Grammar Guide

Parts of Speech
Noun Pronoun Adjective Verb Adverb Preposition Conjunction Interjection

Noun

Person

Place

Thing

Idea

Pronoun
Takes the place of a noun Mark is strong. He is strong. He is the pronoun in this example.

Adjective
Describes a noun or pronoun. Ex: The tall man was an excellent saxophone player.

Verbs
Action Linking Helping He ran today. She is slow. Father has gone fishing.

Adverbs
Modifies a verb, adjective, or other adverb Usually ends in -ly Miles quickly spun the hula-hoops.

Preposition
Shows direction, location, or association. The elf was under the lightning bolt. Ask where it was. Q: Where was the elf? A: Under the lightning bolt.

Conjunction
Joins words or groups of words The dog flew, but the cat walked. Drew is tall and genial.

Interjection
Expresses emotion Always ends in an exclamation point Ouch! Oh my!

Subject Predicate Complements Phrases Clauses

Subject

The main character of the sentence. The thing that does the action Mark plays soccer.

Predicate
What the subject does or is. Drew plays baseball. Q: What does Drew do? A: plays baseball

Direct Object Indirect Object Objective Complement Predicate Nominative Predicate Adjective

Direct Object
Receives the action of the verb. Answers what? or whom? Brian loves watermelon. Q: What does Brian love? A: Watermelon.

Indirect Object
Comes before the direct object. Tells to whom? Or for whom? Mrs. Mayes promised us a trip to Braums. Q: To whom did she promise a trip? A: To us.

Objective Complement
Noun or Adjective Refers to the Object They thought she was pretty. Q: Thought she was what? A: Pretty.

Predicate Nominative
Follows a linking verb The same person or thing as the subject. Brian is a soccer player. Q: What is Brian? A: A player.

Predicate Adjective
Follows the linking verb Describes the subject Drew is cool. Q: What is Drew? A: Cool.

Prepositional Participial Gerund Infinitive Appositive

Prepositional Phrase
A group of words starting with a preposition and ending with a noun. The dog ran around the yard. Q: Where did the dog run? A: Around the yard.

Participial Phrase
Verb form ending in -ing or -ed used as an adjective The smiling child was happy. You are bad, said the disappointed teacher.

Gerund Phrase
Verb form ending in -ing used as a noun Fishing is fun. I like eating.

Infinitive Phrase
To + a verb Used as a noun, adjective, or adverb I dont want to stay too late. Abby wants him to win the election.

Appositive Phrase
Noun or pronoun that renames another noun or pronoun Usually set off by commas My brother Paul likes bananas. Florida, the Sunshine State, is warm.

 Adjective Clause Noun Clause Adverb Clause

Independent Dependent

Independent & Dependent Clauses

Independent clauses can stand alone. He is standing alone. Dependent clauses cannot stand alone. Mary, who is not tall, cannot reach the ceiling.

Adjective Clause
A clause that modifies a noun or pronoun Usually adjacent to the modified noun or pronoun. This book, which is about tennis, grabs my attention.

Noun Clause
Clause used as a noun. Can be replaced by it. We heard that she graduated with honors. That she graduated with honors = It We heard it.

Adverb Clause
A clause used as an adverb. Modifies verb, adjective, or adverb Brian sleeps when he has time. After Drew watched the movie, he left.

 Capitalize the following:

Capitalization
This angus has nothing to do with everything, but everything to do with nothing.

1st word in a sentence, the pronoun I Proper Nouns and Adjectives

Peoples names Geographical Places Organizations and Business Firms Historical Events, Periods, & Calendar Items. Nationalities, Races, and Religions Brand Names Titles of books, magazines, & paintings

Period (.) Question Mark (?) Exclamation Point (!) Comma (,) Dash (--) Parentheses (()) Underline/Italics ()/()

Brackets ([]) Semicolon (;) Colon (:) Quotation Mark () Apostrophe () Hyphen (-)

Period & Question Mark

Use a period at the end of a sentence or with an abbr. Dr. Kevorkian Ms. Tubble This was fun. Use a question mark at the end of the question. Why did you do that? Do you hate me?

 Use to

Comma

separate items in series to separate two or more adj. before a noun before a conjunction separating two or more independent clauses. Salutations, closings Addresses, Dates Introductory words After a name followed by Jr.

Exclamation Point & Dash

Use an exclamation point at the end of an exclamation or at the end of an exclamatory sentence. Ouch! Oh my gosh! They killed Kenny! Look how dead Kenny is! Use to indicate an abrupt break in thought or to mean namely, in other words, or that is before an explanation. My point is - as you know - people are not smart smart - not stupid

Parentheses & Brackets

Use to enclose incidental explanatory matter but isnt considered important Sen. Coy (Idaho) was on the committee Use to enclose explanations within parentheses or in quoted material when explanation isnt part of quotation. It [the party] was neat. The report was sophisticated. (See pp. 16 [Section 3])

Semicolon & Colon

Use when
the items in a series already contain commas
Winners were Pam, 1st; Helen, 2nd; and Dick, 3rd.

Use a colon to mean note what follows Use in conventional situations

8:00 AM; Proverbs 3:3

independent clauses arent joined by conjunction

The car was colorful; it was neat.

Use between independent clauses when the 2nd clause explains the 1st
Jay is popular: he is nice.

Underlining/Italics
Underline or use Italics on the following:
words and letters not yet adopted into English
The Latin phrase ad astra per aspera gives me hope.

titles of books, magazines, ships, newspapers, etc.

Romeo & Juliet

Quotation Marks
Use to enclose titles of poems, short stories, articles, songs, t.v. episodes, chapters, slang, etc.
The Raven is a good poem.

Use to enclose a direct quotation.

Be careful! exclaimed Alex.

Apostrophe
Use to form a contraction
cant; isnt; its

Use to form the possessive case

the boys bike the childrens money the dogs barking

Hyphen
Use to divide a word at the end of a line Use with compound #s between twentyone and ninety-nine Use with prefixes before proper nouns
ex-mayor anti-Beavis

The End