It's an ugly word. It's a scary topic. Many students just accept that they cannot do this. However, most of them have been using English grammar properly for all their lives. So why the heartache? Easy. Us English teachers are evil manipulative twerps. We come up with difficult names for easy things. Why? That way we can get paid for teaching you a language you ALREADY know! All we have to do is make up words like GERUND, PREPOSITION, and CLAUSE. That's enough for most people to say, "I can't do that! It's too hard!" Then we swoop in, teach it, get paid, and laugh all the way to the bank!
So, no worries. Use the links below to get those notes and remember - this is all easy stuff! Just go with it.
Parts of Speech (How to Find Everything)
- Verbs
- Subject
- Direct Object and Indirect Object
- Predicate Nominative
- Preposition and Object of Preposition (prepositinal phrase)
- Adjectives
- Adverbs
- Conjunctions
- Interjections
- Appositives
- Gerunds
Verb Conjugation
- Simple Tense
- Progressive Tense
- Perfect Tense
- Perfect Progressive Tense
Punctuation
- End Marks (period, question mark, exclamation mark)
- Commas
- Semicolons
- Colons
- Hyphens and Dashes
- Parenthesis
- Quotation Marks
Subject /Verb Agreement
Pronoun / Antecedent Agreement
Objective Case and Nominative Case
Homophones
Proofreading
Parts of Speech
BLANK HOW TO FIND EVERYTHING CHART
Verbs
There are three main types of verbs (well, there is a fourth, but we will get to that later):
Action Verb - AV - These are like Bob the Builder words. Can we ________ it? If you can stick the verb into the blank and say 'yes!' you have an action verb.
The cat climbed the tree. The word CLIMBED is an AV.
Linking Verb - LV - These are harder to spot. They link the subject to a noun after the verb. The most common are the "to be" verbs
BE AM IS ARE WAS WERE BEEN BEING
Mr. Alford is the best teacher in the whole word. The word IS is a LV in this sentence.
Helping Verb - HV - if you have more than one verb (not joined by a conjunction) then the last verb is AV or LV and all others will be HV
That boy is picking his nose. The word IS is a HV in this sentence and PICKING is an AV.
As you can see, the "to be" verbs are also commonly HV. So is WILL, SHOULD, COULD, WOULD, CAN. Don't stress it. If it comes before an AV or LV, it is a HV. You will NEVER EVER have an AV and LV together.
When I was growing up, you could watch cartoons only on Saturday morning. They would throw in School House Rocks cartoons to teach us grammar and other school stuff. So here is how I learned verbs:
Nouns
Nouns are people, places, and things. They come in a variety of types. The first type we will learn is the subject.
Subject - S - the noun that does the verb.
The cat climbed the tree. The word CAT is the subject because it does the climbing.
You can always find the subject by asking this question, "Who or what verbed?" Just substitute the verb you already found for the word verbed in that question.
We will learn three other types of nouns:
Direct Object - DO - this noun was what the verb was done to. You can find it by asking, "S AV what?" There will not always be an answer, but when there is, it will be a DO and you can only find a DO in a sentence with an AV.
The cat climbed the tree. TREE is the DO because the CAT CLIMBED what? The tree.
Indirect Object- IO - this noun was who the direct Object was done to. You can find it by asking, "S AV DO to whom?" There will not always be an answer, but when there is, it will come between the DO and the AV. You can ONLY find an IO in a sentence with an action verb.
The boy gave the girl the love note. NOTE is the IO because the BOY GAVE NOTE to whom? The girl.
Predicate Nominative - PN - this noun comes after a LV and means the same thing as the subject. Ask, "Is there a noun that comes after the LV and means the same as the S?" If your answer is yes, you have a PN. You will not always have an answer and a PN can OLNY exist in a sentence with a LV.
Mr. Alford is the bomb-diggity. BOMB-DIGGITY is the PN because MR. ALFORD and BOMB-DIGGITY are the same thing.
School House Rocks on Nouns
Preposition - P - these words always begin a prepositional phrase (more on that next). An easy way to find most prepositions is to say this statement: A cat can go ______ a tree. If you can fill in the blank, it is probably a preposition. To find these, you just need to know these. Here is a list of some very common prepositions:
about
above
across
a fter
against
along
among
around
at
because of
before
behind
below
beneath
between
beyond
by|
despite
down
during
except
for
from
in
inside
instead of
into
near
of
off
on
onto
out
outside
over
past
regarding
since
through
throughout
toward
under
underneath
until
up
upon
with
within
without
Verb Conjugation
Punctuation
Subject / Verb Agreement