PLEASE READ ALL THE DIRECTIONS CAREFULLY
On the following page, there is a chart for the made up words in your nonsense poem. Feel free to invent more made up words than the required amount if you want. If you invent more than the required amount of words, you only need to fill in the chart for the required amount of words. Make sure that your poem includes AT LEAST:
3 made up adjectives—FOR ALL ADJECTIVES, MAKE SURE YOU INDICATE IN THE CHART WHAT WORD IT MODIFIES
3 made up nouns—FOR ALL NOUNS, INDICATE IN THE “PART OF SPEECH” COLUMN WHETHER THE NOUN IS: (1) COMMON OR PROPER; (2) CONCRETE OR ABSTRACT; (3) SINGULAR OR PLURAL
3 made up verbs—FOR ALL VERBS, IN THE “PART OF SPEECH” COLUMN, INDICATE THE TENSE (PAST, PRESENT, OR FUTURE) OF THE VERB
3 made up adverbs—FOR ALL ADVERBS, MAKE SURE YOU INDICATE IN THE CHART WHAT WORD IT MODIFIES
3 made up words of your choice.
This should make a grand total of at least 15 made up words.
What are the identifying factors that help you determine what part of speech a certain word is? I’m glad you asked. There can be a number of different identifying factors that help determine a word’s part of speech. Suffixes, for example, frequently help determine part of speech. Words ending in –ment are always NOUNS. Words ending in –ous or –ish are typically ADJECTIVES. PAST TENSE VERBS usually end in –ed. Adverbs usually end in –ly.Not all words, though, end in a common suffix. However, you should use suffixes for at least some of your made up words to help indicate what part of speech it is. If you made up the adverb “scroggily,” you could put “ends in –ly” as your identifying factor.
Another way to identify the part of speech of a word is to look at its placement in a sentence. For example, in English, we put adjectives before the nouns they describe. We say, “Look at the blue sky,” and we do NOT say, “Look at the sky blue.” If I wrote, “Look at the shmorkle sky,” you could guess that the word “shmorkle” was an adjective because of its placement before the noun. So, under “Identifying factors”, you would put, “comes before the noun ‘sky’”. Keep in mind the real rules of English grammar while writing this poem. While many of the words should be made up, the rules of English grammar should still apply.
For each word, make sure that you have AT LEAST 1 identifying factor. Either explain how the suffix or its relation to other words in the sentence indicates what part of speech the word is.
A helpful hint: If you are ever unsure what part of speech your made up word is, try substituting a real word that makes sense in its place. Then determine what part of speech the real word is, and your made up word will be the same type. For example, let’s use the same sentence as before: “Look at the shmorkle sky.” If you are unsure what part of speech “shmorkle” is, try substituting a word that makes sense in its place. The words “blue” or “beautiful” would both work in this case. Both “blue” and “beautiful” are adjectives, so “shmorkle” must be an adjective too!
I hope you guys enjoy this assignment. Have fun and be creative. You’ll be amazed by how much you’ll learn about the real English language just by using fake words! I’m excited to hear all your poems when we read them outside. Don’t worry, I’m going to write a poem and share it as well.
Good luck! If you have any questions, please ask me, and I’ll be happy to help.
Mr. Margolies
Word / Part of Speech / Identifying Factors / What it modifies (only for adj. and adv.) / Possible Synonyms