Intermediate Grammar Resource
Noun: a person, place or thing
 Examples: Bill, Sara, table, book, tree, Boston, school
Proper – when the title or name of the noun is used (Zoe, Stemmers Run)
Possessive – when the noun is showing ownership (Juan’s, Atlanta’s)
Common – the everyday name of something, does not name any specific one (chair, girl)
Pronoun: takes the place of a noun
 Basic Pronoun Examples:
(your other reference sheet has more detailed examples)
- I, you, he, she, it, we, you (meaning a group of people),
they, me, it, us, them,
 Possessive Pronoun Examples:
- my, you’re, its, mine, yours, our, their, ours, yours, theirs, his, hers
Verb: can be an action word or a “to be” verb.
 “To be” verbs are also known as linking verbs.
 Action verb examples: run, jump, sing, think, love
 “To be” verb examples: is, was, am, were, are (IWAWA)
Adverb: a word that describes or gives more information about a verb, an adjective or another adverb.
Joey ran quickly.
‘Quickly’ is the adverb.
Maria was really cute.
‘Really’ is the adverb.
They finished very easily.
‘Very’ and ‘Easily’ are both adverbs.
Adjective: a word that describes a noun or a pronoun
I have a pink purse.
We are happy.
‘Pink’ is the adjective.
‘Happy’ is the adjective.
Conjunction: a word that joins together words, phrases and clauses
FANBOYS – the conjunctions that join together the two halves of a compound sentence
 For, and, nor, but, or, yet, so
Subordinating Conjunction – the conjunctions that are used in complex sentences
 After, since, before, while, because, although, so that, if, when, whenever, as, even
though, until, unless, as if
Preposition: shows a relationship between a noun or pronoun and other words in the sentence. Also
known as “anywhere a mouse can run.”
Examples: across, after, against, around, at, before, below, between, by, during, except, for,
from, in, of, off, on, over, since, through, to, under, until, with, according to, because of, instead of
Tense:
Past: action happened in the past
Present: action is happening right now
Future: action will happen in the future
Baltimore County Public Schools
PERFECT TENSE:
Past PT: had + past tense verb
Present PT: have/has + past tense verb
Future PT: will have +part tense verb
2012
C. Barnaby
Subject: the person, place or thing doing the action in the sentence.
Bingo Brown forgot his homework. ‘Bingo Brown’ is the subject.
After school, Sally took a nap.
‘Sally’ is the subject.
Predicate: The verb and everything after it. The predicate explains what the subject is
doing.
Esther ate too much chocolate and felt sick. The underlined part is the predicate.
Milton slipped on ice and fell down.
The underlined part is the predicate.
DO - Direct Object: Receives the action in a sentence. (must be a ‘who’ or a ‘what’ –
not ‘where’!)
Ariel yelled at Sebastian.
Sebastian is receiving the yelling, so he is the direct object.
Mustafa scratched his knee. His knee is receiving the scratch, so it is the direct object.
PN - Predicate Nominative: a noun that follows a “to be” verb in a sentence.
Iago was a bird.
Mrs. Potts is a maid.
‘Bird’ is the predicate nominative.
‘A maid’ is the predicate nominative.
PA - Predicate Adjective: an adjective that follows a “to be” verb in a sentence.
The walrus and his mom are smelly.
The shoe was wet.
‘Smelly’ is the predicate adjective.
‘Wet” is the predicate adjective.
Appositive Phrase: renames the subject
Tanya, my friend, teaches music.
Luther, an old dog, bumbled down the road.
‘My friend’ is the appositive phrase.
‘An old dog’ is the appositive phrase.
Prepositional Phrase: a group of words beginning with a preposition (look back to Monday’s notes if
necessary) and ending with a noun or a pronoun.
My cat is on the chair.
Hera stays until midnight.
‘On the chair’ is a prepositional phrase.
‘Until midnight’ is a prepositional phrase.
Compound Subject: when the subject of a sentence contains more than one person place or thing (a
group of people or things do the action)
Tom, Bill and Sam play soccer.
A bear, a raccoon and bigfoot eat fish.
“Tom, Bill and Sam” are the compound subject
“A bear, a raccoon and bigfoot” are the compound subject.
Compound Predicate: when the predicate in a sentence contains two or more actions (more than one
thing is happening)
Suzie did her homework, made dinner and fed the cat.
Baltimore County Public Schools
2012
C. Barnaby
Clause: a group of words containing a subject and a verb.
Can be either independent or dependent!
Sam eats fries. (independent clause)
since Tamayra likes pie (dependent clause)
Phrase: a group of words that is missing either the subject, the verb or both.
to my house
on Friday
at nine o’clock
Simple Sentence: contains one subject (keep in mind, the subject could be a group of people) and one
verb. One independent clause.
Myra and Toni scuba dive.
On Friday, Grant has football practice.
Compound Sentence: made up of two or more independent clauses joined by a FANBOYS
conjunction (look back at Monday’s notes if necessary).
 Can be broken in half to form two complete sentences.
Bert loves ice cream, but Ernie likes cake.
Kermit sings well, so Miss Piggy loves him.
Complex Sentence: one independent clause and one or more dependent clauses joined together by a
subordinating conjunction (look back to Monday if necessary).
Since she was lost, Dorothy asked the Tin Man for directions.
The underlined part is the dependent clause and the italicized part is the independent clause.
The subordinating conjunction is bold.
The Wicked Witch sent her flying monkeys while she plotted against Dorothy.
The underlined part is the dependent clause and the italicized part is the independent clause.
The subordinating conjunction is bold
Sentence Purpose:
Declarative: make a statement and should end with a period.
Interrogative: asks a question and should end with a question mark.
Imperative: gives a command and should end with a period.
Exclamatory: expresses strong feelings and should end with an exclamation point.
Baltimore County Public Schools
2012
C. Barnaby