Transcript Grammar Notes

Grammar Notes
Unit 3
Week 1 and 2
(lessons 29 – 33)
GRAMMAR – UNIT 3 LESSONS 29 - 46

Please take out
your notes for your
studies in Grammar
…

What are modifiers and what do they
describe?

You have your
nouns, verbs,
pronouns, but how
do you add color
and texture to
those words? With
modifiers, of
course! They
describe or make
something specific.

Adjectives and
adverbs are
modifiers–the parts
of speech that
describe nouns,
verbs, pronouns,
and in some cases
one another.

An adjective
describes a noun
(or a pronoun) by
telling you which
one, what kind,
or how many.

Aardvark threw
some pillows at
Squiggly.

Aardvark threw a
square pillow at
Squiggly.

An adverb works
harder than the
adjective. It can
describe verbs, other
adverbs, clauses,
and whole
sentences. The
adverbs tells you
where, when, and
how (how often and
how much). Adverbs
often end in –ly, but
not always.


Squiggly deftly dodged
the pillows.
Squiggle quite deftly
dodged the pillows.

Squiggly dodged
the unusually hard
pillow.

The Critical
Question of the
day:
What are the two
types of speech that
are called modifiers
and what do they
describe?


Today – answer
in ONE concise
sentence.
Thank you.

Please take out
your notes for your
studies in Grammar
…

Can some words be adjectives or adverbs?

Some words
can be
adverbs or
adjectives
depending on
how they are
used in a
sentence.
You can tell the difference
by noting what the word is
modifying.
POP Quiz – Adverb or Adjective???
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
He kept a weekly calendar.
He jogged weekly.
He stayed late.
They made it a late night.
The hard nails worked.
He worked hard.

The Critical Question
of the day:
Can some
words be
adjectives or
adverbs?


Today – answer
in ONE concise
sentence.
Thank you.

Please take out
your notes for your
studies in Grammar
…

Do action and linking verbs take different
modifiers?

Remember
linking verbs?

When dealing with
sensing verbs, such
as taste, smell look,
or feel, you have to
take a minute to
decide whether
you’re describing
the noun or the
verb.

Consider the
different meanings
of these two
sentences:
It’s correct to say “I
smell bad” when
you are expressing
an emotion.

You just ran a
marathon your and you
have been sweating.
Bad describes your
physical being. It is an
adjective describing
the pronoun “I”.


Remember to
test the sentence
by replacing the
verb with a form
of “to be.”
I am bad works
so you know
smell is a linking
verb in the
sentence.
 Adjectives
follow linking verbs.
When you say “I smell
badly,” the adverb “badly”
describes the action verb
“smell.”

Since the action verb
“smell” can imply “to
smell things”
smelling badly can
imply that something
is wrong with your
sense of smell.

I know that people
think that they need
to describe how they
feel so they can use
an adverb by
mistake. It is those
pesky linking verbs
that cause such
confusion. Do not
fall into the sinkinglinking-verb
quicksand.

Use adverbs with
action verbs. For
example, I you give a
horrible speech you
could say, “I spoke
badly.” because
“spoke is an action
verb. You can tell
that because
“speaking” is an
action and the test
sentence :”I am
badly” doesn’t work.

With sense verbs,
first test whether
they are linking verbs
or action verbs.
Then use my
adjective/ adverb tip
:

Critical question --- Do action and
linking verbs take different modifiers?
Adjectives follow linking verbs.
 Adverbs modify action verbs.


Please take out
your notes for your
studies in Grammar
…

When do you use more and when do you use
most in sentences?


Adjectives and adverbs can be used to compare
nouns or verbs.
When comparing items, notice whether you are
comparing two things or more than two things.


When comparing two items, use a comparative.
You can remember this word is used to
compare two things because it has the word
pair in it, and a pair is always two things.
For Comparatives, use  more before the adjective or the adverb
OR the suffix –er on the end of it.

When comparing three or more items, use a superlative.
You can remember that superlatives are more
than two things because superlative has the
word super in it, and when you want a whole
bunch of something, you supersize it.


With superlatives use
most before the adjective or the adverb, or the
suffix -est on the end
 When
do you use more and when
do you use most in sentences?

Please take out
your notes for your
studies in Grammar
…

How do you know when to use –er or more or
-est or most when working with comparatives
and superlatives?
 Comparison
involving words with
one syllable or three or more
syllables follow clear rules. The
two syllable words are tricky.
One-syllable words use suffixes er or est.

NOTE: Some
people ask
about fun.
Technically,
it is not an
adjective, so
you
shouldn’t
use “funner”
or “funnest.”
Three-syllable words use more or most in
front of them.
Two-syllable words use more or most and
er and est depending on the word.
With words ending in y, change the y to i

If you have a twosyllable adjective
that doesn’t end in
y, ow, or le (if it is
not yowlier), you’ll
need to rely on
your ear or your
dictionary.

How do you know when to use –er or
more? -est or most when working with
comparatives and superlatives?