GRAMMAR 101 A sentence is made up of 2 sections… • Subject (who or what the sentence is about) • Predicate (the rest of the sentence) Example: The dog brought the ball to his owner. The predicate expands into 3 further parts… • Verb • Direct object (who or what after the verb) • Indirect object (to whom/what or for whom/what after the direct object) Example: The dog brought the ball to his owner. REMEMBER: When working with an object, we ask whom or what? What is a phrase? • A grouping of words without a finite verb A phrase makes sense and conveys a single idea A phrase can never stand alone, but is always part of a sentence. What is a clause? • A grouping of words containing a finite verb A clause makes sense and conveys a single idea A clause can stand alone. *REMEMBER* Santa Clause comes at Christmas and brings a gift. The gift is a verb. So a clause can stand alone because it has a gift… a verb. SENTENCES Simple Sentences (a clause) It must make sense on its own. Contains one piece of information. EX: We go on holiday every summer. Compound sentences Two simple sentences (so 2 verbs) and a conjunction (and, but, when, if) EX: My mom bought fruit today but a few of the apples were rotten. Complex sentences Begins with a conjunction and the two main ideas are separated with a comma (although, while, since, until, when, unless) EX: While I am a serious rugby fan, I prefer soccer. THE APOSTROPHE Two Roles: • To show contraction/omission • To show possession/ownership 1. CONTRACTION/OMISSION: The apostrophe shows where the letters have been removed. Example: you + are = you’re (the apostrophe takes the place of the ‘a’) REMEMBER: Contractions and formal writing do NOT go hand in hand! 2. POSSESSION/OWNERSHIP: If the apostrophe comes after the singular form of the noun (so before the s) (SINGULAR) The school of the boy = the boy’s school The bicycle of the family = the family’s bicycle If the apostrophe comes after the plural form of the noun (so after the s) (PLURAL) The school of the boys = the boys’ school The bicycles of the students = the students’ bicycles If a name/word ends in ‘s’ then we add an apostrophe and then an s (so ‘s) EX: Mrs Pincus’s students are her pride and joy. REMEMBER: Something can simply be in the plural form (this means it does NOT need an apostrophe!) Dates (1960s and 1980s) NO apostrophe! ARTICLES A, AN, THE Definite article: THE (Specific) Example: She got accepted to the university of her dreams. Indefinite article: A, AN (Non-specific) Example: She won an award for bravery. He ate a banana. The alphabet is divided into two groups: VOWELS (A, E, I, O, U) CONSONANTS (All the other letters) WHEN USING A & AN AN = when the following word begins with a VOWEL (A, E, I, O, U) E.g. An apple Two vowels cannot go next to each other so that is why we use AN. A = when the following word begins with a CONSONANT (B, C, D, F, G, H…) E.G A burger CONCORD: (agreement) Subject and Verb: Subject (Singular) and (Plural) Verb (must match the Singular or Plural) Example: was + were I was on my way to the shop (I + my = singular … was) We were on our way to the shop (we + our = plural … were) is + are My friend is coming to me this weekend (friend = singular … is) My friends are coming to me this weekend (friends = plural … are) Noun and pronoun: Man = his Woman = her Everyone = their *the genders must agree/match* Tricky: Generation (even though made of millions of people it is the concept of ONE generation) A generation is (singular) a period of twenty-five years. Generations (plural) are influenced by political decisions. Also consider: A pile of newspapers (singular subject) is (singluar) in the corner. The piles of newspapers (plural subject) are (plural) in the corner. Tenses: A. If the verb is in the PRESENT tense, report the speech as if it had just been said. B. If the verb is in the past tense and what is being reported has already happened, report the spoken words in the past tense by putting them one stage back in terms of tense EXAMPLE: A. Mike says, “I am feeling dizzy today.” Mike says that he is feeling dizzy today. B. Mary said, “I am