to appear
to be
to become
to feel
to get
to go
to grow
to look
to prove
to remain
to seem
to smell
to sound
to stay
to taste
to turn
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USE
The linking verbs above are often followed by adjectives instead of
adverbs. In such situations, the adjective describes the subject of the
sentence rather than the verb. Study the examples below to learn the
difference.
Examples:
Mary seemed sad. Correct
Mary seemed sadly. Not Correct
The cake tastes good. Correct
The cake tastes well. Not Correct
The train is slow. Correct
The train is slowly. Not Correct
James grew tired. Correct
Sarah remained calm. Correct
The milk went bad. Correct
The seas turned rough. Correct
IMPORTANT
 The verbs in the list above are not always used as
linking verbs. Compare the examples below.
 Examples:
 Sally grew angry.
"ANGRY" DESCRIBES SALLY. IN THIS SENTENCE, "TO GROW"
IS BEING USED AS A LINKING VERB MEANING "TO BECOME."
 The plant grew quickly.
"QUICKLY" DOES NOT DESCRIBE THE PLANT, IT DESCRIBES
THE MANNER IN WHICH IT GROWS. IN THIS SENTENCE, "TO
GROW" IS NOT BEING USED AS A LINKING VERB.
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ACTIVE VERBS—Every English sentence contains a
subject and verb. In many cases,
 the verb is an active verb. That is, the verb TELLS
WHAT ACTION IS BEING
 PERFORMED:
 Jean HIT the ball.
 The class READ three books.
 Beth BOUGHT a new car.
 These simple sentences contain an active verb
(italicized). In each instance, the active
 verb tells what action the subject does: Jean hits
something. The class reads something.
 Beth buys something. Remember that 99 percent of
the time, an action verb is one
 which can be demonstrated (run, walk, sing, talk, cry,
laugh).
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LINKING VERBS--These are sometimes harder to
recognize than active verbs because
 they simply SHOW THAT THE SUBJECT EXISTS. These
verbs usually can’t be
 demonstrated. Linking verbs include the following:
 • forms of the verb “to be”: am, is, was, were, will be,
had been, etc.
 • verbs of “sense”: seem, appear, look, smell, taste,
sound, etc.
 Read the following sentences with linking verbs
(italicized):
 Susie IS the head cheerleader.
 George IS a good father.
 Chris IS the captain of the team.

Tracy SEEMED very excited.
 This fish SMELLS rancid.
 Vicks NyQuil TASTES awful.
 Pete APPEARED sulky and unhappy.
 I FELT very foolish.
 My new stereo SOUNDS wonderful.
 You’ll notice that in each sentence, the subject
complement (the word which
 completes the meaning of the sentence) is either
a noun or an adjective. For example,
 cheerleader is a noun renaming who Susie is.
Excited is an adjective describing Tracy
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Two important points to remember:
 • When a sentence contains a linking verb, THE
COMPLEMENT MAY BE
 EITHER A NOUN OR AN ADJECTIVE.
 • When the main verb in a sentence is a linking verb
and the complement is a noun,
 THE SUBJECT AND THE COMPLEMENT ARE EQUAL.
 Look at this sentence:
 Susie is head cheerleader.
 We can CHANGE THE POSITION of the subject and
the complement in this
 sentence, making the complement the subject and
the subject the complement:
 The head cheerleader is Susie.
 In other words, Susie = cheerleader.
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Here’s another sentence:
Chris is the captain of the team.
Again, we can change the position of the subject and complement:
The captain of the team is Chris.
In other words, Chris = captain.
You can see that both terms are interchangeable, so that SUBJECT =
COMPLEMENT.
Notice that sentences with ACTIVE VERBS will not allow any changing
of positions,
without ruining or changing the sense of the sentence:
Jean hit the ball.
The ball hit Jean.
The class read three books.
Three books read the class.
Beth bought a new car.
A new car bought Beth.
Remember that in many cases, the LINKING VERB works like an
EQUAL SIGN to
show that the subject and the subject complement are equal.
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WHAT DIFFERENCE DOES ALL THIS MAKE?
Students who aren’t aware of the difference between active and linking
verbs have
difficulty using adverbs or adjectives correctly.
I felt BAD about hurting his feelings.
I felt BADLY about hurting his feelings.
