DIRECTIONS: Read the information in this packet and then answer the questions that follow. DO NOT WRITE ON THIS SHEET!! Your answers MUST BE MARKED ON THE BUBBLE SHEET using a NUMBER 2 PENCIL. BE SURE YOU WRITE YOUR NAME ON YOUR ANSWER SHEET, and also write in the SUBJECT BOX “SUBJECT-VERB.”

A verb must agree with its subject in number and in person. In other words, if the subject is singular, the verb should be singular, and if the subject is plural, the verb should be plural.

Subject and Verb Separated by Words

When words come between the subject and the verb, a subject/verb agreement error can occur. It is important to remember that an object of a prepositional phrase is never the subject of the sentence.

Incorrect: The two main goals of my life is to go to college and get a good job.

Correct: The two main goals of my life are to go to college and get a good job.

Plural Subjects

If a subject has two or more parts connected by and, the subject is almost always plural. If the parts of the subject refer to the same person or thing, however, the subject should be treated as singular.

Incorrect: My mother and father is going to the movies.

Correct: My mother and father are going to the movies.

 Incorrect: Thomas, a lawyer and a father, are always concerned with helping the community. (In this case, lawyer and father refer to the same person.)

Correct: Thomas, a lawyer and a father, is always concerned with helping the community.

Subjects Joined by Or or Nor

If a subject has two or more parts joined by or or nor, the verb should agree with the part of the subject that is nearest to the verb.

Incorrect: Neither the president nor the vice president are aware of the changes in the plan.

Correct: Neither the president nor the vice president is aware of the changes in the plan.

Incorrect: Either the director or her colleagues is invited to the conference.

Correct: Either the director or her colleagues are invited to the conference.

Collective Nouns

Collective nouns name a class or a group. If the group functions as a whole, treat the noun as singular. If the members of a group function individually, treat the noun as plural.

Incorrect: When the committee signs their names to the document, they will be relieved of their duties. (In this case, members of the committee sign their names as individuals, not as a committee; therefore, the subject is plural. Also, the use of the pronouns their and they indicate that the subject is plural, not singular.)

Correct: When the committee sign their names to the document, they will be relieved of their duties.

Incorrect: If the jury reach a decision by 4 p.m., we will be able to hear the results today. (In this case, the jury functions as one single unit; therefore, the subject is singular.)

Correct: If the jury reaches a decision by 4 p.m., we will be able to hear the results today.

Indefinite pronouns

Indefinite pronouns refer to nonspecific persons or things.  Most indefinite pronouns are singular; however, a few are plural.

Incorrect: Each of the students need to brush up on his or her grammar skills.

Correct: Each of the students needs to brush up on his or her grammar skills.

Incorrect: Both wants to finish school before they get married.

Correct: Both want to finish school before they get married.

Incorrect: Some of the classmates wants to get together to study for the test.

Correct: Some of the classmates want to get together to study for the test.

Directions: Based on the information provided in this packet, answer the questions below. DO NOT WRITE ON THIS SHEET! MARK YOUR ANSWERS ONLY THE BUBBLE SHEET PROVIDED FOR YOU.

GOOD JOB! LOOK OVER YOUR ANSWERS BEFORE YOU TURN YOUR WORK IN. WHEN YOU ARE SATSIFIED WITH YOUR ANSWERS, TURN THE QUESTIONS AND YOUR ANSWER SHEET INTO THE TEACHER. ONCE AGAIN, BE SURE THAT YOU HAVE WRITTEN YOUR NAME ON THE SHEET AND THAT YOU HAVE WRITTEN IN THE SUBJECT BOX “SUBJECT-VERB.”

The following rules and examples will help you know when and where to use the colon as a punctuation mark.

The baseball coach claimed that the team's success stemmed from four things: consistent hitting, solid pitching, good fielding, and excellent teamwork.

The Greasy Spoon restaurant had several house specialties: a hot turkey sandwich, a roast pork dinner, a walleye platter, and a barbecued chicken wing basket.

