Grammar Workshop

1. Grammar Workshop 9th Grade English

2. What is a Noun? Nouns name: • Persons (Ms. Douglas, Brittany Spears, Pres. Obama) • Places (city, Houston, Red Sea) • Things (chair, book, mountain) • Ideas (reality, peace, success) • Qualities (pain, mystery, simplicity)

3. Forms of Nouns • Singular nouns (one) • City, earthquake, town • Plural nouns (more than one) • Add –s , or –es • Ex. Cities, earthquakes, towns • Irregular plurals: woman/women, child/children, etc. • Possessive Nouns • Indicate Ownership or source. • Singular Nounsadd an apostrophe plus –s (ex. Jane’s pen) • Plural Nouns add an apostrophe (ex. Students’ rights)

4. What is a Verb? • Verbs express: • An action (bring, change, grow) • An occurrence ( become, happen) • A state of being ( be, seem)

5. Forms of Verbs • Two changes in form • From Past to Present • Add –d or –ed • Ex. The boys play today/ The boys played yesterday. • Irregular past tense : eat/ate, begin/began, etc. • Adding Present tense verbs to singular nouns/pronouns • Add –s or –es. (ex. The bear escapes; it runs; the woman sings). • Exception: be and have.

6. Helping Verbs • A.k.a. Auxilliary Verbs • Do, does, did, can, could, may, will would, shall, should, and must • Ex. Could run; may escape; must help. • Combine with special forms of verbs to make verb phrases • Ex. Will be running, might have escaped, could have been helped.

7. Pronouns • Most pronouns substitute for nouns. • Personal pronouns • Ex. I, you, he, she, it, we, they… • Relative pronouns • Ex. Who, whoever, which, that… • Most change form to indicate their function in a sentence. • Ex. He called me. I called him back.

8. Adjectives • Describe or modify nouns or pronouns • a.k.a. modifiers • Ex. gentle, small, pretty, smart, kind, etc. • Ex. The small, obedient child followed her mother home.

9. Adverbs • Describe or modify verbs, adjectives or other verbs, or whole groups of words • Ex. Gently, helpfully, almost, kindly. • Recently, the earth trembled • The earthquake nearly destroyed the city.

10. Prepositions • Relate nouns, or pronouns to other words in a sentence. • Ex. About, at, down, for, of, with, because. • Ex. The boy went down the street to get his ball. • Ex. I had to get a pass to class because I was late.

11. What is a Sentence? • Most make statements • First, they name something • Then, they make a statement about/ or describe an an action involving that something.

12. Sentences have Two Parts • Subject • Answers the question: who or what does the action • Predicate • Everything from the verb onward. • Includes a verb and a complete thought. • Ex. The beesare swarming.

13. Subject The bees The earth The earthquake Predicate are swarming trembled destroyed the city

14. Identifying Subjects and Predicates • Identify the subject and predicate of each sentence below. Then use each sentence as a model to create a sentence of your own. • Example: An important scientistspoke at a conference. • The hungry familyate at the dinner.

15. In Class Practice: Identify Subject and the Predicate. • The leaves fell. • October ends soon. • The orchard owners made apple cider. • They examined each apple carefully before using it. • Over a hundred people will buy cider at the roadside stand.

16. Direct and Indirect Objects • Direct Object: identifies who or what receives the action of the verb. • Ex. The earthquake destroyed the city. • Indirect Direct object: identifies to or for whom the action of the verb is performed. • Ex. The government sent the city aid.

17. Intransitive and Transitive Verbs • Intransitive Verbs are verbs that do not need following words to complete their meaning. • Ex. The earthquake trembled. • Transitive verbs are verbs that require direct objects to complete their meaning. • The verb transfers the action from subject to object. • Ex. The earthquake destroyed the city.

18. Subject/Object Complements • The word that describes the subject is the subject complement. • Ex. The result was chaotic. • The verbs that link the subject and its description is called a linking verb. • Ex. The result was chaos. • The word or noun that complements or completes the object is the object complement. • Ex. The citizens considered the earthquake a disaster.

19. Identifying Sentence Patterns • In the following sentences, identify each verb as intransitive, transitive, or linking. Then identify each direct object (DO), indirect object (IO), subject complement (SC), and object complement (OC). • Example: Children give their parents both headaches and pleasures. • Give is a transitive verb. • Many people find New Orleans exciting. • Tourists flock there each year. • Usually they visit the French Quarter first. • The Quarter’s old buildings are magnificent. • In the Quarter, artists sell tourists their paintings.

20. Subject-Verb Agreement • For every sentence, the subject and verb of the subject must be in agreement. • If the subject is singular, the verb must be singular. • The cat is on the mat. • If the subject is plural, the verb must be plural. • Ex. The dogs are howling.

21. Subject Verb Agreement Rules • 1. When the subject of a sentence is composed of two or more nouns or pronouns connected by and, use a plural verb. • She and her friends are at the fair. • 2. When two or more singular nouns or pronouns are connected by or or nor, use a singular verb. • The book or the pen is in the drawer.

22. Subject Verb Agreement Rules • 3. When a compound subject contains both a singular and a plural noun or pronoun joined by or or nor, the verb should agree with the part of the subject that is nearer the verb. • The boy or his friendsrun every day. • His friends or the boy runs every day.

23. Subject Verb Agreement Rules • 4. Doesn't is a contraction of does not and should be used only with a singular subject. • Don't is a contraction of do not and should be used only with a plural subject. • The exception to this rule appears in the case of the first person and second person pronouns I and you. With these pronouns, the contraction don't should be used. • He doesn't like it. • They don't like it.

24. Subject Verb Agreement Rules • 5. Do not be misled by a phrase that comes between the subject and the verb. The verb agrees with the subject, not with a noun or pronoun in the phrase. • One of the boxes is open • The people who listen to that music are few. • The team captain, as well as his players, is anxious. • The book, including all the chapters in the first section, is boring. • The woman with all the dogs walks down my street.

25. Subject Verb Agreement Rules • 6. The words each, each one, either, neither, everyone, everybody, anybody, anyone, nobody, somebody, someone, and no one are singular and require a singular verb. • Each of these hot dogs is juicy. • Everybodyknows Mr. Jones. • Eitheris correct.

26. Subject Verb Agreement Rules • 7. Nouns such as civics, mathematics, dollars, measles, and news require singular verbs. • The news is on at six. • Note: the word dollars is a special case. • When talking about an amount of money, it requires a singular verb. • When referring to the dollars themselves, a plural verb is required. • Five dollarsis a lot of money. • Dollarsare often used instead of rubles in Russia.

27. Subject Verb Agreement Rules • 8. Nouns such as scissors, tweezers, trousers, and shears require plural verbs. (There are two parts to these things.) • These scissors are dull. • Those trousers are made of wool. • 9. In sentences beginning with there is or there are, the subject follows the verb. Since there is not the subject, the verb agrees with what follows. • There are many questions. • There is a question.

28. Subject Verb Agreement Rules • 10. Collective nouns are words that imply more than one person but that are considered singular and take a singular verb, such as: group, team, committee, class, and family. • The team runs during practice. • The committee decides how to proceed. • The family has a long history. • My family has never been able to agree. • In some cases in American English, a sentence may call for the use of a plural verb when using a collective noun. • The crew are preparing to dock the ship. • This sentence is referring to the individual efforts of each crew member

29. Subject Verb Agreement Rules • 11. Expressions such as with, together with, including, accompanied by, in addition to, or as welldo not change the number of the subject. If the subject is singular, the verb is too. • The President, accompanied by his wife, is traveling to India. • All of the books, including yours, are in that box.