Traditional grammarians define a noun as "a person, place, thing, or idea." Child designates a person; therefore, child is a noun. Similarly, democracy designates an idea; therefore, democracy is a noun. In addition, nouns can be identified by the presence of signal words such as the. signal words Copyright 2011 © Terry Hudson

Verbs have traditionally been defined as words that show action or state of being. Copyright 2011 © Terry Hudson

Subjects and verbs must AGREE with one another in number (singular or plural). Thus, if a subject is singular, its verb must also be singular; if a subject is plural, its verb must also be plural. Subjectsverbs In present tenses, nouns and verbs form plurals in opposite ways: nouns ADD an s to the singular form,nouns BUT verbs REMOVE an s from the singular form.verbs Copyright 2011 © Terry Hudson

There are three main verb forms for showing time or tense: Simple tense does not use auxiliary verbs auxiliary verbs refers to specific time period during which something happens OR something happened and is over OR something will happen Simple present (action goes on now): I sit Simple past: (action happened and is over): I sat Simple future (action will happen): I will sit Copyright 2011 © Terry Hudson

A complete sentence needs only two elements: a subject - predicate unit AND a complete thought In other words, a simple sentence is actually the SAME thing as an independent clause. Dependent clauses or phrases are called fragments because they are missing one or more parts needed to make a sentence. Therefore, they are only pieces or fragments of complete sentences. Copyright 2011 © Terry Hudson

Sometimes two independent clauses (simple sentences) can be joined to form another kind of sentence: the compound sentence.independent compound Two major errors can occur when constructing compound sentences. Writers make the error of the Comma Splice when they try to separate the two independent clauses in a compound sentence with a comma alone. A comma is not a strong enough punctuation mark to separate the two independent clauses by itself; thus, using it causes the clauses to be spliced together. Example of a comma splice: Copyright 2011 © Terry Hudson

Writers make the error of the Fused Sentence by joining two independent clauses into a compound sentence without using any punctuation between them. No punctuation between the two independent clauses causes them to "fuse" into an INCORRECT compound sentence. Example of a fused sentence: Copyright 2011 © Terry Hudson

1. by adding a comma and an appropriate coordinating conjunction coordinating conjunction 2. by placing a semicolon between the two clausessemicolon 3. by adding the needed punctuation and an appropriate conjunctive adverbconjunctive adverb Copyright 2011 © Terry Hudson

Another way to repair a comma splice or fused sentence is to make each independent clause into a simple sentence.ndependent clause simple sentence. Copyright 2011 © Terry Hudson

A prepositional phrase embellishes a sentence and more fully explains things. Examples of prepositions: about, above, among, at, because of, before, behind, beside(s), but, by, except, for, in, near, of, on, since, throughout, to, upon, with without, etc. In a prepositional phrase, a preposition sits in front of (is “pre-positioned” before) its object. For example: “to the store,” “up the hill,” “by the office.” A prepositional phrase should not be confused with a subject or verb; it can never be a subject or verb. Copyright 2011 © Terry Hudson