6th GRADE GRAMMAR GLOSSARY

  1. Indefinite pronouns: Indefinite pronouns refer to people, places, or things in a general way.

INDEFINITE PRONOUNS

Singular Plural Singular or Plural

Anybody everyone nothing / both / all
Anyone everything one / few / any
Anything much other / many / more
Each neither somebody / others / most
Either nobody someone / several / none
Everybody no one something

*When an indefinite pronoun is the subject of a sentence it must agree with the verb.

  1. Predicate pronouns: Pronouns used to replace nouns that served as the predicate of the sentence. Predicate pronouns include: Me, her, him, us, it them, you.
  1. Subjective pronouns: A subject pronoun is used as the subject of the sentence.

SUBJECT PRONOUNS

Singular ……………….. I, you, she, he, it

Plural …………………………we, you, they

  1. Objective pronouns: The objective pronouns are: me, you, him, her, it, us, you (plural), and them.

*Objective pronouns are used as (1) direct objects, (2) Indirect objects, and (3) objects of prepositions.

  1. Possessive Pronouns: Use possessive forms of personal pronouns to show ownership.

THE POSSESSIVE PRONOUNS

USED BEFORE NOUNS USED BY THEMSELVES

My its mine its

Your our yours ours

His her his theirs

Their hers

  1. Intensive pronouns

Examples:

myself, yourself, himself, herself, itself
ourselves, yourselves, themselves

Intensive pronouns are used to emphasize another noun or pronoun.

That means that they do not need to refer to the subject. They can refer to any old noun or pronoun in the sentence.

Example:

I made a sandwich for the President himself.

The intensive pronoun himself is referring to the noun President which is an object of the preposition.

Example:

My sister herself paid for my popcorn.

Here, the intensive pronoun herself is referring to sister which is the subject of the sentence. Notice that you could take herself out of the sentence, and it would still make sense.

Since an intensive pronoun is used for emphasis, it is not necessary to the sentence. It does not give us any new information. You could take out an intensive pronoun from a sentence, and the sentence would still make sense.

  1. Pronoun Agreement: (L6.1c) Recognize and correct inappropriate use in pronoun number and person.

Pronouns stand in for nouns in a sentence.When replacing any noun (Matt, the cheerleader, the chair) with a pronoun (he, she, it), the pronoun must match the form of missing noun. A noun has three elements: number, gender, and case.

Number: A noun can be either singular (one) or plural (more than one) and the pronoun must reflect that. For example: Matt went to the store. Because Matt is singular (one person) the correct pronoun would be he as in "He went to the store" and not "They went to the store". The pronoun they would be appropriate only if more than one person were going to the store. For example, "The students went to the store" would change to "They went to the store" because there is more than one person.

Gender: This refers to whether the noun is masculine or feminine. The pronoun must reflect this. For example, "Matt went to the store" should be rewritten as "He went to the store" and not "She went to the store" because Matt is male.

Case: Keep in mind whether the noun is the subject or object of the sentence and use the appropriate pronoun. The subject of the sentence is the noun that is doing the action. In the sentence "Matt went to the store", Matt is the person "going", so replace "Matt" with "he": "He went to the store". The subject of the sentence is the thing receiving the action. Take the sentence "The ball struck Matt in the arm". In this case Matt is the one being struck, therefore use the objective pronoun (him). The ball struck him in the arm.

Because pronouns follow the same agreement rules as nouns, it is important to be clear about what noun it is replacing. The first step in tackling a pronoun question is to locate and identify the pronouns in the sentence.

Subject
I
he/she
we
they
who
it, one, you (same in either case) / Object
me
him/her
us
them
whom
it, one, you (same in either case)

L.6.1.d
8. Recognize and correct vague pronouns

General Rule:
Pronouns should always replace a noun; the specific noun to which a pronoun refers is called its antecedent. The antecedent of a pronoun needs to be clear.

Example: Although the pizza was cold, it tasted good.

Here, the pronoun "it" clearly

refers to the noun "pizza".

Problem #1:
Ambiguous antecedents occur when the pronoun in a sentence could refer to two or more of the nouns present.

Example: Tim told his brother he was working too hard.

In this sentence, the pronoun

"he" could refer to either "Tim" or "his brother".

Problem #2:
Vague antecedents occur when the pronoun does not refer to a specific noun.

Example: The mother of the young mountain climber wanted him to give it up.

What does the pronoun "it" stand for in this sentence?

Although one might guess that "it" refers to "mountain

climbing", there is no such noun in the sentence.

L6.3a: Vary sentence pattern for meaning, reader/listener interest, and style.