The supervisor's remark was straight to the point: that tardies to work will not be tolerated.

Mom only expects one thing from us: that we are not late for dinner.

The local anglers had a nickname for the large muskie that had cruised the lake's shoreline for years without being caught: Old Mossback.

The preoccupied burglar didn't notice who was standing right behind him: a smiling police officer.

In his book, Language is Sermonic, rhetorician Richard Weaver described how language may influence us: "Sophistications of theory cannot obscure the truth that there are but three ways for language to affect us. It can move us toward what is good; it can move us toward what is evil; or it can, in hypothetical third place, fail to move us at all." (60)

Richard Nixon: The Tarnished President

The accident occurred at approximately 1:45 p.m. on Tuesday.

Dear Rachel:

West, Gerald. How to Write Best Sellers. New York: Henry

James Publishing, 1973.

GRAMMAR FOCUS:

The Spooky and Scary Truth about SEMI-COLONS

Keep these three things in mind when you use a semicolon:

·    The two main clauses that the semicolon joins should be closely related in meaning.

·    Don't capitalize the word that follows the semicolon unless that word is a proper noun, one that is always capitalized.

·     Limit your use of semicolons; you should not scatter them wantonly throughout your writing. Semicolons are like glasses of champagne; save them for special occasions.

Remember: An independent clause has a subject and a verb, and can stand alone as a grammatically correct and complete sentence. A dependent clause also has a subject and a verb, but begins with a subordinating conjunction, and cannot stand alone as a grammatically correct and complete sentence.

Semicolons are used to join two independent clauses that are closely related.

Semicolons are used to join two independent clauses with a long conjunction. Long conjunctions have more than three letters, unlike coordinating conjunctions.

Semicolons are used to separate items in a lengthy, complex list, especially if there are commas within the list.

GRAMMAR NOTES: RUN-ON SENTENCES

Michaela loves to draw horses she is a talented artist.

1. The Fused Sentences: A fused sentence is when two or more independent clauses (complete sentences) are joined together WITH NO PUNCTUATION at all. There are three basic ways to correct fused sentences: (1) place a SEMICOLON (;) between the two independent clauses, (2) place a COMMA and a CONJUNCTION between the two independent clauses, or (3) divide the run-on sentence into two different sentences by placing a PERIOD between the two independent clauses.

2. A Comma Splice: A fused sentence is when two or more independent clauses (complete sentences) are joined together WITH ONLY A COMMA. A comma by itself CANNOT join two independent clauses. A comma must always be followed by a CONJUNCTION when joining two or more complete sentences.

ENGLISH I GRAMMAR FOCUS– CLAUSES

A. Independent clause -- a group of words with a subject, a verb, and a complete thought.

B. Dependent clause -- a group of words with a subject and a verb but not a complete thought.

Directions: Determine whether each clause below is INDPENDENT or DEPENDENT. If the clause is INDEPENDENT, then write “independent” in the blank space beside the clause. If the clause is DEPENDENT, then write “dependent” beside the clause. ALSO, if the clause is DEPENDENT, then ADD to the clause so that it becomes INDEPENDENT.

Directions: Keep this handout with your English II folder. We will be practicing these rules throughout the week and, eventually, have a quiz.

Independent Clause (IC)

An independent clause is a group of words that contains a subject and verb and expresses a complete thought. An independent clause is a sentence.

Example: Jim studied in the Sweet Shop for his chemistry quiz. (IC)

Dependent Clause (DC)

A dependent clause is a group of words that contains a subject or a verb (or even both a subject and a verb) but DOES NOT express a complete thought. A dependent clause cannot be a sentence; a dependent clause is a FRAGMENT. Often a dependent clause is marked by a dependent marker word.

Example: When Jim studied in the Sweet Shop for his chemistry quiz . . . (DC)

(What happened when he studied? The thought is incomplete.)

STUDENT NAME:

GRAMMAR NOTES:

PARTS OF SPEECH IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE

CLASS:

ENGLISH I

1. THE NOUN

A word that can be used to refer to a person or place or thing.

