JohnsonEnglish 310 – HCC

Little Brown Handbook

A sentence is a basic unit of thought.

A “complete sentence” has a subject and a predicate.

Noun – name persons, places, things, ideas, or qualities

Pronouns – usually substitute for nouns and function as nouns

Verbs – express actions, occurrences, or states of being

Parts of Speech!

Adjectives – describe or modify nouns or pronouns

Adverbs – describe or modify verbs, adjectives, other adverbs, or whole groups of words

Prepositions – relate nouns or pronouns to other words in a sentence

Conjunctions – link words, phrases, and clauses◦ Coordinating clauses – link words, phrases and

clauses

◦ Correlative conjunctions – link words, phrases, or clauses of equal importance

◦ Subordinating conjunctions – introduce subordinate clauses and link them to main clauses

Interjections – express feeling or command attention, either alone or in a sentence.

Hey, oh, darn, wow!

Nouns name

They may name a person (Zoe Saldana).

They may name a thing (chair, book).

They may name a quality (pain, happiness).

They may name a place (Houston, city, room).

Nouns can be possessive. An apostrophe, then an s is added to show ownership.

Terry’s class.

Nouns can be singular or plural.

bird (singular)

birds (plural)

Child (singular) Children (plural)

For most nouns, you simply add “s” to turn a singular noun into a plural noun. However, for irregular nouns, you have to memorize the correct plural form.

Example: woman (singular) women (plural).

Some nouns do not have a “plural” form.

Examples: equality, anger, oxygen, equipment.

These are called non-count nouns.

She is full of anger. She used all the equipment in the gym. There were high levels of oxygen in the air.

For example, in the sentence

She angers easily.

“anger” is acting as a verb and not a noun.

Verbs express an action, an occurrence, or a state of being.

Action verbs – bring, change, grow

Occurrence – become, happen

State of being – be, is, seem, was

Most verbs add –d or –ed to indicate a difference between present and past tense.

They play today.

They played yesterday.

Some verbs forms are irregular.

Eat, ate

Begin, began

Most present-time verbs add –s or –es with subjects that are singular.

The bear escapes.

It runs.

The woman begins.

She sings.

The exceptions are be and have, which change to is and has.

Certain forms of all verbs can combine with other words such as do, have, can, will, and must.

These other words are called helping verbs or auxiliary verbs.

Example:

Could run, will be running, and has escaped

They convey time and other attributes.

In English, the same word can take on different functions in different sentences.

A word may be a verb in one sentence and a noun in another. You have to read the sentence carefully to figure out how a word is being used.

The government sent the city aid.

(Aid is functioning as a noun.)

Governments aid citizens.

(Aid is functioning as a verb.)

The function of a word in a sentence always determines its part of speech in that sentence.

Most pronouns substitute for nouns and function in sentences as nouns do.

Some nurses who have families prefer the night shift because they have more time with theirchildren.

Personal pronouns - I, you, he, she, it, we, they

Relative pronouns – who, whoever, which, that

These pronouns also change form.

He called me.

I called him.

The subject of a sentence names something.

The simple subject consists of one or more nouns or pronouns.

The complete subject also includes any modifiers.

Simple Subject:

Art stirs controversy.

Complete subject:

Some contemporary art stirs controversy.

The predicate makes an assertion about the subject or describes an action by the subject.

The simple predicate consists of one or more verbs

The complete predicate adds any words needed to complete the meaning of the verb plus any modifiers.

Simple Predicate:

Art stirs controversy.

Complete Predicate:

Critics discuss and dispute its value.

In the complete predicate, two words combine to serve the same function.

A pronoun is a word that takes the place of a noun (I, it, she, he, we, us).

The subject of an English sentence may be a noun, or a pronoun, but it cannot be both.

Incorrect: Some art it stirs controversy.

Correct: Some art stirs controversy.

Ask who or what is acting or being described in a sentence.

Example

Kelly dashed down the hall in order to make it to class before the bell rang.

Who is acting in this sentence?

Kelly. She is dashing down the hall.

Kelly is the subject and dashing is the verb.

Example: The dog wagged his tail a few times.

Who or what is acting in this sentence?

The dog wagged his tail a few times.

The dog is performing the action in this sentence. He is wagging his tail.

Often, the subject comes at the beginning of the sentence, as in the previous example. However, the subject can appear in any part of the sentence.

In the bright morning sun, she ran through the valley.

“Ring! Ring!” the doorbell chimed loudly.

Ask what the sentence asserts about the subject?

What is the action or what state is it in?

Examples:

The news is boring.

Carla yawned loudly as she watched the television.

The ice in her cup melted slowly.

First, isolate the verb/action word/state of being in the sentence.

After you isolate the verb, you can find the simple predicate by changing the time of the subject’s action. The words that change form the simple predicate.

Example: Art has often survived the controversy.

Art often survives controversy.

Art will often survive controversy.

Simple predicate: has survived (the action word plus the modifier).

Traditional English grammar is based on the 8 parts of speech – nouns, verbs, adjectives, pronouns, adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions, and interjections.

A complete sentence includes both a subject and a predicate.

Subjects change form to show possession and number (plural or singular).

Verbs change form to show present, past, and future tense.

Irregular forms must be memorized.