feeling dizzy today.” Mary said that she was feeling dizzy that day. Commands: If the sentence is a command, two possibilities may be used: A. The teacher ordered the children to do their homework. B. The teacher ordered that the children should do their homework. ACTIVE AND PASSIVE VOICE ACTIVE VOICE (REGULAR VOICE) In the active voice the subject of the sentence does the action. PASSIVE VOICE In the passive voice the object becomes the subject and is having the action done to it. ACTIVE VOICE PASSIVE VOICE Subject Verb Object Object Verb Subject PRESENT The boy kicks the ball. The ball is kicked by the boy. PAST The boy kicked the ball. The ball was kicked by the boy. FUTURE The boy will kick the ball. The ball will be kicked the boy. NB: A sentence can only be changed form active to passive if it has a transitive verb. A transitive verb is a verb that takes a direct object. Exclamations: Exclamatory words such as ouch! hooray! wow! may NOT be used in reported speech. Exclamations and emotions should, however, still be expressed and we do this by describing them. EXAMPLES: “Ouch! I’ve stumped my toe!” screamed the girl. The girl screamed in pain that she had stumped her toe. The players shouted, “Hooray! We’ve won the game!” The players shouted with joy that they had won the game. Adverbs of time and place change in the past tense: here – there this – that now – then today – that day yesterday – the previous day the day before yesterday – two days ago tomorrow – the following day the day after tomorrow – in two days’ time The General Rule 1. Underline the verb. 2. Divide the sentence into: Subject Verb 3. Begin with the object. Object EXAMPLE: The magician performs the trick. ‘Performs’ is present tense… so it turns into ‘is performed by’. If it was past tense it would turn into ‘was performed by’. ACTIVE VOICE: PASSIVE VOICE: subject verb object object verb subject The magician performs the trick. The trick is performed by the magician. PRONOUNS: Pronouns change from the subject form to the object form. SINGULAR: PLURAL: SUBJECT OBJECT 1st person I Me 2nd person You 3rd person He/She/it SUBJECT OBJECT 1st person We Us You 2nd person You You Him/Her/it 3rd person They Them In some passive sentences, the ‘doer’ or the ‘agent’ is not mentioned: EXAMPLES: We keep our coffee cups here. Our coffee cups are kept here. They will make a decision soon. A decision will be made soon. (by us) (by them) • This is done because the sentence is easy to understand without mentioning the doer and it would be clumsy to mention the doer. • This usually is the case when the doer is a pronoun. Read the book by Tuesday! Who wrote the article? Commands: The book must be read by Tuesday. Questions: By whom was the article written? It is more natural to use active voice BUT The passive voice is often used for effect • When it is not necessary to mention the subject (doer) • When we are not sure who did the action - Refreshments will be served. The diamonds were stolen. • When demands are made anonymously - Smoking is not permitted in the cinema. • When a nameless accusation is made - This shirt has been ruined in the wash. ROOT WORDS, PREFIXES AND SUFFIXES We can change the meaning of a word by putting something before or after the root. PREFIX ROOT/STEM MIS USE EN SUFFIX USE LESS/FUL JOY MENT • ROOT WORDS (base word) (core) • PREFIXES (Remember it by: You go to PRESCHOOL before normal school) Prefixes come before the root word. Prefixes have meanings themselves and often come from Greek or Latin etc. Prefixes may create new words and may create antonyms. Examples: ex, un, dis, en, mis, pre, re, non, in, ir, • SUFFIXES (Remember it by: You SUFFER at the end of your life) Suffixes are word endings. Examples: able, ary/ery, ed, ing, less, ment, ness, tion, ly SYNONYMS: Words of the same or of similar meaning. NB: synonyms are often interchangeable BUT the word choice is dependent on the CONTEXT. EXAMPLES: Start - Begin, Commence Help – Assistance, Aid Big – Huge, Enormous, Colossal Rich – Wealthy, Prosperous ANTONYMS: Words of opposite meaning. EXAMPLES: Accept – Reject Asleep – Awake