Name: _______________________ Hour: ____________

Grammar SlammerParts of speech, spelling, punctuation—stuff we English teachers tell you is vitally important to your existence. If you cannot string a clear sentence together, you should simply plan to live with your parents for the rest of your life. Who wants that!?

Well, learning the finer points of the English language isn’t always the most fun activity, but it really does provide some valuable tools for your communication tool belt. For example, knowing your parts of speech helps a great deal when/if you decide to study a foreign language. Knowing how your native tongue works both in written and verbal forms can help you to organize papers, speeches, and presentations in a way that will dazzle your teachers, parents, admissions committees and bosses which can lead to A’s on papers, extra privileges at home, admission to the college of your choice and maybe a promotion or raise. Who knows?

After a long break (summer vacation or a second trimester start to this class), we are going to take a small amount of time to review some “Englishy” things like parts of speech, sentence types and some grammar rules. While this isn’t always the most thrilling stuff, we can try to have a good time while we whip ourselves into a frenzy over this crazy language we all use every day. So let’s get started! ☺

Subject and Predicate PracticeLooking at the big picture, sentences are made up of big chunks…

Underline the complete subject once and the complete predicate twice.

1. The island of Bequia lies between the islands of Grenada and St. Vincent.

2. A need for economic growth has led to the construction of an airport.

3. Some islanders are worried about the loss of the old way of life.

4. Six hundred species of butterfly have been recorded on Tobago.

5. The Tobago Forest Preserve has protected much of the island from tourism.

6. About a half mile offshore is beautiful Buccoo Reef.

7. Sun-drenched fishing villages dot the scenic coastline.

8. On Little Tobago Island, eager bird watchers may spot several kinds of exotic

birds.

9. Four different types of forest can be found in Tobago.

10.The mangrove forest occupies the wetlands.

1

…but we also need to review and understand the little pieces that make up those

hunka-chunka burning sentences!

Nouns: Common and Proper

A common noun names a person, place, thing, relationship, concept, or idea.

Eight-toed wombats need love, too. In just one week, my car lost its wheels, hood,

and bumper. When you go to the store, please get some garters for my snake. Our nation believes in life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

Just checking…circle the common nouns in the list below:

little feebly beauty overant witch cousin sharpencabbage hill wonderful erasercrawled geranium slowly erase

A proper noun is the name of a specific person, place, thing, language, country, day, month, or religion.

Proper nouns are always capitalized. The first word of a sentence is capitalized, too, but that doesn’t make it a proper noun (that’s just a free tip for you).

Amy McAllister sings songs in French at the Heartbreak Hotel every Tuesday.

The water stain on my ceiling is in the shape of India. Nuthatch, my pet squirrel, loves to dance to the music of Beethoven. Matthew Munyon plans to roller-skate to Maine, Michigan,

Montana, and Mississippi from March to May.

2

Give this one a shot: Circle the proper nouns in the following sentences:

1. Large bats visit Bear Paw Pond on the third Tuesday of each October.2. Dr. Seuss used to live on Mulberry Street in Christmas Cove, New

Hampshire.3. Rambo Hutchinson drinks Diet Coke and eats nails as part of his weight

training program.4. Mr. Smith went to Washington, but he was homesick for Kalamazoo.

BAM! Let’s Take it up a notch: Square each common noun and CAPITALIZE each PROPER NOUN.

1. Fedonia krump is a little old lady from pasadena, california, so she

needs tea and our sympathy.

2. mrs. Johnson called her twin boys pete and repeat.

3. I’d like to visit dallas, so i can tell my cousin to shape up.

4. the easter bunny put all his eggs in one basket, so when he tripped

over stella’s bicycle, the yolk was on him.

5. batman and robin are two of my grandmother’s favorite characters on

t.v. land.

6. When eric studies French, he eats toast and fries.

7. Dad’s corn crop should be neck high by the end of july.

8. Do you think max and erma will let stella become a rock star?

3

9. On mondays and wednesdays, the parking lot is full of toyotas, hondas,

and fords.

10. If the dallas cowboys win the superbowl, they’ll have a rodeo in

Madison square garden in new york city.

Pronouns

A pronoun is a word that can take the place of a noun.

Pronouns are very handy; if we didn’t have them, we would be forced to keep spelling out Lucinda Magillacudy in our papers.

He has two attack-trained roosters, and I’m afraid of them. You and I should burn our PS3 so we can get some homework done. If he makes his wounded-rhinoceros noise again, I’ll scream. Little Bo Peep has lost her sheep, and she doesn’t know where to find

them. His goldfish is shinier than yours.

Here’s a handy, dandy list of popular pronouns you probably use every day:

I them ours yourselfyou my who himselfhe mine whose herselfshe your whom itselfit yours everyone ourselveswe his someone yourselvesthey hers no one themselvesme its everybody thishim their somebody thather theirs nobody theseus our myself those

Don’t freak out; I don’t expect you to know all of these. Just look how many pronouns are at your disposal for creating interesting, varied sentences.

4

Note to Self: Remember, “I” is always capitalized, and whenever you use a pronoun that refers to God, it needs to be capitalized, too.

God’s eye is on the sparrow, but I know He watches me.

5

Let’s play around with the following exercise. Triangle each pronoun you find in these sentences.

1. When you grow too old to dream, you’ll have us to remember.

2. He declared war on the moles in his garden, so they moved to yours.

3. Al and Ben planted catnip in their gardens.

4. Jo and Jane took their armadillo camping with them, and it ate their tent.

5. Fedonia recycles her used teabags and wears them as earrings.

6. George loves fish sorbet, so Martha makes it for him every day.

7. If you don’t clean your room today, Evan, I am going to ask the Health

Department to condemn it.

8. I took one look at the monster’s jaws, and my heart jumped out of my chest.

9. They refused to pay their light bill, so now they are dancing in the dark.

10. Kendra is teaching her children to eat with their mouths open.

Verbs

A verb indicates action or a state of being.

Time waits for no one, but other magazines are more patient.

Chively hates fried chicken. The chef whipped the cream, scrambled the

eggs, and diced the ham. You are my sunshine.

Note of caution: Not all verbs are single words…That road should have been opened to traffic last week, but a bulldozer has been stuck in the mud, and they cannot get it out.The Great Pumpkin will give me a present on Halloween.

6

Give this one a try…have fun with the verbs and try to have a few with more than one word.

1. When the moon comes over the mountain, it ___________________.

2. Rocky and Maybelle like to exercise, so they _______________, _____________, and __________________ every morning.

3. If it doesn’t rain tomorrow, will you ___________________?

4. My pet rock ________________ when it’s hungry.

5. Tara’s cousin once _______________ a kangaroo.

6. Basil Sneed _______________ once a week.

7. When you work too much ___________, you always _______________.

8. He _______________ the goat, so it _______________ him.

9. Clorene _______________ toucans, but she _______________ sharks.

10. The ghost _______________ and _______________, but I _______________.

Adjectives

An adjective describes a noun or a pronoun.

I plan to wear a funny hat, a torn shirt, and plaid shoes to the tea party.

Whistling girls and crowing hens will always come to some strange end, according to the weird old fortune teller.

Eighteen tiny, dancing, purple-nosed elves live in the tall, sticky tree.

Adjectives formed from proper nouns are known as proper adjectives and they are always capitalized.

I am allergic to French poodles, Arabian horses, Siamese cats and Irish setters.

7

Adjective practice: Please circle the adjectives in the following paragraph:

It was a dark and stormy night, but brave, beautiful Amy McAllister quickly finished her dinner of Swedish meatballs, Russian tea, English muffins, and Norwegian sardines, put on her fuchsia boots, grabbed her frilly umbrella, and made her lonely way through the inky alley. Terrified, she bumped into a huge, water-soaked box, fell over an abandoned skateboard, and leaped over the muddy puddle. Her nervous laughter echoed through the half-empty garage, but her bright brown eyes finally found the object of her frantic search, and, as she kick-started her trusty motorcycle, she gave a loud cheer, glad that she wouldn’t be late for her Japanese flower-arranging class.

A quick word about articles (both definite and indefinite)…

Technically, articles are adjectives, but the grammar elves decided to call them articles instead. These words include A, AN, and THE.

Adverbs

An adverb describes verbs, adjectives and other adverbs.

Kelly giggled nervously. (Nervously describes the verb giggled.)

Oz had laryngitis; he was quite quiet. (Quite describes the adj. quiet) Margaret bought that lime green house rather hastily, didn’t she?

(Rather describes the adverb hastily.)Many adverbs end in –ly (swiftly, slowly, beautifully, poetically), but some don’t (fast, much, well, too, very), so the ending isn’t a surefire way to find the adverbs. The best way to recognize them is to ask yourself if the word in question describes a verb, an adjective, or an adverb. If so, it is an adverb.

Also, adverbs answer questions such as when , where , how or to what extent.

My family will be moving to Tasmania soon. (when)Sit right here, young man, and don’t move a muscle! (where)

8

Kermit the Frog truly admires Miss Piggy. (how)Tess is extremely nervous about swimming with sharks. (to what extent)

Adverb practice: Please highlight (pick a color) the adverbs in the following paragraph. If you’re ready for a challenge, underline the adjectives as well.

Amy McAllister was so excited about her extremely interesting Japanese flower-arranging class that she completely ignored the bright red stop signs randomly placed here and there on her route to school. Suddenly, her very cold ears picked up the hauntingly familiar sound of a skull-shatteringly loud siren, and she saw dazzling lights in her rearview mirror. Frantically, she began to create convincingly pathetic excuses for going too fast. As she slowly pulled over to the side of the road, she patted her motorcycle tenderly and smiled bravely at the very large person who was slowly approaching.

Prepositions

A preposition shows the relation of a noun or pronoun to some other word in the sentence. As my Spanish teacher told me to help me remember prepositions: “It’s anywhere a mouse can go.” Another “trick” is to look at the word/words that come right after the preposition: if the word/words is/are nouns or pronouns, you have prepositional phrase. More later on if the word/words after is/are something else…

Notice how changing the preposition changes the runner’s location in relation to the gorilla.

I am running with the gorilla.I am running for the gorilla.I am running to the gorilla.I am running beside the gorilla.I am running behind the gorilla.I am running from the gorilla.I am running over the gorilla.I am running under the gorilla.I am running around the gorilla.I am running across the gorilla.I am running on the gorilla.

9

I am running through the gorilla.

Oh, goody! Here’s a list of commonly used prepositions:

abroad at byabout before concerningabove behind downacross below duringafter beneath foragainst beside fromalong between inamong beyond intoaround through untiloff to withon toward withoutsince under like

Some prepositions consist of more than one word: in spite of my warning, on account of the flood, according to Freud.

Some fun with prepositions: Select 5 prepositions from the list above and write some really cool sentences. By the way, no using the 2-3 word prepositions listed. Go for the BIG words!

Conjunctions

A conjunction joins words, phrases, clauses, or sentences. I, personally, like to remember the catchy Schoolhouse Rocks! song and give the following definition: “hookin’ up words and phrases and clauses”. ♪

The most popular conjunctions are coordinating conjunctions: you guys know them as the FANBOYS: for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so.

Gold and silver are my favorite metals.

Biff ran up the mountain and into the clouds.

Neither the boy standing in the mud puddle nor the girl waving the white hanky is Tara’s cousin.

Let’s elect Archie class president, for he is a jolly good fellow.

10

The ice is melting, so we need to skate fast!

A quick bit of practice: Please draw clouds around the coordinating conjunctions in the following sentences.

1. My dog howls at pictures of Lassie and that Chihuahua from Taco Bell.2. Bernie went to school, but he forgot his homework.3. Florence sprained her ankle, so she won’t be parachuting with us today.4. Grandpa Pringle doesn’t enjoy movies, nor is he too crazy about television.5. I fed the goldfish, yet they still raided the refrigerator.6. Larry, Curly, and Moe joined Lucy and me for cake and squid sherbet.

Some words of caution about conjunctions and other stuffThe function of a word in a sentence tells you what part of speech the word belongs to. Most words in isolation can be classified as more than one part of speech; think about the word rose, for example.

The last rose of summer is a sad sight. (noun)We all rose to sing the school song. (verb)Those rose glasses make your eyes look pink. (adjective)

You have to pay attention to how the word (s) is being used in the sentence to determine how to label it.

Conjunctions are especially sneaky: only when for, and, nor, but, or, yet and so are joiners can they be called conjunctions.

I love anchovy pizza, so I had it for breakfast.

This sentence uses so as a joiner of two independent sentences, so this is definitely a conjunction.

He was so handsome that he made me feel dizzy.

How about that? In that sentence so is not joining things. It is actually an adverb that modifies the word handsome.

Here are a few more examples for you to consider…

11

She’s had nothing but trouble since she lost her lucky shark tooth. (preposition)The doctor has good news for the family. (preposition)I keep waiting for a miracle; however, nothing’s happened yet. (adverb)

And, or, and nor are are always conjunctions; they are always used as joiners.

12