D.L.P. – Week FiveGRADE SEVEN

Day One – Skills• Verb Usage – To fight

The verb fight is an action verb that is irregular. In the past and past participle, the verb changes to fought.

• Capitalization – Proper Adjectives

Adjectives describe nouns. When a proper noun is changed into an adjective form, then it must be capitalized. America is a proper noun, so when it becomes the adjective American, it must still be capitalized.

Rikki-tikki-tavi is a courageous mongoose who fighted two deadly cobras.

DAY ONE – SENTENCE ONE

Rikki-tikki-tavi is a courageous mongoose who fought two deadly cobras.

Rikki-tikki-tavi saved an english family living in colonial India.

DAY ONE – SENTENCE TWO

Rikki-tikki-tavi saved an English family living in colonial India.

Day Two – Skills• Contractions – Formation of

Contractions are formed when two words are combined into one. When the contraction is formed, letters are left out. To show to omission of these letters, an apostrophe is used. (should+not= shouldn’t) Some contractions are irregular and form differently. (will+not= won’t)

• Punctuation – Comma – Appositives

If an appositive is a single word, it is the writer’s choice to place comas around it or not, but a multiple word appositive must be set off from the sentence with commas.

Rikki-tikki-tavi willn’t quit until he kills both snakes.

DAY TWO – SENTENCE ONE

Rikki-tikki-tavi won’t quit until he kills both snakes.

Nag the cobra is worried because he knows that a mongoose can kill a cobra.

DAY TWO – SENTENCE TWO

Nag, the cobra, is worried because he knows that a mongoose can kill a cobra.

Day Three– Skills• Confused Words – regardless/irregardless

The word is regardless. Irregardless is not actually a word.

• Negatives – Elimination of Doubles

Only one negative word should be used per sentence. Negative words include no, not, never, and none.

• Agreement – Pronoun and antecedent

A pronoun is a word that takes the place of a noun. An antecedent is the noun that the pronoun replaces. They must agree. For example, if one is singular, then the other must be. If one is masculine, then the other must be.

Irregardless, he didn’t say nothing to his wife, Nagaina.

DAY THREE – SENTENCE ONE

Regardless, he didn’t say anything to his wife, Nagaina.

All cobras who live in gardens must be on his or her guard for a mongoose.

DAY THREE – SENTENCE TWO

All cobras who live in gardens must be on their guard for a mongoose.

Day Four– Skills• Pronoun Usage – Antecedent Reference

Pronouns take the place of nouns. An antecedent is the noun that the pronoun takes the place of. Sometimes the noun is not stated directly in the sentence, but the reference is understood. (She stood there teaching the class. Although the teacher is not in the sentence, the context makes that clear.) Sometimes, there is more than one noun in the sentence, so it is important to be clear which noun is the antecedent. (The boys both enjoyed the game, but he enjoyed it more. Who is he? This is not a clear reference to an antecdent.)

• Punctuation – Apostrophes in Possession

An apostrophe is used to show possession or ownership. If the word showing ownership is singular, then the apostrophe is placed before the s. (boy’s) If the word is plural and ends in an s, then the apostrophe is placed after the s. (groups’) However, if the plural word does not end in an s, then the apostrophe is placed before the s. (children’s)

Joint possession means more than one person owns something. If one thing is owned by more than one person, the apostrophe and s appear only on the final person in the group. (Bob and Mark’s car)

• Adverbs – To modify

Adverbs are used to describe verbs, adjectives, and other adverbs. An adjective cannot be used to describe a verb. (opened quick must be opened quickly) An adjective cannot be used to describe another adjective. (real exciting must be turned into really excited.

When Nag saw Rikki-tikki-tavi, he was upset.

DAY FOUR – SENTENCE ONE

When Nag saw Rikki-tikki-tavi, Nag was upset.

He crushed Nagainas eggs quick so that they couldn’t hatch.

DAY FOUR – SENTENCE TWO

He crushed Nagaina’s eggs quickly so that they couldn’t hatch.

Day Five– Skills• Capitalization – Proper Nouns - Places

Names of specific places must be capitalized since they are proper nouns. These could include the names of buildings and monuments. They could also include towns, cities, states, and countries.

• Punctuation – Comma – Items in a Series

If more than two items are used in a list, this is called items in a series. Each item in the list must be separated by a comma including a comma before the conjunction.

• Run-on Sentences – Correcting with a Conjunctive Adverb

Conjunctive adverbs are word such as therefore, however, and as a result. These words can combine two sentences, but they must be punctuated in a special way. Before the adverb a semicolon is placed. The conjunctive adverb is not capitalized and will be followed by a comma.

A mongoose can be brought into the united states only for educational medicinal or scientific purposes.

DAY FIVE – SENTENCE ONE

A mongoose can be brought into the United States only for educational, medicinal, or scientific purposes.

A mongoose is helpful in killing poisonous snakes however a mongoose is harmful to many birds.

DAY FIVE – SENTENCE TWO

A mongoose is helpful in killing poisonous snakes; however, a mongoose is harmful to many birds.