1984 Notes

AP Lang Summer HW

Nouns

A word that names a person, place, thing, or idea. Most nouns have a plural and a possessive form.

Common Nouns

General word for a person, place, or thing (ex. City/Dog).

Proper Nouns

The specific name of a person, place, or thing (Chicago/Max), always starts with a capital letter and is used to distinguish individual entities from general ones.

Verbs

A word or group of words that expresses the action or indicates the state of being of the subject. Verbs activate sentences.

Action Verbs

Tell what the subject is doing (ex. Run, think, jump, eat).

Linking/State-of-being Verbs

Connect the subject to a noun or adjective (ex. The dog is loud). (B verbs)

Adjective

A word that modifies, quantifies, or otherwise describes a noun or pronoun. (ex. Fast car, Happy dog)

Adverb

A word that modifies or otherwise qualifies a verb, an adjective, or another adverb. (ex. Drives fast, dog barked happily)

Conjuction

A word that joins words, phrases, clauses, or sentences. The coordinating conjunctions (and, but, or, nor, yet, so, for) join grammatically equivalent elements. Correlative conjunctions (both, and, either, or, neither, nor) join the same kinds of elements.

Subordinating conjunctions

Link a dependent clause to a main independent clause (ex. Because, although, since, if, when) (ex. I missed the bus because I woke up late) (IC—>DC)

Coordinating conjunctions

Link parts of a sentence that have equal grammatical rank (ex. FANBOYS) (I ran fast, but I missed the car) (Two IC)

Pronouns

A small word that takes the place of a noun or a noun phrase in a sentence (ex. He, she, they, it)

Nominative/Subjective Pronouns

A word used as the subject of a sentence or as a predicate nominative that performs the main action (ex. I,you, she, hi, it, we, they)

Relative Pronouns

A word that connects a noun to a descriptive clause (ex. Who, whom, whose) (ex. The man who called you is at the door)

Preposition

A word that relates its object to another word in the sentence (ex. In, on, at, under, by)

Interjections

An ejaculatory utterance usually lacking grammatical connections (ex. A word or phrase used in exclamation: Dear me!; A cry or inarticulate utterance expressing an emotion: ugh!)

Syntax

Sentence design

Independent clause

A group of words with a subject and a verb that can stand alone as a sentence.

Dependent clause

A group of words that includes a subject and verb but is subordinate to an independent clause in a sentence. Dependent clauses begin with either a subordinating conjunction (ex. if, because, since) or a relative pronoun (ex. who, which that)

Subject

The noun or pronoun that indicates what a sentence is about, and which the principal verb of a sentence elaborates.

Predicate

The verb and its related words in a clause or sentence. The predicate expresses what the subject does, experiences, or is (ex. The dog barked). Always contains a verb.

Ellipses (…)

1. Used in quotes to replace words that are not necessary for context

2. A stylistic choice, to indicate a trail in a thought or an implication

Colon (:)

One of the clauses must be independent (often the first, but not always)

1. Links two clauses where the second expands upon an element introduced in the preceding clause

2. Often seen to introduce lists

Semicolon (;)

Both clauses must be independent

1. Combining two complete thoughts that are related to one another

2. Separating list items that contain commas (Super commas)

Parentheses ()

Used to provide additional information that interrupts the sentence flow. The sentence should make sense grammatically without the information in the parentheses

• Information set off in parentheses is called a parenthetical phrase

Brackets (in quotations) [ ]

Used within a quote when you need to alter it in order for it to make sense within the context of your writing

Cannot change the meaning of the quote; if your changes misrepresent what the author is saying, it is wrong and falsification of evidence (bad).

Em - Dash (—)

1. The em-dash can take the role of any of the following punctuation: A comma, parentheses, or a colon

2. Like commas and parentheses, em dashes set off extra information, such as examples, explanatory or descriptive phrases, or supplemental facts

3. Like a colon, an em dash can introduce a clause to interrupt and redirect their train of thought or line of reasoning