjunctions

• Always travel together – like relativesboth . . . and

not only . . . but alsonot . . . but

either . . . or neither . . . norwhether . . . or

as . . . as • Not only did Bob need bread, but he also had to buy

butter.• Whether you like it or not, you will need to study.

Subordinating Conjunctions

• AAWWWUUBBIS

After although when where while until unless because before if since

Subordinating Conjunctions

• Come at the beginning of a dependent clauses and establish the relationship between the dependent clause and the rest of the sentence. It also turns the clause into something that depends on the rest of the sentence for its meaning.

• He took to the stage as though he had been preparing for this moment all his life.

• Because he loved acting, he refused to give up his dream of being in the movies.

• Unless we act now, all is lost.

TIME TO SHOW WHAT YOU KNOW!