Common nouns are the names of things in general, such as cat, dog, road, city, skirt, color, etc.

A proper noun is the name of a particular person, place or thing, such as Kate, Billy, Manchester, Thames, Rover etc. All proper nouns start with a capital letter.

A collective noun is the name given to a group of things, for example a flock of birds or a herd of cows.

An abstract noun is something you can't see, hear, touch or taste. These can be emotions (happiness, grief) or states (peace, quiet) for example.

2. THE PRONOUN

A pronoun can replace a noun or another pronoun. You use pronouns like "he," "which," "none," and "you" to make your sentences less cumbersome and less repetitive.

3. THE VERB

• A  word that serves as the predicate of a sentence
• A content word that denotes an action or a state of being.

4. THE ADJECTIVE

The part of speech used to limit or describe the noun or pronoun it modifies, as in "blue coat."

5. THE ADVERB

An adverb can modify a verb, an adjective, another adverb, a phrase, or a clause. An adverb indicates manner, time, place, cause, or degree and answers questions such as "how," "when," "where," "how much". Many adverbs (but not all) end in “ly.” Example: slowly, happily, quickly, etc.

6. THE CONJUNCTION

You can use a conjunction to link words, phrases, and clauses, as in the following example:

I ate the pizza and the pasta.

Call the movers when you are ready.

Co-ordinating Conjunctions

You use a co-ordinating conjunction ("and," "but," "or," "nor," "for," "so," or "yet") to join individual words, phrases, and independent clauses. Note that you can also use the conjunctions "but" and "for" as prepositions.

Subordinating Conjunctions

A subordinating conjunction introduces a dependent clause and indicates the nature of the relationship among the independent clause(s) and the dependent clause(s).

The most common subordinating conjunctions are "after," "although," "as," "because," "before," "how," "if," "once," "since," "than," "that," "though," "till," "until," "when," "where," "whether," and "while."

7. THE CLAUSE

In grammar, a clause is a word or group of words ordinarily consisting of a subject and a predicate, although in some languages and some types of clauses, the subject may not appear explicitly. (This is especially common in null subject languages.) The most basic kind of sentence consists of a single clause; more complicated sentences may contain multiple clauses. Indeed, it is possible for one clause to contain another.

8.

THE INDEPENDENT CLAUSE

If a clause can stand alone as a sentence, it is an independent clause, as in the following example:

Independent : The Prime Minister is in Ottawa.

9. THE DEPENDENT CLAUSE

A dependent clause (or subordinate clause) cannot stand alone as a sentence. In itself, a dependent clause does not express a complete thought; therefore, it is usually attached to an independent clause. Although a dependent clause contains a subject and a predicate, it sounds incomplete when standing alone.

10. THE PREPOSITION

A preposition links nouns, pronouns and phrases to other words in a sentence. The word or phrase that the preposition introduces is called the object of the preposition.

A preposition usually indicates the temporal, spatial or logical relationship of its object to the rest of the sentence as in the following examples:

The book is on the table.

The book is beneath the table.

The book is leaning against the table.

The book is beside the table.

She held the book over the table.

She read the book during class.

In each of the preceding sentences, a preposition locates the noun "book" in space or in time.

THE PREPOSITIONAL PHRASE

A prepositional phrase is made up of the preposition, its object and any associated adjectives or adverbs. A prepositional phrase can function as a noun, an adjective, or an adverb.

Examples of prepositional phrases include:

• on the table
• under the bridge
• after the game

LIST OF COMMON PREPOSITIONS

Directions: Using the handout on parts of speech, answer each question below.

Part I: THE NOUN

6. Look at the list of nouns below and determine whether each noun is a COMMON NOUN, PROPER NOUN, COLLECTIVE NOUN, ABSTRACT NOUN, or PRONOUN. Write your answer beside each noun below.

Part II: THE VERB

Part III: THE ADJECTIVE

Part IV: THE ADVERB

Part V: THE CONJUNCTION

Part VI: PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER