This printable version of the instructional materials and exercises in:
KISS Grammar in One Year?
An Instructional Design
for Working
with Middle School Students
was contributed to the KISS site by Vicki, who compiled it for use with her daughter.
(She added some extra exercises.)
As with all KISS materials, you can adapted it any way you wish, but you cannot legally
sell it.
© Dr. Ed Vavra
evavra@kissgrammar.org
The Printable KISS Grammar Workbooks
March 2010
Education is
Everything
(Detail)
1780
Jean-Honore
Fragonard
(1732-1806)
1. What Is a Sentence?
(Level 1.1.1)
A simple sentence is a group of words that names something and then says something about what it has
named. Because the thing that is named is what the sentence is about, grammarians call it the “subject.” The
most important words that say something about the subject are called “verbs.” In the following sentence, the
subject is in green and is underlined once. The verb is in blue and is underlined twice.
Birds fly.
Note that some sentences say something by asking a question about the subject.
Do birds fly?
In longer sentences, we speak of subject and verb phrases. In
The little words are the most difficult.
“words” is the subject, but because the words “The” and “little” go with “words,” we can call “The little words”
the subject phrase. Similarly, “the most difficult” go with “are,” so we can call “are the most difficult” a verb
phrase. A phrase, in other words, is a group of words that does not contain both a subject and a verb that says
something about the subject.
The following are examples of sentences:
April is the cruelest month.
Is April the cruelest month?
Bert likes baseball.
Does Bert like baseball?
Sarah was going to the museum.
Swimming can be good exercise.
Jane will have to work on Friday
The book was written by a child.
The following are examples of phrases:
around the house
the bright, beautiful sun
going to the store
swimming in the pond.
were lonely and sad
on the table
There are thousands of verbs in English, and learning to recognize them is probably the hardest part of
understanding grammar. The next few exercises will help you. You will be expected to make some mistakes,
but the next lessons will introduce you to some verbs that you will be expected to always recognize correctly.
Note that many sentences will have more than one subject/verb pattern:
At supper, the food was passed around, and the glasses clashed together till they rang again; while before the
town-gate the mail-coach stopped with twelve strange passengers.
Simply find a verb or verb phrase, find its subject, and then check for another verb and its subject until there are
no more verbs in the sentence. Then go to the next sentence.
The Printable KISS Workbooks
Is It a Sentence?
Adapted from
Voyages in English - Fifth Year
by Rev. Paul E. Campbell
and Sister Mary Donatus MacNickle
The KISS Workbooks Anthology
The
Turtle Dove
by
Sophie Anderson
(1823-1903)
Directions: Which of the following are sentences? Draw a line through each of the following that is NOT a
sentence. In the sentences:
1. complete the punctuation with a period for a statement or a question mark for a question;
2. underline the subject once, and the verb twice.
1. Tom lives in the mountains
2. The squirrel up the tree
3. The boat down the river
4. I saw the elephant
5. Rose studied her lesson
6. Food everywhere
7. I hear sweet music
8. The Scouts built a fire
9. Flying a kite
10. The poems of Joyce Kilmer
11. The book in the library
12. Several boys helped him
13. They keep the streets clean
14. Along the muddy road
15. The fire engines whizzed by
16. To write a book
17. James good manners
18. George did the work
19. Mary caught a fish
20. Tom playing baseball
The Printable KISS Grammar Workbooks
March 2010
Fillette au
Grand Chapeau
1908
by
Mary Cassatt
(1844-1926)
Single-Word Verbs
(Level 1.1.2)
Many verbs express action that is performed by the subject. There are thousands of such verbs in
English. The following are examples.
Ginger wrote a story.
Bill argued with his friend.
They went on a trip.
Paula kept a diary.
Lance flew an airplane.
Anthony rode in one.
We built a snowman.
My father paints houses.
Some common words do not express action, but they always function as verbs and therefore should
always be underlined twice. The most common of these describe a "state of being." Most of these verbs are
forms of the verb "to be" -- "am," "is," "are," "was," and "were." When used alone, these verbs state what the
subject is, what kind of thing it is, or where it is:
Mysha was our cat.
Their neighbor is nice
I am in the garden.
Other words that are always verbs and that express "state of being" are "seem," "resemble," and "become."
The baby seems hungry.
That store resembles a barn.
The weather became nasty.
If you remember not just these words, but what the words mean, you should be able to recognize many other
verbs. For example, "The weather turned nasty" means that the weather became nasty. Because "turned" means
"became," it functions as a verb and should be underlined twice.
The words "has" and "had" are always verbs, as is "have" (unless it follows the word "to" -- you'll learn more
about that later).
Margaret has Ted's book.
The walls have pictures on them.
There are more words that function only as verbs. You'll learn about many of them in later lessons. For now,
you need to remember that:
"Am," "is," "are," "was," "were," and "has," "had," and "have" (unless it follows "to") are always verbs that you
should underline twice.
The Printable KISS Grammar Workbooks
To Charles Dickens Page
Single-Word Verbs
from
Charles Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities
Directions: Underline every verb twice, and its subject(s) once.
1. Charles Darnay was a free traveller and French citizen.
2. "Business seems bad?"
3. He is not worthy of such a daughter.
4. Its little heaps of poor grass were undistinguishable from one another.
5. So we are not much alike in that particular.
6. The Doctor looked desolately round the room.
7. "Detestation of the high is the involuntary homage of the low."
8. Saint Antoine wrote his crimes on flaring sheets of paper.
9. "I am a mere dull man of business, and you are a woman of business."
10. In the village, taxers and taxed were fast asleep.
11. That's an excellent card.
12. I am a disappointed drudge, sir.
13. "Mr. Jarvis Lorry, are you a clerk in Tellson's bank?"
14. The prison of La Force was a gloomy prison.
15. Six tumbrils carry the day's wine to La Guillotine.
The Printable KISS Grammar Workbooks
August 1, 2013
2. “Helping” Verbs
(Level 1.1.3)
Illustration by Kate Greenaway
Some verbs “help” other verbs express differences in time or emphasis. The results are "verb phrases."
For examples:
Past
Present
They were playing.
I am playing.
Future
I will have to play.
We are playing.
You will play.
Bobby was playing.
Bobby had been playing.
You are playing.
Bobby will play.
Bobby did play.
Bobby has played.
Bobby was going to play.
Bobby is playing.
Bobby will be playing.
Bobby does play.
Bobby will have been playing.
These helpers are usually forms of the verbs:
be:
is, are, was, were, am, be, being, been
have:
have, has, had
do:
do, does, did, done
Note that "will," "going to," and "used to" are also used as parts of a verb phrase:
Sam will play tomorrow.
They were going to play baseball.
Toni also used to play baseball.
When you underline verbs, be sure to underline all the helping verbs in the verb phrase.
The Printable KISS Grammar Workbooks
To Charles Dickens Page
Identifying Verb Phrases - (Tenses)
from
Charles Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities
Directions: Underline every verb twice, and its subject(s) once.
Note that some of these include more than one S/V pattern.
1. Why did you come to France?
2. The fallen and unfortunate King of France had been upon his throne in all his glory.
3. He will be judged at Paris.
4. I should have to pass the night at Tellson's.
5. Jerry has been my bodyguard on Sunday nights for a long time past and I am used to him.
6. "What have YOU got to do with it, then, if a person may inquire?"
7. I am going to send you on to Paris, under an escort.
8. Charles had had to pay heavily for his bad food, and for his guard.
9. He should have been declared a good citizen at Paris.
10. Mr. Attorney-General had to inform the jury, that the prisoner before them was old in the
treasonable practices.
May 11, 2010
The KISS Grammar Printable Workbooks
3.
"Helping" Verbs (Modal)
(Level 1.1.4)
Illustration by Blanche
Fisher Wright
As you try to identify verb phrases, remember that the following words often function as
"helping" verbs and are thus part of the verb phrase.
Can and Could
They can see the parade from here.
But Samantha could see it from there.
Dare
Do they dare go to the cemetery?
May and Must
Charlie Brown may have seen the Great Pumpkin.
Charlie, you must not kick that football.
Might
You might see Venus on a clear night.
Need
They need only ask for help.
Ought
Bobby ought to practice more if he wants to be a better player.
Shall and Should Cinderella shall not go to the ball.
You should read more fairy tales.
Will and Would
Cinderella, you will go to the ball.
A fairy Godmother would be a big help.
Note that "had better" means the same as "should":
They should weed the garden.
They had better weed the garden.
Thus "better" is considered part of the verb phrase.
The Printable KISS Grammar Workbooks
To Charles Dickens Page
Identifying Verb Phrases - (Modal)
from
Charles Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities
Directions: Underline every verb twice, and its subject(s) once.
Note that some of these include more than one S/V pattern.
1. "I can buy pen, ink, and paper?"
2. No man could have said, that night, any more than Mr. Jarvis Lorry could.
3. I dare not confide to him the details of my projects.
4. "He may not have known of it beforehand," said Mr. Lorry.
5. She must have told his brother.
6. Their escape might depend on the saving of only a few seconds here and there.
7. Why need you tell me what I have not asked?
8. We ought to have six score a day.
9. Your suspense is nearly ended, my darling; he shall be restored to you within a few hours;
I have encompassed him with every protection. I must see Lorry.
10. "If I should prowl about the streets a long time, don't be uneasy; I shall reappear in the
morning."
11. I had better not see her.
12. Some of us will have a secret attraction to the disease.
13. It would seem to be always the same question.
Nov. 8, 2006
KISS Grammar Workbooks
Level Two Instructional Material
4.
Other Helping Verbs
(Level 1.1.5)
Illustration by Blanche Fisher Wright
Some helping verbs show the beginning, continuation, or ending of an action. For
example:
begin
start
continue
keep (on)
stop
He will begin to swim in the morning.
They began playing the game (C).
Bobby is starting to draw a picture (C).
Sandi started reading a story (C).
The rabbit continued to run away.
Blackie Crow will continue to fly high in the sky.
Bobtail kept on eating nuts (C).
Bobby will keep climbing into the trees.
Mrs. Duck stopped swimming in the pond.
They will stop playing soon.
Other helping verbs show an attitude toward an action. For example:
like
love
hate
want
try
Sammy Squirrel likes eating nuts (C).
Would you like to go to the park?
The ducks love to swim.
Bobtail does not love flying.
Children hate to go to bed early.
Bobtail hates flying.
Blackie Crow will want to fly to the party.
Bobby will try to fly too.
The Printable KISS Grammar Workbooks
To Charles Dickens Page
Other Helping Verbs
from
Charles Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities
Directions: Underline every verb twice, and its subject(s) once.
Note that some of these include more than one S/V pattern.
1. Then the piercing shrieks would begin again, and she would repeat the cry.
2. He tried to prepare himself in vain.
3. They continued to cry.
4. The shadows of the wintry afternoon were beginning to fall.
5. I should like to ask you:--Does your childhood seem far off?
6. The road-mender tried to get a peep at secret weapons in his breast.
7. "I begin to think I AM faint."
8. They continued to be uttered in their regular succession, with the cry, "My husband, my
father, and my brother!"
9. And now, Sydney, old boy, I want to say a word to YOU about YOUR prospects.
10. "I little thought," said Miss Pross, "that I should ever want to understand your nonsensical
language."
The Printable KISS Grammar Workbooks
To Charles Dickens Page
5a. More Practice with Helping Verbs (Level 1.1.6)
from
Charles Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities
Directions: Underline every verb twice, and its subject(s) once.
Note that some of these include more than one S/V pattern.
1. Mr. Cruncher all this time had been putting on his clothes.
2. This must be kept secret from Lucie.
3. We had better go in.
4. I should have been much the same sort of fellow, if I had had any luck.
5. I am going to tell you something that will rather surprise you.
6. The real wickedness and guilt of his business might have remained undiscovered.
7. "Well! you have been present all day, and you ought to know."
8. It could scarcely be called a trade, in spite of his favourite description of himself as "a
honest tradesman."
9. That abominable place would have been haunted in a most ghastly manner.
10. His shirt was open at the throat, as it used to be when he did that work.
The Printable KISS Workbooks
The KISS Workbooks Anthology
5b. Fill in the Blanks with Interesting Verbs (Level 1.1.7)
From Rip Van Winkle
Illustration
by
N. C. Wyeth
Directions: Fill in the blanks with interesting verbs.
1. To his astonishment a mountain stream was now _______________ down the gully.
2. At the foot of these mountains, the voyager may have _______________ the light smoke
that _______________ up from a village, whose shingle roofs _______________ among
the trees.
3. The birds were _______________ and _______________ among the bushes, and the
eagle was _______________ aloft, and _______________ the pure mountain breeze.
4. Once upon a time, however, a hunter who had _______________ his way
_______________ to the Garden Rock, where he _______________ a number of gourds in
the crotches of trees.
5. A great stream _______________ forth, which _______________ him away and
_______________ him down precipices, where he was _______________ to pieces.
6. Peter Vanderdonk _______________ Rip at once, and _______________ his story in the
most satisfactory manner.
The KISS Grammar Workbooks
Back to April Menu
6. The Opening of "The Cask of Amontillado"
(Level 1.1.8)
-- Edgar Allan Poe
Directions: Underline every verb twice, its subject(s) once.
Note that you are working with an original complete passage that includes words that you
are not expected to get right. For example, "settled" and "to make himself felt" are not verbs
that should be underlined twice. (You will learn how to explain them in later KISS levels.)
The thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as I best could; but when he ventured upon
insult, I vowed revenge. You, who so well know the nature of my soul, will not suppose,
however, that I gave utterance to a threat. At length I would be avenged; this was a point
definitively settled — but the very definitiveness with which it was resolved, precluded the
idea of risk. I must not only punish, but punish with impunity. A wrong is unredressed when
retribution overtakes its redresser. It is equally unredressed when the avenger fails to make
himself felt as such to him who has done the wrong.
The Printable KISS Grammar Workbooks
January 2010
Vincent van Gogh's
(1853-1890)
Self-Portrait
with Bandaged Ear
1889
7. Identifying Nouns and Pronouns
(Level 1.2.1)
Nouns
Words that name people, places, or things are nouns:
dad, sister, friend, Mr. Jones,
park, school, New York,
tree, apple, car, air, idea, health
Note that many nouns name things that you can see, but others name things such as "air,"
"idea," or "health" that cannot be seen.
Pronouns
Pronouns are words that act like nouns but do not name specific people, places, or things.
They are often used to take the place of nouns:
Karla and George went to the store.
They went to the store.
Pronouns can stand in for a noun anywhere in a sentence. The following words can be
pronouns. You need not remember the top row ("Subjects," etc.). It is there to suggest how
the different pronouns function in sentences.
Subjects
Objects
I
me
we
us
you
(you)
he
him
she
her
it
(it)
they
them
who
whom
Possessive
Intensive
mine
myself
ours
ourselves
yours
yourself (yourselves)
his
himself
hers
herself
its
itself
theirs
themselves
Other words that can be pronouns are:
which, what, this, that
some, someone, something, somebody
any, anyone, anything, anybody
Some of these words, like "his," her," "this," "that," "some," or "any" can be pronouns, but
sometimes they function as adjectives:
Where is his book?
His is in the car.
This tastes good (PA).
This ice cream tastes good (PA).
Similarly, some words can be nouns or verbs. The real test is how a word functions in a
sentence. "Fish," for example, can be a noun or a verb:
Noun:
Verb:
The fish were swimming in the pond.
They were watching the fish (DO).
Billy and Jane fish in the pond.
The Printable KISS Workbooks
The KISS Workbooks Anthology
Identifying Nouns and Pronouns
From Alice in Wonderland
by Lewis Carroll
Illustration
by
Arthur
Rackham
Directions:
1. Underline verbs twice, subjects once.
2. Then put a circle around each noun and a rectangle around each pronoun.
1. She had succeeded in bringing herself down to her usual height.
2. "What do you mean by that?" said the Caterpillar, sternly. "Explain yourself!"
3. The judge, by the way, was the King and he wore his crown over his great wig.
4. She waited for some time without hearing anything more.
5. Oh, my poor little feet, I wonder who will put on your shoes and stockings for you now,
dears?
6. "Let us get to the shore and then I'll tell you my history."
7. She looked up, but it was all dark overhead; before her was another long passage and the
White Rabbit was still in sight.
8. "Mouse dear! Do come back again, and we won't talk about cats, or dogs either, if you
don't like them!"
9. "That's the jury-box," thought Alice; "and those twelve creatures (some were animals and
some were birds) I suppose they are the jurors."
10. "It matters a good deal to me," said Alice hastily; "but I'm not looking for eggs, as it
happens, and if I was, I shouldn't want yours -- I don't like them raw."
KISS Grammar Workbooks
8. Adjectives and Adverbs (Level 1.2.5)
Adjectives and adverbs describe (modify the meaning of) other words in a sentence.
Adjectives modify nouns or pronouns. Therefore:
A word (or construction) that describes a noun or pronoun functions as (and therefore is) an
adjective.
Adverbs modify verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs. Therefore:
A word (or construction) that describes a verb, an adjective, or another adverb functions as
(and therefore is) an adverb.
"A," "an," and "the" always function as adjectives. "A" and
"an" indicate that the word modified refers to anything named by the
noun or to something that is not specifically known to the person
spoken to.
For example, "A man never cries," means that any man never
cries. In "A man was walking down the road," the speaker or writer
implies that the person hearing or reading does not know the identity
of the man. On the other hand, "The man was walking down the
road," means that the people hearing or reading already know which
man is being talked or written about.
In order to tell if a word is an adjective or an adverb, you must first look at the word in the
context of a sentence. Thus, in the sentence
The little swan proudly blew his trumpet.
"The" and "little" are adjectives because they describe the noun "swan." "Proudly" describes
how he "blew." Since "blew" is a verb, "proudly" is an adverb. Similarly, "his" describes the
noun "trumpet," so "his" is an adjective.
The Printable KISS Workbooks
The KISS Workbooks Anthology
Adding Adjectives and Adverbs
From "The Blue Hotel"
by Stephen Crane
Directions:
1. Underline every subject once and every verb twice.
2. Put a box around every adjective and draw an arrow from it to the word it modifies.
3. Make an oval around every adverb and draw an arrow from it to the word it modifies.
1. He wore a heavy fur cap squeezed tightly down on his head.
2. He looked anxiously down into the bloody, pulpy face of his son.
3. The dazzling winter landscape of Nebraska seemed only a gray swampish hush.
4. Afterwards they went to the first room, sat about the stove, and listened to Scully's
officious clamor at his daughters.
5. Instantly the men in some subtle way incased themselves in reserve.
6. The Swede, however, merely dipped his fingers in the cold water gingerly and with
trepidation.
7. Scully's wrinkled visage showed grimly in the light of the small lamp.
8. The Swede answered him swiftly and eagerly.
9. They trudged off over the creaking board sidewalks in the wake of the eager little
Irishman.
10. Presently he backed clumsily from under the bed, dragging with him an old coat.
The Printable KISS Workbooks
The KISS Workbooks Anthology
9. Fill in the Blanks
with Verbs, Adjectives or Adverbs
From "The Blue Hotel," by Stephen Crane
Directions:
1. Fill in the blanks with interesting verbs, adjectives, or adverbs.
2. Underline subjects once and verbs twice.
1. _____(Adv)_____, he _____(Verb)_____ from face to face and
_____(Verb)_____
_____(Adv)_____.
2. The men _____(Verb)_____ _____(Adv)______ ____(Adv)_____ into the front-room.
3. The cowboy _____(Verb)_____ his _____(Adj)_____
legs _____(Adv)_____and_____(Adv)_____.
4. Scully _____(Verb)_____ his hand _____(Adv)_____ on the foot-board of the bed.
5. He was _____(Adv)_____ _____(Verb)_____ the _____(Adj)_____ blood-stains on the
face of the Swede.
6. Johnnie _____(Adv)_____ _____(Verb)_____ himself in a _____(Adv)______
____(Adj)_____ attitude, and then _____(Verb)_____ motionless.
7. His _____(Adj)_____ and _____(Adj)_____ eyes _____(Verb)_____ from face to face.
8. With a _____(Adj)_____ and _____(Adj)_____ air, the cowboy was _____(Verb)_____
one hand through his _____(Adj)_____ locks.
9. The newspaper, as he turned from page to page, _____(Verb)_____ with a
_____(Adj)_____ and _____(Adj)_____ sound.
10. The Swede _____(Adv)__________(Verb)_____ to
a _____(Adj)__________(Adj)_____ tree and _____(Verb)_____ upon it.
The Printable KISS Workbooks
The KISS Grammar Home Page
Study:
At a
Reading Desk
1877
by
Fredrick Lord Leighton
(1830-1896)
10. What is a "Phrase"?
(Level 1.2.6)
A "phrase" is a group of words that work together as one. Adjectives, for example,
modifying nouns and by doing so form noun phrases:
the old fir tree
Similarly, adverbs modify verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs, and by doing so they form
phrases:
Verb phrases
Adjectival phrases
Adverbial phrases
came quickly
very beautiful
too slowly
Phrases grow as more words are added to them or as they connect to other words. Phrases are
named by the most important word in them. Thus
very beautiful house
is called a noun phrase because the "very" modifies "beautiful," and "beautiful" modifies the
noun "house."
Two Ways of Looking at Sentences -- Modification and Chunking
When we talk about "modification," we are looking at the way a word modifies, or affects
the meaning of the word it modifies. There is, however, another important way of looking at
sentences. Almost every word in every sentence connects to another word (or construction)
in its sentence until all these words end up connected to a main subject and verb in the
sentence. Linguists (people who study how language works) call this connecting "chunking."
You will be learning more about this later, but for now we are simply interested in adjectival
and adverbial phrases. Consider the following sentence:
The little boy runs very quickly.
The adjectives "The" and "little" modify (and thus chunk to) the noun "boy." In other words,
they form a noun phrase that functions as the subject of the sentence. Similarly, the adverb
"very" modifies (chunks to) the adverb "quickly," and "quickly" modifies (chunks to) the
verb "runs." They thus form a verb phrase that functions as the verb in the sentence.
About these Exercises on Phrases
The following exercises ask you to focus on noun and verb phrases. You really do not
want to work with simple sentences such as "The little boy runs very quickly." You can do
better than that. Therefore the sentences in the exercises are more complicated. The
directions for all these exercises are:
1.
2.
3.
4.
Underline every subject once and every verb twice.
Label every noun (N), every pronoun (PRN), adjective (J), and adverb (A).
Draw a box around every noun phrase and an oval around every verb phrase.
If parts of a phrase are separated by other words, draw a line to connect from
box to box or from oval to oval to connect the parts of the phrase.
The exercises include some words that function in ways that you have not studied yet. In the
exercises, these words are in bold. For these exercises, you should simply ignore those
words. For example,
In return Simon gave them a place to sleep on the floor of the attic.
In this sentence, "In," "to sleep on," and "of" are in bold, so you should ignore them. Having
completed KISS Level 1.1, you should be able to identify "Simon gave" as a subject and
verb.
Next you have to label every noun, pronoun, adjective, and adverb. You will need to do
some thinking, but remember that you are expected to make some mistakes. "Return," for
example, could be a verb, but here it does not have a subject, so it probably functions as a
noun. You should easily recognize "them" as a pronoun. Similarly, "a" and "the" are always
adjectives. After you follow direction number two, your paper should look something like:
In return (N) Simon (N) gave them (PRN) a (J) place (N) to sleep on the (J) floor (N) of the
(J) attic (N).
The nouns "return" "Simon" are not modified, so they are simple nouns, but "place," "floor,"
and "attic" are modified, so you should have boxes around three noun phrases: "a place," "the
floor," and "the attic."
Split phrases
Sometimes, modifiers are separated from the words they modify. For example:
Maybe she will give me a new red coat.
In this sentence, "Maybe" modifies (chunks to) "will give." In cases like this, draw an oval
(because "maybe" is an adverb) around "Maybe" and around "will give." Connect the two
ovals with a curved line.
Dr. Vavra, the developer of KISS Grammar, truly believes that you are smart and can find
the noun and verb phrases in even more complicated sentences. The following examples
include constructions that you will be learning about later, not only in KISS Level 1, but also
in KISS Level 3.
More than one subject or verb -- "and"
You may have already seen subjects that have more than one verb and verbs that have
more than one subject. Technically, these are called "compounds." They are the focus of
KISS Level 1.4, and they are usually joined by "and." For now, simply remember to look for
all the subjects that go with a verb and for all the verbs that go with a subject. (Note that the
"and" in the following sentence is in bold. You are not expected to explain it, but you should
be able to identify both of the subjects of "hurried."
The Fairies and the Goblins hurried to the kitchen in the hollow.
Multiple subject/verb patterns
As in the following example, many sentences have more than one subject/verb pattern. A
subject/verb pattern and all the phrases that chunk to it is called a "clause." You will be
studying clauses in KISS Level 3. For now, simply remember to look for all the subject/verb
patterns in a sentence.
"You speak truly, brother," said another tree.
Note that the example includes the word "brother." You have not yet studied the function of
"brother," but you should be able to identify it as a noun.
Remember -- being smart does not mean that you will not make mistakes. Smart people
make lots of mistakes -- and they learn from them. Ideally, your teacher will go over these
exercises with you to help you understand your mistakes.
The KISS Grammar Printable Workbooks
The KISS Literature Anthology
Identifying Phrases
From "The Gorgon's Head"
by Nathaniel Hawthorne
in A Wonder Book for Girls and Boys
Illustrated by Walter Crane
Directions:
1. Underline every subject once and every verb twice.
2. Label every noun (N), every pronoun (PRN), adjective (J), and adverb (A).
3. Draw a box around every noun phrase and an oval around every verb phrase.
4. If parts of a phrase are separated by other words, draw a line to connect from box to box or from oval to
oval to connect the parts of the phrase.
1. This fisherman was an exceedingly humane and upright man.
2. So this bad-hearted king spent a long while in considering what was the most dangerous
thing that a young man could possibly undertake.
3. The bridal gift which I have set my heart on presenting to the beautiful Hippodamia is
the head of the Gorgon Medusa with the snaky locks.
4. You must bring it home in the very best condition, in order to suit the exquisite taste of
the beautiful Princess Hippodamia.
5. The only good man in this unfortunate island of Seriphus appears to have been the
fisherman.
6. Medusa's snakes will sting him soundly!
7. The three sisters were really a very frightful and mischievous species of dragon.
8. The teeth of the Gorgons were terribly long tusks.
9. Every feather in them was pure, bright, glittering, burnished gold, and they looked very
dazzlingly.
10. Not only must he fight with and slay this golden-winged, iron-scaled, long-tusked,
brazen-clawed, snaky-haired monster, but he must do it with his eyes shut.
The KISS Grammar Printable Workbooks
The KISS Literature Anthology
11. Identifying Phrases (Level 1.2.6)
From "The Gorgon's Head"
by Nathaniel Hawthorne
in A Wonder Book for Girls and Boys
Illustrated by Walter Crane
Directions:
1. Underline every subject once and every verb twice.
2. Label every noun (N), every pronoun (PRN), adjective (J), and adverb (A).
3. Draw a box around every noun phrase and an oval around every verb phrase.
4. If parts of a phrase are separated by other words, draw a line to connect from box to box
or from oval to oval to connect the parts of the phrase.
PERSEUS was the son of Danaë, who was the daughter of a king. And when Perseus
was a very little boy, some wicked people put his mother and himself into a chest, and set
them afloat upon the sea. The wind blew freshly, and drove the chest away from the shore,
and the uneasy billows tossed it up and down; while Danaë clasped her child closely to her
bosom, and dreaded that some big wave would dash its foamy crest over them both. The
chest sailed on, however, and neither sank nor was upset; until, when night was coming, it
floated so near an island that it got entangled in a fisherman's nets, and was drawn out
high and dry upon the sand. The island was called Seriphus, and it was reigned over by
King Polydectes, who happened to be the fisherman's brother.
The Printable KISS Workbooks
The KISS Home Page
KISS Grammar Exercises Based on
Introductory Lessons in English Grammar For Use in Intermediate Grades
By Wm. H. Maxwell, M.A.
Level 1.2 .7
12. Possessive Nouns Function as Adjectives
Possessive nouns and pronouns function as adjectives —
That is Anthony’s house. It is his house.
Directions:
1. Underline every subject once and every verb twice.
2. Circle every adjective and draw an arrow from it to the word it modifies.
3. Put a box around every adverb and draw an arrow from it to the word it modifies.
1. The robin’s song reached the sick man’s darkened room.
2. June’s lovely days bring buds and flowers.
3. The brook’s clear surface reflected the moon’s silver rays.
4. The teacher’s explanation made the example clear.
5. The flowers’ fragrance completely filled the invalid’s room.
6. Were John’s clothes well made?
7. The tree’s leaves absorb the atmosphere’s poisons.
8. The boy’s flesh was pierced.
9. The graceful maple tree has shed its beautiful scarlet leaves.
10. The audience admired the lawyer’s speech.
4/22/11
The Printable KISS Grammar Workbooks
13. Identifying Complements
The S / V / C Pattern
(Subject / Verb / Complement)
Level 1.3.1
Once you are fairly comfortable with finding subjects and verbs, you should start to look at the full S/V/C
pattern. The "C" stands for "complement." To find the subject of a verb, ask a question with "Who" or "What"
before the verb. For example, in the sentence
Arthur likes sandwiches.
we can ask "Who or what likes?" The word in the sentence that answers that question is
"Arthur," so "Arthur" is the subject of "likes."
To find the complement of a verb, simply create a question with "whom" or "what"
after the verb. "Arthur likes what?" The answer to that question in this sentence is
"sandwiches," so "sandwiches" is the complement of "likes."
Note that the question has to be based on the verb plus "whom" or "what." Words
that answer the questions "When?" "Why?" "How?" etc. do not reveal complements, they
reveal adverbs.
Note: In Level Two, you are expected to be able to identify single words that function as
complements, but some complements consist of several words and may confuse you. You
will not be expected to identify these complements. Simply concentrate on the complements
that you can identify.
Identifying the Types of Complements
There are five different possible types of complements. Use the following sequence to
identify the types of complements.
Possibility # 1: Subject / Verb
If nothing answers the question "Verb + whom or what?", the pattern is
S/V.
[STOP: You have your answer.]
Possibility # 2: Subject / Verb / Predicate Adjective
If the word that answers the question "what?" after the verb
describes the subject, it is an adjective. The pattern is S/V/PA.
[STOP: You have your answer.]
Possibility # 3: Subject / Verb / Predicate Noun
If the word that answers the question is a noun (or pronoun) that renames
the subject and the verb implies an equality or identity between subject and
complement, the pattern is S/V/PN. For example:
Ed remained a child. ("Remained" here means "was" and "continues to
be.")
Bill became a teacher. (He "was" not, but now he "is.")
A sentence such as "Sleeping children resemble angels." implies that when they are
sleeping, children equal angels, at least in appearance. "Angels" is therefore a predicate
noun.
[STOP: You have your answer.]
Note that the criteria of implied equality between subject and complement eliminates
"herself" from consideration as a predicate noun in a sentence such as "She washes herself."
"Washes" does not imply equality.
Possibilities 4 and 5: Subject / Verb / (Indirect Object) Direct Object
[If it's not 1, 2, or 3, it has to be #4 or 5.]
If a word or construction answers the question "whom or what?" after a verb and is not a
predicate noun or predicate adjective, it has to be an indirect or direct object. An indirect
object indicates the person "for" or "to" whom something is done.
Examples of Direct Objects:
Sally bought ice cream (S/V/DO)
The cat washed itself (S/V/DO)
Examples of Indirect Objects:
They sent him (IO) a letter (DO).
The sun gave the church's windows (IO) a warm glow (DO).
"Complement "is simply one word which can be used instead of repeating the five
possibilities: Zero Complement; Predicate Adjective; Predicate Noun; Direct and/or Indirect
Object.
Examples of the Process for
Identifying the Types of Complements
These examples are based on modified sentences from Hans Brinker or The Silver Skates,
by Mary Mapes Dodge. The illustration is by Edna Cooke.
The directions will be: Underline verbs twice, their subjects once, and label complements ("PA," "PN,"
"IO," or "DO").
Example # 1: A Dutch wagon with its funny little crooked pole, is a perfect mystery of
mysteries.
Step # 1. Find and underline the subject and verb:
A Dutch wagon with its funny little crooked pole, is a perfect mystery of mysteries.
Step # 2. Find the complement by making a question with the subject, verb, and "whom" or
"what."
The wagon is whom or what?
In this sentence, the answer to that question is ""mystery." Thus "mystery" is the
complement.
Step # 3. Find the type of the complement "mystery."
a.) Is it a predicate adjective? "Mystery" is not an adjective, so it does not describe
"wagon." Therefore it is not a predicate adjective.
b.) Is it a predicate noun? "Is" can mean "equals," and the sentence means that the wagon
equals a mystery. Therefore "mystery" functions as a predicate noun.
We have found the type of the complement, so we are finished with this sentence.
A Dutch wagon with its funny little crooked pole, is a perfect mystery (PN) of mysteries.
Example # 2: On a bright December morning long ago, two thinly clad children were
kneeling upon the bank of a frozen canal in Holland.
Step # 1. Find and underline the subject and verb:
On a bright December morning long ago, two thinly clad children were kneeling upon the
bank of a frozen canal in Holland.
Step # 2: Find the complement by making a question with the subject, verb, and "whom" or
"what."
The children were kneeling whom or what?
Nothing in this sentence answers that question. Indeed, the question does not make any
sense. Many linguists -- people who study language -- would say that we have a "zero"
complement. In KISS, we do not need to worry about that. We have here a simple
subject/verb pattern.
Example # 3: The pure morning air was very delightful.
Step # 1. Find and underline the subject and verb:
The pure morning air was very delightful.
Step # 2: Find the complement by making a question with the subject, verb, and "whom" or
"what."
The pure morning air was whom or what?
The answer to this question is "delightful," so "delightful" is the complement of "air was."
Step # 3. Find the type of the complement.
a.) Is it a predicate adjective? "Delightful" is an adjective, and in this sentence it describes
the subject "morning." Therefore "delightful" is a predicate adjective.
We have found all the subjects, verbs, and complements in this sentence, so we are finished
with it:
The pure morning air was very delightful (PA).
Example # 4: The expression on her face gave our boys little promise of a kind reception.
Step # 1. Find and underline the subject and verb:
The expression on her face gave our boys little promise of a kind reception.
Step # 2: Find the complement by making a question with the subject, verb, and "whom" or
"what."
The expression gave whom or what?
In this sentence, two words answer this question -- "boys" and "promise." Thus there are
two complements. Since there are two of them, take them one at a time.
Step # 3. What type of complement is "boys"?
a.) Is it a predicate adjective? "Boys" is not an adjective, so it does not describe the subject
"expression." Therefore it cannot be a predicate adjective.
b.) Is it a predicate noun? "Boys" and "expression" name different things, and "gave" in no
way means "equals," so "boys" cannot be a predicate noun.
c.) Is it an indirect object? The sentence means that the expression gave little promise to the
boys. Thus "boys" in an indirect object to "gave."
What type of complement is "promise"?
a.) Is it a predicate adjective? "Promise" is not an adjective, so it cannot describe the
subject "expression." Therefore is cannot be a predicate adjective.
b.) Is it a predicate noun? "Promise" does not in any way equal the subject "expression,"
and "gave" does not mean "equals," so "promise" can not be a predicate noun.
c.) Is it an indirect object? The sentence does not mean that anything was given to or for the
promise, so "promise" cannot be an indirect object.
d.) The only option left is direct object, so "promise" has to be a direct object of "gave."
Nothing else in the sentence answers the "whom" or "what" question, so we have finished
finding the complements and their types:
The expression on her face gave our boys (IO) little promise (DO) of a kind reception.
The Printable KISS Workbooks
The KISS Workbooks Anthology
Mixed Complements
From Rip Van Winkle, by Washington Irving
Illustration
by
N. C. Wyeth
Directions: Underline every finite verb twice, its subject(s) once, and label any complements (“PA,” “PN,”
“IO,” or “DO”).
1. The story of Rip Van Winkle may seem incredible to many.
2. I give it my full belief.
3. Not a dog would bark at him throughout the neighborhood.
4. He was a short, square-built old fellow, with thick bushy hair, and a grizzled beard.
5. His farm was the most pestilent little piece of ground in the whole country.
6. The old Dutch inhabitants, however, almost universally gave his story full credit.
7. Times grew worse and worse with Rip Van Winkle.
8. Rip Van Winkle, however, was one of those happy mortals, of foolish, well-oiled
dispositions.
9. His fences were continually falling to pieces.
10. The house was empty, forlorn, and apparently abandoned.
The Printable KISS Grammar Workbooks
To Charles Dickens Page
14. Adding Complements
Level 1.3.1
Ex. # 3 from
Charles Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities
Directions:
1.Underline finite verbs twice, their subjects once, and label complements ("PA," "PN," "IO," or "DO").
1. Madame Defarge was the family's malevolent enemy.
2. He recovered himself almost instantly.
3. The rats were sleeping close together in their dark holes again.
4. I send you, Monsieur heretofore the Marquis, the assurance of my dolorous and unhappy
service.
5. The family honour, sir, is safe from me in this country.
6. He peeped in at the gate for the second time.
7. The mender of roads, and the two hundred and fifty particular friends, were putting
candles in every dull little pane of glass.
8. Then bring me another pint of this same wine.
9. The patient was a woman of great beauty, and young.
10. You are essential to her perfect happiness.
The KISS Printable Books Page
The KISS Workbooks Anthology
15. An Exercise on S/V/C Patterns
Based on "Charlemagne and the Charcoal-burner,"
from - Golden Deeds:
Stories from History Retold for Little Folk
London: Blackie and Son Limited
Directions:
1. Place parentheses ( ) around each prepositional phrase.
2. Underline finite verbs twice, their subjects once, and label complements ("PA," "PN," "IO," or "DO").
1. They were overtaken by a terrific storm.
2. It became so dark that the party lost sight of one another.
3. What is your name, friend?
4. But truly he must be a greater man than he said!
5. He met a poor man who was leading a horse with two great baskets upon its back.
6. Can you tell me where I can find shelter for my horse and myself?
7. Then Ralph gave his visitor such a sound box on the ear that he staggered and fell.
8. These are strange doings indeed.
9. My name is Uzmond, and I live at Court, where I have an office with the Queen.
10. But if you will not let me pay you, come to the Court with a load of coals and I will see
that you sell your goods.
The Printable KISS Grammar Workbooks
The KISS Grammar Homepage
16. Mixed Complements
From the Writing of Ninth Graders
From Samples of Students' Writing from the
2000-2001 Pennsylvania Writing Assessment Handbook Supplement
Directions: Underline verbs twice, their subjects once, and label complements ("PA," "PN," "IO," or "DO").
1. The computer is the stepping stone for this era of technology.
2. Michael didn't waste any time.
3. Two years ago, a tragedy occurred on Fifth Avenue.
4. Mario LeMieux has helped our town in many ways.
5. Without automobiles life would be harder.
6. More recently, Michael Baltan has shown his impressive integrity elsewhere in the
community.
7. All of these things would not be possible without electricity.
8. Amelia Earhart is one of the most determined females in American history.
9. In both the 1991-1992 and 1990-1991 seasons, LeMieux led us to our Stanley Cup victory.
10. You may have heard of him.
The KISS Grammar Printable Workbooks
17. Verbs
as Subjects or Complements
(Level 1.3.7)
August 2009
The KISS Grammar Home Page
Leonardo da Vinci
1452-1519
The Mona Lisa
Verbs can function as subjects or complements. Technically, these verbs are called
"verbals" to distinguish them from the verbs that you underline twice (which are called
"finite"). You will learn more about verbals in later KISS levels, but for now consider the
following:
Verbs can function as subjects or complements:
Swimming is good exercise (PN).
To win is wonderful (PN).
Many children hate to go (DO) to bed early.
The family stopped swimming (DO) in the pond.
Happiness is being (PN) with your family.
Verbs that function as subjects or complements may themselves have complements:
Sandi started reading (DO) a story (DO).
Playing baseball (DO) is fun (PA).
They began to play (DO) the game (DO).
The Printable KISS Grammar Workbooks
To Charles Dickens Page
Verbs as Subjects or Complements
From
Charles Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities
Directions: Underline finite verbs twice, their subjects once, and label complements ("PA," "PN," "IO," or
"DO").
1. But indeed, at that time, putting to death was a recipe much in vogue with all trades and
professions.
2. The Doctor had ceased to speak.
3. Then Madame Defarge turned out the contents of the bowl of money for the second time,
and started knotting them up in her handkerchief.
4. To bring my love--even mine--between you, is to touch your history with something not
quite so good as itself.
5. Your intention is to perpetuate, and not to weaken, the ties between me and my other and
far dearer self.
6. Getting things out of Paris at this present time, no matter what things, is next to an
impossibility.
7. I quite understand it to be a nice question.
8. The hungry man repeated, in a rapturous croak, "Magnificent!" and began gnawing
another finger.
9. This was highly degrading to the family, and was ridiculous.
10. To propose too much, would be to put this man's head under the axe.
The Printable KISS Grammar Workbooks
18. Predicate Adjective
or
Part of the Verb Phrase?
(Level 1.3.8)
The KISS Home Page
Master Hare
1788
by
Sir Joshua
Reynolds
1723-1792
In a previous exercise, you saw verbs that can function as subjects or complements.
Sometimes these verbs can be explained either as part of the verb phrase or as a predicate
adjective that describes the subject. Generally speaking, if the focus is on the action of these
verbs, the verb is best explained as part of the verb phrase. If the verb functions primarily to
describe the condition of the subject, it can be seen as a predicate adjective.
Consider the following sentences:
1. The door was closed by John.
2. The door was closed (PA) when they arrived.
3. The door was closed.
Because the first sentence tells us who performed the action of closing the door, the sentence
focuses on the action. Thus it is best to see "was closed" as the verb phrase. In the second
sentence, however, the important point is not the act of closing the door, but rather the
condition of the door when they arrived. Thus in the second sentence we can see "was" as the
verb to be underlined and "closed" as a verb that functions as a predicate adjective.
The only way to determine the focus of the third sentence is to see it in context, and even
then it might not be clear. In such cases it is best to explain the verb in question as part of the
verb phrase. Thus, in the third sentence, "was closed" should be underlined as the verb.
Note that this is a fine point that is not even discussed in many grammar textbooks. In
those books, the verbs that here function as predicate adjectives are usually considered as
part of the verb phrase. When in doubt, therefore, include the verb in the verb phrase.
The Printable KISS Grammar Workbooks
The KISS Home Page
Master Hare
1788
by
Sir Joshua
Reynolds
1723-1792
Predicate Adjective
or
Part of the Verb Phrase?
Background for Teachers
There are several things that we need to keep in mind here:
1. KISS may be the only pedagogical grammar that even attempts to teach students how to analyze the structure
of their own sentences.
2. We are dealing here with an advanced question related to passive voice, the focus of KISS Level 5.7. Most
textbooks can't even teach students to identify verbs in the first place. As a result, they do very poorly with
passive voice and don't even address this question.
3. Students are much smarter than we usually give them credit for.
Students unintentionally suggested the need for this exercise as they analyzed randomly selected sentences. For
example, in the sentence "This castle is enchanted," some students will label "enchanted" as a predicate
adjective. As the instructional material suggests, this is a valid explanation. It is, after all, an "enchanted castle."
But these same students will tend to eliminate traditional passive voice by labeling all such sentences in the
same way.
A primary purpose of this exercise is to stop the students from doing the latter, while simultaneously
recognizing the students' intelligence. Passive voice is an important stylistic and semantic concept. But to
understand passive voice, students need to recognize that the verbs in question are part of the verb phrase. I'd
suggest, therefore, that you use this exercise to explain that there are times when a verb (technically a "verbal")
can function as a predicate adjective, but at the same time encourage them, for now at least, to consider these
verbs as part of the verb phrase.
Put differently, seeing these verbs as predicate adjectives is a fine point, but it is a fine point that many
students will see for themselves. Because they will do so, we need to address the question. Most textbooks,
however, do not consider these verbs as predicate adjectives. They consider all of the sentences in these
exercises as passive voice. (In KISS statistical studies, they are all counted as passive voice.) Let's give students
credit for their intelligence and address the question.
The Printable KISS Workbooks
The KISS Workbooks Anthology
Finding the Whole Verb Phrase # 1
Based on “The Nightingale”
From Stories from Hans Andersen
with illustrations by Edmund Dulac
Be sure that you underline the entire verb phrase.
Directions: Underline verbs twice, their subjects once, and label complements ("PA," "PN," "IO," or "DO").
1. The nightingale was always put above everything else.
2. It has never been presented at court.
3. The palace had been brightened up for the occasion.
4. They were all dressed in their best.
5. The emperor was charmed.
6. A ribbon was tied round its neck.
7. A new emperor was already chosen.
8. The real nightingale was banished from the kingdom.
9. Everybody's eyes were turned towards the little grey bird.
10. Cloth had been laid down in all the rooms and corridors.
2/26/05
KISS Grammar Workbooks
Level Two Instructional Material
19. Coordinating Conjunctions and Compounding
(Level 1.4.2)
"Compound" refers to two or more words or phrases that serve the same function
within a sentence. Usually, compounds are joined together by coordinating
conjunctions -- "and," "or," or "but."
Adjectives can be compounded:
They love their tan and white kitten.
And so can adverbs:
Geoffrey quickly and quietly cleaned his room.
Similarly, subjects, verbs, and complements can all be compounded:
"Mary and Bill ate dinner (DO) and
then played tennis (DO) and basketball (DO)."
Note that "either ... or..." and "neither ... nor...." are variations of "or," and thus also function
as coordinating conjunctions:
Neither Bill nor Tom likes either swimming (DO) or fishing (DO).
Simply remember that any type of grammatical construction may be compounded.
The Printable KISS Grammar Workbooks
To Charles Dickens Page
Compound Finite Verbs
From
Charles Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities
Directions: Underline finite verbs twice, their subjects once, and label complements ("PA," "PN," "IO," or
"DO"). Note that some of these include more than one S/V pattern.
1. He put her hand to his lips, and moved towards the door.
2. He sank into the chair, and brooded over the embers, and shed tears.
3. She laid down her knitting, and began to pin her rose in her head-dress.
4. Under cover of the darkness he followed out of the room, followed down the stairs,
followed down the court, followed out into the streets.
5. He turned towards him in his chair, but did not look at him, or raise his eyes.
6. The wayfarer smoked his pipe out, put it in his breast, slipped off his great wooden shoes,
and lay down on his back on the heap of stones.
7. They stopped all comers and goers, cross-questioned them, inspected their papers, looked
for their names in lists of their own, turned them back, or sent them on, or stopped them and
laid them in hold.
8. Defarge himself issued orders, issued arms, thrust this man back, dragged this man
forward, disarmed one to arm another, laboured and strove in the thickest of the uproar.
9. They advanced, retreated, struck at one another's hands, clutched at one another's heads,
spun round alone, caught one another and spun round in pairs, until many of them dropped.
10. The old man kissed her, and hurried her into his room, and turned the key; then, came
hurrying back to the Doctor, and opened the window and partly opened the blind, and put his
hand upon the Doctor's arm, and looked out with him into the courtyard.
The KISS Grammar Workbooks
Back to April Menu
Directions: Underline finite verbs twice, their subjects once, and label complements
("PA," "PN," "IO," or "DO").
The Head Man at the Zoo, from
The Trumpet of the Swan, by E. B. White
[Note: This is some of what the Head Man at the Zoo says when he learns about
Louis's money.]
"When it comes to money," he said, "birds have it easier than men
do. When a bird earns some money, it's almost all clear profit. A bird doesn't have to go to a
supermarket and buy a dozen eggs and a pound of butter and two rolls of paper towels and a
TV dinner and a can of Ajax and a can of tomato juice and a pound and a half of ground
round steak and a can of sliced peaches and two quarts of fat-free milk and a bottle of stuffed
olives. A bird doesn't have to pay rent on a house, or interest on a mortgage. A bird doesn't
insure its life with an insurance company and then have to pay premiums on the policy. A
bird doesn't own a car and buy gas and oil and pay for repairs on the car and take the car to a
car wash and pay to get it washed. Animals and birds are lucky. They don't keep acquiring
things, the way men do.
KISS Grammar Workbooks
21. What Is a Prepositional Phrase?
(Level 1.5.1)
Prepositional phrases are simply prepositions plus the noun or pronoun that answers the question
“What?” after them:
“to the house”
“under the desk”
“from the street”
Thus, to identify prepositional phrases you need to recognize prepositions and then
make a question with “What?” after them – “Under what?” – “Under the desk.”
If a verb answers the question “To what,”
it is probably not a prepositional phrase.
KISS Grammar Workbooks
Words That Can Function as Prepositions
Prepositional phrases are simply prepositions plus the noun or pronoun that answers the question "What?"
after them: "in the house," "under the desk," "from the street." Thus, to identify prepositional phrases you need
to recognize prepositions and then make a question with "What?" after them -- "Under what?" -- "Under the
desk."
If a verb answers the question "To what," it is not a prepositional phrase.
about
above
across
according to
after
against
along
among
around
as
aside from
as for
as to
at
because of
before
behind
beneath
beside
between
beyond
but *
by
despite
down
down to
due to
during
except
for
from
Words That Can Function as Prepositions
Note: Some prepositions consist of more than one
word.
Note that
all the words
in brown
could be used
to tell a squirrel's
relationship
in space
to trees:
The squirrel is ____ the trees.
Other prepositions express
relationships in time:
They left after dinner.
They arrived before dinner.
We talked during dinner.
We haven't eaten since dinner.
We waited until dinner.
The word that answers the question "What?" after a
preposition is called the "object of the preposition."
* when it means "except"
in
inside
instead of
into
like
near
of
off
on
onto
opposite
out
out of
outside
over
per
regardless of
since
such as
than
through
to
toward
under
until
up
upon
via
with
within
without
The Printable KISS Workbooks
Identifying Prepositional Phrases
From Rip Van Winkle, by Washington Irving
The KISS Workbooks Anthology
Illustration
by
N. C. Wyeth
Directions:
1. Fill in the blanks with prepositions. You can use the list in the instructional material. As you do so, put
parentheses ( ) around each prepositional phrase. (Remember: to identify the words in the phrase, make a
question with the preposition plus "what or whom"? The last of the words that answer the question is the last
word in the phrase.)
2. Underline every finite verb twice, its subject(s) once, and label any complements (“PA,” “PN,” “IO,” or
“DO”).
1. An old Flemish painting, ________ the parlor ________ Dominie Van Schaick, the
village parson, had been brought over ________ Holland ________ the time ________ the
settlement.
2. The name ________ the child, the air ________ the mother, the tone ________ her voice,
all awakened a train ________ recollections ________ his mind.
3. ________ a long ramble ________ a fine autumnal day, Rip had unconsciously
scrambled ________ one ________ the highest parts ________ the Kaatskill mountains.
4. He looked ________ vain ________ the sage Nicholas Vedder, ________ his broad face,
double chin, and fair long pipe.
5. Nothing interrupted the stillness ________ the scene ________ the noise ________ the
ninepin balls.
6. The appearance ________ Rip, ________ his long, grizzled beard, his rusty fowlingpiece, his uncouth dress, and the army ________ women and children ________ his heels,
soon attracted the attention ________ the tavern politicians.
7. He would sit ________ a wet rock, ________ a rod as long and heavy ________ a
Tartar's lance, and fish all day ________ a murmur.
8. He could see nothing ________ a crow winging its solitary flight ________ the
mountain.
9. ________ a level spot ________ the centre was a company ________ odd-looking
personages playing ________ ninepins.
KISS Grammar Workbooks
22. The Functions of Prepositional Phrases
(Level 1.5.2)
Most prepositional phrases function as adjectives, as adverbs, or both. Just as with regular adjectives and
adverbs, to determine the function of a prepositional phrase you need to first find what it describes.
The squirrel {in the tree} was eating nuts.
The phrase "in the tree" describes the squirrel, and since
"squirrel" is a noun, the prepositional phrase functions as an
adjective. Compare this to:
The squirrel was eating nuts {in the tree}.
In this sentence, the phrase "in the tree" explains where the
squirrel was eating. It therefore describes "was eating" and
thus functions as an adverb.
Sometimes a prepositional phrase can function as both an
adjective and an adverb at the same time.
The squirrel wants nuts {for supper).
Some people will see "for supper" as explaining which nuts
the squirrel wants. Thus they will explain the "for supper" as
an adjective to "nuts." Other people will view the phrase as
answering the question "Wants why? They will consider it to
be an adverb to "wants." Either explanation is acceptable.
Some prepositional phrases function as indirect objects:
The squirrel offered a nut to the owl.
In this sentence, "to the owl" functions just like the indirect
object would in "The squirrel offered the owl a nut."
The Printable KISS Grammar Workbooks
The KISS Grammar Homepage
The Functions of Prepositional Phrases
From the Writing of Ninth Graders
From Samples of Students' Writing from the
2000-2001 Pennsylvania Writing Assessment Handbook Supplement
Directions: 1. Place parentheses around each prepositional phrase. Draw an arrow from the beginning of each
phrase to the word it modifies. Above adverbial phrases, write "AV." Above adjectival phrases, write "J."
2. Underline subjects once, finite verbs twice, and label complements ("PN," "PA," "IO," "DO").
1. A young girl was bobbing up and down in the middle of the river.
2. The Internet brings information about everything literally to our fingertips.
3. He served in the navy and taught thousands of men how to fight and took them to battle.
4. Our community should build a monument for Henry Ford because of his effect on the
country’s life.
5. With the invention of the home computer, many people now use them in their own homes.
6. Without planes we wouldn’t have all these good things from China or those expensive
clothes from Italy.
7. Now though, in the twenty-first century, telephones are one of the most important tools in
our everyday lives.
8. On a picnic with a few friends down at the river, Michael suddenly heard shouting, and
looked up.
9. Now, we can send and receive e-mail across a continent, or even across the globe, in the
blink of an eye.
10. Derek has also dedicated himself to the community through nightly classes and seminars
on everything from microwave cooking and organic chemistry to metal working and the
history of Indonesia.
The Printable KISS Grammar Workbooks
To Charles Dickens Page
23. The Functions of Prepositional Phrases
From
Charles Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities
Directions:
1. Put parentheses ( ) around each prepositional phrase. Draw an arrow from each preposition to the word
that its phrase modifies.
2. Underline subjects once, finite verbs twice, and label complements ("PN," "PA," "IO," "DO").
1. All the human breath in the place, rolled at him, like a sea, or a wind, or a fire.
2. Then, among the advancing echoes, there was the tread of her tiny feet and the sound of
her prattling words.
3. Mr. Barsad, now in the employ of the republican French government, was formerly in the
employ of the aristocratic English government, the enemy of France and freedom.
4. The Court, from that exclusive inner circle to its outermost rotten ring of intrigue,
corruption, and dissimulation, was all gone together.
5. In the course of an evening passed with Miss Pross, the Doctor, and Mr. Lorry, Charles
Darnay made some mention of this conversation in general terms, and spoke of Sydney
Carton as a problem of carelessness and recklessness.
6. With those words, and a final snap of his fingers, Mr. Stryver shouldered himself into
Fleet-street, amidst the general approbation of his hearers.
7. I was walking on a retired part of the quay by the Seine for the refreshment of the frosty
air, at an hour's distance from my place of residence in the Street of the School of Medicine.
8. Never did the sun go down with a brighter glory on the quiet corner in Soho, than one
memorable evening when the Doctor and his daughter sat under the plane-tree together.
The Printable KISS Grammar Workbooks
To Charles Dickens Page
24. Prepositional Phrases as Indirect Objects
(Level 1.5.4)
From
Charles Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities
In a sentence such as “He gave the flower to June,” some grammarians consider “to June” to be an adverbial
phrase that modifies “gave.” Others consider “to June” to be a prepositional phrase that functions as an indirect
object of “gave.” Either explanation is acceptable.
Part One:
Directions:
1. Place parentheses ( ) around each prepositional phrase. Write "IO" over phrases that function as indirect
objects.
2. Underline every verb twice, its subject(s) once, and label any complements ("PA," "PN," "IO," or "DO").
1. The prisoner showed these identical lists to French gentlemen at Calais.
2. I had made a bed for him on the deck near the cabin steps.
3. Monseigneur gave a chivalrous tone to things.
4. It is out of the Consolation and restoration you have brought to me.
5. The door-keeper will pass the note to Mr. Lorry.
6. A voice called to the driver to stop.
7. He desired to show a little attention to an eminent man.
8. Papers and precious matters were this very day brought to us here.
9. A petition was presented to the King and Queen.
10. Mr. Cruncher made the observation to his next neighbour.
Part Two:
On separate paper, rewrite each of the sentences, but replace the prepositional phrases
with normal indirect objects. (Sometimes this version seems awkward.)
The Printable KISS Grammar Workbooks
Back to KISS Level 2.2.2
25. Is it a Preposition?
(Level 2.2.2)
If it looks like a duck,
and it quacks like a duck,
it's a duck.
Many words that function as prepositions also have other
functions. You find a prepositional phrase by asking the question
"What?" after a word that can function as a preposition. When the
word or words that answer that question form a sentence, the
construction is not a prepositional phrase.
(They are subordinate clauses, but you do not need to remember that now.
Just remember not to put parentheses around them.)
Examples
Prepositional Phrase:
We watched television {after dinner}.
Not
We watched television after we had dinner.
a Prepositional Phrase:
Prepositional Phrase:
{Before sunrise}, the birds begin to chirp.
Not
Before the sun rises, the birds begin to chirp.
a Prepositional Phrase:
Prepositional Phrase:
Billy can't swim {like her}.
Not
Billy can't swim like she does.
a Prepositional Phrase:
The KISS Grammar Workbooks
Back to October Menu
Is it a preposition?
Exercise #1
When the words that answer the question "To what?" form a sentence, the
construction is not a prepositional phrase.
Directions:
1. Place parentheses ( ) around each prepositional phrase.
2. Underline verbs twice, their subjects once, and label complements ("PA," "PN," "IO," or "DO").
1. They haven't eaten since breakfast.
2. They have had nothing to eat since they had breakfast.
3. Karen was late because of her brother.
4. Roberta won the race because she practiced a lot.
5. My mother made supper after she returned from where she works.
6. My brother played baseball with us when he got home from work.
7. After they read the story, they wrote about it.
8. They took a nap after dinner.
9. They talked about Sam.
10. They talked about what they wanted to do.
The Printable KISS Workbooks Page
Notes for Teachers
26. Embedded Prepositional Phrases
(Level 2.2.3)
When a prepositional phrase modifies a word that is inside another phrase, it is
said to be "embedded" in the first phrase. [Think of it as being planted in the flower
bed of the first phrase.] Other phrases "jump over" phrases to modify a word that is
separated from them.
Embedded: They went {to the store} {on the corner}.
Here, "on the corner" describes the store.
Not Embedded: They went {to the store} {on Monday}
.
In this case, "on Monday" explains when they "went." The phrase thus "jumps over" the "to the store phrase"
and modifies "went."
The chunking of embedded prepositional phrases:
Image courtesy of Shelagh Manton (in Australia)
The KISS Grammar Workbooks
Back to March Menu
Directions:
1. Place parentheses ( ) around each prepositional phrase, and draw an arrow from each preposition to
the word that its phrase modifies.
2. Underline verbs twice, their subjects once, and label complements (PA, PN, IO, or DO).
The Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag
I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America
and to the republic for which it stands: one nation under God,
indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
The Printable KISS Workbooks
The KISS Workbooks Anthology
Embedded Prepositional Phrases
From Rip Van Winkle,
by Washington Irving
Illustration
by
N. C. Wyeth
Directions:
1. Put parentheses ( ) around each prepositional phrase.
2. Underline the embedded prepositional phrases and the phrase in which they are embedded.
3. Underline every finite verb twice, its subject(s) once, and label any complements (“PA,” “PN,” “IO,” or
“DO”).
1. Hendrick Hudson and his crew are at their game of ninepins.
2. The mountains will gather a hood of gray vapors about their summits.
3. The summits, in the last rays of the setting sun, will glow and light up like a crown of
glory.
4. The blue tints of the upland melt away into the fresh green of the nearer landscape.
5. The Van Winkles figured so gallantly in the chivalrous days of Peter Stuyvesant, and
accompanied him to the siege of Fort Christina.
6. At the least flourish of a broomstick or ladle, Wolf would fly to the door with yelping
precipitation.
7. From an opening between the trees, he could overlook all the lower country for many a
mile of rich woodland.
8. Indeed, I have heard many stranger stories than this, in the villages along the Hudson.
9. An old squaw spirit would sit in the midst of the clouds like a bottle-bellied spider in the
midst of its web.
10. Whenever, therefore, he happened upon a genuine Dutch family, snugly shut up in its
low-roofed farm-house, under a spreading sycamore, he looked upon it as a little clasped
volume of black-letter, and studied it with the zeal of a bookworm.
March 1, 2013
Printable Books
The KISS Grammar Home Page
27. KISS Level 2.1.6 - Distinguishing Finite Verbs from Verbals
Notes for Teachers
What Are Verbals?
Even many teachers who have been “taught” grammar are not familiar with the term “verbal.” A verbal is a
verb that functions as noun, adjective, or adverb. In other words, verbals can function in any way that a noun,
adjective, or adverb can. In KISS Level Four — Verbals, students will learn that there are three, and only three,
types of verbals (gerunds, gerundives, and infinitives). They will also learn that like any other verb, verbals can
have subjects, complements and be modified by adverbs. Notes in the analysis keys explain the subjects and
complements of verbals, but remember that these explanations are for teachers and parents. At this KISS Level
(2.1.6) students simply need to learn how to distinguish finite verbs (the verbs they should underline
twice) from verbals. They can learn how to do this by using the three tests explained in the instructional
materials.
Consider:
1. They went to the zoo to see the monkeys.
In (1), “went” is a finite verb because it makes a sentence — “They went to the zoo.” “See,” however, is not.
First, it’s got a “to” directly before it. But most importantly, the “to see” cannot be used to form an acceptable
sentence — They to see the monkeys??? Zoo to see the monkeys??? Nonsense. Thus “to see” is a verbal. It
functions as an adverb to explain why “They went.”
2. He likes everything from hunting to fishing.
3. Anthony’s driving is dangerous.
Situations like that in (2) should be easy for students because, if they are using the KISS approach, “hunting”
and “fishing” should already be tucked out of the way in the parentheses that mark prepositional phrases. Both
“hunting” and “fishing” function as nouns, the objects of prepositions. In (3), “driving” is a verb, but it is not
finite because the sentence does not mean “Anthony is driving”; it means that his driving — whenever he drives
— is dangerous. Simply put, “driving” functions as a noun, the subject of the sentence. (Here again, meaning is
crucial to the KISS approach.)
4. Hearing his mother call, Paul always went to her.
Sentence (4) includes two verbals. “Hearing” is a verb, but it is not finite. If we ask “Who or what is hearing
his mother call?” the answer is “Paul,” but “Paul hearing his mother call” is, as students know, not an
acceptable sentence. Students should be expected to use their knowledge of basic sentence structure. Their
knowledge of it is just as good as any grammarian’s. And it will help them to find — and then to ignore — the
other verbal in (4). Thus, “call” is a verb, but “His mother call.” (unlike “His mother calls.”) is not an
acceptable sentence. Thus “call” is not a finite verb. “His mother call” functions as a noun, the direct object of
“Hearing.”
5. Sent to the store by his mother, he went to the park instead.
As always in the KISS approach, students must pay attention to meaning. In (5), students could make an
acceptable sentence with “sent”: “He sent to the store.” But that is not what “sent” means in this sentence. It
means “he *was* sent.” Verbs cannot be added to a phrase to make it finite. Such verbs are verbals. In this case,
“Sent” functions as a verbal adjective that modifies “he.”If you are not familiar with verbals, you might want to
look at KISS Level Four -- Verbals.
There is one case that is not covered by the three tests. Consider, for example, the sentence:
6. They made Sam and Sally go to school every day.
Since students will rightly see "Sam and Sally go to school every day" as an acceptable sentence, they will
probably identify "go" as a finite verb. To see that it is not, we need to apply an additional test (which we might
call the "Substitution Test"). If they were to substitute a pronoun for "Sam and Sally," every student would
substitute "them" — "They made them go to school every day." And "Them go to school every day" fails the
sentence test. You can, of course, add this test to the instructional material yourself. As of now, however, my
sense is that such cases are relatively rare. Thus, rather than add instructional material for relatively rare cases,
it is probably better to focus students' attention on the majority of cases, and to expect students to make
mistakes with such rare cases. Once they have mastered the basic distinction, you can point out this additional
test.
Teaching Verbals at KISS Level Two
Finite verbs are not easy to define. Perhaps that is why even many experienced English teachers do not know
what they are. (Ask some.) This does not, by the way, suggest that teachers are stupid. The problem is that the
professors who teach the teachers, and the people who write the textbooks, are more interested in teaching the
names of constructions. They do not even attempt to help K-12 teachers learn how to analyze the sentences that
students read and write. Thus, instead of using the term "verbals," the professors (and the textbooks) focus on
the three types of verbals — "gerunds," "participles" (KISS "gerundives"), and "infinitives." This "Divide and
Confuse" strategy keeps power and money in the hands of the professors and textbook publishers, but it does
not help the teachers and students.
The instructional materials for this objective begin with the three tests that students can use to make the
distinction — the Noun Test, the "To" Test, and the Sentence Test. The first exercise is on the Noun Test, the
second on the "To" test, and the third on the Sentence test. The material on the Noun Test includes a brief
general explanation of verbals. The "Sentence Test" usually covers the examples in the "Noun" and "To" tests,
but the "Noun" and "To" tests are easier to remember and to apply. This separation into three types of exercises
should help teachers help students master one test at a time.
Students are then given "A Summary Sheet of the Three Tests." Exercises four (a ? b) are on "Mixed"
verbals. Exercise five is a "Passage for Analysis," and six is "Just for Fun." Students who have a good sense of
what is, and what is not a good sentence, should be able to master this distinction with these seven exercises. If
they need more practice, remember that you can find additional exercises in the on-line Master Master
Collection of Exercises on the KISS web site.
Two Notes of Caution:
First, before you begin using these exercises, you should be sure that the students are fairly comfortable with
identifying the finite verbs in the "basic" exercises, exercises in which there are few, if any, verbals. Students
who cannot do so will probably find exercises on verbals extremely confusing and frustrating.
Second, since, in context, every verb is either finite or a verbal, the instructional material on the "tests"
explains much of KISS Level Four. It is, however, one thing to explain gerunds, gerundives and infinitives, and
something quite different to expect the students to remember all these terms and details. Unfortunately, it is
very easy to get caught up in teaching the three kinds of verbals. I simply want to emphasize, therefore, that the
objective here is to enable students to identify the finite verbs, not the three types of verbals. The study of
clauses (KISS Level Three) is much more important than the details of verbals. Once students are at least well
into the mastery of clauses, you can start the advanced work on verbals.
April 23, 2005
Introduction to the KISS Workbooks
The KISS Homepage
Distinguishing Finite Verbs from Verbals
Introduction
Thus far we have been looking at the verbs that form clauses and sentences. Some verbs,
however, function as nouns, adjectives or adverbs. The verbs that form sentences are called
“finite.” These are the verbs that you should underline twice. The verbs that function as
nouns, adjectives, or adverbs are called “verbals.” You should not underline these verbs
twice. The objective of this section is to help you understand which verbs to underline and
which not to. Three tests will help you with this.
1. The Noun Test
A verb that functions as a noun (a subject, a complement, or the object of a
preposition) is not a finite verb. (Do not underline it twice.)
Subject
Direct Object
Predicate Noun
Object of Preposition
Swimming is good exercise (PN).
They like playing (DO) baseball.
Theresa's favorite exercise is hiking (PN).
Mikie was thinking {of taking a walk}.
Note that verbals, like all verbs, can have complements. Thus “baseball” is the direct
object of “playing,” and “walk” is the direct object of “taking.”
The Printable KISS Grammar Workbooks
The KISS Workbooks Anthology
Distinguishing Finite Verbs from Verbals:
Using the Noun Test
from Heidi by Johanna Spyri
Directions:
1. Put parentheses ( ) around each prepositional phrase.
2. Underline subjects once, finite verbs twice, and label complements ("PN," "PA," "IO," "DO").
1. The little girl had given up following her companions.
2. It will be very easy for Peter to watch her.
3. He would make me pay for it.
4. The thing she looked forward to most was giving the soft white rolls to the grandmother.
5. Near a table a woman was seated, busy with mending Peter's coat.
6. To be at peace with God and men makes one's heart feel light.
7. Going to the pasture with Peter and the goats was always a pleasant experience.
8. Peter arrived with his flock, but without even answering the girls' friendly greeting, he
disappeared with a grim scowl.
9. The only remedy for her is to be restored to her native mountain air.
10. You won't repent of having told me.
11. It seemed as if the grandfather had done nothing else all his life than nurse lame people.
April 23, 2005
Introduction to the KISS Workbooks
The KISS Homepage
28. Distinguishing Finite Verbs from Verbals
The “To” Test
A finite verb phrase cannot begin with “to.” Thus in “Bob went to his room to do his homework,”
“to do” is not a finite verb. (Do not underline it twice.)
Bob went {to his room} to do his homework.
One can, however, consider “to” plus a verb as part of a verb phrase if the phrase begins with a
helping verb:
Sam had to leave early.
Sandra ought to go {to the game}.
Technically, a verb phrase that begins with “to” is an infinitive. You will study infinitives in detail later.
For now, your primary objective is not to underline them twice. You might note, however, that infinitives
function as nouns, adjectives, or adverbs.
As Nouns:
Subject:
To play {at the beach} is fun (PN).
Direct Object:
We like to play (DO) {at the beach}.
Predicate Noun:
The best thing is to run (PN).
As Adjectives:
That was a day (PN) to remember.
As Adverbs:
They went {to the mall} to shop.
Like all verbs, infinitives can have subjects and complements. In sentences like “To play at the
beach is fun,” the subject of “To play” is understood to be anyone. In sentences such as “We like to
play at the beach,” the subject is understood to be the same as the main subject -- “We like *us* to
play at the beach.” If the subject of the infinitive is someone or something else, it must be included in
the sentence -- “We like Bill to play with us at the beach.” In sentences like this, “Bill” is the subject of
the infinitive “to play,” and the entire infinitive phrase is the direct object of “like.”
After some verbs, the “to” is not used -- “Dad made me clean my room.” In this sentence, “me” is
the subject of the infinitive “clean,” and “room” is the direct object of “clean.” Here again, the entire
infinitive phrase is the direct object of “made.” Note that the subjects of infinitives are in objective
case.
The Printable KISS Grammar Workbooks
To Charles Dickens Page
Finite Verb or Verbal? - The "To" Test
From
Charles Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities
Directions:
1. Place parentheses ( ) around each prepositional phrase.
2. Underline verbs twice, their subjects once, and label complements ("PA," "PN," "IO," or "DO").
1. I am collecting my tools to descend to my cottage down in the village below.
2. She came down from her bed, to look at him in his sleep that night.
3. I have less need to make myself agreeable than you have.
4. Provide somebody to take care of you.
5. Have you any reason to believe that Lucie loves you?
6. I would not ask that word, to save my life.
7. He has never been able to bear the thought of putting it quite out of his reach.
8. I believe your object to be, purely and truthfully, as you have stated it.
9. He had been half moved to do it, so strange it was to him to act in anything without her
quiet aid.
10. He was at a loss how to answer, until he remembered having spoken of a condition.
11. It was not opened immediately, in answer to the ringing of the bell.
April 23, 2005
Introduction to the KISS Workbooks
The KISS Homepage
29. Distinguishing Finite Verbs from Verbals
The Sentence Test
The last way to distinguish finite verbs from verbals is the simple sentence test. If
you are not sure about whether or not to underline a verb twice:
1. Find the subject of that verb by making a question with “Who” or “What” before the
verb.
2. Make a simple sentence using that subject and verb – without adding any words, and
without changing the form or meaning of the verb.
3. If the sentence does not seem to be an acceptable sentence, the verb is not finite.
Examples
1. They let Bill keep the puppy.
“Keep” is a verb. If we ask “Who or what keep?”, the answer is “Bill.” But “Bill keep
the puppy” is not an acceptable sentence, so “keep” is not a finite verb and should not
be underlined twice.
2. They saw Bill (DO) walking {by the river}.
“Walking” is a verb. If we ask “Who or what was walking?”, the answer is “Bill.” Thus
we try the sentence – “Bill walking by the river.” That is not, however, an acceptable
sentence. To make it acceptable, we would have to add “was” – “Bill was walking by the
river.” For this test, however, we cannot add words, so “walking” is a verbal -- it should
not be underlined twice.
3. Going {to school}, they saw an accident (DO).
“Going” is a verb. If we ask “Who or what is going?”, the answer is “they.” But “they
going to school” is not an acceptable sentence, so “going” is not a finite verb and should
not be underlined twice.
Remember that the meaning of the verb cannot change in the sentence test. In the
following sentence, “told” does not mean that the story told something. Instead it means
that the story was told. Thus “told” is a verbal, and not a finite verb.
They liked the story (DO) told {by the teacher}.
The Printable KISS Grammar Workbooks
To Charles Dickens Page
Finite Verb or Verbal? - The Sentence Test
From
Charles Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities
Illustration by Phiz
Directions:
1. Place parentheses ( ) around each prepositional phrase.
2. Underline verbs twice, their subjects once, and label complements ("PA," "PN," "IO," or
"DO").
1. He walked up and down, softly repeating their names to himself.
2. Sydney Carton paused in the street, not quite decided where to go.
3. He was stayed by the Doctor's putting out his hand to stop him.
4. Carton stooped to pick up the coat, which lay almost entangling his feet.
5. "Judged!" repeated the farrier, swinging his hammer.
6. In this state they set forth with the sharp rain driving in their faces.
7. He often got up next morning to find the same boots covered with clay.
8. Mr. Lorry followed Sydney to the outer door, and, touching him on the shoulder as he was
going away, caused him to turn.
9. I describe everything exactly as it took place, constraining my mind not to wander from
the task.
10. On this occasion, Miss Pross, responding to Ladybird's pleasant face and pleasant efforts
to please her, unbent exceedingly; so the dinner was very pleasant, too.
The Printable KISS Grammar Workbooks
The KISS Workbooks Anthology
30. Distinguishing Finite Verbs from Verbals
Based on
"Perseus"
in The Heroes, or Greek Fairy Tales For My Children
by Charles Kingsley
Illustrations by Howard Davie
Directions:
1. Place parentheses ( ) around each prepositional phrase.
2. Underline every finite verb twice, its subject(s) once, and label any complements (“PA,” “PN,” “IO,” or
“DO”).
3. Make a rectangle around each verbal.
1. On they rushed, sweeping and flapping, like eagles after a hare.
2. The rulers of Olympus have sent me to you to ask the way to the Gorgon.
3. He left this girl to die, and dead she is to him.
4. Grinding his teeth with rage, he went out, and away to the king's palace, and through the
men's rooms, and the women's rooms, and so through all the house.
5. He saw them come howling on his track.
6. Let the people build altars to Father Zeus, and to me, and worship the Immortals.
7. The water gurgled in and out of his wide jaws, as he rolled along, dripping and glistening
in the beams of the morning sun.
8. Watching the rich men go in saddened him.
9. Polydectes, not being able to get what he wanted by force, cast about in his wicked heart
how he might get it by cunning.
10. Perseus laughed, and went his way to the north-east, hoping all day long to see the blue
Mediterranean sparkling, that he might fly across it to his home.
6/20/09
The Printable KISS Workbooks
KISS Level 3.1.1
Claude Monet's
(1840-1926)
The Stroll
Camille Monet
and Her Son Jean
(Woman with a Parasol)
1875
31. Main Clauses
(Level 3.1.1)
Thus far you have been working with sentences and have learned to identify the "subject /
(finite) verb / complement patterns" in them. You have also learned that adjectives, adverbs,
and most prepositional phrases modify (and thus chunk to) the words in the S/V/C slots. You
have probably noticed that many sentences have more than one S/V/C pattern. To be able to
discuss these multiple patterns in a sentence, we need to distinguish between "sentence" and
"clause."
What Is a Clause?
A "clause" is a subject, finite verb, complement pattern and all the
words that chunk to it.
Because you can already identify S/V/C patterns and distinguish finite verbs from verbals,
you will probably find clauses easy to understand. There are two types of clauses, main and
subordinate.
Main Clauses
Every main clause could be punctuated as a separate sentence, but just as we compound
subjects, verbs, etc., we also compound main clauses. Thus you will often find more than one
main clause in a sentence. Although short main clauses can be combined with commas (I
came, I saw, I conquered.), most main clauses are joined together with the following
punctuation:
, and
He went swimming, and she went fishing.
, or
Tom went to the lake, or he went home.
, but
Sarah arrived late, but she had her homework done.
[Note that some writers omit the comma, but you probably should not
do so until you are an established writer. (Some teachers don't like the
missing commas.)]
a semicolon
Gary loved football; Sam preferred golf.
a colon
It was early: the clock had not even struck six a.m.
a dash
Toni loves football -- she watches the Redskins' game every Sunday.
The differences in these punctuation marks are explored in KISS Level 3.1.1 ("Main
Clauses"). They will also be explored in later sections on style and logic. For now, all you
need to remember is that when a clause begins with one of them, you are probably dealing
with compound main clauses.
The Printable KISS Grammar Workbooks
To Charles Dickens Page
Identifying Main Clauses
From
Charles Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities
Directions:
1. Put parentheses ( ) around each prepositional phrase.
2. Underline subjects once, finite verbs twice, and label complements ("PN," "PA," "IO," "DO").
3. Place a vertical line after each main clause.
1. My picture was in her room, and I was in her prayers.
2. You must not expect it, or you will always be disappointed.
3. He knew of no rock; he saw hardly any danger.
4. All sorts of people have been proposed to me, but I will have nothing to say to any of
them.
5. And her agitated hand waved to them from a chaise window, and she was gone.
6. Occasionally, a stray workman putting his coat on, traversed the hall, or a stranger peered
about there, or a distant clink was heard across the courtyard, or a thump from the golden
giant.
7. On the three following days he remained perfectly well, and on the fourteenth day he went
away to join Lucie and her husband.
8. "Some papers had been handed about among them, but I don't know what papers."
9. She had reserved this last evening for her father, and they sat alone under the plane-tree.
10. The burning of the body (previously reduced to pieces convenient for the purpose) was
commenced without delay in the kitchen fire; and the tools, shoes, and leather, were buried in
the garden.
The Printable KISS Workbooks
The KISS Workbooks Anthology
32. Compound Main Clauses
Ex # 1 Based on the Second Story in “The Snow Queen”
From Stories from Hans Andersen
with illustrations by Edmund Dulac
Directions:
1. Place parentheses ( ) around each prepositional phrase.
2. Underline verbs twice, their subjects once, and label complements ("PA," "PN," "IO," or "DO").
3. Place a vertical line after each main clause.
1. In the summer they could reach each other with one bound, but in the winter they had to
go down all the stairs in one house and up all the stairs in the other, and outside there were
snowdrifts.
2. She is biggest of them all, and she never remains on the ground.
3. Many a winter's night she flies through the streets and peeps in at the windows, and then
the ice freezes on the panes into wonderful patterns like flowers.
4. Still she was alive, her eyes shone like two bright stars, but there was no rest or peace in
them.
5. The next day was bright and frosty, and then came the thaw – and after that the spring.
KISS Grammar Workbooks
Level Three Instructional Material
33. Clauses and Logic:
Combining Main Clauses
Although two or more main clauses can be combined into one sentence by using ", and,"
", or," or ", but," three punctuation marks can also be used not only to combine the clauses,
but also to direct readers to see specific logical relationships between the ideas expressed in
the clauses.
Colons and Dashes to Indicate Further Details
A colon or a dash can be used to indicate a "general/specific" relationship between the
ideas in two main clauses:
The weather was nice -- it was sunny with a soft wind.
The payment is late: it was due two weeks ago.
In these examples, the first main clause makes a general statement, and the second provides
more specific details.
Semicolons to Emphasize Contrasting Ideas
Consider the following two sentences:
He went swimming. She did the dishes.
In effect, they simply state two facts. We can combine them with ", and" and a small "s," but
they will still simply state two facts:
He went swimming, and she did the dishes.
There is, however, another way of combining the two, and it changes the meaning. When a
semicolon is used between two main clauses, it suggests that the clauses embody
contrasting ideas. Thus, we could write:
He went swimming; she did the dishes.
The semicolon invites the reader to think about the differences between the two main clauses,
and, in this case, a little thought suggests that the underlying contrast here is that he is having
fun, but she was stuck working in the kitchen.
The Printable KISS Workbooks
The KISS On-Line Resource Books
KISS Grammar
Famous (or Interesting) Quotations
Compound Main Clauses - Ex # 2
The Logic of Semicolons, Colons, and Dashes
Directions:
1. Place parentheses ( ) around each prepositional phrase.
2. Underline verbs twice, their subjects once, and label complements ("PA," "PN," "IO," or "DO").
3. Place a vertical line after each main clause.
Writers often use a semicolon to join contrasting ideas, or a colon or a dash to join clauses in which one
clause gives more specific details about (amplifies) the other clause. [Another way of looking at this is to say
that one clause makes a general statement, and the other clause states the same idea in more specific detail.]
Colons suggest a formal style, and dashes reflect a casual style.
After analyzing each of the following, on the line following it write
1) the logical relationship of the two clauses -- "contrast" or "amplification."
2.) a general statement of any contrast, for example, "young / old," "good / bad," "men / women," etc.
3.) circle either "Yes" or "No" to indicate whether or not you think the punctuation follows the general norm.
1. An age builds up cities; an hour destroys them.
- Seneca
_______________________________________________________________
Yes
No
2. Never fear the want of business -- a man who qualifies himself well for his calling never
fails of employment.
- Thomas Jefferson
______________________________________________________________
Yes
No
3. Be patient, my soul: Thou hast suffered worse than this.
- Homer
______________________________________________________________
Yes
No
4. You think me the child of my circumstances: I make my circumstance.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
______________________________________________________________
Yes
No
5. Things do not change; we change.
- Henry David Thoreau
______________________________________________________________
Yes
No
6. You do not lead by hitting people over the head -- that's assault, not leadership.
- Dwight D. Eisenhower
______________________________________________________________
Yes
No
The Printable KISS Workbooks
The KISS Workbooks Anthology
34. Punctuation and Logic
of Compound Main Clauses
From Rip Van Winkle,
by Washington Irving
Illustration
by
N. C. Wyeth
Directions:
1. Put parentheses ( ) around each prepositional phrase.
2. Underline subjects once, finite verbs twice, and label complements ("PN," "PA," "IO," "DO").
3. Put a vertical line at the end of every main clause.
4. Briefly explain the logic implied by the words and/or punctuation marks that join the compounded
main clauses.
1. The very village was altered: it was larger and more populous.
2. There stood the Kaatskill mountains -- there ran the silver Hudson at a distance -- there
was every hill and dale precisely as it had always been -- Rip was sorely perplexed.
3. He found the house gone to decay -- the roof had fallen in, the windows shattered, and
the doors off the hinges.
4. "Oh, Brom Dutcher went off to the army in the beginning of the war; some say he was
killed at the storming of Stony-Point -- others say he was drowned in a squall at the foot of
Antony's Nose.
5. His familiar haunts had disappeared. Strange names were over the doors -- strange faces
at the windows -- everything was strange.
6. He again called and whistled after his dog; he was only answered by the cawing of a
flock of idle crows.
7. They were dressed in quaint outlandish fashion; some wore short doublets, others jerkins,
with long knives in their belts, and most of them had enormous breeches, of similar style
with that of the guide's.
8. Their visages, too, were peculiar; one had a large head, broad face, and small piggish
eyes; the face of another seemed to consist entirely of nose, and was surmounted by a white
sugar-loaf hat, set off with a little red cock's tail.
Introduction to the KISS Workbooks
The Doctor's
Visit
1663-65
Jan Steen
(Dutch)
(1626-1679)
ToC
35. Colons, Dashes, and Semicolons
-- Exercise #1
Directions: Combine the sentences in each set by using a dash, a colon, or a semicolon. After each set,
indicate your reason for using the mark you chose by writing "amplification (informal)" for dashes,
"amplification (formal)" for colons, or "contrast" for semicolons.
1. Tom walked home. It was a long walk, but he enjoyed it.
Reason:_________________________
2. Fridays are boring. Saturdays are fun.
Reason:_________________________
3. Flowers are pretty. I especially like roses.
Reason:_________________________
4. Pickup trucks are useful. They can carry anything from mulch to furniture.
Reason:_________________________
5. Kara likes to play baseball with the boys. Sarah prefers shopping at the mall.
Reason:_________________________
6. The Mississippi River is full of fish. Sunfish, bass, pike, and especially catfish can be
found in it. Reason:_________________________
7. Alfred pretended to be sick so he could stay home and watch the World Series. Bob was
really ill. Reason:_________________________
8. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe is a funny book. A lot of strange and amusing
creatures are in it. Reason:_________________________
9. The new Harry Potter book was an instant success. It is almost impossible to find it in the
stores. Reason:_________________________
10. We at McDonald's have introduced three new premium salads. Let us feed you tonight.
Reason:_________________________
L3.1.1. CMC
The Printable KISS Grammar Workbooks
The Tinker
1874
by
Alphonse
Legros
(1837-1911)
French
The KISS Home Page
36. Writing Compound
Sentences
with a Dash, Colon, or
Semicolon
A. Directions: Write two compound sentences in which the second main clause gives more
information (detail) on the idea in the first main clause. Make the style informal by
separating the two main clauses with a dash.
Example: My sister likes sports -- she plays baseball, basketball, and soccer.
1. _____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
2. _____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
B. Directions: Write two different compound sentences in which the second main clause
gives more information (detail) on the idea in the first main clause. Make the style formal by
separating the two main clauses with a colon.
Example: Sam got into trouble: he was late for class and forgot his books.
1. _____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
2. _____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
C. Directions: Write two compound sentences in which the second main clause contrasts
with the idea in the first main clause. Use a semicolon to join the two main clauses in one
sentence.
Example: My mother likes to go to restaurants; my father prefers home cooking.
1. _____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
2. _____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
6/20/09
KISS Level 3.1.1
Claude Monet's
(1840-1926)
The Stroll
Camille Monet
and Her Son Jean
(Woman with a
Parasol)
1875
The Printable KISS Workbooks
37.
(Level 3.1.2)
Main Clauses
Thus far you have been working with sentences and have learned to identify the
"subject / (finite) verb / complement patterns" in them. You have also learned that
adjectives, adverbs, and most prepositional phrases modify (and thus chunk to) the
words in the S/V/C slots. You have probably noticed that many sentences have
more than one S/V/C pattern. To be able to discuss these multiple patterns in a
sentence, we need to distinguish between "sentence" and "clause."
What Is a Clause?
A "clause" is a subject, finite verb, complement pattern and all
the words that chunk to it.
Because you can already identify S/V/C patterns and distinguish finite verbs from
verbals, you will probably find clauses easy to understand. There are two types of
clauses, main and subordinate.
Main Clauses
Every main clause could be punctuated as a separate sentence, but just as we
compound subjects, verbs, etc., we also compound main clauses. Thus you will
often find more than one main clause in a sentence. Although short main clauses
can be combined with commas (I came, I saw, I conquered.), most main clauses
are joined together with the following punctuation:
, and
He went swimming, and she went fishing.
, or
Tom went to the lake, or he went home.
, but
Sarah arrived late, but she had her homework done.
[Note that some writers omit the comma, but you probably
should not do so until you are an established writer. (Some
teachers don't like the missing commas.)]
a semicolon
Gary loved football; Sam preferred golf.
a colon
It was early: the clock had not even struck six a.m.
a dash
Toni loves football -- she watches the Redskins' game every
Sunday.
The differences in these punctuation marks are explored in KISS Level 3.1.1
("Main Clauses"). They will also be explored in later sections on style and logic.
For now, all you need to remember is that when a clause begins with one of them,
you are probably dealing with compound main clauses.
The Printable KISS Workbooks
The KISS Home Page
KISS Grammar Exercises Based on
Introductory Lessons in English Grammar For Use in Intermediate Grades
By Wm. H. Maxwell, M.A.
Mixed Subordinate Clauses [L1]
Directions:
1. Place parentheses around each prepositional phrase.
2. Underline every subject once, every verb twice, and label complements ("PA," "PN,"
"IO," "DO").
3. Put brackets [ ] around every subordinate clause and use arrows or labels to indicate
their function.
4. Put a vertical line at the end of every main clause.
1. I dreamed that life was Beauty.
2. I found that life was Duty.
3. When the ostrich gets tired, it runs from side to side, or in a curve.
4. There was once a king who had three brave and handsome sons.
5. We shuddered there in silence, while the hungry sea was roaring.
6. We anchored safe in harbor when the morn was shining clear.
7. I was only playing that I was ninety-nine.
8. Our homestead had an ample hearth where at night we loved to meet.
9. I used to think that the tops of the fir trees were close against the sky.
10. Prospero told them that their ship was safe in harbor.
11. Hush, my babe, lie still and slumber.
12. Show me a place where I may rest.
13. I love them that love me.
14. He lives longest that thinks the most.
15. Never put off till tomorrow what you can do today.
A Psycholinguistic Model of How the Human Brain Processes Language
by Dr. Ed Vavra
38. Mixed Subordinate Clauses
Note
This model has been redone (and amplified) as a 19-page MS Word document. Click here
to get a copy. If there are requests, I can also post it here as an Adobe pdf file.
The following is a model of how the human brain processes language. Almost everything in
the KISS approach is based on this model, including such things as why "errors" are errors.
Once students have seen the model, much of their later instruction will make more sense to
them. (They need not understand the details of the model when they first see it.) To my
knowledge, no other approach to teaching grammar in our schools has any such theoretical base.
--Dr. Ed Vavra
The Printable KISS Grammar Workbooks
The KISS Workbooks Anthology
Mixed Subordinate Clauses
Based on The Queen of the Pirate Isle
by Bret Harte
Illustrated by Kate Greenaway
Directions:
1. Place parentheses around each prepositional phrase.
2. Underline every subject once, every verb twice, and label complements ("PA," "PN," "IO," "DO").
3. Put brackets [ ] around every subordinate clause and use arrows or labels to indicate their function.
4. Put a vertical line at the end of every main clause.
1. The colour they most loved, and which was most familiar to them, was the dark red of the
ground beneath their feet everywhere.
2. When the solemn rite was concluded, Step-and-Fetch-It paid his own courtesy with an
extra squeeze of the curly head, and deposited her again in the truck.
3. Polly was thinking about how she would care for her poor children.
4. The next thing she remembered was that she was apparently being carried along on some
gliding object to the sound of rippling water.
5. Perhaps I ought to explain that she had already known other experiences of a purely
imaginative character.
6. That Polly's personification of "The Proud Lady" disturbed her mother resulted in Polly's
abandoning it.
7. That the red dust may have often given a sanguinary tone to their fancies, I have every
reason to believe.
8. Most of the characters that she assumed for days and sometimes weeks at a time were
purely original in conception.
9. Any change in the weather was as unexpected as it is in books.
10. Well meant as her father's account was, it only settled in the child's mind that she must
keep the awful secret to herself and that no one could understand her.
The Printable KISS Workbooks
The KISS Workbooks Anthology
39. Mixed Subordinate Clauses
From Alice in Wonderland
by Lewis Carroll
Illustration by Lewis Carroll for
Alice's Adventures Under Ground
(Colorized)
Directions:
1. Place parentheses around each prepositional phrase.
2. Underline every subject once, every verb twice, and label complements ("PA," "PN," "IO," "DO").
3. Put brackets [ ] around every subordinate clause and use arrows or labels to indicate their function.
4. Put a vertical line at the end of every main clause.
1. Dinah, my dear, I wish you were down here with me!
2. Now I'm opening out like the largest telescope that ever was!
3. What I was going to say, is that the best thing to get us dry would be a Caucus-race.
4. She had put on one of the Rabbit's little white kid-gloves while she was talking.
5. Everything is so out-of-the-way down here that I should think very likely the mouse can
talk.
6. Once or twice she had peeped into the book her sister was reading, but it had no pictures or
conversations in it.
7. Her first idea was that she had somehow fallen into the sea.
8. She knelt down and looked along the passage into the loveliest garden you ever saw.
9. She found herself falling down what seemed to be a very deep well.
10. But when the Rabbit actually took a watch out of its waistcoat-pocket and looked at it and
then hurried on, Alice started to her feet.
11. The question is, what did the archbishop find?
6/11/11
The Printable KISS Grammar Workbooks
Leonardo
da Vinci's
(1452-1519)
Study of
proportions
from Vitruvius's
De Architectura
The KISS Grammar Homepage
40. The Logic of Subordinate Clauses
Introduction
Logic is a subject that has been studied by many different people, primarily philosophers
and grammarians. All of these people have different ways of looking at logic, and, as a result,
they use different words to describe what are essentially the same things. This can make the
study of logic very confusing, but KISS attempts to simplify it by combining two specific
perspectives -- the terms used by most traditional grammarians, and the terms of the
philosopher David Hume.
Hume claimed that thinking is primarily a matter of perceiving things and then
establishing logical relationships among them. For Hume, there are three, and only three,
basic logical relationships. They are "identity," "extension in time or space," and
"cause/effect." Hume notes, however, a fourth possibility -- the three basic relationships
can be combined in one or they can be compared.
KISS's grammatical perspective considers words or grammatical constructions
(adjectives, adverbs, prepositional phrases, clauses, etc.) the same as "perceiving things."
Having perceived, for example, a prepositional phrase, our task is then to interpret the logical
relationship between that phrase and the word it modifies. Consider, for a more specific
example, the four prepositional phrases in the following sentence:
{For six months} one {of the sailors} had been {on a long trip} {to South America}.
To understand the logic underlying these four phrases, we need to take them one at a time.
Having identified "for six months" as a prepositional phrase, the first question we need
to ask is "What does it modify?" We actually need to use logic to answer that question. We
know that it is an adverbial phrase to "had been" because it tells "how long" they "had
been." For Hume, this would be a logical relationship of "extension in time" (See, you have
already been doing much of this.)
The next phrase three phrases are fairly simple. The first of these is "of the sailors." This
phrase clearly chunks to "one," because it tells us what is meant by "one," or, in Hume's
terms, it established the "identity" of the "one." "On a long trip" tells where they "had
been." The word "where" refers to space, and in Hume's terms, this phrase expresses a logical
relationship of "extension in space."
The last phrase, "to South America," is more interesting, but still not very complicated.
Our minds chunk constructions as efficiently as possible, so most people will see this phrase
as modifying "trip." From that perspective, the phrase tells what kind of trip it was. In other
words, it describes or identifies the trip. For Hume, this is a logical relationship of
"identity." Other people, however, may see this phrase as modifying "had been." (Note that
we can drop "on a long trip" from the sentence and still keep "to South America." -- "For six
months one of the sailors had been to South America." But if we take out the word "trip," the
"to South America" now chunks, as an adverb, to "had been." It tells where he had been and
thus functions, in Hume's terms, as "extension in space."
As you work with grammar and Hume's logical relationships, you will soon find that in
most sentences, the relationships are easy to see. You will also find many cases that can be
explained in more than one way. You will, however, find a few cases that will really
challenge your brain. But such challenges make your brain grow (literally, according to many
neuroscientists).
The Logic of Subordinate Clauses
Noun Clauses
Since the primary function of nouns is to name things, we can consider noun clauses as
fitting Hume's category of identity. Obviously, nouns used as subjects identify what the
meaningful subject of the clause is. In addition, of course, as with regular nouns, noun
clauses that function as predicate nouns indicate an identity between the subject and the
predicate noun:
That book is [what she wanted]. |
The questions that noun clauses answer are typically "who?" "whom?" and "what?".
Thus the most common subordinate conjunctions associated with noun clauses are "that,
"what," "who," and "whom" but other conjunctions can also begin noun clauses, even if
they identify a time, a space, cause, or effect:
Who knows [when they will arrive]? |
[Where they will go] is still uncertain. |
[Why they did it] no one knows. |
He asked [how the computer works]. |
Adjectival Clauses
The function of adjectives is to describe, so adjectival clauses, like most noun clauses,
convey what Hume would probably have considered to be the logical relationship of
identity. In
The book [she wanted] is not{ in the library}. |
the subordinate clause identifies which book is meant. The questions that adjectives answer
are usually "which?" "what?" and "what kind of?". The most common subordinate
conjunctions used in adjectival clauses are "that," "who," and "which," but do not rely on
the conjunctions to determine which type of clause you are dealing with. Adjectival clauses
that modify words that denote times or spaces can be introduced by a wide range of
conjunctions:
She remembered the time [when she was {in Pittsburgh}]. |
The airport [where they landed] is very small. |
In other words, identify the type of clause by first determining how it functions in a sentence.
Only then can you begin to explore its logical implications.
Adverbial Clauses
From Hume's perspective, adverbial clauses are definitely the most interesting. Whereas
nouns and adjectives relate primarily to Hume's first category (identity), adverbs primarily
convey relationships of extension and cause/effect.
Extension
Whereas noun and adjectival clauses often identify times and places, adverbial clauses
convey relationships between things in time and space. Note that the focus of these
relationships is often reversible, that is, one can switch the clauses to put different ideas in
the main clause S/V/C pattern. This is the pattern that everything chunks to, and thus the
pattern that is the center of attention.
In Time
To explore how adverbial clauses establish logical relationships, consider the following
sentence:
The children were playing, | and their mother was fishing. |
The sentence establishes two facts, but it does not establish any relationship between them. It
does not, for example, even state that the two actions were occurring at the same time.
Compare it, for example, to the following:
a) The children were playing [while their mother was fishing]. |
b) Their mother was fishing. [while the children were playing]. |
The subordinating "while" in these two versions not only makes it clear that the two actions
were occurring at the same time, it also changes the focus among the ideas. In the original
compound sentence, the two main clauses were joined by "and" which joins equals, and thus
the implication was that the two actions -- and their actors, were equally important. A
subordinate conjunction, however, usually subordinates the idea in its clause, and thereby
puts more emphasis on what is in the main clause. Thus, in (a), the focus is primarily on the
children, whereas in (b) the mother is the center of attention.
Whereas the focus can be changed with "while" simply by shifting the conjunction from
one clause to the other, in many cases the shift requires the use of a different subordinating
conjunction:
a) The children were playing [before their mother was fishing]. |
b) Their mother was fishing. [after the children were playing]. |
Subordination, and its effects of reversibility and focus, are important aspects of mature
writing. Many third and fourth graders write almost exclusively using main clauses. As we
grow older, we all teach ourselves how to use subordinate clauses, but some people gain
greater control than others.
Consider, for example, the writing of an essay. Even at the college level, many students
have not mastered the idea of a thesis (the sentence that conveys the main idea of the essay)
or topic sentences (sentences that state the main idea of a paragraph). In a good essay, the
topic sentences support (and thus add to the focus on) the thesis. The sentences within a
paragraph support (and thus add focus to) their respective topic sentences. In essence, a good
essay presents a hierarchy of ideas, some more important than others. And this hierarchy
extends down into the sentence level. At that level, subordinate conjunctions are a primary
tool for establishing focus and conveying logical relationships among ideas. [For an example
of this, see the MIMC exercise on "Alicia."]
In Space
Reversibility and focus, discussed in relation to clauses of time, also apply to clauses of
space (traditionally called clauses of "place"), so here we need simply look at an example.
He was fishing. | An accident happened. |
He was fishing [where an accident happened]. |
[Where he was fishing], an accident happened.. |
Cause / Effect
Based in Aristotelian philosophy, Hume's concept of cause and effect was much broader
than what we normally consider today. It included, of course, the traditional concepts of
clauses of cause, of result, and of purpose. But it also includes many of the other traditional
subcategorizes of adverbial clauses.
Clauses of Cause
Some subordinate clauses state the cause of the idea expressed in the main clause:
Eddie went home [because his mother called him (DO)]. |
[Since their regular teacher was sick (PA)], the class had a substitute (DO). |
[As it was getting late (PA)], the game was stopped early. |
"Because," "since," and "as" as the most frequently used conjunctions, but note that
"since" can also be used to denote time, and "as" is also used both for time and for clauses
of comparison.
The grammarian Paul Roberts pointed out that "that" clauses are frequently used to
modify adjectives and that they can be considered as clauses of cause. He gives the example
"I am sorry that you feel that way," and notes that "the clause that you feel that way states the
cause of the sorrow." He gives additional examples:
We are so glad that you can come.
Perrydrip was indignant that no one liked his novel.
We were pleased that the roof was as tight as ever.
And he notes that "Often the conjunction is omitted: 'We are glad you can come'."
He also notes that such clauses can also modify verbs, as in "I grieve that we shall never
meet again."
Clauses of Result (Effect)
Some adverbial clauses express the result of the statement in the main S/V/C pattern. In
most cases, the conjunction is "that," but it is usually preceded (and chunks to) either
"so" or "such":
Sam was so tired (PA) [that he fell asleep in class]. |
His teacher made such a fuss (DO) [that he woke up]. |
Clauses of Purpose
As their name suggests, adverbial clauses of purpose express the purpose (intended result)
of the action that they modify. The most commonly used conjunctions are "so that,"
"so," "in order that," "that," and "lest."
Nancy studied hard [so that she would get a good grade (DO)]. |
Marty and Sue arrived early [so they could get a good seat (DO)]. |
[In order that they might win], the team practiced every day. |
[That they might win], the team practiced every day. |
Mom made a list (DO), [lest Dad should forget the bread (DO) and milk (DO)]. |
"Lest," of course, introduces a result that is to be avoided.
Clauses of Manner
Clauses of manner answer the question "How?" How something is done affects what is
done, and thus clauses of manner are, in the Aristotelian sense, cause/effect relationships.
The typical conjunctions used are "as," "as if," "as though," and "in that."
Terrell runs [as he walks -- with no apparent effort]. |
He looks [as if he has seen a ghost (DO)]. |
In court, Jim acted [as though he were in church]. |
Gerald failed [in that he did not answer most (DO) of the questions]. |
Clauses of Condition
As the name implies, clauses of condition state a required condition for the statement in
the clause either to happen or to be believed. In other words, they state a necessary cause for
the statement in the clause they modify.
a) [If it rains], the picnic will be canceled. |
b) They can drive to New York, [so long as the roads don't freeze]. |
c) [Unless he is mistaken], the Orioles will win the World Series (DO). |
In (a), the "if" clause states a condition that would cause the picnic to be canceled. Similarly
in (b), the "so long as" clause denotes a cause that would make the drive to New York
dangerous. And in (c), the "unless" clauses states a condition that, if true, is a cause for not
believing that the Orioles will win the World Series.
Clauses of Concession
Clauses of Concession are a logical negation of clauses of condition. In concession, one
concedes (agrees) that the expected result of a conditional clause did not, or may not, happen.
The most common conjunctions are "although," "though," "even though," "while,"
and "whereas."
a) [Although it rained], the picnic was not canceled. |
b) They can drive to New York [even though the roads freeze]. |
Paul Roberts explained that " The clause of concession states something opposed to the main
clause but does not deny the validity of the main clause. It is as if we should say: "I concede
this (adverb clause) to be true; yet this (main clause) is true also." (Understanding Grammar,
327)
Comparisons (In Degree)
The traditional category of adverbial clauses of degree is an example of fits Hume's fourth
category. Identity, extension in time or space, and causes and effects can all be compared.
Grammatically, this is usually expressed by a comparative adjective or adverbs such as
"more," "less," or "as" followed by an adverbial clause that begins with "than" or "as." "He
is taller than she is" reflects a comparison of extension in space. "She is smarter than he is"
reflects a comparison in degree of intelligence, a matter of identity.
Sally is more friendly (PA) [than Bob is]. |
Bob is less friendly (PA) [than Sally is]. |
Note that in comparisons of degree the subordinate conjunction is usually "than," spelled
with an "a," not an "e." Misspelling of "than" suggests that a person is not thinking about the
logic behind what he or she is writing. When the things being compared are considered to be
equal, the conjunction is usually "as," and the clause chunks to a preceding "as" in the
sentence:
A Chevy is as good (PA) [as a Ford is]. |
Some prescriptive grammarians still object to the use of "like" as a subordinate conjunction,
as in "No one sings like she does." But in view of the multiple meanings of "as" (comparison,
time, and cause), "like" may be clearer in meaning since, as a subordinate conjunction, it is
only used for comparison.
The Printable KISS Workbooks
The KISS Home Page
KISS Grammar Exercises Based on
Introductory Lessons in English Grammar For Use in Intermediate Grades
By Wm. H. Maxwell, M.A.
L3.1.2 # 23
Subordinating Conjunctions and Logic
Directions:
1. Place parentheses around each prepositional phrase.
2. Underline every subject once, every verb twice, and label complements ("PA,"
"PN," "IO," "DO").
3. Put brackets [ ] around every subordinate clause and use arrows or labels to
indicate their function.
4. Put a vertical line at the end of every main clause.
5. After each sentence, write the type of the logical connection (identify,
time, place, cause/effect)
1. I love the man who sings at his work.
2. One is scarcely sensible of fatigue while he marches to music.
3. Laziness travels so slowly that Poverty soon overtakes him.
4. The ornaments of a home are the friends that frequent it.
5. Beware of him who flatters you.
6. Never speak anything for truth if you believe it to be false.
7. Careless people often speak before they think.
8. While one wren sang among the dark green leaves, the other was feeding two little open
mouths.
9. Wherever the bamboo is found in abundance, the natives apply it to a variety of uses.
10. The old town of Salem, from which ships sailed from its harbor to the ends
of the world, was once a famous seaport.
11/21/07
The Printable KISS Grammar Workbooks
41. Clauses within Clauses
(Embedding)
(Level 3.1.3)
Diego Velazquez's
The Lower Half of
Las Meninas
1656
Museo del Prado,
Madrid
"Embedding" simply means putting one construction "in the bed" of another. Thus, for
example, a subordinate clause is embedded in a main clause. When a subordinate clause is
embedded within a subordinate clause, in KISS we call it a "Level Two" embedding; if a
clause is embedded in that level two embedding, we call it a "Level Three," etc. The
embedding of one clause within another is probably limited by the psycholinguistic ability of
readers (and writers) to process sentences in short-term memory. Professionals rarely go
beyond a level three embedding, as in the following sentence from Henry James' "Daisy
Miller":
There are, indeed, many hotels, [for the entertainment of tourists is the business of the place,
[which, [as many travelers will remember], is seated upon the edge of a remarkably blue
lake--a lake [that it behooves every tourist to visit]]]. |
In this sentence, the "as" and "that" clauses (level 3) are embedded in the "which" clause
(level 2), and the "which" clause is embedded in the "for" clause (level 1) that is embedded in
the main clause.
Another example of the chunking of embedded subordinate clauses:
Image courtesy of Shelagh Manton (in Australia)
6/11/05
The Printable KISS Workbooks
KISS Level 3.1.2
Identifying Clauses -- The Procedure
A clause is a subject / finite verb / complement pattern and all the words that
chunk to it (modify it). As a result, there will be one clause for every S/V/C pattern.
A sentence can consist of one or more clauses, but every normal sentence has at least
one main clause.
If a sentence has only one S/V/C pattern, put a vertical line after it and go on to the
next sentence. [The clause should be a main clause.]
El Greco's View of
Toledo (c. 1597)
If a sentence has more than one S/V/C pattern:
1. Check for subordinate conjunctions. (See the list below.) They will often
indicate where subordinate clauses begin. If you have put brackets around all the
clauses introduced by subordinate conjunctions, and you still have more than one
S/V/C pattern in the sentence, go on to 2.
2. Start with the LAST S/V/C pattern and work backwards! For each clause:
a. Find the last word in the clause.
b. Find the first word in the clause. (Start with the word before the subject
and keep moving toward the front of the sentence until you find a word that
does not chunk to that S/V/C pattern.)
c. If the clause begins with a subordinate conjunction , it is obviously
subordinate. Put brackets around it. [If a clause begins with "and," "or,"
"but," a colon, a semicolon, or a dash, it is probably a main clause – put a
vertical line in front of it.]
d. If the clause does not begin with a subordinate conjunction, check to see
if it answers a question about a word outside itself but within the sentence.
If it does, put brackets around it. If it does not, put a vertical line after it.
3. Repeat this procedure until there is only one S/V/C pattern in the sentence
that has not been analyzed. The remaining pattern will be the core of a main
clause. Put a vertical line at the end of the main clause.
The following words often function as subordinate conjunctions:
after, although, as, as if, as though, because, before, if, how, lest, since, than, that,
when, where, while, what, who, why, which, until, whenever, wherever, whatever,
whoever, whichever, whether, for, so
The Printable KISS Grammar Workbooks
To KISS Level 3.1.3
The Last Sentence of
"The House That Jack Built"
Illustrated by Randolpf Caldecott
Directions:
1. Place parentheses ( ) around each prepositional phrase.
2. Underline verbs twice, their subjects once, and label complements (“PA,” “PN,” “IO,” or “DO”).
3. Place brackets [ ] around each subordinate clause. If the clause functions as a noun, label its function. If it
functions as an adjective or adverb, draw an arrow from the opening bracket to the word that the clause
modifies.
4. Place a vertical line after each main clause.
[Suggestion: In analyzing clauses,
start at the end and work backward.]
This is the Farmer who sowed the corn,
That fed the Cock that crowed in the morn,
That waked the Priest all shaven and shorn,
That married the Man all tattered and torn,
That kissed the Maiden all forlorn,
That milked the Cow with the crumpled horn,
That tossed the Dog,
That worried the Cat,
That killed the Rat,
That ate the Malt,
That lay in the House that Jack built.
The Printable KISS Grammar Workbooks
To Charles Dickens Page
Embedded Subordinate Clauses
# 2 From
Charles Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities
Directions:
1. Put parentheses ( ) around each prepositional phrase.
2. Underline subjects once, finite verbs twice, and label complements (“PN,” “PA,” “IO,” “DO”).
3. Place brackets around each subordinate clause. If the clause functions as a noun, label its function (Subj. PN,
IO, DO, OP) above the opening bracket. If it functions as an adjective or adverb, draw an arrow from the
opening bracket to the word that the clause modifies.
4. Put a vertical line at the end of every main clause.
1. At the instant when Darnay saw a rush in the eyes of the crowd, which another instant
would have brought upon him, the postmaster turned his horse into the yard, the escort rode
in close upon his horse's flanks, and the postmaster shut and barred the crazy double gates.
2. So much was closing in about the women who sat knitting, knitting, that they their very
selves were closing in around a structure yet unbuilt, where they were to sit knitting, knitting,
counting dropping heads.
3. Mr. Lorry hacked the shoemaker's bench to pieces, while Miss Pross held the candle as if
she were assisting at a murder--for which, indeed, in her grimness, she was no unsuitable
figure.
4. But, in the composure of his manner he was unaltered, except that to the shrewd glance of
Mr. Lorry it disclosed some shadowy indication that the old air of avoidance and dread had
lately passed over him, like a cold wind.
5. Within a hundred miles, and in the light of other fires, there were other functionaries less
fortunate, that night and other nights, whom the rising sun found hanging across oncepeaceful streets, where they had been born and bred.
The KISS Grammar Workbooks
Back to April Menu
42. From
"The Beginning of the Armadilloes"
by Rudyard Kipling
From Just So Stories
Illustration by Joseph M. Gleeson
Directions:
1. Put parentheses ( ) around each prepositional phrase.
2. Underline subjects once, finite verbs twice, and label complements (“PN,” “PA,” “IO,” “DO”).
3. Place brackets around each subordinate clause. If the clause functions as a noun, label its function (Subj. PN,
IO, DO, OP) above the opening bracket. If it functions as an adjective or adverb, draw an arrow from the
opening bracket to the word that the clause modifies.
4. Put a vertical line at the end of every main clause.
‘Well, suppose you say that I said that she said something quite different, I don’t see that
it makes any difference; because if she said what you said I said she said, it’s just the same as
if I said what she said she said. On the other hand, if you think she said that you were to
uncoil me with a scoop, instead of pawing me into drops with a shell, I can’t help that, can
I?’
The Printable KISS Grammar Workbooks
The KISS Workbooks Anthology
43. The Logic of Subordinate Clauses
(Level 6.2)
From The Secret Garden, by Frances Hodgson Burnett
Illustrator: M. B. Kork, N.Y.: The Phillips Publishing Co., 1911
Directions: After each sentence, write the type of the logical connection between each subordinate clause and
what it modifies. Begin by determining the type of the subordinate clause (noun, adjective, or adverb). Then use
the following:
For Noun Clauses -- "ID" (for "Identity") plus their function, for example, "ID, DO"
For Adjectival Clauses -- ID" plus the word that the clause modifies
For Adverbial Clauses -- Use one of the following plus the word that the clause modifies.
Time
C/E - result
C/E - condition
Space
C/E - purpose
C/E - concession
C/E - cause
C/E - manner
Comparison
1. Don't you be a meddlesome wench an' poke your nose where it's no cause to go.
2. He's not had a tantrum or a whining fit since you made friends.
3. She had such red cheeks and such bright eyes and ate such a dinner that Martha was
delighted.
4. The next morning when they went to the secret garden he sent at once for Ben
Weatherstaff.
5. There's no way those children can get food secretly unless they dig it out of the earth or
pick it off the trees.
6. Here was another person whom she liked in spite of his crossness.
7. Mrs. Medlock stops in our cottage whenever she goes to Thwaite.
8. She stopped herself as if she had just remembered something in time.
9. She was not sorry that she had come to Misselthwaite Manor.
10. Though there had been no chance to see either the secret garden or Dickon, Mistress
Mary had enjoyed herself very much.
11. When the nurse carried the tray down-stairs she slapped it down on the kitchen dresser so
that Mrs. Loomis, the cook, could see the highly polished dishes and plates.
12. She looked as sour as he had looked before the robin came.
13. It seemed to Mistress Mary as if she understood him, too, though he was not speaking in
words.
The Printable KISS Grammar Workbooks
The KISS Workbooks Anthology
44. The Logic of Subordinate Clauses
From The Secret Garden, by Frances Hodgson Burnett
Illustrator: M. B. Kork, N.Y.: The Phillips Publishing Co., 1911
Directions: After each sentence, write the type of the logical connection between each subordinate clause and
what it modifies. Begin by determining the type of the subordinate clause (noun, adjective, or adverb). Then use
the following:
For Noun Clauses -- "ID" (for "Identity") plus their function, for example, "ID, DO"
For Adjectival Clauses -- ID" plus the word that the clause modifies
For Adverbial Clauses -- Use one of the following plus the word that the clause modifies.
Time
C/E - result
C/E - condition
Space
C/E - purpose
C/E - concession
C/E - cause
C/E - manner
Comparison
1. But because he kept breaking into a slow grin now and then, Mary was not afraid to talk
to him.
