Lessons 29 - 35
UNIT 3: GRAMMAR AND USAGE
NOUNS
There are two main classes of nouns: common
and proper nouns.
 A common noun names any of one class of
objects.

 Examples:

boy, country, flower
A proper noun names a particular person,
place, or thing. It begins with a capital letter.
 Examples:
Ms. De Masi, Parliament Buildings

Underline each noun. Then write C or P above it to
show whether it is a common or proper noun.
Levi is my best friend.
 Victoria is the chief city on Vancouver Island and capital
of British Columbia.
 The Magdalen Islands are located in the Gulf of St.
Lawrence.
 A killer tornado ripped through southern Ontario last
May.
 John Bassett II and Elmer Iseler, two famous
Canadians, died in April 1998.


A concrete noun names things you can see and
touch.
 Examples:

An abstract noun names an idea, quality, or
feeling.
 Examples

sea, book, train, hotel
: cowardice, stubbornness, jealousy
A collective noun names a group of persons or
things.
 Examples
: audience, crowd, committee

Create meaningful sentences using the nouns
in brackets. Note that collective nouns usually
take a singular verb.
 (honesty)
 (Jury)
 (motorbikes)
 (Family)
SINGULAR AND PLURAL NOUNS

The following chart shows how to change
singular nouns into plural nouns.
NOUN
PLURAL FORM
EXAMPLES
Most nouns
Add –s
Ship, ships
Nouns ending in a consonant and -y
Change the –y to –i and add –es
Sky, skies
Nouns ending in –o
Add –es or-s
Hero, heroes
Solo, solos
Most nouns ending in –f or –fe
Change the –f or –fe to -ves
Half, halves
Most nouns ending in –ch, -sh, -s, or –x
Add –es
Bush, bushes
Loss, losses
Tax, taxes
Many two-word or three-word
compound nouns
Add –s to the principle word
Son-in-law, sons-in law
Nouns with the same form in the
singular and plural
No Change
Sheep
Nouns that are exceptions to the rules
*Special Cases*
Woman, women

Use the correct plural form for each singular
noun.
 Piglet
 Hobo
 Duck
 Tragedy
 County
 Elf
 Sheep

Rewrite the sentences, changing each
underlined singular noun to a plural noun.
 The
hero saved the child from the burning building.
 Dan took five photo of the reindeer.
 Her son-in-law and brother attended the ceremony.
POSSESSIVE NOUNS
A possessive noun shows possession of the
noun that follows.
 Form the possessive of most singular nouns by
adding an apostrophe (’) and add –s.

 Examples:
 The
girl’s car
 Mr. Lewis’s book

Form the possessive of a plural noun ending in –s
by adding only an apostrophe.

Examples:
 The
Wongs’ home
 Boys’ jeans
 Brothers’ business

Form the possessive of a plural noun that does not
end in –s by adding an apostrophe and –s.

Examples:
 Children’s
clothes
 Women’s shoes

Rewrite each phrase using a possessive noun.
 The
cap belonging to Jim.
 The wrench that belongs to Kathy.
 The smile of the baby.
 The shoes that belong to the runners
 The lunches of the children
VERB TENSES


Verb tense tells the time of the action or the state of
being of a verb.
The present tense tells what is happening now.


The past tense tells about something that happened in
the past.


Sally loved her husband.
The future tense tells about something that will happen
in the future.


Example: Sally loves her husband.
Example: They will meet again when the war is over.
A common writing error is inconsistency in verb tenses.

Write a few sentences in the present, past, and
future. Be sure that the verb tenses are
consistent.
PRESENT PERFECT AND PAST PERFECT TENSES
The perfect tenses express action that
happened before another time or event.
 The present perfect tense tells about
something that happened at an indefinite time
in the past. The present perfect tense consists
of has or have + past participle.

 Examples:
I have eaten already. He has eaten, too.

The past perfect tense tells about something
that happened before something else in the
past. The past perfect tense consists of had +
the past participle.
 Example:
I already had eaten when they arrived.

Complete each sentence with have, has, or had to
form the verb tense indicated in parentheses.
(present perfect) The dog __________ eaten the ham
on the table.
 (past perfect) The doctor ___________ warned him to
stop smoking.
 (present perfect) The diver __________ located pieces
from the shipwreck.
 (past perfect) The lacrosse team __________ won every
game last season.

PAST TENSE OF SOME IRREGULAR VERBS
Never use a helping verb with: froze, chose, spoke,
and broke.
 Always use a helping verb with: frozen, chocen,
spoken, and broken.
 Underline the correct verb form to complete each
sentence.

Haven’t these politicians (spoke, spoken) yet?
 Has the ice (froze, frozen) on the pond?
 Romina (broke, broken) the handle of the baseball bat.

Never use a helping verb with came, rang,
drank, knew, and threw.
 Always use a helping verb with come, rung,
drunk, known, and thrown.
 Write a sentence using each verb below:

 Come
 Rang
 Threw
 Drunk
Never use a helping verb with gave, took, and
wrote.
 Always use a helping verb with given, taken,
and written.
 Underline the correct verb:

 Who
(wrote, written) the best essay?
 Have you (gave, given) her name to the police?
 Haven’t you (take, taken) your seat yet?



Never use a helping verb with ate, fell, drew, drove, and
ran.
Always use a helping verb with eaten, fallen, drawn,
driven, and run.
Write the correct past tense form of each verb in
parentheses to complete the sentences.



(draw) Since Selma knew the city well, She
___________________ a map for us.
(fall) The police warned us that the hydro lines had
___________________ on the highway.
(eat) In order to avoid crowds at the snack bar, we
___________________ our dinner later.
Never use a helping verb with saw, went, and
began.
 Always use a helping verb with seen, gone, and
begun.
 Write a sentence using each verb below:

 Saw
 Seen
 Began
Never use a helping verb with did.
 Always use a helping verb with done.
 Doesn’t is the contraction of does not. Use it
with singular nouns and the pronouns he, she,
and it.

 Example:
Hannah doesn’t live here.

Don’t is the contraction of do not. Use it with
plural nouns and with the pronouns I, you, we,
and they.
 Example:
 Mr.
And Mrs. Matters don’t have teenagers.
 You don’t have your wallet.

Write one sentence using did and one sentence
using done.