Grammar

Lets Start With The Basics•Noun: A person (Miss Dean), a place (Plymouth School) or a thing (anger).•Adjective: A word that describes a noun. They answer the question “what kind?”

Example: Matilda is a blonde, Australian student.

•Common nouns and adjectives are not capitalized. •cat, dog, student, red, big, funny etc. (unless they begin a sentence or are titles for poems, movies etc.)

•Proper nouns and adjectives are always capitalized•Susan, Canada, Thursday, Chinese, Chevrolet

•Other words such as street or hotel can be either proper or common nouns depending on the context in which they are used.

Proper Nouns and Adjectives that are Always Capitalized

•Languages: French, English, Spanish

•Religions: Christian, Islam, Buddhist

•Days of the week: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday

•Names of the month: December, July, March

•Holidays: Christmas, Yom Kippur, Memorial Day

•Brand names: Ford, American Eagle, Bauer

•Countries and Nationalities: Canada, Canadian

•Parts of names that mention countries or nationalities: French toast

•Planets: Earth, Saturn Mars

Practice TimeIn your scribblers, write down all of the nouns in the following sentences and capitalize all that are proper: 1.Every wednesday at fantasy school the students study math, spanish and the habits of kangaroos.

2.School lets out for special holidays like easter in the spring and thanksgiving in the fall, but it also closes for unusual holidays in may like wildflower day when everyone goes into the woods to admire the wildflowers.

3.When students of mexican background celebrate the mexican national holiday on may 5th, everyone in the class joins them in eating a spicy brand of tortilla chips called caliente chips.

4. In addition to a peculiar professor named professor whatnot, the teachers at fantasy school have interesting backgrounds and include russian artists, japanese cooks, and an alaskan elf herder.