2. At that very moment such a loud sound of wailing broke out from the servants' quarters
that she clutched the young man's arm.
3. Four good things had happened to her, in fact, since she came to Misselthwaite Manor.
4. So long as going without food agrees with them we need not disturb ourselves.
5. One time they took him out where the roses is by the fountain.
6. We can't help laughing nearly all the time when we are together.
7. Those whom Mary saw slunk or hurried about with ashy and scared faces.
8. He looked at the plump little scarlet-waistcoated bird as if he were both proud and fond of
him.
9. She stood in the corridor and could hear the crying quite plainly, though it was not loud.
10. He would not have stirred for the world, lest his robin should start away.
11. Her patient was sure that open windows gave people cold.
12. They saw more rooms and made more discoveries than Mary had made on her first
pilgrimage.
13. And the thought which stimulated him more than any other was this imagining what his
father would look like when he saw that he had a son who was as straight and strong as other
fathers' sons.
The Printable KISS Grammar Workbooks
45. Active and Passive Voice
(Level 5.7)
The KISS Workbooks Anthology
The Persian Sibyl
by Michelangelo
Cappella Sistina, Vatican
1508-12
Let's start with two sentences that illustrate the difference between active and passive voice:
1.) The Huns destroyed the town. (Active Voice)
2.) The town was destroyed. (Passive Voice)
One way of looking at the difference between the two sentences is to consider what they
mean. In the active voice (#1), the subject of the verb performs the action designated by the
verb, i.e., the subject is "active." The Huns acted to destroy the town. In passive voice, the
subject of the verb is acted upon, i.e., is "passive," and thus "receives" the action of the verb.
The town did not do anything. Somebody else destroyed it.
Another way of looking at the difference is to consider the form of the verb. Passive voice
is formed by using what grammarians call "helping verbs" plus the "past participle."
Consider the following examples:
Active: The police suspect him of being an accomplice.
Passive: He is suspected of being an accomplice.
Active: No one invited them.
Passive: They weren't invited.
Active: Someone will ask you to dance.
Passive: You will be asked to dance.
Active: Has he repaired the starboard pump?
Passive: Has the starboard pump been repaired?
Note that the "helping verb" is often some form of the verb "to be" -- "is," "are," "was,"
"were," "will be," "has been," "have been," etc. Most past participles are regular in form,
ending in "-ed." Many, however, end in "-en" -- "Seen," "driven," "frozen," "written,"
"eaten." And then there are those that are irregular -- ""told," "cut," "put." In determining
what is and what is not in passive voice, you should look at both the meaning and the form.
As you learn the distinction between active and passive voice, consider the appropriateness
of each. Active voice always shows who or what is responsible for the action expressed in
the verb. Passive voice hides this information, but in some cases, such as the description of a
procedure, who does it is not important. Sentences in passive voice can indicate the
performer of the action in a prepositional phrase with "by" -- Sasha was run over by an
elephant.
The Printable KISS Grammar Workbooks
The KISS Workbooks Anthology
KISS Level 5.7
Identifying Passive Verbs
Based on Heidi by Johanna Spyri
Directions:
1. Put parentheses ( ) around each prepositional phrase.
2. Underline subjects once, finite verbs twice, and label complements (“PN,” “PA,” “IO,” “DO”).
3. Place brackets around each subordinate clause. If the clause functions as a noun, label its function (PN, IO,
DO, OP) above the opening bracket. If it functions as an adjective or adverb, draw an arrow from the opening
bracket to the word that the clause modifies. (Write in any ellipsed subjects and/or verbs.)
4. Put a vertical line at the end of every main clause.
5. Put a "P" above each passive verb.
1. Across the room a large kettle was suspended over the hearth, and opposite to it a large
door was sunk into the wall.
2. Climbing up the ladder, she arrived at a hayloft, which was filled with fresh and fragrant
hay.
3. Here a neat little bed was already prepared.
4. The old goat was sold to somebody in Mayenfeld two days ago.
5. This poor little girl was confined to her rolling-chair and needed a companion at her
lessons.
6. The uncle's heart is filled with gratitude too deep for any words when the doctor tells him
that he will make ample provision for the child.
7. Clara was highly entertained by these events, and said: "Heidi has not done it on purpose
and must not be punished."
8. Only when she shrieked for Sebastian could her voice be heard.
9. Mr. Sesemann had hardly left, when the grandmother's visit was announced for the
following day.
10. In the last week of Mrs. Sesemann's stay, Heidi was called again to the old lady's room.
The Printable KISS Workbooks
The KISS Grammar Homepage
46. Identifying Passive Verbs
from
The KISS Grammar Tom Swifties Collection
Directions:
1. Put parentheses ( ) around each prepositional phrase.
2. Underline subjects once, finite verbs twice, and label complements (“PN,” “PA,” “IO,” “DO”).
3. Place brackets around each subordinate clause. If the clause functions as a noun, label its function ("PN,"
"IO," "DO," "OP") above the opening bracket. If it functions as an adjective or adverb, draw an arrow from the
opening bracket to the word that the clause modifies. (Write in any ellipsed subjects and/or verbs.)
4. Put a vertical line at the end of every main clause.
5. Put a "P" above each passive verb.
1. “These propulsion systems were used by NASA on moon rockets,” said Tom
apologetically.
2. “I'm mentioned in this book,” said Tom contentedly.
3. “Why is this telephone flex always tangled?” asked Tom coyly.
4. “I was removed from office,” said Tom disappointedly.
5. “The girl has been kidnapped,” said Tom mistakenly.
6. “I was absolutely vitrified,” said Tom with a glazed look.
7. “This oar is broken,” said Tom robustly.
8. “I was adopted,” said Tom transparently.
9. “My parents are called Billy and Nanny,” Tom kidded.
10. “My bicycle wheel is damaged,” said Tom outspokenly.
The Printable KISS Workbooks
The KISS Workbooks Anthology
47. Rewriting Passive Verbs as Active
& Active as Passive
From Rip Van Winkle, by Washington Irving
Illustration
by
N. C. Wyeth
A. Directions: Rewrite each of the following sentences in active voice.
1. Was he carried away by the Indians?
2. From even this stronghold the unlucky Rip was at length routed by his termagant wife.
3. The poor fellow was now completely confounded by something.
4. Old Peter Vanderdonk was seen slowly advancing up the road.
5. But however his memory may be appreciated by critics, it is still held dear by many folks.
B. Directions: Rewrite each of the following sentences in passive voice.
1. Whenever someone mentioned her name, however, he shook his head, shrugged his shoulders, and cast up his
eyes.
2. Over the door someone had painted, "The Union Hotel, by Jonathan Doolittle."
3. A cocked hat decorated the head.
4. Someone employed him to work on the farm.
5. Some say soldiers killed him at the storming of Stony-Point--others say he drowned in a squall at the foot of
Antony's Nose.
April 6, 2007
The KISS Printable Workbooks Page
The KISS Home Page
48. Noun Clauses as Direct Objects
– Quotations
Quotations that function as direct objects raise a question. Consider the following
sentence(s):
The people of the village cried, “O brothers, your words are good. We will move our lodges
to the foot of the magic mountain. We can light our wigwam fires from its flames, and we
shall not fear that we shall perish in the long, cold nights of winter.”
If we ask the question “cried what?,” in one sense the entire quotation is the answer. But the
quotation itself includes several sentences. (In some cases, they contain several paragraphs.)
Since a period ends a sentence, does this sentence end after “good,” or does it continue all the
way to “winter”? To decide where to put brackets and vertical lines, we need a consistent
answer to this question.
The KISS Grammar view is that the sentence ends at the end of the first main clause
within the quotation. In this case, that would be “good.” Thus, in KISS, this passage would
be analyzed like this:
The people {of the village} cried, [DO “O [Inj] brothers [DirA], your words are good (PA)]. |
We will move our lodges (DO) {to the foot} {of the magic mountain}. | We can light our
wigwam fires (DO) {from its flames}, | and we shall not fear [DO that we shall perish {in
the long, cold nights} {of winter}].” |
The Printable KISS Grammar Workbooks
Noun Clauses as Direct Objects
(Quotations)
Based on
“The Story of the First Hummingbird”
from
The Book of Nature Myths by Florence Holbrook
Directions:
1. Place parentheses ( ) around each prepositional phrase.
2. Underline verbs twice, their subjects once, and label complements (PA, PN, IO, or DO).
3. Place brackets [ ] around each subordinate clause that functions as a direct object and write "DO" over the
opening bracket.
4. Place a vertical line after each main clause.
5. Label each interjection ("Inj"), each noun used as an adverb ("NuA"), and each example of direct address
("DirA").
1. Then the gentle Spirit of Fire called, “Come back, my flames, come back again! The
people in the village will not know that you are in a frolic, and they will be afraid.”
2. The two hunters went to look upon the mountain, and when they came back, they said
sadly, “There are no flowers on the mountain. Not a bird-song did we hear. Not a living
creature did we see. It is all dark and gloomy. We know the fire is there, for the blue smoke
still floats up to the sky, but the mountain will never again be our friend.”
3. The Great Spirit listened to the words of the gentle Spirit of Fire, but he answered, “The
fires must perish. They have been cruel to my people, and the little children will fear them
now.”
The KISS Printable Books Page
The KISS Workbooks Anthology
49. Rewriting Adverbial Clauses as Main
and Main as Adverbial
Lassie, Come Home, by Eric Knight
A. Rewriting Adverbial Clauses as Main Clauses
Directions: Rewrite each sentence by changing an adverbial subordinate clause into a main clause. (You can do
this by creating two main clauses or by creating compound finite verbs in one main clause.)
1. Joe heard her voice trail away as, silently, he followed his father and Lassie.
2. When Joe swallowed and started to speak, his words came slowly.
3. Priscilla watched the dog until Hynes came from the front of the kennels.
4. After she launched herself out of the pen, she dropped to the ground.
5. When he had wakened once late at night, he had heard his parents arguing.
B. Rewriting Main Clauses as Adverbial
Directions: Rewrite each sentence by changing a main clause into an adverbial subordinate clause.
1. The Duke and Priscilla were out of sight. Hynes put on his cap savagely.
2. Priscilla looked down the road. She saw the dog going at a steady gait.
3. It was growing dark. Lassie came down the road.
4. He sat for some time. Then his eyes saw more plainly in the evening.
5. Their eyes followed the dog. The dog trotted near.
The KISS Printable Books Page
The KISS Workbooks Anthology
50. The Logic of Adverbial Clauses
Lassie, Come Home, by Eric Knight
Directions: After each sentence, write the type of the logical connection between each adverbial subordinate
clause and what it modifies. Use one of the following plus the word that the clause modifies.
Time
C/E - result
C/E - condition
Space
C/E - purpose
C/E - concession
C/E - cause
C/E - manner
Comparison
1. But the Duke only roared louder when he heard Priscilla's question.
2. Lassie was right where she always is.
3. Priscilla pulled the Duke's head down so that she could speak directly into his ear.
4. The young man said that in such an eerie tone that they both shuddered.
5. For a long moment the boy stood where his fingers could reach through the mesh to touch the coolness of the
dog's nose.
6. Surely then, Joe's father strode, for he knew where to look for his son.
7. Though his brain told him all these things, his heart still cried for Lassie.
8. Things were not as they used to be.
9. And when she's gone, never another tyke will I have in my house.
10. Now what would ye do if ye were alone?
The KISS Printable Books Page
The KISS Workbooks Anthology
51. The Logic of Adverbial Clauses # 1
Lassie, Come Home, by Eric Knight
Directions:
1. Put parentheses ( ) around each prepositional phrase.
2. Underline subjects once, finite verbs twice, and label complements ("PN," "PA," "IO," "DO").
3. Place brackets around each subordinate clause. Draw an arrow from the opening bracket of each adverbial
clause to the word that the clause modifies.
4. Put a vertical line at the end of every main clause.
5. Rewrite each sentence by making one of the main clauses an adverbial clause. After each of your
rewrites, list the verb in the sentence that gets the primary focus (the verb) in the main clause). Then
indicate the logical connection established by the subordinate conjunction ("time," "space," or
"cause/effect").
6. After the sentences in the original version, write the average number of words per main clause ( w/pc).
After your revision, write the number of words in the main clause.
1. Carefully her nose came nearer and nearer. Then it touched the freshly killed
rabbit.
2. Lassie was moving more slowly now. The pads of her feet were bruised and
sore.
3. The current of the river drew her down, and she disappeared.
4. She left the road behind and set her path across meadows and flatlands.
5. Now some of the stiffness was gone from her body and she managed to go quite
freely on three legs.
The Printable KISS Grammar Workbooks
The KISS Grammar Homepage
52. Alicia
MIMC: One Set of Sentences
Yields Two Paragraphs
DIRECTIONS:
1. Each sentence below contains two or three Main Clauses.
2. One clause relates to Topic Sentence A; the other relates to Topic Sentence B. Mark which
topic each clause relates to—A or B.
3. Choose either Topic A or B.
4. Change each sentence so that the clause (or clauses) related to your chosen topic is the Main
Clause(s).
5. Make the other clause (or clauses) Subordinate. Use a variety of subordinate conjunctions.
[after, although, as, because, before, if, since, when, where, while, that, what, who, how, why,
which, until, whenever, wherever, whatever, whoever, whichever, whether, for, so]
6. If your choices are correct, this one set of sentences will yield two different paragraphs!
TOPIC SENTENCES:
A. In spite of her many problems, Alicia won the contest for Prom Queen.
B. Alicia, who won the contest for Prom Queen, had to overcome many problems.
SUPPORTING SENTENCES:
1. Her boyfriend, Ralph, had lots of influence as the captain of the football team,
and he almost missed the deadline for nominating her.
2. All of his teammates promised to vote for Alicia, and most of them did; but
some of them never got around to voting at all.
3. The basketball players originally supported one of Alicia's rivals; they
eventually gave their votes to Alicia.
4. Alicia had trouble raising enough money for her campaign, so her sorority
sisters came to her rescue.
5. Trudy was Alicia's campaign manager, and she did a terrific job; however,
she came down with the flu halfway through the campaign.
6. The ballots were counted and re-counted; they clearly gave Alicia the title of
Prom Queen.
7. Alicia experienced many trying times, and she finally became the new Queen.
This exercise has been adapted from Wanda Van Goor's presentation at the Fifth Annual
Conference of the NCTE Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar, August 12 & 13,
1994. Illinois State University, Normal, IL. Ms. Van Goor teaches at Prince George's
Community College, Largo, MD.
The Printable KISS Workbooks
The KISS Workbooks Anthology
53. Rewriting Adjectival Clauses as Main Clauses
and Main as Adjectival
From Alice in Wonderland
by Lewis Carroll
A. Rewriting Adjectival Clauses as Main Clauses
Directions: Rewrite each sentence by changing an adjectival subordinate clause into a main clause. (You can
do this by creating two main clauses or by creating compound finite verbs in one main clause.)
1. The Queen said it to the Knave of Hearts, who only bowed and smiled in reply.
2. Alice found herself in a long, low hall, which was lit up by a row of lamps hanging from the roof.
3. The Hatter looked at the March Hare, who had followed him into the court.
4. Her face brightened up at the thought that she was now the right size for going through the little door into that
lovely garden.
5. Five, who had been anxiously looking across the garden, called out, "The Queen! The Queen!"
B. Rewriting Main Clauses as Adjectival
Directions: Rewrite each sentence by changing a main clause into an adjectival subordinate clause.
1. Soon her eye fell on a little glass box. It was lying under the table
2. "We, indeed!" cried the Mouse. He was trembling down to the end of its tail.
3. All she could see was an immense length of neck. It seemed to rise like a stalk out of a sea of green leaves
that lay far below her.
4. She was walking by the White Rabbit. The Rabbit was peeping anxiously into her face.
5. She came upon a neat little house. On its door was a bright brass plate.
The Printable KISS Grammar Workbooks
To Charles Dickens Page
54. Subordinate Clauses
That Function as Nouns
from Charles Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities
Illustration by Phiz
Directions:
1. Put parentheses ( ) around each prepositional phrase.
2. Underline subjects once, finite verbs twice, and label complements ("PN," "PA," "IO," "DO").
3. Place brackets around each subordinate clause. If the clause functions as a noun, label its function ( "Subj.,"
"IO," "DO," "OP") above the opening bracket. If it functions as an adjective or adverb, draw an arrow from the
opening bracket to the word that the clause modifies.
4. Put a vertical line at the end of every main clause.
1. Listen to what is to follow.
2. My petition is, that a morsel of stone or wood, with my husband's name, may be placed
over him.
3. What I must bid you to do for Charles's sake, is the hardest thing to do of all.
4. The story of his pure soul was exactly what Mr. Attorney-General had described it to be.
5. "You have no business to be incorrigible," was his friend's answer.
6. Besides that I should know it to be hopeless, I should know it to be a baseness.
7. It is what I meant to say.
8. "What we should most pray for, was, that our women might be barren and our miserable
race die out!"
9. The prisoner's counsel was cross-examining this witness with no result, except that he had
never seen the prisoner on any other occasion.
10. What those affairs were, a consideration for others who were near and dear to him,
forbade him, even for his life, to disclose.
1/24/06
The Printable KISS Grammar Workbooks
The Starry Night
1889
Vincent van Gogh
(1853-1890)
55. Delayed Subjects and Sentences
(Level 5.6)
Delayed Subjects
The delayed or postponed subject is a modification of the basic sentence pattern in which the subject
position is filled by an meaningless "it" and the meaningful subject is delayed until later in the sentence.
Perhaps the most common constructions found in delayed subjects are the infinitive or subordinate clause:
Infinitives as Delayed Subjects:
Image courtesy of Shelagh Manton (in Australia).
Clearly this sentence means "To live and to learn is good."
When an infinitive with a specified subject functions as a delayed subject, it is introduced by "for" and
can thus be considered a prepositional phrase -- "It seemed quite dull and stupid for life to go on in the
common way." (from Alice in Wonderland)
A Subordinate Clause as a Delayed Subject:
Image courtesy of Shelagh Manton (in Australia).
Here again the delayed subject can simply replace the placebo "it" -- "That it appears inevitable in retrospect
is the mark of a good action."
Although the construction usually appears with a noun clause or infinitive, other constructions or even
nouns themselves may act as delayed subjects:
Gerund:
It is difficult, waiting for your wife to have a baby.
It was a pleasure working with you.
Noun Absolute:
It was foolish, people of their age trying to climb a mountain.
Noun: It was fortunate, the trip he took.
Prepositional Phrase:
An interesting variation of the delayed subject appears with the preposition "for":
If it were not for their help, he would not have won.
In sentences such as this, the verb "to be" means "exist" -- if their help did not exist, he would not have won.
Thus the meaningful subject is delayed and placed in a prepositional phrase with "for," and a placebo "it"
takes its place at the beginning of the sentence.
As with all the constructions, delayed subjects can be embedded in other subordinate constructions. The
following sentence was written by a seventh grade student:
The old man thought it funny that the trees, now strong and stable as he once was, still grew and became
mightier, while he grew weaker and less surfeited, swaying in the wind.
The sentence is remarkable for the level of its embeddings, and especially for the reduction of "which were
now strong and stable" to the simpler "now strong and stable." Everything after the "that" is easily analyzed
in terms of clauses and the single gerundive "swaying," but what is the function of the "that" clause? It is a
delayed subject to "it" in the infinitive construction "it to be funny," "funny" thus functioning as a predicate
adjective after the ellipsed infinitive, and the infinitive, with, of course, everything that "goes to" it,
functioning as the direct object of "thought." (I explain the ellipsed word as the infinitive "to be" by analogy
with the "They made him captain" construction. You could justifiably say that the ellipsed word is "was.")
Although "it" is the pronoun most commonly found in the delayed subject construction, the following
passage, written by a seventh grader, indicates that "that" is also possible:
There wasn't any woods to go in when I got hot no places to go sleigh riding and that is boring not to be able
to do any of these things.
Delayed Sentences
Delayed Sentences are closely related to delayed subjects. Consider:
Bob was playing baseball in his back yard.
It was Bob [who was playing baseball in his back yard,]
It is playing baseball [that Bob is doing in his back yard.]
It was baseball [that Bob was playing in his back yard.]
It is in his back yard [that Bob is playing baseball.]
As these examples suggest, in a delayed sentence construction, one part of a sentence is, in essence, pulled
out and moved to the front, where it is preceded by "It" plus a form of the verb "to be." The rest of the
sentence is thus "delayed" and becomes a subordinate clause that chunks to the "It" in the same way that
delayed subjects do.
April Menu
The KISS Grammar Printable Workbooks
The KISS Grammar Anthology
Mixed Delayed Subjects
from
The Master of Ballantrae
by
Robert Louis Stevenson
Illustration by
Walter Paget
Directions:
1. Put parentheses ( ) around each prepositional phrase.
2. Underline subjects once, finite verbs twice, and label complements (“PN,” “PA,” “IO,” “DO”).
3. Place brackets around each subordinate clause. If the clause functions as a noun, label its function (PN, IO,
DO, OP) above the opening bracket. If it functions as an adjective or adverb, draw an arrow from the opening
bracket to the word that the clause modifies.
4. Put a vertical line at the end of every main clause.
5. Put a box around every gerund and gerundive. If it is a gerund indicate its function over the box. If it is a
gerundive, draw an arrow to the word it modifies.
6. Put an oval around every infinitive and indicate (as in three above) its function.
7. Put a wavy line under each noun absolute and label its function.
1. Where he stumbled, it is highly possible that another man should fall.
2. It seems hard to say why, but I could not burst in on the old man as I could on the young
woman.
3. It was there he was picked up by Captain Crail.
4. "It is more to the purpose to consider our own behaviour," said I.
5. It is one of the worst things of sentiment, that the voice grows to be more important than
the words, and the speaker than that which is spoken.
6. It is since I found you had designs upon my own that I have shown you most respect.
The KISS Printable Books Page
The KISS Workbooks Anthology
56. The Punctuation and Logic
of Compound Main Clauses
Level 6.1
Lassie, Come Home
by Eric Knight
Directions:
1. Put parentheses ( ) around each prepositional phrase.
2. Underline subjects once, finite verbs twice, and label complements ("PN," "PA," "IO," "DO").
3. Place brackets around each subordinate clause. If the clause functions as a noun, label its function ("PN,"
"IO," "DO," "OP") above the opening bracket. If it functions as an adjective or adverb, draw an arrow from the
opening bracket to the word that the clause modifies.
4. Put a vertical line at the end of every main clause.
5. Briefly explain the logic implied by the words and/or punctuation marks that join the compounded
main clauses.
1. For a second a flash of vigor flowed over her, and her tail lifted a little higher so that she
looked almost gay.
2. Lassie did what any dog will do: she braced herself for the tug and lowered her head.
3. Lassie scratched at places in the fence where her instinct told her there might be a path to
safety, but Hynes had reinforced them all.
4. Isn't there a law or something -- if you go to the pound, you can claim a dog?
5. Look at it shiver -- it isn't dead.
6. Her tired legs drove with the beat, her forefeet pumped steadily.
7. Where Lassie's coat faded to delicate sable, this curious dog had ugly splashes of black;
and where Lassie's apron was a billowing expanse of white, this dog had muddy puddles of
off-color, blue-merle mixture.
8. Dogs cannot do this; they must wait blindly until the circumstance faces them and then do
their best to meet it.
9. Oh, she was starved and bony, but somehow she reminded me of Bonnie.
The Printable KISS Grammar Workbooks
Back to September Menu
57. A Sentence-Combining Exercise
Level 3.1.2
“The Face of the Manito”
from
The Book of Nature Myths by Florence Holbrook
Directions: Combine the two sentences after each number into one sentence by making one sentence a
subordinate clause in the other. Do each sentence in as many different ways as you can.
1. Morning came. The storm had gone.
2. The warriors came nearer and nearer. Their war-cry was heard.
3. The clouds grew darker. They fell like a cloak over the mountain.
4. The people looked for the warriors. But they were nowhere to be seen.
5. The rocks had fallen from the mountain top. They were halfway down the mountainside.
The Printable KISS Grammar Workbooks
The KISS Workbooks Anthology
58. Selection # 4 from
Robert L. Heilbroner's The Worldly Philosophers
Level 6.6
Directions:
1. Put parentheses ( ) around each prepositional phrase.
2. Underline subjects once, finite verbs twice, and label complements ("PN," "PA," "IO," "DO").
3. Place brackets around each subordinate clause. If the clause functions as a noun, label its function ("PN,"
"IO," "DO," "OP") above the opening bracket. If it functions as an adjective or adverb, draw an arrow from the
opening bracket to the word that the clause modifies.
4. Put a vertical line at the end of every main clause.
5. Briefly explain the logic implied by the words and/or punctuation marks that join the compounded
main clauses.
It would be hard to imagine two persons more widely separated in background and career
than Thomas Robert Malthus and David Ricardo. Malthus, as we know, was the son of an
eccentric member of the English upper middle class; Ricardo was the son of a Jewish
merchant-banker who had immigrated from Holland. Malthus was tenderly tutored for a
university under the guidance of a philosophically minded father (one of his tutors went to
jail for expressing the wish that the French revolutionaries would invade and conquer
England); Ricardo went to work for his father at the age of fourteen. Malthus spent his life in
academic research; he was the first professional economist, teaching at the college founded
in Haileyburg by the East India Company to train its young administrators; Ricardo set up in
business for himself at the age of twenty-two. Malthus was never well-to-do; by the time he
was twenty-six, Ricardo -- who had started with a capital of eight hundred pounds -- was
financially independent, and in 1814, at the age of forty-two, he retired with a fortune
variously estimated to be worth between £500, 000 and £1,600,000.
Yet oddly enough it was Malthus, the academician, who was interested in the facts of the
real world, and Ricardo, the man of affairs, who was the theoretician; the businessman cared
only for invisible "laws" and the professor worried whether these laws fitted the world before
his eyes. And as a final contradiction, it was Malthus with his modest income who defended
the wealthy landowner, and Ricardo, a man of wealth and later a landlord himself, who
fought against their interests.
The Printable KISS Grammar Workbooks
To KISS Level 6.6
59. Writing a Point-by-Point Paragraph (Semicolons)
There are two basic ways to organize a comparison/contrast -- point-by-point, and
block-by-block. A point-by-point organization alternates between the items being
compared. In the example below, the first point is what the two animals loved to do. The
paragraph then moves to the next point, running, and talks first about the cat, and then about
the dog. (Once you set up a sequence, stay with it.) The final point in the paragraph
concerns digging, first about the cat, and then about the dog. The block-by-block
organization, obviously, puts all the sentences about the cat together, and then all the
sentences about the dog. Whichever form of organization one uses, the sentence which sets
up the comparison can be neatly done by using a semicolon.
Directions: Think about the pairs of words in the list below. Your objective is to select
one pair and write a paragraph about the ideas in that pair. Your first (topic) sentence should
indicate a basic contrast between the two ideas, and it should be composed of two main
clauses joined by a semicolon. Complete the paragraph by adding three sets of sentences,
first about the first term, and then about the second. [Note that some of the ideas, as in the
last sentence in the example, can be in subordinate clauses.]
Example:
Cats are indoor pets; dogs are more likely to be outdoors. Mysha, our cat, loved to
sit above my head on the back of my favorite chair while I watched T.V. My dog
Fortune, on the other hand, much preferred to go fishing and run around the river
banks.The longest run I ever saw Mysha make was from our bathroom to the front
door. He had grabbed the toilet paper in the bathroom and left a trail of paper behind
him. Fortune, however, ran with me for miles as I practiced for the cross country
team. Both of my favorite pets liked to dig, but Mysha dug up the dirt in our
houseplants, whereas Fortune dug holes in the yard to bury bones.
Apples; oranges
cars; trucks
boys; girls
dogs; cats
sun; moon
flowers; vegetables
day; night
baseball; football
The Printable KISS Grammar Workbooks
60. An Exercise in Logic and Style
based on
"Why The Hoofs of The Deer Are Split"
from
The Book of Nature Myths by Florence Holbrook
Directions:
1. Place parentheses ( ) around each prepositional phrase.
2. Underline verbs twice, their subjects once, and label complements (PA, PN, IO, or DO).
3. Place a vertical line after each main clause.
Everything is good and happy. The green leaves are whispering merrily together, the
waves are lapping on the shore and laughing, the squirrels are chattering and laying up
their food for winter.
Note that the second sentence has three main clauses, each of which gives a specific
example of the idea in the first sentence. Write two sentences. In the first, state a general
idea. In the second, use compound main clauses to give specific examples of the idea in the
first sentence.
The Printable KISS Grammar Workbooks
To KISS Level 3.1.2, Ex. 5
61. A Study of Parallel Constructions
Level 3.1.2
From
"The Butterfly That Stamped," by Rudyard Kipling
Picture by Joseph M. Gleeson
Parallel Constructions
"Parallel Construction" denotes similar ideas embodied in the same type of grammatical
construction, all serving the same function. Kipling's paragraph is an excellent, relatively
simple example of how some writers use parallel constructions. The second sentence
includes four clauses that function as direct objects. Each clause begins with "what," uses the
finite verb "said," and is four words long. Thus we can see four parallel direct object clauses.
