Grammar and Writing Notes

Parts of Speech

Noun - person, place, or thing

ex: Ryan is wearing a shirt today.

Frank went to Metrotown.

verb - action

ex: running, to eat, jumping

adverb - word that describes a verb or another adjective

ex: The bus got to school slowly.

The garbage was very smelly.

I am doing well.

adjective - describes a noun

ex: Jenny is beautiful. Metrotown is really big.

pronoun - word that replaces a noun

ex: She strutted through the aisle. He got to school very slowly.

conjunction - a word that links two parts of a sentence

ex: I like the colour green but prefer the colour blue. I like food and sleep.

interjection - an exclamation of surprise, joy, delight, etc.

ex: Ouch! Surprise! Whoah!

preposition - a word that shows relationship such as time, position, direction, etc.

ex: The book was on the table. The man with rugs for sale walked by our house this morning. "The Vampire Diaries" is on at 6 o'clock.

subject - names who or what is doing the action in the sentence.

ex. Ms. Braun's Humanities 8 class is fun and hard-working.

predicate - describes the action of the sentence.

ex. Ms. Braun's Humanities 8 class is fun and hard-working.

Coordinating conjunctions - link phrases together in a sentence

"coordinate" - to plan, control, to join

"conjunction" - a linking word

examples of coordinating conjunctions:

·  and, or, but, yet, nor, for, because

·  The Tupper rugby team is hard-working (1st clause), and the teammates are the best (2nd clause)!

·  The ice-cream was tasty but it had nuts in it.

phrase - not a complete idea; group of words

ex. - went to the store

- My friend Jaya

clause - a complete idea; like a sentence in that it could stand alone.

ex. - I went to the store.

- My friend Jaya is funny.

comma splice - linking two clauses with only a comma instead of a comma AND a coordinating conjunction.

ex. I love ice-cream, it's yummy. (comma splice)

I love ice-cream, because it's yummy. (proper sentence)

heavy connectives - ALWAYS link two complete ideas or clauses; marked off by a semicolon before it and a comma after it; modify a complete idea by showing the reader its relation to the previous idea

examples of heavy connectives: however, therefore, furthermore, consequently, besides

ex: The car drove off (1st clause); however, it came back (2nd clause).

ex. School is big (1st clause); consequently, it took a long time to build (2nd clause).