1. Prepositional Phrases, which are phrases that begin with a preposition followed by a noun or pronoun, along with any words that modify that noun.

Examples: a)Jim went to school without his books.

b) Behind the cushions John found more bits offood and other debris than he imagined possible.

Phrases: Prepositional, Verbal, Absolute, and Appositive

There are 4 basic types of phrases:

2. Verbal phrases, whose key element is a verbal. There are 3 basic types of verbals:

A. Infinitive: The lecturer used jokes to fit his topic in order to keep his class awake.

B. Gerund: Working at nights was just impossible for him.

C. Present participial: Running home, Jane tripped over the curb.Past participial: Doubled over in pain, the man screamed for help.

3. Absolute phrases are phrases that stand grammatically independent from the sentence. Usually they have both a noun and a gerund that acts as a verb substitute. Be careful with these it s easy to confuse this with a dangling modifier.

Example: The lecture having finished ten

minutes early, we headed over to the coffee shop.

4. Appositive phrases, which are words or groups of words placed beside another word whose meaning it expands. The word or phrase must be the same part of speech and fulfill the same grammatical function as the word it modifies.

Examples: a) My father, an important business man

in the city of Dallas, spent much of his free time on the golf course.

b) He spoke in a loud, or rather, commanding, voice.

A word or group of words (phrase or clause) that stands next to a noun to give additional information

Mr. MacArthur, my personal physician, has been awarded an honor certificate.

Step one: Identifying appositives:

Appositives A word or group of words (phrase or clause) that stands next to a noun to give additional information. What is the appositive in the previous sentence?

Mr. MacArthur, my personal physician, has been awarded an honor certificate.

Appositives Usually come within two commas: , appositive,

Notice that: the Sentence can “live” without the appositive.

Mr. MacArthur has been awarded an honor certificate.

Find the Appositive

Ms. Tate, the lady who is by the pool, once won our local golf tournament.

Ms. Tate, the lady who is by the pool, once won our local golf tournament. Dunn and Denver, our goldfish, eagerly gulp their food

Dunn and Denver, our goldfish, eagerly gulp their food

Find the Appositive

Lady Gray, my horse, and Duke, my cousin’s pony, won first place ribbons at the fair. Lady Gray, my horse, and Duke, my cousin’s pony, won first place ribbons at the fair. These televisions, the color one and the portable one, will be sold at the auctionThese televisions, the color one and the portable one, will be sold at the auction

Reebok Easy Tone Sneakers, introduced in 2009, were advertised to strengthen and tone legs 11 percent better than walking shoes and shape a behind 28 percent better than regular footwear. But research backing up the advertising pitch was "wholly insufficient," Vladeck told the Times. He did not say whether makers of other toning shoes would be disciplined as well.

Consumers who bought EasyTone shoes, which typically cost $100 or more, can apply for a refund at www.ftc.gov.

Reebok, a division of Adidas, agreed to the settlement but disputed the FTC allegations. "We stand by our EasyTone technology," Robert Pitch, company spokesman, told the Times in an email. "Consumers expected to get a workout, not to get worked over," said David Vladeck, director of the FTC Bureau of Consumer Protection, according to The New York Times.

Let’s get serious: Find Appositives:

Reebok Easy Tone Sneakers, introduced in 2009, were advertised to strengthen and tone legs 11 percent better than walking shoes and shape a behind 28 percent better than regular footwear. But research backing up the advertising pitch was "wholly insufficient," Vladeck told the Times. He did not say whether makers of other toning shoes would be disciplined as well. Consumers who bought EasyTone shoes, which typically cost $100 or more, can apply for a refund at www.ftc.gov.

Reebok, a division of Adidas, agreed to the settlement but disputed the FTC allegations. "We stand by our EasyTone technology," Robert Pitch, company spokesman, told the Times in an email."Consumers expected to get a workout, not to get worked over," said David Vladeck, director of the FTC Bureau of Consumer Protection, according to The New York Times.

Let’s get serious: Find Appositives:

What is Staphylococcus?

Staphylococcus, more familiarly known as Staph, is a group of bacteria that can cause a number of diseases as a result of infection of various tissues of the body. Staph-related illness can range from mild and requiring no treatment to severe and potentially fatal.

The name Staphylococcus comes from the Greek staphyle, meaning a bunch of grapes, and kokkos, meaning berry, and that is what Staph bacteria look like under the microscope, like a bunch of grapes or little round berries. (In technical terms, these are gram-positive, facultative anaerobic, usually unencapsulated cocci.)

What is Staphylococcus?

Staphylococcus, more familiarly known as Staph, is a group of bacteria that can cause a number of diseases as a result of infection of various tissues of the body. Staph-related illness can range from mild and requiring no treatment to severe and potentially fatal.

The name Staphylococcus comes from the Greek staphyle, meaning a bunch of grapes, and kokkos, meaning berry, and that is what Staph bacteria look like under the microscope, like a bunch of grapes or little round berries. (In technical terms, these are gram-positive, facultative anaerobic, usually unencapsulated cocci.)