Grammar

1. Grammar Mr. Villanueva

2. Grammar Review The test will not ask you directly about the “parts of speech”, but they are important in order to understand • Noun: person, place, or thing (dog, New York, OFL) • Verb: action word (talk, study, run) • Adjective: word that describes (happy, bright, fast) • Adverb: a word that modifies a verb, an adjective, another adverb; usually ends in ‘-ly’ (happily, very, slowly) • Subject: the subject is the part of the sentence (usually a noun) that performs the action. (she gave me the book; the dog slept) • Predicate: the part of the sentence that is not the subject (she gave me the book; the dog slept) Subject+ Predicate=complete sentence

3. Clauses • A clauseis a group of words that has a verb and a subject. Some are complete sentences, but others need to be linked to another clause to make sense. • Independent (Main) Clause: a complete thought, and can stand alone as a sentence or be linked to another clause. • Exp: People had to keep a fire going all the time. • Dependent (Subordinate) Clause: does not express a complete idea, so it has to be linked to the independent clause. • Exp: Before matches made it easy to start a fire Complete sentence using both types of clauses: Before matches made it easy to start a fire, people had to keep a fire going all the time.

4. Grammar Review: Punctuation • Semicolon: used between independent clauses without conjunctions (for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so—F.A.N.B.O.Y.S.!!!) Exp: Fire is our good friend; fire is our deadly enemy. • Colon: used between independent clauses when the second clause explains the first or provides a list. Exp: Fire is important: it heats our home and our food. • Ellipses: three spaced dots, show that something has been omitted (left out) Exp: The firefighter said, “It’s really dangerous…but we have the blaze under control.” • Hyphen: Used in some compound adjectives, numbers, and prefixes. Exp: The well-organized squad of twenty-four firefighters are pro-American.

5. Practice • Write a sentence using a colon • Write a sentence using ellipse • Write a sentence using hyphen • Make sure to use it correctly, we will share in class

6. Grammar Review: Sentence construction and usage • Parallel structure • Subordination • Proper placement of modifiers • Consistency of tenses

7. **Reminder: Consistency of tenses** • This is a common CAHSEE subject • For questions about sentence construction, they will commonly put something like the example: “he rushed into the house and closes the door in my face” • What is wrong with that sentence?

8. **Consistency of tenses (cont.)** • All verbs in a sentence must be in one tense. It is incorrect to go back and forth between past, present, and future. • The example could be changed to either: • “he rushed into the house and closed the door in my face” (past) OR • “he rushesinto the house and closes the door in my face” (present) • Don’t forget: the tense needs to be consistent (the same) throughout a sentence.

9. Practice • Write a sentence about what you did last weekend. • It should have at least 2 verbs in the sentence • Use the same tense in the entire sentence.

10. Grammar Review: Proofreading • Usage • Structure • Diction • Grammar • Mechanics

11. **Reminder: Noun/Verb Agreement** • Subjects and verbs must always “agree” in a sentence. • For example, the following sentence has an agreement issue: • Frank and Sabrina is the two students who have books. What is wrong with this sentence? What does not “agree”?

12. **Noun/Verb Agreement (cont.)** • There are two students (Frank and Sabrina), so the verb should be plural (are instead of is) • The correct sentence would be: “Frank and Sabrina are the two students who have books.” • When you see this on the CAHSEE, often there will be a trick to figuring out singular vs. plural. For example, the following words are singular even though they refer to a group: class, group, team, etc.

13. Practice • Write one sentence with a plural subject • Write one sentence with a singular subject • We will be sharing in class