  1. Adjective phrases: When a prepositional phrase acts as an adjective, it is called an adjective phrase.

Example: The laboratory on the first floorof this building is new.

(This example has 2 adjective phrases)

  1. Adverbial phrase: An adverbial phrase is a prepositional phrase that modifies a verb, an adjective or an adverb.

Example: He ran to the corner.

  1. Comparative Adjectives

Use of Comparative Adjectives

We use comparative adjectives when talking about 2 things (not 3 or 10 or 1,000,000 things, only 2 things).

Often, the comparative adjective is followed by "than".

Look at these examples:

  • John is 1m80. He is tall. But Chris is 1m85. He is tallerthan John.
  • America is big. But Russia is bigger.
  • I want to have a more powerful computer.
  • Is French more difficult than English?
  1. Comparative adverbs:

Adverbs of comparison are used to show what one thing does better or worse than the other.

When an adverb ends in -ly, more is put in front of the adverb.

For example:-

  • "Jill did her homework morefrequently."

The rule for forming the comparative of an adverb is if it has the same form as an adjective add the suffix -er to the end.

For example:-

  • "Jill did her homework faster."

The following irregular adverbs are exceptions to this rule:

  • 'well' becomes 'better'
  • 'badly' becomes 'worse'
  • 'little' becomes 'less'

For example:

  • "Jill was better."
  • "Jack was worse."
  • "To lose weight you need to eat less."

When comparing two things you need to put than between the adverb and what is being compared.

For example:-

  • "Jill did her homework faster than Jack."
  • "Jill did her homework morefrequentlythan Jack."

12: Adverbial and Adjective subordinate clauses:

Subordinate Clause:

Contains both a subject and a verb

Incomplete thought—cannot stand alone as a sentence

Connected to the independent clause with a subordinating conjunction or relative pronoun.

Subordinating Conjunctions:

after, although, as, as if, as long as, as soon as, as though, because, before, even though, if, in order that, once, provided that, since, so that, than, though, unless, until, when, whenever, where, while

Relative Pronouns:

that, how, what, who, whom, which, whichever, whoever, whomever, whose, whether, why

1)Adverb Subordinate Clause

Modifies verbs, adjectives, or adverbs.

Begins with a subordinating conjunction.

Location—anywhere, usually before or after independent clause.

Punctuation Rules: If it opens sentence, use a comma; if inside sentence, a comma is usually unnecessary.

Examples:

--Because she loves film, her friends buy her movies for her birthday.

--I will lose the case unless I find a reliable witness.

--The concert seemed less than exciting after the main singer left the stage.

2)Adjective Subordinate Clause

Modifies nouns or pronouns.

Begins with a relative pronoun.

Location—always follows the noun it modifies

Punctuation Rules: If essential (noun is general), do not use commas; if inessential (noun is specific), use commas.

Examples:

--The novel that I am reading was banned from publication until 1963.

--Mrs. Garcia, who has taught here for almost nine years, has a three-year-old son.

--The reason why she likes chocolate cannot be determined through logic.

13 Appositives: Phrases that rename, identify, or explain the nouns they follow are called appositive phrases.

Examples: The harp, the oldest stringed instrument, is played with the fingers.

Austin, the capital of Texas, was named after Stephen Austin.

14. Introductory phrases

Introductory phrases are similar to introductory clauses but are not complete clauses because they do not have both a verb and a subject. For example:

Here at Vappingo, we offer the best online writing services available.

Checking methodically, we never miss a mistake.

15. Compound sentence:

A sentence that is made up of a single independent clause is called a simple sentence. But two or more independent clauses can be joined to form a compound sentence.

16. Independent clauses:

Unlike phrases, clauses are often complete sentences. Every clause has a subject and a verb.

An independent clause has a subject and a verb and can stand on its own as a complete sentence.

Examples: I am going to the movies.

Last Tuesday, Jim began judo lessons.

Mrs. Anderson will be showing a film now.

17. Dependent clauses: A group of words that has both a subject and a verb but (unlike an independent clause) cannot stand alone as a sentence. Also known as a subordinate clause.

Dependent clauses include adverb clauses, adjective clauses, and noun clauses.

18. superlatives: Comparatives and Superlatives are special forms of adjectives. They are used to compare two or more things. Generally, comparatives are formed using -er and superlatives are formed using -est.

Adjective form / Comparative / Superlative
Only one syllable, ending in E. Examples: wide, fine, cute / Add -r: wider, finer, cuter / Add -st: widest, finest, cutest

Words not defined but included in grade 6 grammar:

Word Issues: Conjunctions

Punctuation: periods, commas, quotation marks, use of underlining and italics for specific purposes.