The third sentence develops the parallelism with two main clauses. Each of these has a
subject and verb ("he understood") that is identical to, and thus parallel with, the main
subject and verb in the second sentence. And, similar to the second sentence, each of the two
main clauses in the third has a direct object clause that begins with "what" and is based on
the verb "said." In the third sentence, however each "understood" has only one direct object - but these two direct objects include more words, and in both of them, the "said" is modified
by an adverbial "when" clause. In other words, the two "when" clauses are parallel to each
other.
Note how the parallelism grows, in this case by the repetition of "he understood," from an
initial clause with four simple direct objects, to compound main clauses with direct objects
that are longer and themselves include similarly functioning "when" clauses. The fourth
sentence closes these parallels with another repetition -- "He understood everything . . . . "
The fifth sentence ends the paragraph with two more parallel constructions. First, there are
two parallel appositives to "Balkis" -- "his Head Queen, the Most Beautiful Queen Balkis."
The final parallel construction connects the end of the paragraph with its beginning -- "nearly
as wise as he was" parallels the first sentence "Suleiman-bin-Daoud was wise." This parallel
not only emphasizes "wise." It also forms a neat frame around the paragraph.
Directions:
1. Place parentheses ( ) around each prepositional phrase.
2. Underline verbs twice, their subjects once, and label complements (“PA,” “PN,” “IO,” or
“DO”).
3. Place brackets [ ] around each subordinate clause. If the clause functions as a noun, label
its function. If it functions as an adjective or adverb, draw an arrow from the opening bracket
to the word that the clause modifies.
4. Place a vertical line after each main clause.
5. After you have completed the analysis, study it and the notes on parallel
constructions, below.
Suleiman-bin-Daoud was wise. He understood what the beasts said, what the birds said,
what the fishes said, and what the insects said. He understood what the rocks said deep under
the earth when they bowed in towards each other and groaned; and he understood what the
trees said when they rustled in the middle of the morning. He understood everything, from
the bishop on the bench to the hyssop on the wall, and Balkis, his Head Queen, the Most
Beautiful Queen Balkis, was nearly as wise as he was.
The KISS Grammar Workbooks
Back to April Menu
62. The Opening Paragraphs of
Charles Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities
Directions:
1. Put parentheses ( ) around each prepositional phrase.
2. Underline subjects once, finite verbs twice, and label complements (PN, PA, IO, DO).
3. Place brackets around each subordinate clause. If the clause functions as a noun, label its function (PN, IO,
DO, OP) above the opening bracket. If it functions as an adjective or adverb, draw an arrow from the opening
bracket to the word that the clause modifies.
4. Put a vertical line at the end of every main clause.
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age
of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of
Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair,
we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven,
we were all going direct the other way -- in short, the period was so far like the present
period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil,
in the superlative degree of comparison only.
There were a king with a large jaw and a queen with a plain face, on the throne of
England; there were a king with a large jaw and a queen with a fair face, on the throne of
France. In both countries it was clearer than crystal to the lords of the State preserves of
loaves and fishes, that things in general were settled for ever.
7/27/10
The Printable KISS Grammar Workbooks
Before the
Rehearsal
1880
by
Edgar Degas
(1834-1917)
63. Identifying Verbals
(Level 4.1)
Any verb in a sentence that does not function as a finite verb has to function as one
of the three verbals:
Gerunds always function as nouns.
Subject: Swimming is good exercise.
Object of Preposition: Mary was thinking (about playing golf.)
Predicate Noun: The best hobby is reading.
Direct Object: They love skiing.
Notice that you have already been explaining gerunds. You have simply been considering
them subjects, etc., without knowing that they are also gerunds.
An Example of Gerunds That Function as Objects of Prepositions
Image courtesy of Shelagh Manton (in Australia)
Gerundives "always" function as adjectives.
Having rested, the students went to the dance. ["Having rested" modifies
"students."]
The book was on the table, closed and covered with dust. ["Closed" and
"covered" modify "book."
Infinitives function as nouns, adjectives, or adverbs.
Most textbooks refer to gerundives as "participles," but to do so is confusing. "Participle"
designates the form of the word -- the "-ing," "-ed," "-en," etc. ending. Both gerunds and
gerundives have participial form. Infinitives do not.
Noun: To eat is what I want to do.
Adjective: This is a good place to rest.
Adverb: They came to play.
The easiest way to identify infinitives is by the principle of exclusion: if a verb is not
finite, not a gerund, and not a gerundive, then it has to be an infinitive. There is no
other choice left. (The "to" with many infinitives helps, but not all infinitives include the
"to.")
The similarity of verbals to finite verbs is often overlooked in pedagogical grammars.
Verbals are condensed, or reduced versions of the basic sentence pattern. Like finite verbs,
they have subjects and complements. We'll look at the subjects later, but first consider the
easily understood complements.
Complements of Verbals
Logically, complements of verbals would seem to need little discussion, but I have found
that people well-trained in traditional grammar are often surprised to realize that verbals can
have complements just as finite verbs have and that these complements can be found and
distinguished in the same way that one finds and distinguishes the complements of finite
verbs, i.e., by making a question with "what or whom" after the verbal. Their surprise is
another indication of the categorizing, rather than conceptualizing approach usually taken
toward traditional syntax. Instead of looking for similarities, traditional grammarians have
stressed differences. Note that the conceptual approach not only simplifies, it also suggests
the relative importance of concepts: the subject/verb/optional complement pattern is basic not
only to every main and subordinate clause, but also to every verbal. It is truly the
fundamental pattern of the language!
Tenses of Verbals
Helping verbs are used to create tenses for verbal phrases. For now, you need not
remember the names of the tenses. Just remember that a verbal can consist of more than one
word. (In other words, it can be a verbal phrase.)
Gerunds
Tense
Active Voice
Passive Voice
Present
Helping
Being helped
Perfect
Having helped
Having been helped
Gerundives
Tense
Present
Active Voice
Helping
Passive Voice
Being helped
Present Progressive
Having been helping
-
Past
-
Helped
Past Perfect
Having helped
Having been helped
Infinitives
Tense
Present
Active Voice
(To) help
Passive Voice
(To) be helped
Present Progressive
(To) be helping
-
Present Perfect
(To) have helped
(To) have been helped
Present Perfect Progressive
(To) have been helping
-
The Printable KISS Grammar Workbooks
To Charles Dickens Page
Mixed Verbals
from Charles Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities
Illustration by Phiz
Directions:
1. Put parentheses ( ) around each prepositional phrase.
2. Underline subjects once, finite verbs twice, and label complements (“PN,” “PA,” “IO,” “DO”).
3. Place brackets around each subordinate clause. If the clause functions as a noun, label its function ("PN,"
"IO," "DO," "OP") above the opening bracket. If it functions as an adjective or adverb, draw an arrow from the
opening bracket to the word that the clause modifies.
4. Put a vertical line at the end of every main clause.
5. Put a box around every gerund and gerundive. If it is a gerund (i.e., it functions as a noun) indicate its
function over the box. If it is a gerundive, draw an arrow to the word it modifies.
6. Put an oval around every infinitive and indicate (as in three above) its function.
1. Sydney Carton drank nothing but a little coffee, ate some bread, and, having washed and
changed to refresh himself, went out to the place of trial.
2. Among these, accordingly, much discoursing with spirits went on--and it did a world of
good which never became manifest.
3. Even to hear that you had such thoughts of a daughter who never existed, strikes to my
heart as if I had been that child.
4. It was the first time, except at the trial, of her ever hearing him refer to the period of his
suffering.
5. It was now Young Jerry's turn to approach the gate.
6. But the crowning unreality of his long unreal ride, was, their all at once rising to receive
him, with every refinement of manner known to the time.
7. When it was yet light enough to work and read, she had neither engaged herself in her
usual work, nor had she read to him.
8. Nothing would induce him to speak more.
9. I have had unformed ideas of striving afresh, beginning anew, shaking off sloth and
sensuality, and fighting out the abandoned fight.
10. Carton terminated the conversation here, by rising to help him on with his outer coat.
11. Her hope had been to avert the wrath of Heaven from a House that had long been hateful
to the suffering many.
The Printable KISS Workbooks
The KISS Workbooks Anthology
64. A Focus on Gerundives
Level 4.3
From "The Blue Hotel"
by Stephen Crane
Directions:
1. Put parentheses ( ) around each prepositional phrase.
2. Underline subjects once, finite verbs twice, and label complements ("PN," "PA," "IO," "DO").
3. Place brackets around each subordinate clause. If the clause functions as a noun, label its function ("PN,"
"IO," "DO," "OP") above the opening bracket. If it functions as an adjective or adverb, draw an arrow from the
opening bracket to the word that the clause modifies.
4. Put a vertical line at the end of every main clause.
5. Put a box around every gerund and gerundive. If it is a gerund (i.e., it functions as a noun) indicate its
function over the box. If it is a gerundive, draw an arrow to the word it modifies.
1. Assisted by his father Johnnie struggled to his feet.
2. He began to shuffle the cards, fluttering them together with an angry snap.
3. Once his back happened to be half turned towards the door, and, hearing a noise there, he
wheeled and sprang up, uttering a loud cry.
4. Having finished the preparation of his baggage, the Swede straightened himself.
5. Then a plan seemed to strike him. "Here," he cried, picking up his lamp and moving
towards the door.
6. His hand, grasping the spectacles, now remained poised awkwardly and near his shoulder.
7. No snow was falling, but great whirls and clouds of flakes, swept up from the ground by
the frantic winds, were streaming southward with the speed of bullets.
8. The Swede asked some questions about the game, and, learning that it wore many names,
and that he had played it when it was under an alias, he accepted the invitation.
9. Immediately turning their backs upon the wind, the men had swung around a corner to the
sheltered side of the hotel.
10. The daughters of the house, when they were obliged to replenish the biscuits, approached
as warily as Indians, and, having succeeded in their purpose, fled with ill-concealed
trepidation.
The KISS Grammar HomePage
The KISS Workbooks Anthology
65. A Focus on Gerundives
Ex. 3 Based on "The Lagoon," by Joseph Conrad
Directions:
1. Put parentheses ( ) around each prepositional phrase.
2. Underline subjects once, finite verbs twice, and label complements ("PN," "PA," "IO," "DO").
3. Place brackets around each subordinate clause. If the clause functions as a noun, label its function ("PN,"
"IO," "DO," "OP") above the opening bracket. If it functions as an adjective or adverb, draw an arrow from the
opening bracket to the word that the clause modifies.
4. Put a vertical line at the end of every main clause.
5. Put a box around every gerund and gerundive. If it is a gerund (i.e., it functions as a noun) indicate its
function over the box. If it is a gerundive, draw an arrow to the word it modifies.
1. The white man, standing gazing upwards before the doorway, heard in the hut a confused
and broken murmur of distracted words ending with a loud groan.
2. And the white man’s canoe, advancing upstream in the short-lived disturbance of its own
making, seemed to enter the portals of a land from which the very memory of motion had
forever departed.
3. “She breathes,” said Arsat in a low voice, anticipating the expected question.
4. The boats floated, clustered together, in the red light of torches, under a black roof of
smoke; and men talked of their sport.
5. The water gurgled aloud; and suddenly the long straight reach seemed to pivot on its
center, the forests swung in a semicircle, and the slanting beams of sunset touched the
broadside of the canoe with a fiery glow, throwing the slender and distorted shadows of its
crew upon the streaked glitter of the river.
The Printable KISS Workbooks
The KISS Workbooks Anthology
66. From Main Clause to Subordinate to Gerundive
From "The Blue Hotel"
by Stephen Crane
Directions: Rewrite each of the following sentences, first by reducing what is (or could be) a main clause to a
subordinate clause, and then by reducing the subordinate clause to a gerundive.
1. The guests of the blue hotel were lighting their pipes. They assented with grunts of lazy masculine
contentment.
As a subordinate clause:
As a gerundive:
2. The cowboy had been steadily gazing at the Swede. He then spoke: "What's wrong with you, mister?"
As a subordinate clause:
As a gerundive:
3. He shivered and turned white near the corners of his mouth.
As a subordinate clause:
As a gerundive:
4. The Swede opened the door and passed into the storm. He gave one derisive glance backward at the still
group.
As a subordinate clause:
As a gerundive:
5. The Swede domineered the whole feast, and he gave it the appearance of a cruel bacchanal.
As a subordinate clause:
As a gerundive:
The Printable KISS Grammar Books
Before the
Rehearsal
1880
by
Edgar Degas
(1834-1917)
The KISS Grammar Homepage
67. Simple Appositives
(Level 5.4)
Most definitions of "appositive" limit the concept to nouns, i.e., two nouns joined by their
referring to the same thing with no preposition or conjunction joining them:
They are in Winchester, a city in Virginia.
Mary, a biologist, studies plants.
Whole/Part Appositives
Many textbooks also point out that the relationship between an appositive and the word to
which it is in apposition does not have to be one of strict equality. Often the appositives refer
to parts:
The car has several new features -- an electric motor, side airbags, and an alloy-aluminum
frame.
As the following sentence from Theodore Dreiser's "The Lost Phoebe" illustrates, the
"equality" aspect of an appositive can be stretched:
Beyond these and the changes of weather – the snows, the rains, and the fair days – there
are no immediate, significant things.
"Snows." "rains" and "fair days" are not "changes"; they are what the weather changes to and
from. Some linguists may have a technical name for this type of appositive, but I doubt that
the general public needs such a specialized name.
The "part/whole" relationship of appositives suggests another way of looking at the fairly
frequent use of "all" after a noun. In this case, the "all" emphasizes the "whole":
They all went to the movies.
Although we could consider "all" here to be an adjective that appears after the noun it
modifies, some people may prefer to see it as a pronoun that functions as an appositive to the
preceding pronouns or nouns.
Reflexive Pronouns as Appositives
Reflexive pronouns ("myself," "yourself," etc.) function as appositives -He himself would never have done that.
Repetitive Appositives
As sentences become longer and more complex, a word is sometimes repeated and
functions as an appositive:
The cat had eyes that glowed in the dark light of the quarter-moon night, eyes that held him
entranced until he heard a scream in the distance.
The Printable KISS Grammar Workbooks
The KISS Workbooks Anthology
Simple Appositives
Based on the cast of characters for
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd
by Agatha Christie
Directions:
1. Place parentheses ( ) around each prepositional phrase.
2. Underline verbs twice, their subjects once, and label complements (PA, PN, IO, or DO).
3. Place brackets [ ] around each subordinate clause. If the clause functions as a noun, label its function. If it
functions as an adjective or an adverb, draw an arrow from the opening bracket to the word that the clause
modifies.
4. Place a vertical line after each main clause.
5. Label each appositive "App" and draw an arrow from the appositive to the word to which it stands in
apposition.
1. A loving older sister with a ferret-like curiosity and the staying power of a bloodhound,
Caroline Sheppard hated to lose at anything -- even when the game was murder.
2. Dr. James Sheppard, a discreet country doctor with the reticence of a father confessor, let
Caroline have her way, but wasn't sure she'd like the answers.
3. A startlingly handsome devil-may-care rake, Ralph Paton, Roger Ackroyd's stepson, was
embarrassingly short of money and the only solution to his problem was a drastic one.
4. Miss Russell, a handsome somewhat-dried-up housekeeper, seemed the perfect matron in
the Ackroyd household, but the doctor found her too inquisitive about the use of poisons.
5. A penniless, pretentious widow, Mrs. Cecil Ackroyd accepted the charity of her brotherin-law unwillingly and vowed she'd do anything to be independent.
6. Flora Ackroyd, a golden-haired, creamy-skinned English lass, was engaged to Ralph and
protected his reputation even when she learned about his other life.
The KISS Grammar Printable Workbooks
The KISS Grammar Anthology
68. Appositives
from
The Master of Ballantrae
by Robert Louis Stevenson
Illustration by Walter Paget
Directions:
1. Put parentheses ( ) around each prepositional phrase.
2. Underline subjects once, finite verbs twice, and label complements (“PN,” “PA,” “IO,” “DO”).
3. Place brackets around each subordinate clause. If the clause functions as a noun, label its function ("PN,"
"IO," "DO," "OP") above the opening bracket. If it functions as an adjective or adverb, draw an arrow from the
opening bracket to the word that the clause modifies.
4. Put a vertical line at the end of every main clause.
5. Label every appositive ("App") and draw an arrow from it to the word for which it is an appositive.
1. At a far later period I chanced to speak of these particulars with a doctor of medicine, a
man of so high a reputation that I scruple to adduce his name.
2. In short, they were like all the smugglers in the world, spies and agents ready-made for
either party.
3. My philosophy, the extraordinary genius of Ballantrae, our valour, in which I grant that we
were equal -- all these might have proved insufficient without the Divine blessing on our
efforts.
4. I was by the window, looking out, when there passed below me the Master, Mrs. Henry,
and Miss Katharine, that now constant trio.
5. The man himself appeared in their midst, walking openly and quietly.
6. It fastened with a ring and three padlocks, the keys (for greater security) being divided;
one to Teach, one to Ballantrae, and one to the mate, a man called Hammond.
The Printable KISS Grammar Workbooks
The KISS Workbooks Anthology
69. Rewriting: Main Clauses to Subordinate Clauses
to Appositives
Based on "Perseus"
in The Heroes, or Greek Fairy Tales For My Children
by Charles Kingsley
Illustrations by Howard Davie
Directions: Rewrite each of the following sentences twice, first by reducing a main clause to a subordinate
clause, and then by reducing the subordinate clause to an appositive.
1. I said that Dictys' brother was Polydectes. Polydectes was king of the island.
As a Subordinate Clause:
As an Appositive:
2. Proetus was his wicked brother. Proetus had made war against him afresh.
As a Subordinate Clause:
As an Appositive:
3. Stay and play with us. We are the lonely maidens who dwell for ever far away from Gods
and men.
As a Subordinate Clause:
As an Appositive:
4. You must ask them the way to the Nymphs. They are the daughters of the Evening Star,
who dance about the golden tree, in the Atlantic island of the west.
As a Subordinate Clause:
As an Appositive:
5. And out of the north the sandstorms rushed upon him. They were blood-red pillars and
wreaths blotting out the noonday sun.
As a Subordinate Clause:
As an Appositive:
The Printable KISS Grammar Workbooks
KISS Level 6.5 - Statistical Stylistics
Statistical Projects
Analyzing my own Writing
Statistical Analysis
Directions for KISS Level 3 and Higher
Analyze the text::
1. Place parentheses around each prepositional phrase.
2. Underline every subject once, every verb twice, and label complements ("PA," "PN," "IO," and "DO").
3. Put brackets [ ] around every subordinate clause and use arrows or labels to indicate their function.
4. Put a vertical line at the end of every main clause.
Collect the data:
1. Count the total number of words in the selection.
2. Count the total number of main clauses (vertical lines) in the selection.
3. Count the total number of opening brackets that mark subordinate clauses.
TW
TMC
TSC
______
______
______
W
/MC
______
TSC
/TMC
______
Calculate the statistics:
4. Average number of words per main clause:
Divide the total number of words (TW) by the total number of main clauses
(TMC). [The average number of words in a main clause is a primary measure
of "syntactic maturity."] You can compare that number to the numbers in the
statistical exercises that you will do and/or to the average for your class.
5. Average number of subordinate clauses per main clause:
Divide the total number of subordinate clause (TSC) by the total number of
main clauses (TMC). Multiply the result by 100.
June 26, 2010
The Printable KISS Workbooks Page
Return to Background Essays
Ballet Dancers
in the Wings
(c. 1900)
by
Edgar Degas
(1834-1917)
71. Statistical Exercises
and KISS Grammar
Although many English teachers are not enamored by statistics, statistical exercises are very important for
two reasons. First, they can provide useful information about students' writing, not only to teachers, but also to
the students themselves. Second, used within the KISS framework, they can be a primary source of motivation
for students.
Most of the research on natural syntactic development was based on statistical studies. In the 1960's,
Kellogg Hunt demonstrated that the average length of students' main clauses (which he called "T-units")
naturally increases with age. Hunt called them "T-Units" because of the lack of a standard definition for "main
clause." Hunt's "T-unit" is the same as the KISS definition of a main clause. Before Hunt's work, researchers
had been looking for a "yardstick" to measure "syntactic maturity"--the way and rate at which sentences
naturally grow longer and more complex as people become more mature. Attempts to count words per
sentence fail because third and fourth graders write long sentences by compounding main clauses, especially
with "and."
Hunt's work was reinforced by the studies of Roy O'Donnell and of Walter Loban. In the following two
tables, Loban's data was taken from Language Development: Kindergarten through Grade Twelve. Urbana,
IL.: NCTE. 1976. 32. Hunt's and O'Donnell's data is from Frank O'Hare's Sentence Combining. Urbana, IL.:
NCTE. 1971. p. 22.
Average Number of Words per Main Clause by Grade Level
Grade
Level
Loban's
Study
3
7.60
4
8.02
5
8.76
6
9.04
7
8.94
8
10.37
9
10.05
10
11.79
11
10.69
12
13.27
Professional
Writers
Hunt's
Study
O'Donnell's
Study
7.67
8.51
9.34
9.99
11.34
14.4
20.3
The differences in the studies (such as O'Donnell's showing 9.99 words/main clause for 7th grade students and
Loban's showing 8.94) should raise questions, but there is little doubt that the average number of words per
main clause increases with age. Because a reader's brain dumps to long-term memory at the end of main
clauses, the clearing of STM creates a rhythm to the text. Even if readers can not identify main clauses, they
can surely sense the difference in rhythm.
There are many questionable aspects to these studies. For example, what kind of writing did the student do?
Narrative writing (stories), for example, almost certainly involve fewer cause/effect statements than do some
expository topics. Then there are questions about the students' preparation on the topic that they were asked to
write about. Perhaps most important, exactly how were the writing samples analyzed--what counted for what?
Sometimes, for example, students' writing is illegible. How does one count what one cannot decipher? It was,
I believe, Roy O'Donnell, who referred to these as "garbles." Many of these studies simply omitted garbles
from the text. But how many garbles were there in the samples?
I had the opportunity of meeting Roy O'Donnell at a national conference, and I asked him where the
original samples were. His response was that they were probably in a box in someone's garage. It is an
understandable response -- at that time, of course, there was no internet. If the samples of students' writing
were scanned and put on the internet (which is now easily possible), such studies would be much more valid.
Statistical studies, however, are typically expensive and very time-consuming, and few, if any, such studies
have been done to follow up on this work after the seventies. (That is why the KISS statistical studies section
is called "Cobweb Corner.")
All of these questions should make us cautious about how we use the results of such studies, but as general
guidelines for what should be taught when, and as instructional exercises for students, these studies can be
very helpful.
The studies that analyzed words per main clause, for example, also explored subordinate clauses per main
clause:
Subordinate Clauses per Main Clause by Grade Level
Grade
Level
Loban's
Study
Hunt's
Study
3
.18
4
.19
5
.21
6
.29
7
.28
8
.50
9
.47
10
.52
11
.45
12
.60
Professional
Writers
O'Donnell's
Study
.29
.27
.30
.42
.68
.74
The large increase between seventh and eighth grade led Hunt and some of his colleagues to conclude that
subordinate clauses are mastered in seventh grade. This is an extremely provocative and complicated question
that I cannot discuss here in detail. It is interesting to note, however, that in my experience seventh grade
teachers are the ones who are most likely to complain about the comma-splices, run-ons, and fragments in
their students' writing. These are all clause-boundary errors that could be the result of their average and belowaverage students struggling to get subordinate clauses into their writing.
Also interesting and relevant here is O'Donnell's concept of "formulas"--strings of words that children
master as wholes without total mastery of the grammatical construction. By the time they enter school, for
example, most children have used subordinate clauses as direct objects thousands of times after "formulas""
such as "Daddy said I could go." Similarly, they may learn and use many adverbial clauses as strings -"When it gets dark, come home." My point here is that if the results of these studies are valid, they pose a
serious question about what we should expect from--and what grammar we should teach--to students before
they enter seventh grade.
Unfortunately, the work of these researchers was abused as some educators began to assume that longer
equals better. Thus, many of the studies that supposedly show that teaching grammar is useless (or even
"harmful") were based on sentence-combining exercises and then considered the longer sentences as simply
better--even if they contained more errors.
The trend toward sentence-combining led to many teachers simply bringing sentence-combining exercises
into their classrooms -- for everyone to do. The teachers were almost always unaware that in the studies that
claimed sentence-combining is better, errors in the students' writing had been eliminated before the final
results were tallied. In one study that I am aware of, the errors tripled in the writing of the students who did
the sentence-combining." And, as might have been expected, sentence-combining is most effective with those
students who are already good at combining shorter sentences into longer ones. [1] When such exercises are
brought into the classroom for everyone to do, they simply push all students into writing longer sentences,
thereby, perhaps, pushing good writers into longer and weaker sentences.
The KISS Approach, of course, enables students to see what, how, and why when they are combining
sentences so that errors will not increase, but statistical exercises in KISS grammar also enable students to see
where they themselves are in relation to their classmates (and everyone else for that matter). If nothing else,
students can be given the results of the studies by Hunt, O'Donnell, and Loban (above). Then, instead of an
emphasis on longer, longer, and longer sentences, most students should be encouraged to aim for the average.
If, for example, they are between eighth and eleventh grades, they (and their teachers) should be satisfied if
they are averaging ten words per main clause. Instead of pushing for more length, the instructional emphasis
should be on sentence variety, and control (i.e., avoiding errors.) With that control, they will progress,
naturally, into longer main clauses.
In the KISS Approach, students can start doing such studies of their own writing as soon as they are fairly
comfortable in KISS Level 3 (Clauses). In the approach, students put a vertical line at the end of each main
clause. To arrive at a figure comparable to that in the studies, all they have to do is to count the words in the
passage they wrote and are analyzing, and then divide that number by the number of vertical lines. Most
students will find themselves pleasantly pleased. Some, however, will see for themselves that they are below
the norm, and, human nature being what it is, they will probably want to catch up, especially since the KISS
Approach can give them good, usable guidance for doing so.
The students that find themselves well above the norm raise some additional questions. The first two are
How much above the norm are they, and how error-free is their writing? If their writing is basically error-free,
and they are not much above the norm for professional writers (20 words per main clause), then they are fine.
If their writing contains numerous errors, they should be encouraged to simplify and gain control.
My college Freshmen often did such a study. As a class, they always averaged between 14.9 and 15.5 words
per main clause. But I usually had three or four students who average close to 25 words per main clause.
These students are, I firmly believe, hurting themselves. The KISS psycholinguistic model helps students
understand how and why. The model suggests that we process incoming information in a very tight, sevenslot, working memory. Within those seven slots, we probably handle not just the syntactic "chunking" of the
sentence, but also some global questions -- such as the point of the entire paper, the topic sentences, etc. Any
crash in the processing may therefore cause a reader to lose track of important points of the paper. And the
longer the main clauses are, the more likely it will be that some readers will have trouble processing them. An
error that might be minor in a short main clause can cause a major crash in a 30-word main clause. Students
understand this, and thus statistical exercises can put a brake on the push for more and more length. And, of
course, the KISS Approach includes exercises in de-combining as well as sentence-combining.
The National Council of Teachers of English has often claimed that students have a right to their own
language, but that right is meaningless unless students have some perspective on how their language, their
writing, compares with everyone else's. Statistical exercises can give students that perspective.
Kellogg Hunt raised another very interesting point in his "Early Blooming and Late Blooming Syntactic
Structures." [2] In essence, he claimed that most high school students use few, if any, appositives or
gerundives. Both of these constructions can be seen as reductions of subordinate clauses.
Subordinate Clause: Martha, who is a high school senior, wrote an excellent paper on nuclear physics.
Appositive: Martha, a high school senior, wrote an excellent paper on nuclear physics.
Subordinate Clause: For a long time he struggled, as he tried to get the egg to go through the neck of the
bottle.
Gerundive: For a long time he struggled, trying to get the egg to go through the neck of the bottle.
In an introduction to statistical studies, I cannot get into all the questionable aspects of this study, but my own
research supports it as does developmental theory -- students cannot very well master the reduction of
subordinate clauses before they master subordinate clauses themselves.
Hunt's essay is one of the primary reasons for KISS focusing on clauses in Level 3, and leaving gerundives
(and other verbals) to Level 4. Appositives are in Level 5. (The other primary reason is that almost any text
will include more clauses than it will gerundives or appositives.) Another nice aspect of Hunt's idea of "late
blooming" constructions is that it enables teachers to praise the "advanced" constructions that do occasionally
appear in the writing of even the weakest student writers.
