Grammar & Mechanics Praxis 5038

infinitive phrase

made up of "to" and the base form of a verb (to order, to abandon)

participle

verb form ending in (ing or ed) operates as an adjective ("barking" dog, "painted" fence)

verbal - gerund

a verb ending in "ing" that functions as a noun/subject ("Laughing" is good for you)

possessive nouns are usually used with gerunds (running is fun)

antecedent

the noun to which the pronoun is referring (Sally=antecedent for her)

adverb

A word that modifies a verb, an adjective, or another adverb (No nouns) and tells:

- where: there, here, outside

- when: now, then, later, immediately

- how: quickly, slowly, stupidly

- how often/long: frequently, never

- how much: hardly, extremely, too, more

double speak

language that is meant to be evasive or conceal (downsized = fired loss of job

denotations

literal, dictionary meanings of a word

phonetics

the study of sounds of language

morphology

The study of the structure of words

semantics

the study of the meaning in language, in language, study of meanings of words

syntax

the study of the structure of sentences, studies of the rules for forming admissible sentences

orthography

noun; the art or study of correct spelling according to established usage / the aspect of language study concerned with letters and their sequences with words / spelling

comma splice

two sentences joined incorrectly with only a comma

dangling modifier

dangling modifiers have no noun or pronoun to modify, change the dangling modifier to an independent clause., Word, or group of words, that does not modify any words in the sentence

imperitive sentence

gives a command or makes a request and ends with a period

etymology

The history of a word.

conditional sentence

A sentence that expresses wishes or conditions contrary to fact.

compound sentence

A sentence composed of at least two independent clauses.

compound/complex sentence

A sentence with two or more independent clauses and one or more dependent clauses.

transitive verb

A verb that expresses an action directed toward a person, a place, a thing, or an idea

Jack "burned" the hot dogs

intransitive verb

An action verb is iNtransitive if it does NOT direct action toward someone or something

The Fire "burned" brightly.

perfect tense

A tense of verbs used in describing action that has been completed or began in the past.

demonstrative pronouns

Pronouns that point out people, places, or things without naming them.

clause

Has a subject and a predicate.

capitalization rules

Not seasons

P for president when it is part of the person's name

Historical periods (Civil War, Middle Ages)

Not algebra, history

The word earth is not capitalized when you use the word "the" and talk about "the" earth

dependent clause

has a subject and a verb but the reader is left dangling

it depends on something else to make it a complete sentence

independent clause

A clause that has a complete meaning AND has a subject and a verb

conjunctions

A word that joins words or groups of words (and and but, yet, so, or, because)

correlative conjunctions

ADD TO THIS

examples:

Neither...nor

Either...or

Not only...but also

Both..and

connotations

All the meanings, associations, or emotions that a word suggests

distinguishing a verbal from a verb

A verb is a word used to describe an action, state, or occurrence, and forming the main part of the predicate of a sentence. A verbal is a word, or words functioning as a verb.

For example: She slept in.

slept functions as the verb because she is performing the action.

Jogging three miles every day is good for you.

To jog is a verb, but in this case, jogging is used as a verbal.

effective sentences

sdcsdscsdc

parts of speech

(8) Nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, conjunctions, prepositions, and interjections

noun

names a person, place, thing, idea, or quality

(idea=democracy, truth & quality=beauty, caring, boredom)

articles (in titles)

a, an, the

conjunctions (in titles)

and, but, for, or, nor

prepositions (in titles)

short ones such as in and with

long ones such as throughout and without

possessive nouns

show ownership

Syman and Mimi's marriage (they share one marriage)

Kate's and Meg's toes (they don't share the same toes)

pronoun

a word that stands in for a noun (her, its, who, you, what, your, he, she, everyone, nobody, each other, myself, etc.)

pronoun cases

Subjective = the doer (subject) of the action

Objective = the receiver (object) of the action

Possessive = shows ownership

(I sing, sing to me, my song)

*remember it's I, it's me, it's she NOT her and it's he NOT him

verb

a word that shows action (run, swim, jump) or state of being (be, appear, seem, feel)

verb tenses

present tense, past tense, future tense, present perfect tense, past perfect tense, future perfect tense

progressive verb forms

(6) action continues for awhile

present progressive (am eating), past progressive (was eating), future progressive (will be eating), present perfect (have been), past perfect (had been), and future perfect (will have been)

emphatic verb form

(3) uses (includes word do or did w.verb)

Emphasis: I do eat! I did eat!

Questions: Do I eat? Did I eat?

Negatives: I don not eat. I did not eat.

when to use present tense

present action, action that happens over and over, scientific facts, and headlines

passive voice

ask who or what

subjunctive mood

a mood that represent an act or state (not as a fact but) as contingent or possible

"what if" = If I were (not I was) a magician, I would...

