PRACTICE VOYAGEOne Hundred Four-Level Analysis

Practice Sentences

A Supplement to Grammar Voyage,Essay Voyage, and Caesar’s English II

Michael Clay Thompson

Royal Fireworks PressUnionville, New York

Royal Fireworks Language Arts by Michael Clay Thompson

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GRAMMAR IS A WAY OF THINKING ABOUT LANGUAGE.

8 Parts of Speechnoun, pronoun, adjective, verb, adverb, conjunction, preposition, interjection

5 Parts of Sentencesubject, predicate, direct object, indirect object,subject complement

Phrasesprepositional phrase, appositive phrase, verbal phrases

Clausesindependent clause, dependent clause

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GRAMMAR IS A WAY OF THINKING ABOUT LANGUAGE.

Notes to Students

Grammar is a way of thinking about language, and when we think like this, we look at our sentences in four different ways We look at each word to see what kind of word it is, we look at the two sides of the idea in the sentence, we look for little word groups called phrases, and we look to see if the sentence has one clause or more than one clause

This book will give you practice thinking this way The method in this book is called four-level analysis, after the four levels we just mentioned Their names are parts of speech (the eight kinds of words), parts of the sentence, phrases, and clauses

On each page there is a sentence with four lines below it As you solve each detail in the sentence, write its abbreviation directly below it in the appropriate line At the bottom there is a place to write a comment about anything you think is interesting or fun about the sentence

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GRAMMAR IS A WAY OF THINKING ABOUT LANGUAGE.

For example, if the sentence were “We walked away, but two birds sang songs about us,” one could write the abbreviations of the parts of speech directly below each word in the first line, the parts of sentence in the second, phrases in the third, and clauses in the fourth For phrases and clauses, you would make little lines to show where the phrase or clause begins and ends Notice that every word is a part of speech, but only some words are a part of sentence

The abbreviations used here are:Parts of Speech Parts of Sentencen noun subj subjectpron pronoun AVP action verb predicateadj adjective LVP linking verb predicatev verb D O direct objectadv adverb I O indirect objectprep preposition S C subject complementconj conjunctioninterj interjection Clauses indep independent (clause)Phrases dep dependent (clause)prep prepositional (phrase)app appositive (phrase)ger gerund (phrase)par participial (phrase)inf. infinitive (phrase)

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GRAMMAR IS A WAY OF THINKING ABOUT LANGUAGE.

Example Sentence

We walked away, but two birds sang songs about us

pron. v. adv. conj. adj. n. v. n. prep. pron. ____________________________________________________________________________________________

subj. AVP subj. AVP D.O. ____________________________________________________________________________________________

----prep. phrase--- ____________________________________________________________________________________________

------------indep. clause---------- ---------------------independent clause------------------------ a compound declarative sentence

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Comment: This is a compound sentence made of two independent clauses. Each clause has an action verb, but only the second action verb passes the action to a direct object.

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GRAMMAR IS A WAY OF THINKING ABOUT LANGUAGE.

Parts of Speech: There are only eight kinds of words, and they are called the parts of speech The two main words are the noun and verb, and the other six support the noun and verb Every word in every sentence is one of these eight kinds

In a sentence, the verb is about the noun; it says something about the noun These are the two main kinds of words in our thinking

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GRAMMAR IS A WAY OF THINKING ABOUT LANGUAGE.

Parts of Sentence: Every sentence has two sides: the subject side and the predicate side A noun or pronoun will be the main subject word, and the verb will be the main predicate word If the verb is an action verb, then it may pass the action on to a direct and indirect object (The duck ate the flower), but if the verb is linking, then it may make an equation between the subject and the subject complement (The bird is a duck)

These elements are explained in detail in Grammar Voyage and Essay Voyage

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GRAMMAR IS A WAY OF THINKING ABOUT LANGUAGE.

Phrases: A phrase is a little group of words that go together and act like a single part of speech There are several kinds of phrases, including prepositional, appositive, and verbal phrases

Prepositional phrases begin with prepositions and act as modifiers: The three buildings were near the park

Appositive phrases are interrupting definitions that act like adjectives: Mies Van der Rohe, the famous architect, arrived late

The verbal phrases are based on verb forms that are not used as verbs but as something else There are three kinds: gerunds, participles, and infinitives.

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GRAMMAR IS A WAY OF THINKING ABOUT LANGUAGE.

Clauses: A clause is a group of words that has a subject and predicate as its nucleus (in its center) A clause might have only two words, the subject and its predicate, or it might have many other words A clause that makes sense all by itself is called independent, and a clause that does not make sense unless it is attached to another clause is called dependent In the following sentence, there are two clauses, and the subject and predicate in each one are in bold type:

Two officers walked slowly, and people formed a line ------------------------------------------------------------ -----------------------------------------------

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Sentence 40

The suddenly peremptory tone of his voice shocked both you and me

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GRAMMAR IS A WAY OF THINKING ABOUT LANGUAGE.

Copyright © 2015, Royal Fireworks Publishing Co., Inc. The copying of this page is prohibited.

Sentence 80

Once we decide to enter the channel, the decision is irrevocable

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