For students, the value of doing a statistical analysis of their own writing probably cannot be overstated,
especially if it is done in the context of their classmates’ writing, or, if that is not possible, in the context of the
research studies discussed above. One advantage is that counting constructions makes them look at the syntax
of their own writing much more closely than they normally would. For example, once they learn how to
identify prepositional phrases, students can place them in parentheses almost without thinking about them.
Counting the prepositional phrases, however, requires more time, but also provides a different perspective—
how many do they actually use? This becomes even more interesting if they can compare the number they use
to what their classmates are doing. In other words, let the students analyze their own writing and then compare
it to a norm..
I used to have my college Freshmen analyze a sample of their own writing for words per main clause and
for subordinate clauses per main clause. One class period was spent in small-group work with the students
checking each others' analyses and statistics. In was not unusual for a student to bring her or his paper to me
and say, "Doctor Vavra, I don't have any subordinate clauses." A quick check verified that, and I suggested
sentence-combining exercises from the KISS site. The students appeared to take the problem and the
suggestion seriously, especially since they could see for themselves, from what was going on in the class, that
most of their peers had at least a few subordinate clauses in their samples.
They could also see that other students were coming up to me to ask, "I have a subordinate clause within a
subordinate clause that is itself within a subordinate clause. Is that o.k.?" In such cases, my answer was
usually, "Yes, but you might want to consider some de-combining exercises." It was, I knew, near the end of
the semester and most of these students would never have formal work on grammar again. Few of them
probably used my suggestions. But the point is that these students were beginning to see and understand some
basic aspects of their own writing styles in the context of the writing of their peers. Students should probably
do at least one such statistical analysis of their own writing every year. And these studies should be kept so
that the students can see for themselves how their writing styles change as they grow older.
Perhaps an even more important example is a retired gentleman who was in an advanced essay course that I
was teaching many years ago. He wanted to write a book, but he said that first he needed to improve his
writing. The class met once a week, and after most classes, he and I would chat about his writing. I couldn't
find any problems with it, and I kept probing to see what he thought his problem was. Finally, he stated that
one of his teachers had told him that his sentences were too long. As soon as he said that, I knew what to do.
We took several samples of his writing and simply counted the number of words per main clause. We then
compared the result (21 words per main clause) with those of Hunt, O'Donnell, and Loban. There was, in
essence, nothing "long" about this gentleman's sentences. But a subjective comment by one of his teachers
resulted in his feeling insecure about his writing not only throughout the rest of his education, but also
throughout his entire professional career! Teachers, often without thinking, can do that. I have often heard
teachers refer to sentences as being "short and choppy," although I myself have no idea of what they mean by
"choppy." Subjective comments can hurt students, often seriously.
Statistical research, done by students on their own writing, and done in the context of that by Hunt, etc.
(and of some on this site) eliminates the subjectivity. And, as noted above, the objective of the project is not
only to enable students to see how their writing matches the "norm," but also to keep their writing within a
reasonable range of that norm.
1. See "Words Enough and Time: Syntax and Error One Year After," by Elaine P. Maimon and Barbara F.
Nodine. and "Sentence Expanding: Not Can, or How, but When," by Rosemary Hake and Joseph M. Williams
in Daiker, Donald A., Andrew Kerek, & Max Morenberg, eds. Sentence Combining and the Teaching of
Writing: Selected Papers from the Miami University Conference, Oxford, Ohio, October 27 & 28, 1978. The
Departments of English, University of Akron and the University of Central Arkansas, 1979.
2. "Early Blooming and Late Blooming Syntactic Structures." In C.R. Cooper & L. Odell (eds.) Evaluating
Writing: Describing, Measuring, and Judging. Urbana: NCTE, 1977. 91-104.
See also:
The Problem with Pure Statistics: A Closer Look at an Eighth Grader's Writing --"The Road to Lhut Golane,"
by Kellen in Australia [Grade 8, Feb. 15]
The Printable KISS Grammar Workbooks
About the KISS Joke Collection
SE #1: Prepositions by Themselves Can Function as Adverbs
(Level 1.5)
When their objects are understood, prepositions often function as adverbs. In the sentence, "Come in." it is
understood that the speaker is inside something -- a room, a house, a den -- so the object of "in" is left out. In
such cases, you can usually consider the preposition by itself to be an adverb.
Image is adapted from
one by Robert Day for
Fun Fare: A Treasury of
Reader's Digest Wit
and Humor,
N.Y. Simon and Schuster,
1949, 237.
Mama Skunk
Directions:
1. Put parentheses ( ) around each prepositional phrase.
2. Underline subjects once, finite verbs twice, and label complements ("PN," "PA," IO," "DO").
3. Draw an arrow from each preposition (without an object) to the word it modifies.
Mama Skunk was worried because she could never keep track of her two children. They
were named In and Out, and whenever In was in, Out was out; and if Out was in, In was out.
One day she called Out in to her and told him to go out and bring In in. So Out went out and
in no time at all he brought In in.
"Wonderful!" said Mama Skunk. "How, in all that great forest, could you find him in so
short a time?"
"It was easy," said Out. "In stinct."
--This Week Magazine
1/3/09
Return to the KISS Workbooks Home Page
SE #2: The KISS Grammar Basic Guide to Punctuation
(Level 1.7)
[See also The KISS Approach to Teaching Punctuation.]
Note that Levels One and Two are intended for use with primary school children.
Levels One & Two
Punctuation and Capitalization
Punctuating Sentences
Sentences should begin with a capital letter and end with a
period, question mark, or exclamation point:
Molly wanted to go home.
Did Molly want to go home?
Molly, go home!
The names of specific people, places, and things should be in capital letters: Bob Murphy,
New York State, Thanksgiving.
Commas are used
1.) to separate items in a series:
Tom, Bill, and Jerry went to the park.
Tom played football, ate a sandwich, and then went to a movie.
Bill found an old, dirty, uncomfortable jacket.
2.) to set off constructions, such as prepositional phrases, direct address,
interjections, or nouns used as adverbs, that add additional information to a
sentence:
Long ago, on a hill in Greece, Philemon and Baucis lived.
David, where have you been?
Gee, I didn't think it was important.
Monday, they went to see the doctor.
3.) to separate the parts of a date and the parts of an address:
I will meet you Thursday, May 13, at Cousin John's house, 814 Maple Street, Akron, Ohio.
Use Quotation Marks around
1. the exact words that people said: Molly said, "I want to stay here."
Note that
1. a comma is used after words such as "said," and before the quotation, and
2. the closing quotation mark goes after the final punctuation mark.
2. a word that refers to the word itself and not to what it means: "Five" has four letters in it.
An apostrophe is used:
1. To show that something in some way belongs to someone: Anthony's house; Sharon's
idea, the town's streets.
2. In contractions to show that letters have been left out -We'll be there. = We will be there.
I'm going. = I am going.
It's here! = It is here!
'Til = Until
Level Two (S/V/C Patterns)
1. Quotation Marks: Use single quotation marks for quotations within quotations:
The serpent hissed, "I could have eaten that cat last night if he had not called, 'Watch, little
cat, watch!'"
2. Commas: Do not put a comma between a subject and its verb, or between a verb and
its complement, unless you have a specific reason for doing so.
Incorrect: They were having fun and playing, football.
Correct: They delivered, once a week, milk and cookies.
[The commas set off "once a week."]
It was a boring, frustrating, and generally lousy game.
[The commas separate the series of adjectives.]
Level Three: (Clauses)
1. Punctuating Compound Main Clauses
2. Subordinate clauses at the beginning of a sentence are usually followed by a comma:
Since no one was there, Bill and Jolinda decided to leave.
You will find many professional writers apparently ignoring this rule, but some teachers and
editors are fussy about it. Its real importance is to close the mental processing of the initial
subordinate clause. In effect the comma tells the reader that none of the following words
chunk to the preceding S/V pattern.
Note what can happen when the rule is violated. The following sentence is from William
Golding's The Inheritors (NY: Harcourt, Brace & World, Inc., 1955, p. 19). Golding is
describing an old woman who is about to cross a creek, using an old tree trunk as a bridge:
When she walked swiftly across the trunk scarcely stirred in the water.
The odds are that you read "across the trunk" as a prepositional phrase and were then
confused when you hit "stirred" -- there is no subject for it. But look at what happens if we
add a comma:
When she walked swiftly across, the trunk scarcely stirred in the water.
The comma automatically tells readers that there is no object for the preposition "across." As
a result, we process "trunk" as the subject of "stirred."
In context, it is possible that Golding wanted the confusion. This part of The Inheritors
presents a confusing view of prehistoric humans, in part from their own point of view. It
might, however, simply be a mistake, by Golding and by his editors. (Even professionals
make mistakes.) The point is that if you get in the habit of putting commas after initial
subordinate clauses, you are much less likely to confuse your readers.
Restrictive and Non-Restrictive Constructions
Clauses (and other constructions) that restrict or limit the meaning of the word that they
modify should not be set off by commas. Clauses (and other constructions) that simply give
additional information are usually set off by commas. Often, whether something is restrictive
or non-restrictive depends on the context:
Restrictive: The man who stole the car got away.
Non-Restrictive: The man, who stole the car, got away.
The restrictive version of the preceding would be used if readers already knew that the car
had been stolen. The clause "who stole the car" thus identifies (restricts the meaning of)
"man." For example: "Two men robbed the bank. The man who stole the car got away." The
non-restrictive version assumes that the identity of "man" is already clear. For example: "A
man and a woman robbed the bank. The man, who stole the car, got away."
Parentheses ( ) can be used to set off explantory or other non-restrictive information:
The door-sill of the cave shines with a row of golden beads (small lights, to guide the foot) -it is irresistible. (Christopher Morley)
Level Four: (Verbals)
The subject of a gerund is written as a possessive -- with an apostrophe: Bill's reading the
book surprised us.
Level Five: (Additional Constructions)
Appositives are often set off by commas, but they may also be set off by dashes.
The top of the hill, the objective of their hike, was a long way off.
The top of the hill -- the objective of their hike -- was a long way off.
Noun absolutes that function as adverbs are almost always set off by commas.
Suzanne, her hair glowing in the dim light, did not appear to be interested.
The KISS Grammar Workbooks
Back to December Menu
"Dear John"
-- The Importance of Correct Punctuation
Directions: The following letter can be punctuated two different ways to mean two entirely different things.
Copy the letter and add punctuation marks to make it clear and meaningful. You will need to change some small
letters into capitals.
Dear John
I want a man who knows what love is all about you are generous kind thoughtful people
who are not like you admit to being useless and inferior you have ruined me for other men I
yearn for you I have no feelings whatsoever when we're apart I can be forever happy will you
let me be yours
Jane
The KISS Grammar Printable Books Page
SE #3 -- The "To" Problem
(Level 2.2.1)
When the word that answers the question "To what?" is a noun or
pronoun, the construction is a prepositional phrase. When that word is
a verb, the construction is not a prepositional phrase.
(It is an infinitive, but you do not need to remember that now.)
Not Prepositional Phrases:
Prepositional Phrases:
Do the mice want to talk?
Pay attention {to their talk}.
To give is better than to receive.
He gave some money {to an orphanage}.
It was a summer to remember.
They traveled {from April} {to August}.
Sam went to see Bill.
But Bill went {to sea}.
Carol wished to play.
Carol went {to a play}.
Jerome wanted to object.
Jennifer went close {to the object}.
Terri loves to shop.
She'll go {from shop} {to shop} all day long.
Note that an "a," "an," or "the" before a word usually indicates that it is a noun.
Remember that you need to pay attention to the meanings of the words:
Margaret remembered to bill the team. She gave the bill {to Bill}.
The Printable KISS Grammar Workbooks
To Charles Dickens Page
That Pesky "To"
From
Charles Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities
Directions: 1. Put parentheses ( ) around each prepositional phrase.
2. Underline subjects once, finite verbs twice, and label complements ("PN," "PA," "IO," "DO").
3. Place brackets [ ] around each subordinate clause. If the clause functions as a noun, label its function. If it
functions as an adjective or adverb, draw an arrow from the opening bracket to the word that the clause
modifies.
4. Place a vertical line after each main clause.
1. "Her husband's destiny," said Madame Defarge, "will lead him to the end that is to end
him.
2. Mr. Stryver resolved to make her happiness known to her before he left town for the Long
Vacation.
3. I had looked to them, to see that they were not painful.
4. I will go to others whom it is better not to name.
5. Mr. Lorry took the hesitating little hand that confidingly advanced to take his, and he put it
with some ceremony to his lips.
6. He trotted back with the message he was to deliver to the night watchman in his box at the
door of Tellson's Bank, by Temple Bar, who was to deliver it to greater authorities within.
7. Promise me solemnly that nothing will influence you to alter the course on which we now
stand pledged to one another.
8. I feel that it is a pleasant thing for a man to have a home when he feels inclined to go to it.
9. She curtseyed to him (young ladies made curtseys in those days), with a pretty desire to
convey to him that she felt how much older and wiser he was than she.
10. I entreat you to observe that I have come here voluntarily, in response to that written
appeal of a fellow-countryman which lies before you.
The Printable KISS Grammar Workbooks
To KISS Level 2.2.1
SE #4 -- A Mini-Lesson on
"To" and "Too"
When readers see the word "to," they expect to find a word after it that
answers the question "to what?" If that word is a noun or pronoun, the
construction is a prepositional phrase:
Peter said it {to Benjamin}.
Benjamin gave it {to him}.
If the word is not a noun or pronoun, the construction is an infinitive. You will
study infinitives later, so you do not need to remember the term now. All you
need to remember is that the construction is not a prepositional phrase:
Benjamin wanted to bring onions to his mother.
When readers see the word "too," they do not expect to find a word after it
that answers the question "What?" "Too" basically has two meanings. First, it
can mean "also":
Peter ate onions too.
Second, it is used for comparison:
The lettuce was too old.
In the preceding sentence, the "too" compares the lettuce to what the writer
considers to be the norm for freshness of lettuce.
Because "to" raises expectations of "what?" in readers, and "too" does not,
misspelling "to" or "too" distracts most readers. That is why it is so often
noted as an error.
The Printable KISS Grammar Workbooks
To KISS Level 2.2.1
Yes?
To?
Is "to"
a Preposition?
Which One?
Too?
No?
Writing Sentences with "To"
#1
Write four sentences with "to" used as a preposition.
#2
Write four sentences with "to" followed by a verb.
#3
Write one sentence with "to" used twice, once as a preposition and once not.
#4
Write two sentences with "too" meaning "also"
#5
Write two sentences with "too" used for comparison.
The Printable KISS Grammar Workbooks
To Charles Dickens Page
SE#5 --Apostrophes to Show Possession
Level 1.7
from
Charles Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities
Illustration by Phiz
Directions:
1. Fix the apostrophe problem in each sentence.
2. After each sentence, rewrite the phrases with apostrophes as prepositional phrases. For example, "my
brother's dog" would be "the dog of my brother."
3. Place parentheses ( ) around each prepositional phrase.
4. Underline every verb twice, its subject(s) once, and label any complements ("PA," "PN," "IO," or "DO").
5. Put brackets [ ] around every subordinate clause and use arrows or labels to indicate their function.
6. Put a vertical line at the end of every main clause.
1. He at first supposed that his daughters marriage had taken place yesterday.
________________________________________________________________________
2. If a girl, doll or no doll, swoons within a yard or two of a mans nose, he can see it without
a perspective-glass.
_______________________________________________________________________
3. He looked like his illustration, as he raised his eyes to Mr. Lorrys face.
_______________________________________________________________________
4. As a whirlpool of boiling waters has a centre point, so, all this raging circled round
Defarges wine-shop.
________________________________________________________________________
5. "You have no idea how such an apprehension weighs on the sufferers mind."
________________________________________________________________________
6. It was almost morning, when Defarges wine-shop parted with its last knot of customers.
_________________________________________________________________________
7. Whatever might befall now, he must on to his journeys end.
________________________________________________________________________
8. He stood at Mr. Crunchers elbow as negligently as he might have stood at the Old Bailey
itself.
________________________________________________________________________
9. They returned home to breakfast, and all went well, and in due course the golden hair that
had mingled with the poor shoemakers white locks in the Paris garret, were mingled with
them again in the morning sunlight, on the threshold of the door at parting.
_______________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
10. Mr. Lorrys inquiries into Miss Prosss personal history had established the fact that her
brother Solomon was a heartless scoundrel who had stripped her of everything she possessed
_______________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
.
______________________________________________________________
The Printable KISS Grammar Workbooks
To Charles Dickens Page
SE #6 -- Apostrophes in Contractions
from Charles Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities
Illustration by Phiz
An apostrophe is used to indicate that letters have been left out. This usually happens when two words
are combined into one. The resulting word is called a "contraction." For example, "it's" is a contraction
of "it is."
Directions:
1. Fix the apostrophe problem in each sentence.
2. After each sentence, rewrite the phrases with apostrophes as phrases. For example, "He'll be here
soon" would be "He will be."
3. Place parentheses ( ) around each prepositional phrase.
4. Underline every verb twice, its subject(s) once, and label complements ("PA," "PN," "IO," or "DO").
5. Place brackets [ ] around each subordinate clause. If the clause functions as a noun, label its function. If it
functions as an adjective or an adverb, draw an arrow from the opening bracket to the word that the clause
modifies.
6. Place a vertical line after each main clause.
1. Why, its on the tip of your tongue. It ought to be, it must be, Ill swear its there.
______________________________________________________________
2. "Ten oclock, sir," said the man at the tavern, whom he had charged to wake him--"ten
oclock, sir."
______________________________________________________________
3. Couldnt you tell her what you had to tell her, without frightening her to death?
______________________________________________________________
4. I dont suppose anything about it but what Ladybird tells me.
______________________________________________________________
5. Youve been at Doctor Manettes house as much as I have, or more than I have.
______________________________________________________________
6. If you doubt it, ask Stryver, and hell tell you so.
______________________________________________________________
7. I dont want dozens of people who are not at all worthy of Ladybird, to come here looking
after her.
______________________________________________________________
8. Well, I dont know all I mean, for I cant call to mind what your name was, over the water.
______________________________________________________________
9. Such a present of plate as you have made em, is enough to bring tears into anybodys eyes.
______________________________________________________________
10. I dont care about fortune: she is a charming creature, and I have made up my mind to
please myself: on the whole, I think I can afford to please myself.
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
The KISS Printable Books Page
The KISS Home Page
SE #7 -- Restrictive and Non-Restrictive Modifiers
(Level 3.1.2)
Punctuating Adjectival Clauses and Other Modifiers
Adjectival clauses and other modifiers are usually set off by commas when the
information in them is felt by the writer as not necessary for the reader to identify the word
being modified. Consider:
1. Toni saw a group a squirrels around the bird feeder in her back yard. The squirrel
who wrecked the bird feeder was hanging on it head downward.
2. Toni saw a squirrel in her back yard. The squirrel, who wrecked the bird feeder, was
hanging on it head downward.
In (1.), the adjectival clause "who wrecked the bird feeder" is not set off by commas because
the preceding sentence mentions several "squirrels." Thus the subordinate clause limits
(restricts) the meaning of "squirrel" to the one who wrecked the bird feeder. In the second
sentence in (2.), however, it is already clear that the subject is the same squirrel that is
mentioned in the preceding sentence. Thus the "who" clause simply adds information about
the squirrel.
This rule applies to other modifiers. For example,
1. The girl in a blue hat was at the picnic yesterday.
2. The girl, in a blue hat, was at the picnic yesterday.
2.
In (1.), "in the blue hat" identifies which girl is being talked about. In (2.) "in the blue hat"
simply adds additional information and, in this case, suggests that she was in a blue hat when
she was at the picnic.
In general, a modifier that restricts (limits) the meaning of what it is modifying is not set
off by commas. If it does not restrict the meaning, it may or may not be so set off.
The Printable KISS Grammar Workbooks
The KISS Workbooks Anthology
Restrictive and Non-Restrictive Adjectival Clauses
Based on
"Perseus"
in The Heroes, or Greek Fairy Tales For My Children
by Charles Kingsley
Illustrations by Howard Davie
Directions:
1. Place parentheses around each prepositional phrase.
2. Underline every subject once, every verb twice, and label complements (PA, PN, IO, DO).
3. Put brackets [ ] around every subordinate clause and use arrows or labels to indicate their function.
4. Put a vertical line at the end of every main clause.
5. Write “R” above the beginning of restrictive clauses. (Be prepared to explain why.)
1. Know now that the Gods are just, and help him who helps himself.
2. Come dance with us around the tree in the garden which knows no winter.
3. And you must ask Atlas's daughters, the Hesperides, who are young and foolish like
yourself.
4. Oh, sir, have pity upon a stranger, whom a cruel doom has driven to your land.
5. Return to your home, and do the work which waits there for you.
6. This deed requires a seven years' journey, in which you cannot repent or turn back nor
escape.
7. Those who had nothing better brought a basket of grapes, or of game.
8. Atlas became a crag of stone, which sleeps for ever far above the clouds.
9. You must go to the southward, into the ugly glare of the sun, till you come to Atlas the
Giant, who holds the heaven and the earth apart.
10. So you will bring the shield safely back to me, and win to yourself renown, and a place
among the heroes who feast with the Immortals upon the peak where no winds blow.
The Printable KISS Grammar Workbooks
The KISS Workbooks Anthology
SE # 8 -- A Study in Punctuation
(Level 1.7)
from Heidi by Johanna Spyri
Directions: Goats will eat anything, and they ate the capital letters and punctuation in the following passage.
Please fix the passage.
when deta saw the little party of climbers she cried out
shrilly heidi what have you done what a sight you are where are
your dresses and your shawl are the new shoes gone that i just
bought for you and the new stockings that i made myself where
are they all heidi the child quietly pointed down and said there
the aunt followed the direction of her finger and descried a little
heap with a small red dot in the middle which she recognized as
the shawl
unlucky child deta said excitedly what does all this mean
why have you taken your things all off
because i do not need them said the child not seeming
in the least repentant of her deed
how can you be so stupid heidi have you lost your
senses the aunt went on in a tone of mingled vexation and
reproach who do you
think will go way down there to fetch
those things up again it is half-an-hours walk please peter, run
down and get them do not stand and stare at me as if you
were glued to the spot
The Printable KISS Grammar Workbooks
The KISS Workbooks Anthology
SE #9 -- An Exercise in Punctuation
(Level 6.1)
Belling the Cat
from
The ÆSOP for Children
with Pictures by Milo Winter
Directions: The punctuation and capitalization in the following text was lost. Please fix it (right on this page).
the mice once called a meeting to decide on a plan to
free themselves of their enemy the cat at least they wished to
find some way of knowing when she was coming so they might
have time to run away indeed something had to be done for
they lived in such constant fear of her claws that they hardly
dared stir from their dens by night or day
many plans were discussed but none of them was thought
good enough at last a very young mouse got up and said
I have a plan that seems very simple but i know it will be
successful all we have to do is to hang a bell about the cats
neck when we hear the bell ringing we will know immediately
that our enemy is coming
all the mice were much surprised that they had not
thought of such a plan before but in the midst of the rejoicing
over their good fortune an old mouse arose and said
i will say that the plan of the young mouse is very
good but let me ask one question who will bell the cat
it is one thing to say that something should be done
but quite a different matter to do it
KISS Level 1.8. - Vocabulary and Logic
1 - Abstract and Concrete Words
A
Abbssttrraacctt aanndd C
Coonnccrreettee W
Woorrddss
We need to begin with a question—Why is it important for you to learn the difference
between abstract and concrete words? To answer that question, we need to go to a more
basic one—what is the purpose of talking or writing? I think that you will agree that the
primary purpose of either is to get what is in your head (what you are trying to say) into
the head or heads of readers or listeners.
Abstract words do not do this very effectively. If, at the dinner table, you want more
mashed potatoes, but you ask for more “food,” you may end up getting broccoli sprouts.
“Food” is an abstract word; “mashed potatoes” is much more concrete.
“Food” and “mashed potatoes” is a simple example of the distinction, and we should note
at the beginning that all the most important words in our lives are probably abstract—
“love,” “virtue,” “patriotism,” “money,” “good,” “evil,” and “religion” are just a few of
the important abstract words. In other words, we cannot simplify life by abandoning all
abstract words and using only the concrete. Good communication actually involves an up
and down movement from abstraction down to concrete words, and then back up to an
abstraction, followed by downward explanation using concrete examples.
Learning how to do this effectively is not always easy because those people on the right
in the image above don’t usually see the world in the same way that you do. If you ask
for a “short” stick, one of them might bring you a six-inch one, whereas another may give
you a stick that is six feet long. If you want them to meet you in the “evening,” two of
them might show up at 4 p.m., and three might not appear before midnight. But if you
used a concrete word, and told them to meet you at 8, they would probably all arrive
close to that time, and those who were early or late would know that they were so.
This brings us to the basic distinction between abstract and concrete words.
Abstract words are words that people will interpret differently. When you use
concrete words, what ends up in their heads will be much closer to what you wanted
them to understand. (Note, by the way, that we are looking at phrases as well as
words—“mashed potatoes” is a phrase.)
Two Major Perspectives on Abstract Words
Some abstract words can easily be broken down into smaller groups; others cannot.
Abstract Words That Can Easily Be Broken into Smaller Groups
Thing
Animal
Mammal
Cat
House Cat
Mysha
Consider the list on the left. “Thing” is the most abstract word
we have—it can refer to anything and everything. But
“animal” is more concrete—it excludes rocks and plants.
“Mammal” is even more concrete. Ducks are animals, but
they are not mammals. If we move down to “cat,” dogs and
horses are now excluded, and “House Cat” excludes lions and
tigers. At the bottom of the list, “Mysha” is the name of one
specific cat. A word that refers to one, and only one thing, is
as concrete (specific) as we can get.
Note that “abstract” and “concrete” are not two boxes into
which words can be separated. As the list on the left shows,
words can be more, or less, “concrete.” In other words, the
“abstract” / “concrete” distinction is a continuum. To name a
“continuum,” by the way, we use fairly abstract words—“hot”
or “cold”; “soft” or “hard,” “short” or “tall.”
In writing, it is important to use concrete words so that your
readers will know what you really mean. When your teachers
tell you to use more examples and details, one of the things
that they mean is that you should use more concrete words.
Abstract Words That often Can Not Be Broken into Smaller Groups
What is “beauty?” What is “happiness”? Unlike the words discussed above, “beauty” and
“happiness” cannot be broken into smaller and smaller groups of words. But clearly
“beauty” and “happiness” are abstract words. (Think of the many “Happiness is . . . .”
statements that people make, almost all of which are different.) The extent to which you
may want to clarify your meaning of these words depends on your purpose.
When people show someone a picture of their new baby, a typical response is, “She’s
beautiful.” Occasionally, the statement will be clarified to a small extent—“Her eyes are
so bright.” Often, the statement is not clarified at all. In this context, “She’s beautiful” is
simply a polite response. (Hopefully, no one would ever respond with “She’s ugly.”)
There are, however, many cases in which people would (or should or could) clarify what
they mean by “beautiful.” “That picture is beautiful,” for example, is essentially
meaningless unless whoever says it goes on to add details about the subject, the
composition, the coloring, etc. of the picture.
Clarifying words in this way is not easy. It requires some thought. But these words are
often very important. What do you mean by words such as “responsibility,” “honor,”
“loyalty,” “liberal,” “conservative,” “virtue,” or “patriotic”?
Using Abstract and Concrete Words
Understanding these two perspectives on abstract and concrete words can help you in
writing and thinking in several ways. For words that fall into a continuum, always try to
pick the most concrete word that fits your meaning. As suggested above, that will help
your audience understand you more easily. Also, if you can choose your topic for a paper,
always go for something as concrete as you can. It is much easier for me, for example, to
write about our cat Mysha than it is to write about cats in general:
I can’t remember when or where we got our cat Mysha, but he added joy
to our lives. We named him “Mysha” because in Russian “Mysha” means
“armpit.” When he was small, he would climb into the chair I was in, and
snuggle himself into my armpit. When he grew older, he was allowed to
put his front paws, but only his front paws, on the kitchen table. At
breakfast, I would shove a piece of bacon in his direction and he would
stretch out, swat the bacon onto the floor, and jump down to get it. Like
most cats, he loved to play with things. Once, he got hold of the toilet
paper in the bathroom, pulled on it, made a left turn out the bathroom door,
went ten feet down the hallway, turned right, scrambled across the living
room, made another right, and ended at the door to the apartment. He did
this without breaking the toilet paper.
I could easily triple the size of what I just wrote, but the point is that it is much easier to
write about something specific (concrete) than it is to write about general topics like
“cats.”
Words that fall into a continuum also make it easy to develop examples. Note how the
following moves from the relatively abstract “birds” to specific species of birds, and then
to specific species of animals.
Birdseed invites more than just birds. It does, of course, invite birds. Our
birdfeeder attracted a lot of sparrows and chickadees that sat on the edges
of it to eat. But many birds simply came for the seeds that fall to ground.