"If only" = If I were (not was) an eagle, I would...

irregular verbs

Ask? Today I ..., Yesterday I..., Many times I have ...

today i cook, yesterday I cooked, many times I have cooked

lie and lay

Lie=still, lay=action

Lie (to lie down on a bed) lie, lay, lain, lying

Lay (to place something, to set down) lay, laid, laid, laying

Lay works the same as pay and say

Lie (to tell a lie) lie, lied, lied, lying

adjectives

a word describes a noun or pronoun and tells:

- which one: that, this, these

- what kind: red, large, thick, cloudy

- how many: six, four, many, several

Ask? which one, what king, or how many to decide if an adjective or an adverb is needed

kinds of verbs

linking, transitive, intransitive, and auxilary

linking verbs

be (and all of its forms) am, was, will, be, have been, will have been

describe the subject but no action is really taking place, as in "Tori IS [linking] tired (verb)"

a verb that links the subject to an adjective or more info about the subject

linking verb vs. action verb

Marcella "feels" [linking - describes the subject] tired (verb)

The vet "feels" [action] the cat's tummy carefully [adverb]

comparisons (verbs)

big, bigger, biggest

positive: big

comparative: bigger

superlative: biggest

For short adverbs/adjectives add -er, -est

For long adverbs/adjective use more and most, as in "I am capable, you are more capable, she is most capable

prepositions

Introduce prepositional phrase and always used with a noun or pronoun (about, above, across, after, against, among, around, at, before, behind, beside, between, beyond, during, except, for, from, in, into, near, of, off, on, over, past, through, to, toward, under, until, up, with)

prepositional phrase

A phrase that begins with a preposition: "to" the store, "down" the street, "under" the car, etc.

shows a relationship between the noun and another word in the sentence

parallel construction

successive sentences or phrases follow the same pattern of wording in order to emphasize and idea

interjections

Express feeling (wow, gee, oops)

Say Yes or No

Call attention (yo, hey, whoa)

Indicate a pause (well, um, hmm)

Stand alone for emphasis, as in "Wow! That's a beautiful dress."

phrase

has a subject but not verb (my big fat mouth)

question mark

only direct questions get question marks

semicolons

is a strong type of comma, for between two complete sentences that show us where to pause in a sentence

Function: to allow two closely related COMPLETE sentences to work as one

use a semicolon before clauses that are introduced by "for example, that is, or namely) "Olivia is an excellent student; for example, she has made A's on all her tests.

conjunctive adverbs

shoe a relationship between two complete sentence (also, besides, indeed otherwise, therefore, in fact)

adverbs in sentences used as a conjunctions

sentence fragment

a sentence missing a subject OR verb or complete thought

missing MAIN CLAUSE

subordinate clause

A clause in a complex sentence that cannot stand alone as a complete sentence and that functions within the sentence as a noun or adjective or adverb

complex sentence

A sentence composed of at least one main clause and one subordinate clause

participle phrase

phrase that includes the participle, its modifier, and its objects; example: The child, FLASHING A MISCHIEVOUS SMILE, turned and walked away.

object of a sentence

the person or thing who has the verb done to it, passive voice

appositive

A noun or noun substitute that is placed directly next to the noun it is describing: My student, Sidney, makes me want to retire.

colon

use:

- when you want to say "here comes an example" or "here's what I'm talking about" as in There's only one sport for me: alligator wrestling

- before some lists (introduced saying" these are," "the following," or "these things"

- not if list comes after a verb or preposition

- before subtitles

- with expressions of time

- with greeting part formal letter

- after words such as "caution," "wanted," or "note"

faulty prediction

subject is said to be something or do something that is not logically possible

"The purpose (subject) of the book persuades (purpose is incapable of persuasion) readers to get involved in community service.

In the sentence above, the subject is "purpose." However, the purpose itself cannot "persuade," as the verb in this sentence states. In other words, a purpose is not capable of the perceptive act of persuading. This faulty predication can be easily revised so that the subject and verb are relevant to each other:

The author of the book persuades readers to get involved in community service.

verbal - infinitive

An infinitive is a verb form that is used as a noun, an adjective, or an adverb. An infinitive starts with the WORD "to" (not the preposition) and the base of the verb. Examples: to run, to jump, to find, etc.

DO NOT confuse infinitives with a prepositional phrase. A prepositional phrase will have a noun or pronoun (object of the preposition) following it, not a verb.

Example:

Sara wants to learn Spanish. "To learn" is an infinitive.

Sara will go to the store. "To the store" is a prepositional phrase.

types of verbals

infinitive, participles, gerunds

verbal - participles

a word formed from a verb (e.g., going, gone, being, been ) and used as an adjective (e.g., working woman, burned toast ) or a noun (e.g., good breeding ).

The old "laughing" lady dropped by to call.

modifiers

Describes or modifies someone or something in the sentence

predicate

the part of a sentence or clause that expresses what is said of the subject and that usually consists of a verb with or without objects, complements, or adverbial modifiers

auxillary

An auxiliary verb (also known as a helping verb) is a verb that may come before the main verb in a sentence. Together the auxiliary verb and the main verb form a verb phrase.

For example:

They have played soccer for three hours this morning.

Have acts as the auxiliary verb, and played acts as the main verb, as it is conveying the action being done.

simple sentence

A sentence consisting of one independent clause and no dependent clause

subject verb agreement

subject stays the same; verb must be singular or plural to match the subject

kinds of nouns

common, proper, concrete abstract, collective