1. LESSON 12: GRAMMAR AND USAGE
Things to Know Before You Start
&
A Review of the Homework Questions

2. STUFF YOU MIGHT HAVE FORGOTTEN BUT NEED TO KNOW
Noun—a word that represents a person, place, thing, or idea. Can be common or proper.
Common: lady (person), house (place), pencil (thing), love (idea)
Proper: Ms. Thompson (person), Arizona (place), Snickers (thing), Modernism (idea)

3. Continued
Verb– a word that expresses an action, a state of being or the condition of something, or help a main verb. Often written differently depending on what tense it is (what time the action occurred). Can be regular or irregular.
Action verbs:
Linking and helping verbs: am, is, are, was, were, have, has, did, do, can, could, may, might, etc.
More about participles on the next slide!
Present
Past
Past Participle
Future
Regular
Climb
Climbed
Have climbed
Will Climb
Irregular
Swim
Swam
Have swum
Will Swim

4. Continued
Verbal: words that are formed from verbs, but are never used alone as action words in sentences. Instead, verbals function as nouns, adjectives, or adverbs. Three types:
Gerund: ends in “ing”, functions as a noun
Jumping on the trampoline is my favorite activity.
Infinitive: a verb with “to” in front of it
I like to ski.
Participle: verb that ends in -ing (present) or -ed, -d, -t, -en, -n (past). May function as adjectives or verbs.
The dancing parrots entertained the crowd.
She is thinking of the children.

5. Continued Adjective: a word that describes a noun
A fancy girl, an arid desert, a terrifying time, the scientific discovery, an undying love
Bonus fact! “A”, “an”, and “the” are all articles and work the same way adjectives do; they help us specify which noun is being described. That’s why there’s a difference between “a winner” and “THE winner”.

6. Continued
Preposition: words that help form relationships between nouns and other words. Usually tells where or when. (Hint: it’s that long list of words you probably had to memorize with a song, or it was “all the things the rabbit can do to the tree” or something)
lol, this one was so ugly, I had to use it.

7. While you were in the library.
Continued
A word on what makes a sentence a “complete thought” that can “stand alone”…
You know that a complete sentence has to have both a subject (the noun part) and a predicate (the verb part) while at the same time expressing a complete thought. If you’ve ever had trouble with what that actually means, here’s an example:
While you were in the library.
There’s the subject “you” and the verb “were”, but would you understand what this person was trying to tell you? You’d probably be like, “What? What happened while I was in the library?” From this sentence, you’re only getting the beginning of the person’s thought. So, it’s NOT a “complete thought”.