• Singular: only one person, place or thing
Plural noun: more than one
And, finally…noun gender.
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Masculine- boy
Feminine- girl
Indefinite- either
Neuter- neither
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Masculine: brother
Feminine: sister
Indefinite: horse
Neuter: socks
Compound Noun
• A noun made of two or more words.
Possessive Nouns
• Show ownership
Singular possessive
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Doctor’s stethoscope
Surfer’s board
Anybody’s guess
Grandma’s feather bed
We’re talking about past and present
tense.
It’s a gift, it’s called the present…
Give me a PRESENT today.
• Present tense means NOW. This is NOT the
now verb with “ing”, that is a different kind of
verb.
– Cast meow.
– I snack.
– She glances.
– Lance owns.
– Nathan crawls.
• We don’t actually use present tense a whole
lot. Usually we use it when talking about
things that happen every day:
– The bus comes at 9 AM.
– She goes to school every morning.
– Grandma goes to bed at 5:30 pm after she eats
her prunes.
Rules for present tense verbs
• If your subject is singular (just one) and not “I”
or “you,” add an s to the verb:
– He snacks.
– She glances.
– Gretchen bristles.
MORE rules
• If your subject is plural, or “I” or “you”, don’t
add an s:
– Cats meow.
– I snack.
– They own.
– Kari and Matt crawl.
– You go over there.
AND…prepare yourself…this one is
complicated…
• If the subject is singular (just one), AND the
verb ends in s, x, ch, z, or sh….
• Add es.
– Robert blushes.
– The pitcher pitches the ball.
– The trainer coaxes him away.
– She watches TV.
Another rule
• When the verb ends in a consonant and y, we
change the y to i and add es for SINGULAR:
• I cry—She cries.
• They rely on you—She relies on you.
Plural Possessive
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Elephants’ trunks
Waitresses’ aprons
Bosses’ schedules
Aunts’ houses
Kids’ homework
Newkirks’ house
PAST TENSE—first rule
• For a regular, not weird, verb…
– To put it in the past tense, you add ed.
• He tossed the ball.
• She walked over there.
1-1-1 rule
• You have a ONE-SYLLABLE verb that ends in a
CONSONANT.
• To make it past tense, you can use a wonderful
thing called the 1-1-1 rule:
1-1-1 Rule:
Hop.
Is this word one syllable?
Does the word have one vowel?
Does the word end in one
consonant?
Yes! This word
follows the 1-1-1pattern:
1 syllable
1 vowel
1 consonant at the
end
For words that follow this rule, double the
final consonant if you are making it past
tense.
Hopped
Tripped
Skipped
Mapped
Stopped
Added
Next rule
If the verb ends in e,
you add a d to make
it past tense:
-bake, baked
-writhe, writhed
And finally, if the verb ends in y,
you change the y to i and add –
ed:
Dry- dried
Apply- applied
Future tense
Future tense
• Has not yet occurred!
• Become a fortune teller.
Now, when you go FORMAL…
• Fancy writing
• Future tense in
FORMAL writing
is FANCY.
SHALL
Instead of WILL.
Fancy fancy fancy - SHALL
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We shall adapt.
You shall cooperate.
It shall be a black tie affair.
Drinks shall be served at
half past the hour.
NOT a fancy party.
• Informal: WILL.
• The party will be at ten.
• Hamburgers will be on the grill
at 11.
Drinks will be served.
Little Bobby will open his presents
at 12.
• Now let’s talk about helping verbs.
• Every predicate has a verb. Sometimes the
verb includes more than one word. When this
happens, it is often because there is a
HELPING VERB.
• Example:
– You MIGHT HAVE wondered about the origin of
teddy bears.
Common helping verbs
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Is
Am
Are
Was
Were
Be
Being
Been
Has
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Have
Had
May
Might
Must
Can
Could
Do
Does
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Did
Shall
Will
Should
Would
SUBJECT…
• The WHO.
Connecticut became a state in 1788.
Fifty states make the United States.
PREDICATE…
• The WHAT.
Connecticut became a state in 1788.
Fifty states make the United States.
• So here’s where it gets a little complicated…
Bob
left.
• But what if Bob is really sad that we didn’t tell
more about him so we want to make our
sentence say, “Cute little Bob left for the hair
salon.”
• In that case, the sentence would have a
SIMPLE SUBJECT and SIMPLE PREDICATE.
Here, all we have is a WHO and a WHAT. These are the SIMPLE SUBJECT and SIMPLE
PREDICATE.
Bob
left.
Here, instead of keeping it SIMPLE, we made it COMPLICATED by adding bows to it.
Cute little BOB
LEFT for the hair salon.
• Red-headed John played the piano all night.
The SIMPLE version:
John
played.
And, complicated, here we go!
Red-headed JOHN
What is the SIMPLE subject?
PLAYED the piano all night.
• The basketball player shoots baskets every
day.
The SIMPLE version:
Player
shoots.
And, complicated, here we go!
The basketball PLAYER
What is the SIMPLE subject?
SHOOTS baskets every day.
• Simple predicate, same idea:
– Tom told me a joke.
The SIMPLE version:
Simple predicate is TOLD.
Tom
told.
And, complicated, here we go!
TOM
Simple predicate: Told.
TOLD me a joke.
But sometimes…
• We try to make a bike with only one
wheel…and we end up talking like a caveman.
The girl with the dog.
Opened the book.
Jumping over the fence.
The doctor at the hospital.
The student with the notebook.
A bike with only one wheel…
• We call it a FRAGMENT.
– A sentence missing the subject or verb.
• A sentence can also be a fragment if it is
missing punctuation marks, or using the
wrong form of the verb (ing or to):
– The girl walking her dog.
– Jenny to make her bed.
Run-on Sentence
• Two bikes put together without proper
punctuation or connecting words…
– Not a four-wheeler, just a bike with four wheels
that really doesn’t work. CAVEMAN!!!!
• The invalid devised a plan to go to the market
he should stay home until he recovers.
• Some people have only one sibling other
people have two but some people have three.
• Exercise makes us feel better it is fun too.
• In order to fix a run-on sentence you have to
add and/so/but and punctuation:
– Some people have only one sibling, and other
people have two, but some people have three.
– The invalid devised a plan to go to the market. He
should stay home until he recovers.
OR:
Some people have only one sibling. Other people
have two, but some people have three.
There are 4 kinds of sentences.
-Declarative: makes a statement, like “I declare
this day a holiday from school.”
-Interrogative: a question—interrogates
someone. “Where were you last night?”
-Imperative: a command—imposes your
demands on someone. “Turn around slowly and
put your hands where I can see them.”
-Exclamatory: has an exclamation point, shows
excitement or strong feeling: “I didn’t do it!”
Recently we talked about…
PROPER nouns
• AKA SNOTTY nouns.
• They are better than everyone else.
• Because they are so high and mighty, they
MUST be capitalized.
• Names of people, places and things.
COMMON nouns
• These are just regular Joes. Nothing special.
• They are not in love with themselves…so they
don’t need you to capitalize them.
Proper nouns:
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Great Britain
Lake Michigan
Friday
Legacy Preparatory Academy
Homer Simpson
Pillsbury
Aunt Jemima’s Syrup
July
Halloween
Oreo
Hannah Montanah
Hannibal Lecter
Common nouns
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country
lake
day
month
girl
book
chocolate
– Alley: a narrow street
– Ally: someone who is on your side
– Miso: Greek prefix, means “hatred”
– Misogynist: one who hates women
– Misoneism: hatred of change
– Misogamist: someone who hates marriage
– Micro: a Greek prefix that means “small”
– Macro: a Greek prefix that means “large”