The usual robins came, but so did a pair of doves (always together). A pair
of cardinals came, sometimes individually, but sometimes together. When
they came together, it seemed as if the male would pick up a beakfull of
seeds and then feed them to his mate. My wife’s favorite visitor was a
oriole that she named Cal. (She’s a Cal Ripkin fan.)
The squirrels, however, kept destroying the feeders. One way or another
they would get to them, hang on them, and tear them apart. We almost
gave up feeding them, but we loved the birds, and we also loved “Alvin,”
a tiny little chipmunk who was always alone. My wife saved his life once.
Like the squirrels, he would get into the magnolia tree in which we hung
the birdfeeder. He jumped off once and fell into a tub of water in which I
had been collecting rain water from a downspout. He had no way out. We
don’t know how long he was in it, but fortunately, my wife saw him and
managed to get him out alive. The tub has been moved far from the tree,
and we now simply sprinkle seeds on the ground.
The way in which Alvin stands up on his little legs and stares down the
birds and even the much bigger squirrels is cute, so we continue to put out
seeds for him and the birds. We tolerate the squirrels, but the seeds do
attract less welcome visitors—possums, raccoons, and even an occasional
fox. The real pains are the skunks, but they only come at night. We’ve
lowered the rations so that most of the seeds are eaten before nightfall.
I have heard people complain that students who write “more” get better grades. What
these people do not understand is that good writing gets its “more” from the use of
numerous concrete words. Concrete words give examples that make what is written both
clearer and more interesting.
As for abstract words that do not easily fall into smaller groups, it is important that you
recognize them to improve your thinking, reading, and writing skills. When Tom says
that Bill is “brave” or “patriotic,” what does Tom mean? If you yourself say that Bill is
“brave” or “patriotic,” what would you mean? As noted above, sometimes you will not
need examples, but other times you probably should include some. As a good writer, that
is your job.
Abstract and Concrete Words (and Phrases)
Adapted from Child-Story Readers: Wonder Stories
New York: Lyons and Carnahan, 1927. p. 241-2
The
Guitar Player
by
Pablo Ruiz y
Picasso
(1881-1973)
Directions:
1. The words in the “Word List” are more concrete than the abstract words in the table.
Put each of the words in the “Word List” in their proper place in the table.
Word List
church
vest
mill
sapphires
sawmill
gloves
boots
Buildings
breeches
storehouse
castle
inn
wagons
sharks
mittens
Fishes
Jewels
cap
barn
jacket
slippers
train
shirt
guppy
Clothing
diamonds
automobile
silo
truck
ships
trout
bass
Ways of Travel
2. Add as many concrete words as you can to each of the abstract categories.
3. Remember that the abstract/concrete distinction is not two boxes into which words can
be put. Words can be more or less abstract or concrete. Select one of the concrete
words on your list (or in the exercise above) and list five words that are more
concrete examples of that word. For example, how many types of trucks can you
name?
4. To explain some abstract words, it is better to give and explain examples of it. Pick one
word from the following list and write a paragraph that explains what it means to you.
Use as many concrete examples as you can. Your teacher may have everyone read
their paragraphs in class to see the different ways in which the word is defined.
worker, entertainment, relaxation, fame
2 - Common and Proper Nouns
C
Coom
mm
moonn aanndd PPrrooppeerr N
Noouunnss
A common noun is a noun that is used as the name of a class of things.
cat, forest, hill, fishhook
A proper noun is a name that belongs only to some particular person, place,
or thing.
Henry, Boston, Monday, April
Begin every proper noun with a capital letter.
Note that common nouns tend to be abstract. Proper nouns are very concrete
because they name one specific person, place, or thing.
Lady Sewing
1879
by
PierreAuguste
Renoir
(1841-1919)
Common and Proper Nouns
Adapted from
Voyages in English - Fifth Year
by Rev. Paul E. Campbell
and Sister Mary Donatus MacNickle
Directions: In the following sentences, underline each common noun and put a box
around each proper noun.
1. Weeds grow rapidly.
2. The United States built the Panama Canal.
3. Gertrude plays the piano.
4. The rain caused a flood in Mississippi.
5. Andrew washed Rex.
6. Mr. and Mrs. Smith went to France.
7. Mexico produces silver.
8. Cinderella wore glass slippers to the Prince’s ball.
9. The ring contains a rare stone.
10. The deer runs swiftly.
11. Warren Earl Burger was the 14th chief justice of the Supreme Court.
12. The noise stopped when John entered the room.
13. Halloween is in October.
14. My father bought a new suit for my sister Roxanne’s wedding.
15. In March, the snow melted rapidly.
16. The students learned about Mary Cassatt, a famous American painter.
17. This summer, they went to the New York Museum of Art.
18. Eddie Rickenbacker was a World War I flying ace.
19. Francis Xavier Cabrini founded Columbus Hospital in New York.
20. Benjamin Franklin was the U. S. Ambassador to France during the American
Revolution.
La Baronne
De Krundener
Et Son Fils
3 Synonyms
Adapted from Child-Story Readers:
Wonder Stories
by
Angelica
Kauffmann
New York: Lyons and Carnahan, 1927. p. 113-4
(1741-1807)
A synonym is a word that means the same,
or almost the same, as another word.
Directions:
1. Number the lines of a piece of paper from 1 to 20.
2. In each line find the synonym of the first word in that line. Write this word on your
paper by the right number.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
silly
shivered
torches
room
deer
slippers
linger
city
village
pony
entrance
neat
humans
daylight
blank
modern
close
seldom
show
fierce
foolish
shook
lightning
chamber
troop
wise
wait
country
street
goat
roof
empty
fairies
morn
well-known
new
up
often
exhibit
weak
wise
gentle
lights
hall
wand
shoes
kind
town
farm
horse
edges
tidy
beasts
sunset
empty
angry
dry
rarely
complete
sloppy
rich
thoughtful
thunder
table
stag
sword
purred
truck
town
cow
door
space
people
noon
noted
fair
near
never
believe
ferocious
4 - Antonyms
American
Gothic
Adapted from
Voyages in English - Fifth Year
1930
by
Grant Wood
by Rev. Paul E. Campbell
and Sister Mary Donatus MacNickle
( 1891-1942)
Antonyms are words that mean the opposite
or almost the opposite of another word.
Directions: Number your paper from one to fifteen. After each number, write the
antonym from the right column for the word in the left column.
1.
2.
proud
absent
emigrant
despair
3.
export
import
4.
hope
polite
5.
sad
happy
6.
immigrant
hinder
7.
distant
deny
8.
assist
near
9.
ugly
new
10
hungry
humble
forget
beautiful
guilty
innocent
admit
present
old
satisfied
rude
remember
.
11
.
12
.
13
.
14
.
15
.
5 - Fill in the Blanks with Interesting
Words
The Mute
Woman
1508?
by
Adapted from
Voyages in English - Fifth Year
by Rev. Paul E. Campbell
and Sister Mary Donatus MacNickle
Raphael
(1483-1520)
Directions:
1. Fill in the blanks with interesting verbs, nouns, adjectives, or adverbs.
2. Place parentheses around each prepositional phrase. Draw an arrow from each
preposition to the word that the phrase modifies.
3. Underline subjects once, verbs twice, and label complements (“PA,” “PN,” “IO,” or
“DO”).
1. The _____adj._____ train _____verb_____ _____adv._____ into the
_____adj._____ station.
2. Rita and I _____verb_____ _____adv._____ about the _____adj._____
incidents of our trip to _____noun_____.
3. An _____adj._____ man _____verb_____ _____adv._____ up the
_____adj._____ steps of the _____adj._____ church.
4. Robert _____verb_____ from the _____adj._____ roof and _____adv._____
_____verb_____ his _____adj._____ arm.
5. The _____adj._____ roar _____adv._____ _____verb_____ the approach of a
_____adj._____ storm.
6. The _____adj._____ _____adj._____ carriage _____adv._____
_____verb_____ along the _____adj._____ _____noun_____.
7. The _____adj._____ doctor _____verb_____ _____adv._____ to the
_____adj._____ child.
8. _____adj._____ skyscrapers _____adv._____ _____verb_____ both sides of the
_____adj._____ street.
9. The _____adj._____ _____adj._____ foliage _____verb_____ _____adv._____
in the _____adj._____ _____adj._____ breeze.
10. A _____adj._____ fireman _____verb_____ _____adv._____ into the
_____adj._____ building.
6 - The Logic of Words and Phrases
Where Does Each Belong?
Directions: Arrange neatly on a large sheet of paper any two of the following headings:
Who, When, Where, What, How. Underneath each of the two headings which you
have chosen write all the groups of words given below which properly belong under
that heading. Write your name near the bottom of your paper.
1
an Indian squaw
that first winter
too late in the season
a piece of raccoon
outside of the wigwam
suddenly
in Connecticut
4
sassafras tea
a real Christmas
these Indian neighbors
at Thanksgiving Time
terribly
in front of the fireplace
a smart red feather
2
along the street
when snowflakes fall
a single doughnut
noisily
all his friends
Rose Fyleman
a terrible pirate
5
in the cold twilights
the little boy's uncle
after the snowfall
from the north
two tiny nuthatches
in a minute
blindly
3
some wicked pirates
anxiously
above the undergrowth
some famous people
on a Virginia plantation
a little Polish princess
patiently
6
the gossipy porpoises
Anthony Over
high in the air
a red-headed man
immediately
across the rose-plot
after many trials
From The Pathway to Reading: Fourth Reader, by Bessie Blackstone Coleman,
Willis L. Uhl, and James Fleming Hosic. N.Y.: Silver, Burdett and Company, 1926, p. 213.
W
Woorrdd F
Faam
miilliieess ((SSm
maallll aanndd B
Biigg))
Just like people, words are born, live, and die. (They just live a lot longer.) Over the
centuries, in other words, our ancestors developed new words, changed them in different
ways to express different things, and then, for one reason or another, stopped using some
words. Our interest here is in how words have changed. Understanding that can help you
improve your vocabulary -- and your writing.
Some words are very simple -- man, friend, draw. Other words, however, are formed
from these simple words: man -- manly, manfully; friend -- friendly, friendship,
unfriendly; draw -- drawing, withdraw. The parts that form such words are called roots,
prefixes, and suffixes.
The Root of a word is usually a simple English word without a prefix or a suffix,
such as move, see, hold, press. Prefixes and suffixes can be added to these words to make
new words -- pressure, impression, suppress. Some roots are not English words. For
example, from the Latin, we have the roots vert and duce from which English gets words
like convert and introduce.
A Prefix is a significant syllable or word placed before the root. In mistake,
undertake; mis and under are prefixes.
A Suffix is a significant letter or syllable placed after the root. In amused,
amusement, amusing; d, ment, and ing are suffixes.
All words formed from the same root are said to belong to the same family of words;
thus, betake, mistake, retake, partake. overtake, undertake, etc., belong to a family of
words. The following words belong to another family: Divert, convert, avert, pervert,
controvert, invert, subvert, revert, perversion, diversity, introverted, uncontroverted, etc.
Like all families, word-families can be viewed as “small” or “big.” With people, a
“small” family consists of parents and their children. A “big” family extends to aunts,
uncles, grandparents, cousins, and beyond to include everyone related by blood. A
“small” word family consists of one basic word and variations that change how it can be
used (noun, adjective, verb, adverb). Within these variations of part of speech, other
variations can change the meaning from naming an act (“describing”) to the result of the
act (“description”) or to the doer of the act (“describer”) or to the quality of the act
(“descriptiveness”).
The “Small” Word-Family of “Describe”
V-
describe
Parents describe their children in glowing terms.
N-
describing
Describing a person is not easy.
description
My descriptions are not always clear.
describer
As a describer, I probably leave much to be desired.
descriptiveness
The writer’s descriptiveness tempts the imagination.
describing
He wrote a book describing his experience.
described
The accident described in the paper occurred here.
descriptive
She wrote a very descriptive essay.
describable
But then, the scene she chose was very describable.
descriptively
Still, she writes very descriptively.
Adj.
-
Adv.
-
“Big” word families are usually created by prefixes that fundamentally change the
meaning. For example, the “big” family of the root motion includes words such as
emotion, promotion, commotion, and demotion.
The Prisoner
7 - Suffixes
1907
by
7 A - Suffixes That Create Nouns:
(State of Being, Condition, Quality)
Evelyn De
Morgan
Based on Lessons in English: Higher Course
Pupil's Edition. New York: William H. Sadlier, 1893
(British, 1850-1919)
Suffixes that denote the state of being, or the condition, the quality, are:
-ness
-ity, -ty, -ety
-th
-tude
-ice
-ce
-cy, -acy
-y
-mony
-hood
-ship
-dom
-ry, -y
Happiness, the state of being happy.
Scarcity, frailty, the state of being scarce, frail.
Health, the state of being healthy.
Promptitude, the state of being prompt.
Justice, the state of being just.
Silence, the state of being silent.
Accuracy, the state of being accurate.
Honesty, the state of being honest.
Acrimony, the state of being acrid or sour.
Childhood, the state of a child.
Friendship, the state of a friend.
Kingdom, the state of a king.
Beggary, the state of a beggar.
Form nouns by means of the above suffixes.
true
free
deep
green
anxious
vain
special
quiet
gay
false
noisy
brave
solid
benefit
ample
truth
_______________
_______________
_______________
_______________
_______________
_______________
_______________
_______________
_______________
_______________
_______________
_______________
_______________
_______________
loyal
hard
obstinate
strong
apt
merry
boy
modest
young
warm
wise
equal
coward
delicate
prudent
loyalty
_______________
_______________
_______________
_______________
_______________
_______________
_______________
_______________
_______________
_______________
_______________
_______________
_______________
_______________
Self Portrait
B - Suffixes That Denote People
1940
Frida Kahlo
Based on Lessons in English: Higher Course
Pupil's Edition. New York: William H. Sadlier, 1893
(1907-1954)
Mexican
Suffixes that indicate the author of an action, the person who is devoted to a profession or
skilled in it, are:
-er, -yer
-eer, -ier
-ar, -ard
-or
-ant, -ent
-an, -ian
-ster
-ist
-ive
-ary
-ate
-ee
Reader, Sawyer, one who reads, saws.
Auctioneer, one who sells by auction.
Beggar, Dotard, one who begs, dotes.
Creator, one who creates.
President, Student, one who presides. studies.
Musician, one skilled in music.
Spinster, one who spins.
Artist, one skilled in an art.
Fugitive, one who flees.
Missionary, one sent on a mission.
Delegate, one who is sent.
Trustee, one to whom something is entrusted.
Directions:
1. Give the name of the person.
law
refer
school
refuge
dull
conspire
violin
library
journal
oppose
trick
lawyer
_______________
_______________
_______________
_______________
_______________
_______________
_______________
_______________
_______________
_______________
combat
mutiny
adverse
compete
assail
adhere
preside
natural
assist
capture
chariot
combatant
_______________
_______________
_______________
_______________
_______________
_______________
_______________
_______________
_______________
_______________
2. Replace the italicized words with nouns that refer to people.
a. Religious missions in pagan lands have often to encounter obstacles raised by the
greed of European traffic.
b. Without the telescope, astronomy would know nothing of innumerable worlds that
lie beyond the range of the human eye.
c. The structure, classification, growth, and use of plants is the study of botany.
d. Skillful arts can transform the coarsest materials into objects of luxury.
7 C - Suffixes That Create Nouns
Vampire
1893
by
(Office, Place, Collection)
Edvard Munch
Based on
Lessons in English: Higher Course
Pupil's Edition. New York: William H. Sadlier, 1893
Suffixes that denote office, jurisdiction, or character, are:
-ate
-dom
-ship
-hood
-cy, -acy, -y
Patriarchate, the jurisdiction of a patriarch.
Kingdom, the dominions of a king,
Professorship, the office of a professor.
Priesthood, the office of a priest.
Presidency, the office of a president.
Suffixes which denote place or a collection of objects are:
-ary
-ery
-ory
-ry, -y
-ing
-age
Library, a collection of books, a place to keep books.
Fishery, a place for fishing,
Armory, a place to keep arms.
Vestry, a place to keep vestments.
Clothing, a collection of clothes.
Plumage, a collection of feathers.
Directions: Give the nouns formed with the above suffixes.
clerk
widow
knight
protector
hermit
observe
baron
bound
clerkship
_______________
_______________
_______________
_______________
_______________
_______________
_______________
grain
peasant
monarch
consul
dispense
deposit
infirm
mile
granary
_______________
_______________
_______________
_______________
_______________
_______________
_______________
7 D - Suffixes That Create Nouns
Circe
(Art, Science, Practice)
by
Dosso Dossi
Based on
Lessons in English: Higher Course
Pupil's Edition. New York: William H. Sadlier, 1893
(1479-1542)
Suffixes which denote art, science, practice, are:
-ery, -ry, -y
-ism
-ics, -ic
-ing
-ure
Cookery, the art or practice of a cook.
Criticism, the art or practice of a critic.
Mechanics, the science of motion.
Surveying, the art of measuring lands.
Sculpture, the art of carving.
The suffix -ism indicates a doctrine, a particular manner of acting, of being, or an idiom
peculiar to a language; as, Calvinism, the doctrine of Calvin; parallelism, the state of being
parallel; Latinism, an idiom peculiar to the Latin language.
Form nouns by means of the above suffixes.
chemist
poet
architect
photograph
emboss
engrave
cone
Catholic
surgeon
chemistry
_______________
_______________
_______________
_______________
_______________
_______________
_______________
_______________
garden
despot
paint
witch
letter
patriot
carve
pagan
barbarian
gardening
_______________
_______________
_______________
_______________
_______________
_______________
_______________
_______________
III. Change the noun in italics to one that denotes the art, science, or practice:
1. The practices of the heathen are either superstitious or cruel.
2. The chemist requires an extensive knowledge of physics and geometry.
3. A new country like Canada affords a vast field for the engineer.
4. Since the discovery of Galvani the science of electricity has advanced with rapid
strides.
5. The skeptics of the reign of Louis XV. were followed by the terrorists of the French
Revolution.
6. The anatomist examines the structure of the human body.
7 E - Suffixes That Create
Alone
1896
by
Adjectives
ToulouseLautrec
(Quality)
(1864-1901)
Based on
Lessons in English: Higher Course
Pupil's Edition. New York: William H. Sadlier, 1893
Suffixes that express the quality of a thing, of what it is made, or what it contains, are:
-ine
-ous, -eous,
-ious, -uous
-en
-ed
-ory
-ive
-id
-ate
Saline, having the qualities of a salt
Glorious, having the quality of glory
Wooden, made of wood
Bigoted, having the qualities of a bigot
Declamatory, containing declamation
Defective, containing defects
Candid, having the quality of candor
Compassionate, having the quality of compassion
Directions: Form adjectives with the above suffixes.
fervor
brass
splendor
wool
alkali
beauty
divinity
conceit
crystal
pomp
fervid
_______________
_______________
_______________
_______________
_______________
_______________
_______________
_______________
_______________
male
promise
malice
age
plenty
lead
abuse
talent
fame
ambition
masculine
_______________
_______________
_______________
_______________
_______________
_______________
_______________
_______________
_______________
Majas on a
Balcony
7 F - Suffixes That Create Adjectives
(Power, Potential)
by
Francisco
de Goya
(1746-1828)
Based on
Lessons in English: Higher Course
Pupil's Edition. New York: William H. Sadlier, 1893
Suffixes that express the power to do, causing, or producing, are:
-ive
Productive, having the power to produce
-ant, -ent
Pleasant, producing pleasure
-ory
Compulsory, having the power to compel
-ing
Amusing, producing amusement
-fic
Terrific, Causing terror
-iferous
Floriferous, producing flowers
-ite
Definite, having bounds
Suffixes that express that may be, are:
-able
Tamable, that may be tamed
-ible
Resistible, that may be resisted
-ile
Docile, easily taught
Directions: Form adjectives by means of the above suffixes.
buoy
buoyant
create
creative
imitate
_______________
abhor
_______________
metal
_______________
pend
_______________
progress _______________
divert
_______________
change
_______________
odor
_______________
dolor
_______________
tense
_______________
peace
_______________
corrode _______________
divide
_______________
soothe _______________
luxury
_______________
utter
_______________
satisfy
_______________
oppose _______________
serve
_______________
species _______________
heal
_______________
sense
_______________
decide
_______________
prevail _______________
detest
_______________
assist
_______________
repel
_______________
admit
_______________
solve
_______________
forgive _______________
access
_______________
cone
_______________
depend
_______________
eat
_______________
Near Perugia
in Spring
7 G - Suffixes That Create Adjectives
1879
by
(Relationship)
George Inness
Based on
Lessons in English: Higher Course
Pupil's Edition. New York: William H. Sadlier, 1893
(1825-1894)
Suffixes which denote relation to a thing, are:
-aI, -ial
Provincial, relating to a province
-ar
Polar, relating to the poles
-ary
Planetary, relating to a planet
-an, -ian
Collegian, relating to a college
-ile
Infantile, pertaining to an infant
-ic, -ical
Romantic, pertaining to romance
Suffixes which denote abounding in, full of, are:
-ful
Fruitful, abounding with fruit
-ose, -ous
Verbose, abounding in words
-some
Troublesome, full of trouble
-y, -ey
Hilly, abounding in hills
The suffix that expresses without, destitute of, is -less; as, Hopeless, without hope.
Directions: Form adjectives by means of the suffixes.
circle
circular
patriot
patriotic
youth
_______________
botany
_______________
spirit
_______________
peril
_______________
nature
_______________
mourn
_______________
honor
_______________
essence _______________
giant
_______________
home
_______________
globe
_______________
feast
_______________
single
_______________
autumn _______________
joke
_______________
toil
_______________
quarrel _______________
insect
_______________
life
_______________
flower
_______________
truth
_______________
suburbs _______________
science _______________
frolic
_______________
cloud
_______________
emblem _______________
peace
_______________
clergy
_______________
muscle _______________
pore
_______________
friend
_______________
herb
_______________
humor _______________
play
_______________
Rosie
the Riveter
(cover Saturday
Evening Post
May 29 1943)
by
Norman
Rockwell
H - Suffixes That Create Adjectives
(Likeness)
Based on
Lessons in English: Higher Course
Pupil's Edition. New York: William H. Sadlier, 1893
(1894-1978)
Suffixes that express likeness, similarity, are:
-ish, -ly
Childish, like a child; fatherly, like a father
The suffix -ly added to words expressing periods of time, signifies every; as, daily,
every day; monthly, every month,. hourly, every hour.
Suffixes which, joined to a proper name, form proper adjectives, are:
-ch, -ish, -ic France, French; Spain, Spanish; Plato, Platonic
-ian, -n, -ean Newton, Newtonian; Russia, Russian; Pyrenees, Pyrenean
-ese, -ine,
China, Chinese; Alp, Alpine; Morea, Moreote
-ote, -ite
Suffixes which, joined to an adjective, express diminution, are:
-ish, -some
Red, reddish: glad, gladsome.
Form adjectives by means of the above suffixes.
mother motherly
Genoa
Genoese
Cicero _______________
clown
_______________
Ireland _______________
Socrates _______________
coward _______________
Greece
_______________
prince
_______________
Ptolemy _______________
heathen _______________
Levant
_______________
Asia
_______________
Wales
_______________
Heaven _______________
Corfu
_______________
white
_______________
Portugal _______________
brother _______________
purple
_______________
Goth
_______________
drone
_______________
Africa
_______________
Flanders _______________
whole
_______________
blithe
_______________
matron _______________
Scotland _______________
thief
_______________
yellow
_______________
Woman
Reading
in a Café 1879
Edouard Manet
7 I - Suffixes for Making Verbs
Based onLessons in English: Higher Course
Pupil's Edition. New York: William H. Sadlier, 1893
(1832-1883)
The following suffixes usually turn adjectives or nouns into verbs.
Darken, to make dark
Domesticate, to render domestic
Simplify, to render simple
Publish, to make public
Unite, to make one
Breathe, to make or draw breath
Cleanse, to make clean
Crumble, to reduce to crumbs
Solemnize, to keep or render solemn
-en
-ate
-fy, -ify
-ish
-ite
-e
-se
-le
-ise, -ize
Form a verb from the noun or the adjective.
scribe
drinker
critic
ample
peace
nest
fabric
electric
glad
writer
scribble
_______________
_______________
_______________
_______________
_______________
_______________
_______________
_______________
_______________
bath
liquid
instructive
throat
terminus
migratory
colony
sufficient
grain
prevalent
bathe
_______________
_______________
_______________
_______________
_______________
_______________
_______________
_______________
_______________
Deflating Inflated Balloons
Forms of the verb “to be” make wordy sentences—inflated balloons.
Directions: Change the predicate adjective or predicate noun into a verb and rewrite the sentence
using that verb instead of the S/V/PA (or PN) pattern.
Example: He is not the owner of any books. = He does not own any books.
1. He is a writer and lecturer.
2. The sons are all drinkers.
3. These birds are migratory.
4. That is sufficient for me.
5. Allergies are prevalent in the spring.
6. His lectures were instructive for everybody.
7 J - Suffixes That Create Verbs
The
Laundress
from Nouns and Adjectives
c. 1860-61
by
Honoré
Daumier
Based on
Lessons in English: Higher Course
Pupil's Edition. New York: William H. Sadlier, 1893
(1808-1879)
Verbs can be formed from nouns, or adjectives.
1. Without change; as, smoke, to smoke; warm, to warm.
2. By giving a flat sound to some letters, without altering the spelling of
the word; as, mouth, mouth; close, close.
3. By changing a sharp consonant to a corresponding flat one; as, grass,
to graze; half, to halve.
4. By changing the position of the accent; as, ob'ject, to object'; fre'quent,
to frequent'.
5. By adding a suffix; as, sign, signify; sweet, sweeten.
6. In a few instances, by adding a prefix; as, dim, bedim; power,
overpower.
Find the verb corresponding to the given word.
brass
grief
e
braze
rebel
_______________ excuse
prophec
advice _______________
y
proof
_______________ belief
convert _______________ attribute
perfum
_______________ rise
rebel'
_______________
conflict
relief
grease
strife
reproof
project
_______________
_______________
_______________
_______________
_______________
_______________
_______________
_______________
_______________
_______________
_______________
_______________
glass
smooth
device
price
thief
practice
_______________
_______________
_______________
_______________
The Sisters
7 K - Suffixes That Create Adverbs
1885
by
Based on
Lessons in English: Higher Course
Pupil's Edition. New York: William H. Sadlier, 1893
Mary Cassatt
(1844-1926)
Many adverbs end in the suffix -ly. (But not every word that ends in -ly is
an adverb. Think of friendly.)
The suffixes -ward, -ern, -erly, denote direction; as, north, northward,
northern, northerly. Note that -ern creates adjectives, and “-ward” creates
words that can function as either adjectives or adverbs: They sailed northward.
They sailed into a northward wind.
Give an adverb related to each of the following:
wind
sole
artful
back
studious
side
civil
after
windward
_______________
_______________
_______________
_______________
_______________
_______________
_______________
bright
straight
heaven
pale
west
notable
noble
awkward
brightly
_______________
_______________
_______________
_______________
_______________
_______________
_______________
8 - Prefixes
Woman in Blue
Reading a Letter
Some Common Prefixes
(for Level 1.8)
c.1662-1664
by
Based on
Lessons in English: Higher Course
Pupil's Edition. New York: William H. Sadlier, 1893
Jan Vermeer
(1632-1675)
The following are common prefixes:
ReSub, suc,
suf,
sup, susSuper- surTrans- tra-
signifies back, again; as, reenter, to enter again
signify under, after; as suffix, to fix after
signify over, above, beyond; as, surmount, to mount above
signify across, otherwise; as, transpose, to place otherwise
Directions: Use the prefixes above to make other words from the following words
and roots. Indicate the part of speech of the words that you make.
transport (N or
V)
_____________
edit
__
_____________
-fer
__
_____________
position
__
_____________
charge
__
_____________
fix
__
_____________
-vive
__
_____________
name
__
_____________
vision
__
-cess
_____________
port
-vert
reversion (N)
_____________
__
_____________
lease
__
_____________
action
__
_____________
-tain
__
_____________
-late
__
_____________
-mit
__
_____________
division
__
_____________
plant
__
-vise
_____________
structure
__
__
9 - Roots
Reading
Word Families:
Identifying Roots
1911
by
John Singer
Sargent
Based on
Lessons in English: Higher Course
Pupil's Edition. New York: William H. Sadlier, 1893
(1856-1925)
Root: Write the root of the word.
Reform
European
Kingdom
Pressure
Entomb
Bravery
Overload
Uncrown
Hillock
Disbelief
Form
___________
___________
___________
___________
___________
___________
___________
___________
___________
Armament
Songster
Inaction
Adverb
Teacher
Nonsense
Forenoon
Lambkin
Slavery
Withdraw
Arm
___________
___________
___________
___________
___________
___________
___________
___________
___________
Beggar
Redo
Beautiful
Childhood
Prefix
Duckling
Spaniard
Misdeed
Reclaim
Westward
Beg
___________
___________
___________
___________
___________
___________
___________
___________
___________