Transcript File

Grammar
Mr. Villanueva
Grammar Review
The test will not ask you directly about the “parts of
speech”, but they are important in order to understand
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Noun: person, place, or thing (dog, New York, OFL)
Verb: action word (talk, study, run)
Adjective: word that describes (happy, bright, fast)
Adverb: a word that modifies a verb, an adjective,
another adverb; usually ends in ‘-ly’ (happily, very,
slowly)
• Subject: the subject is the part of the sentence
(usually a noun) that performs the action. (she
gave me the book; the dog slept)
• Predicate: the part of the sentence that is not the
subject (she gave me the book; the dog slept)
Subject+ Predicate=complete sentence
Clauses
• A clause is a group of words that has a verb and a subject.
Some are complete sentences, but others need to be linked to
another clause to make sense.
– Independent (Main) Clause: a complete thought,
and can stand alone as a sentence or be linked to
another clause.
• Exp: People had to keep a fire going all the time.
– Dependent (Subordinate) Clause: does not
express a complete idea, so it has to be linked to
the independent clause.
• Exp: Before matches made it easy to start a fire
Complete sentence using both types of clauses:
Before matches made it easy to start a fire,
people had to keep a fire going all the time.
Grammar Review:
Punctuation
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Semicolon: used between independent clauses without
conjunctions (for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so—
F.A.N.B.O.Y.S.!!!)
Exp: Fire is our good friend; fire is our deadly enemy.
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Colon: used between independent clauses when the
second clause explains the first or provides a list.
Exp: Fire is important: it heats our home and our food.
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Ellipses: three spaced dots, show that something has
been omitted (left out)
Exp: The firefighter said, “It’s really dangerous…but we have the blaze
under control.”
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Hyphen: Used in some compound adjectives,
numbers, and prefixes.
Exp: The well-organized squad of twenty-four firefighters are pro-
American.
Practice
• Write a sentence using a colon
• Write a sentence using ellipse
• Write a sentence using hyphen
• Make sure to use it correctly, we will share
in class
Grammar Review: Sentence
construction and usage
• Parallel structure
• Subordination
• Proper placement of modifiers
• Consistency of tenses
**Reminder: Consistency of
tenses**
• This is a common CAHSEE subject
• For questions about sentence
construction, they will commonly put
something like the example: “he rushed
into the house and closes the door in my
face”
• What is wrong with that sentence?
**Consistency of tenses (cont.)**
• All verbs in a sentence must be in one
tense. It is incorrect to go back and forth
between past, present, and future.
• The example could be changed to either:
– “he rushed into the house and closed the
door in my face” (past) OR
– “he rushes into the house and closes the door
in my face” (present)
• Don’t forget: the tense needs to be
consistent (the same) throughout a
sentence.
Practice
• Write a sentence about what you did last
weekend.
• It should have at least 2 verbs in the
sentence
• Use the same tense in the entire
sentence.
Grammar Review:
Proofreading
• Usage
• Structure
• Diction
• Grammar
• Mechanics
**Reminder: Noun/Verb
Agreement**
• Subjects and verbs must always “agree” in
a sentence.
• For example, the following sentence has
an agreement issue:
– Frank and Sabrina is the two students who
have books.
What is wrong with this sentence? What does
not “agree”?
**Noun/Verb Agreement
(cont.)**
• There are two students (Frank and Sabrina), so
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the verb should be plural (are instead of is)
The correct sentence would be: “Frank and
Sabrina are the two students who have books.”
When you see this on the CAHSEE, often there
will be a trick to figuring out singular vs. plural.
For example, the following words are singular
even though they refer to a group:
class, group, team, etc.
Practice
• Write one sentence with a plural subject
• Write one sentence with a singular subject
• We will be sharing in class