Which of these sentences is correct? If you’ve studied this worksheet
carefully, you
know that the first sentence is correct because
• feel is a linking verb
• the complement of the verb has to be an ADJECTIVE
so BAD is the correct choice.
If you guessed that the correct sentence was the second one (I felt
BADLY), notice that
the adverb (badly) indicates something is wrong with the person’s sense
of touch.
A HINT: If you can’t decide whether a verb is active
or linking, try to substitute one of
 these words--am, is, was, were--in the sentence.
 Mary APPEARS snobbish.
 Mary IS snobbish.
 Mr. Smith LOOKED unhappy yesterday.
 Mr. Smith WAS unhappy yesterday.
 The speaker SEEMED nervous before the crowd.
 The speaker WAS nervous before the crowd.
 In the sentences above, appears, looked, and
seemed are linking verbs, based on this
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CONJUNCTIONS
Conjunctions are words that join two or more words,
phrases, or clauses.
This list of conjunctions contains coordinating
conjunctions, subordinating conjunctions, and
correlative conjunctions.
P.S. Sentence diagrams give us a way to show how
the words in a sentence are related to each other.
You'll find sentence diagrams as you go through
this list. I think you'll like them.
List of Coordinating Conjunctions
 Coordinating conjunctions are conjunctions that
join sentence elements that are the same. They
can join words, phrases, and clauses.
 Example: cookies and milk
 into the house and out the door
 He came and she left.
 List of Coordinating Conjunctions
 There are only seven of these, and they are easy
to memorize if you use the acronym FANBOYS.
 for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so
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What do you think of that sentence diagram?
It really shows that coordinating
conjunctions connect two or more elements
because the conjunction goes on a dotted line
between the things that they connect. Cool, huh?
That diagram shows a coordinating conjunction
joining two independent clauses.
Sentence diagramming rules! Learn to
diagram coordinating conjunctions.
List of Subordinating Conjunctions
 Subordinating conjunctions are conjunctions that
join dependent clauses to independent clauses.
 Example: I will eat broccoli after I eat this cookie.
 There are many subordinating conjunctions, so
keep in mind that this list does not include all of
them!
 You can see that these connect dependent and
independent clauses by looking at the sentence
diagram. The subordinating conjunction goes on a
dotted line between the two clauses.
 Learn to diagram subordinating conjunctions.
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after, although, as, as if, as long as, as much as,
as soon as, as though
 because, before, by the time
 even if, even though
 if, in order that, in case
 lest
 once, only if
 provided that
 since, so that
 than, that, though, till
 unless, until
 when, whenever, where, wherever, while
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List of Correlative Conjunctions
 These do the same thing that coordinating
conjunctions do except that they are always used
in pairs.
 Example: This cookie
contains neither chocolate nor nuts.
 both... and
 either... or
 neither... nor
 not only... but also
 whether... or
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TRANSITIONAL WORDS
Agreement / Addition / Similarity
 The transition words like also, in addition, and,
likewise, add information, reinforce ideas,
and express agreement with preceding material.
 in the first place
 not only ... but also
 as a matter of fact
 in like manner
 in addition
 coupled with
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in the same fashion
/ way
 first, second, third
 in the light of
 by the same token
 again
 to
 and
 also
 similarly
 furthermore
 additionally
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then
equally
identically
uniquely
like
as
Too
moreover
as well as
together with
of course
likewise
comparatively
correspondingly
Opposition / Limitation / Contradiction
Transition phrases like but, rather and or, express that there is
evidence to the contraryor point out alternatives, and thus introduce a
change the line of reasoning (contrast).
although this may be true
in contrast
different from
of course ..., but
on the other hand
on the contrary
at the same time
in spite of
even so / though
be that as it may
then again
above all
in reality
but
 (and) still
 unlike
 or
 (and) yet
 while
 albeit
 besides
 although
 instead
 whereas
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conversely
otherwise
however
rather
nevertheless
regardless
notwithstanding
Cause / Condition / Purpose
 These transitional phrases present
specific conditions or intentions.
 in the event that
 granted (that)
 as / so long as
 on (the) condition (that)
 for the purpose of
 with this intention
 with this in mind
 in the hope that
 to the end that
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in order to
 seeing / being that
 in view of
 If
 ... then
 unless
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when
 whenever
 since
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because of
as
since
while
lest
in case
provided that
given that
only / even if
so that
so as to
owing to
inasmuch as
due to