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GRAMMAR CHEATS
PG 1
Parts of Speech
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PG 3
PG 4
PG 5
Sentence Fragments
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PG 7
PG 8
PG 9
PG 10
PG 11
Dangling Modifiers
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PG 2
Subject: RED
Predicate: GREEN
PHRASE
A phrase is two or more words that do not contain the subject-verb pair
necessary to form a clause. Phrases can be very short or long.
Examples of a phrase:
-
After lunch
Before the first test
Leaving behind the book
There are seven different categories of phrases and each have specific names
based on the type of word that begins or governs the word group. The seven
categories phrases are broken down into are: noun phrase, verb phrase,
prepositional phrase, infinitive phrase, participle phrase, gerund phrase, and
absolute phrase.
CLAUSE
A clause is a group of words that has both a subject and a predicate. An
independent clause can stand on its own as a sentence. A dependent
clause cannot.
Example of a Clause:
-
She is sleepy.
No matter how you look at it
Subject verb agreement means the subject and the verb must agree in number.
That means both need to be singular (denoting or referring to just one person or
thing) or both need to be plural (more than one in number).
In the present tense, nouns and verbs form
plurals in opposite ways: nouns ADD an s to
the singular form; verbs REMOVE the s from
the singular form.
A pronoun (I, me, he, she, herself, you, it, that, they, each, few, many, who,
whoever, whose, someone, everybody, etc.) is a word that takes the place of a
noun. In the sentence Chelsea saw James, and she said hi to him, the pronouns
she and him take the place of Chelsea and James, respectively.
There are three types of pronouns: subject (for example, he); object (him); or
possessive (his).
Subject Pronouns: are used when the pronoun is the subject of the sentence.
You can remember subject pronouns easily by filling in the blank subject space
for a simple sentence. Subject pronouns are also used if they rename the
subject. They will follow to be verbs, such as is, are, was, were, am, will be, had
been, etc.
Examples:
It is she.
This is he speaking.
Chelsea was said about the bad grade she received.
Object Pronouns: known more specifically as direct object, indirect object, and
object of a preposition. Object pronouns include me, him, herself, us, them, and
themselves.
Examples:
James saw him.
Are you talking to me?
Give her the last slice of pizza.
Possessive Pronouns: Possessive pronouns include my, mine, our, ours, its, his,
her, hers, their, theirs, your, and yours - all words that demonstrate ownership.
Examples:
The cat is hers.
The large pizza is theirs.
The house is officially ours.
Punctuation is used to create sense, clarity and stress in sentences. You use
punctuation marks to structure and organize your writing.
PUNCTUATION RULES
The Periodquestion or
The Question Mark- Used to mark the end of all direct questions.
Example: What is your name?
The Colon- expands on the sentence that precedes it, often introducing a list that
demonstrates or elaborates whatever was previously stated.
Example: He had just one fault: an enormous ego.
The Semicolon- is somewhere between a full stop and a comma. Semicolons can be used in
English to join phrases and sentences that are thematically linked without having to use a
conjunction.
Example: I like your sister; shes a good friend.
The Apostrophe- used to indicate either possession or the omission of letters or numbers.
Example: This is the childrens room.
The hyphen and the dash- A hyphen joins two or more words together while a dash separates
words into parenthetical statement.
Example: Run-down, co-operate.
Parentheses and brackets- we use square brackets - [ ] - for special purposes such as in
technical manuals. Round brackets - ( ) - are used when we want to add further explanation,
an afterthought, or comment that is to do with our main line of thought but distinct from it.
Example: The government's education report (April 2005) shows that the level of literacy is
rising in nearly all areas.
A dangling modifier is a word or phrase that modifies a word not clearly stated
in the sentence. Sometimes an inexperienced writer will include a modifier but
forget the target. The modifier thus dangles because the missing target word
leaves nothing for the modifier to describe.
*Dangling modifiers are errors. Their poor construction confuses readers.
Examples of dangling modifiers:
1. Hungry, the left over chicken was devoured.
2. Searching in her giant bag, the pen escaped detection.
3. With a sigh of relief, the essay was turned in.
How to fix dangling modifiers:
Fixing a dangling modifier will require more than rearranging the words in the
sentence. You will often need to add something new so that the modifier finally
has a target word to describe:
Examples:
1. Hungry, I devoured the left over chicken.
2. Searching in her giant bag, Cindy failed to find her pen.
3. With a sigh of relief, James turned in the essay.