Blunt – Sharp Clever - Stupid Proud – Ashamed Laugh - Cry PRONUNCIATION MEANING SPELLING HOMONYMS SAME DIFF SAME HOMOPHONES SAME DIFF DIFF HOMONYMS Words spelt and pronounced in an identical way, but they have different meanings. EXAMPLES: Are we going to the ball tonight? (a party) He hit the ball over the net. (a cricket ball) Let’s go to the fair. (a carnival) He wasn’t very fair with her punishment. (treating people equally) HOMOPHONES Words that are pronounced in the same way, but differ in spelling and meaning. EXAMPLES: You aren’t allowed to go there. Read the notes aloud for us. We must dig a hole in the garden. The whole group was arrested. Acronym: an abbreviation formed from the initial letters of other words and is pronounced as a word. EXAMPLES: NASA, UNISA, AIDS, SIM card, Abbreviation: A shortened or brief form of a word or phrase. It is often used to save time. The ones with full stops (the first few letters of that word so letters are cut off) The ones without full stops (it is the first and last letter of the word) EXAMPLES: Prof. = Professor Dr = Doctor Sun. Mon. Tues. = Days Jan. Feb. Mar. Apr. = Months Pres. = President St = Street Pg. = page Sr = Senior Initialism: an abbreviation consisting of initial letters pronounced separately (so you can’t pronounce it as a word). EXAMPLES: BBC, FBI, the USA, VIP, DNA, ATM Tautology • Saying the same thing twice in different words • Unnecessary repetition of the same idea Finite and Non Finite Verbs Finite verbs • A “working” verb with a subject – it can be any tense Non-finite verbs * Has no subject and cannot be in all tenses CONNOTATION: The range of positive or negative associations and emotional shades of meaning of a word. (connotation) DENOTATION: The literal, precise definition you would expect to find in a dictionary. (denotation) EXAMPLES: Pig D: A pink farm animal who likes to lie in mud C: Person with bad manners, messy, greedy with eating Blue D: A colour C: Feeling sad or down Cold D: Low temperature C: Lacking affection or warmth or unemotional DIRECT SPEECH • Uses the exact words of the speaker and this is indicated using inverted commas (“”) • After the speaker is introduced and the verb ‘said’ or ‘asked’ appears – it is always followed by a comma. • Now the actual words are spoken and they are placed in quotation marks. • The first of the spoken words must be a capital letter. • The quotation marks enclose all the words AND punctuation. EXAMPLE: Jane said, “It is warm today.” Sarah asked, “What are we doing today?” A. Sometimes the spoken words can come first. B. The verb could be found in the middle of the sentence. EXAMPLE: A. “How long will dinner take?” asked the hungry guest. B. “You guys are hopeless,” shouted the coach, “and are going to cost us the win!” INDIRECT SPEECH (REPORTED SPEECH) Many changes occur when converting a sentence from direct to indirect. Punctuation: Remove the inverted commas, the capital letters, the question marks and exclamation marks. *obviously don’t take the capital letter away if the first word in the inverted comma is a proper noun (like a name). EXAMPLE: Mother asked, “Where have I left my keys?” = Mother asked where she had left her keys. Mother asked, “John, have you cleaned your room?” = Mother asked John if he had cleaned his room. Pronoun: Pronouns change to ensure the sentence keeps its meaning. EXAMPLE: Lauren said, “My family and I are going to town today.” Lauren said that she and her family would be going to town that day. That: Insert the word THAT to link the verb to the spoken words. EXAMPLE: John says, “I love the sound of rain on a tin roof.” John says that he loves the sound of rain on a tin roof. Question words: A. Insert the word IF or WHETHER after questions using question verbs. B. If the first word of a question is a question word, use this word as the connecting word. EXAMPLE: A. The children enquired, “Are there fun rides at this flea market?” The children enquired if/whether there were fun-rides at that flea market. B. “Why can’t I have another candy floss?” asked Tara Tara asked why she couldn’t have another candy floss.
