Subject, Verb, Punctuation Mark! Mr. Erickson’s English Class 5 th Grade

Objectives  The student will be able to correctly use and identify the parts of a sentence.  The student will develop and understanding of basic grammar skills including but not limited to: the parts of speech, punctuation, and sentence structure.

The Parts of Speech  There are FOUR very basic parts of speech.  They are: Nouns, Verbs, Adjectives, and Articles  Every word in every sentence can be classified into one of the parts of speech.

Nouns  A noun is a person, place, thing, or idea.  There are several different types of nouns:  Standard Nouns: apple, car, man  Pronouns: you, him, them  Proper nouns: George Washington, England

Examples: (find the nouns)  The table in the kitchen was very messy.  Peter went to Africa for the summer.  Is the motor in your car fixed yet?

Verbs  A word that shows action or a state of being.  There are 3 types of verbs:  Action verb: skip, fly, run  State of Being verb: is, was, had been  Adverb: (modifier) quickly, beside, softly

Examples: (find the verbs)  Sam and I ran to the grocery store.  I am so smart!  Did you see how quickly Billy finished the race?

Adjectives  A word that describes a noun  Adjectives can be: types, colors, numbers, textures, descriptors, etc.

Examples: (find the adjectives)  The cute girl wore a yellow dress.  The furry brown gorilla was hungry.  There were three boys eating delicious apple pie.

Articles:  A kind of adjective which is always used with and gives some information about a noun.  There are only two in the English language: “a(n)” and “the”  Although there are only two, they are extremely important.

Examples: (find the articles)  I sat on a chair in the office.  Did you see a black cat in the alley?  The first time I went to Florida was on an airplane.

Sentence Structure  Absolutely every sentence MUST include at least one subject and one verb. If it doesn’t have one of each, it is not a sentence.  For example: “I am going to the beach”  The subject is “I”  The verb is “am going”

A little practice:  Can you tell which of the following are NOT complete sentences?  I am.  Went to Spain last year.  Ice melts quickly in warm weather.  Ice freezes.  Found it by the tree.

Punctuation:  Punctuation refers to the marks we add to a sentence or a word other than letters.  Every complete sentence ends with a punctuation mark. Possible choices include:  Period  Question mark  Exclamation point  Other Punctuation marks include: commas, apostrophes, colons, dashes, hyphens, etc.

Think about it!  What punctuation mark would you add to the end of each of these sentences?  Are you lost  That lady just ate twenty-five hotdogs  My name is Fred  Who was the first president

Putting it all together!  It is clear that sentences are very complex and have very specific requirements in order to be complete.  Each sentence must include at least one subject and one verb.  Each subject must be a type of noun.  Every sentence ends with one of three punctuation marks.

Analyze These!  What do you notice about the following sentences?  Billy found three shiny pennies on the ground.  Have you seen Susie this afternoon?  Yikes! I just got stung by a bee!

Remember:  Whether writing for fun or for school, it is important to have good grammar. Now that you know how to make a complete sentence and how to analyze any sentence, you can be sure to always have perfect grammar!  Practice makes perfect, so write often!

Quiz:  To complete the quiz for this quick lesson please see the following website: Click on “find your teacher” Then find “Minnesota” Then find “University of Minnesota-Duluth” Then find my name, “MrTim” The quiz is called “Grammar Quiz” on the left side of the screen!