Nouns

A noun is a naming word. It may be a thing, a person or a place.

There are three types of nouns:

•Common nouns

•Proper nouns

•Collective nouns

Common nounsThese are the general names of things:

dog cat cow horse boy girl man

woman table computer chair television

Proper nouns

These nouns are the names of particular people, places or things. They have a Capital letter.

Bethany Luke

Durham Brighton

Collective nounsThese are a group of things

They have special names for different groups, but some of the most common include:

•Army of soldiers

•Herd of cows

•Flock of seagulls

•Bunch of bananas

PronounsPronouns do the same job as a noun. Words like he, she, it, mine and yours are all pronouns. They are used in the place of nouns. They are very useful, because they stop you from repeating yourself. If your writing was full of the same words being repeated, it could easily become dull!

E.g.. Warren ate some cake, because Warren liked chocolate cake most of all. Warren ate it every chance that Warren got.

AdjectivesAdjectives are describing words. They describe a noun in a sentence. E.g.

•The tabby cat

•The slippery slug

•The loud, angry man

•The glittering sea

VerbsVerbs are words that describe actions. Every sentence has to have a verb or it is not a sentence. Verbs tell you what a person or thing is doing. For example, in the sentence: The fish is swimming, the word swimming is the verb.

e.g.

•The man shouted the bell rang

•The girl giggled the firework fizzed

•The shark chewed the dog barked

Passive verbsPassive verbs tell you about what is being done. A sentence with a passive verb tells you about the thing or person that the action is happening to. It does not always say what or who is doing the action, though. For example, in the sentence: The window was polished, we do not know who did the polishing.

•The cat was stroked

•The paper was folded

•The dog was walked

•The girl was taken to school

•The baby was cuddled

•The dinner was cooked

Active verbsActive verbs tell you what is being done and who is doing it. For example, in the sentence, Maria polished the window, we know who polished the window – Maria.

•I stroked the cat

•Dad folded the paper

•Alexander walked the dog

•Beth took the girl to school

•Ellie cuddled the baby

•Lily cooked the dinner

AdverbsAdverbs are words that describe verbs, for example, in the sentence: The shark swam quickly, the word quickly is the adverb. It describes the verb swam, telling us how it was done. For example:

•The lion roared fiercely

•The sun shone brightly

•The steam flowed quickly

•The snow fell thickly

•The woman smiled warmly

•The storm raged angrily

TensesVerbs change tense to show us when things happen – whether it is past, present for future. For example:

•I ate the pizza. Past

•I am eating the pizza. Present

•I shall eat the pizza. Future

Grammar: Get the right tenseQuestion: “What do you do on Saturdays, Dave?”

“I get up at about 10 o’clock and go down to the shop to buy a paper. Then I make some tea and toast and listen to the sport on Radio 5 live. In the afternoon I go to the match with my mates. We meet in a pub in town at 1 o'clock. We have a pint and then walk to the ground. Everybody is in a good mood and looking forward to the game. After the match I go to my girlfriend’s for my dinner. Later on we watch a video.”

Question: “What did you do last Saturday, Dave?”

Rewrite the above in answer to this question

How to put simple sentences together

Constant use of short sentences can be a bit strange to read. To make your writing more interesting, you can use two other sorts of longer sentences. This simplest of these is the compound sentence.

When you have two or more short, independent, simple sentences which are of equal weight you can join them together using special words called conjunctions.

e.g. I hate curry is a simple sentence

I like Thai food is also a simple sentence.

You can put these together to make one, longer and more interesting compound sentence using a

conjunction.

I hate curry but I like Thai food

Beware – the conjunction you use may change the meaning of your sentence. Conjunctions don’t just stick sentences together they show the relationship between the pieces of information.

e.g.

I walked home. I was tired

I walked home and I was tired

I walked home as I was tired

I walked home but I was tired

I walked home so I was tired

I walked home or I was tired

The final sentence, using or doesn’t really make sense. You can’t use every conjunction everywhere.

Complex sentences

Complex sentences don’t just divide into neat, complete, simple sentences if you take out the conjunctions. In complex sentences the conjunction is used to join together clauses.

A clause is a group of words that contain a subject and a verb. Some of these clauses might be complete short sentences, but in a complex sentence at least one of them will depend on the conjunction for its meaning. In other words, if you take the conjunction away, the sentence won’t divide into complete units that make sense by themselves.

e.g.

The dinner was burned because she had forgotten it.

= The dinner was burned + because + she had forgotten it.

•The dinner was burned = complete, short sentence

•because = conjunction (joining word)

•she had forgotten it = subordinate clause.

This doesn’t make sense on its own. What had she forgotten? This is call a ‘subordinate clause’ because without the rest of the sentence it doesn’t really make sense.

Although I’m not very good, I really enjoy playing football

= Although = conjunction (joining word). Yes sometimes conjunctions can appear a the beginning of a sentence.

I’m not very good = subordinate clause. This doesn’t make sense on its own. What are you not very good at?

I enjoy playing football = complete short sentence

BEWARE! As for compound sentences, commas are not

conjunctions and they should never be used to join short sentences or clauses together (commas aren’t

sticky, so you can’t use them to stick information together!).

e.g.

The dinner was burned, she had forgotten it.

= incorrect

The dinner was burned because she had forgotten it.

= correct

The important joining wordsThe ‘magnificent seven’ conjunctions (the most commonly used) are:

and, although, as, because, but, if, or

There are a number of other important conjunctions that you can use. These can be put into categories of time, place, or agreement.

TIME = before, after, until, since, when, whenever, while

e.g.

We all went home before a fight broke out.

She went to bed after she put the cat out.

There will be no peace until somebody says that they are sorry.

It has not been the same around here since our friends moved away.

They put the television off when the programme had finished.

He washes his new car whenever it gets mucky.

The children go to the crèche while Mum goes to work.

PLACE = where

e.g.

Remember that restaurant where you ate a huge steak.AGREEMENT = though, although, whether e.g.

He could play the violin though he was only five years old.

I would invite you to come in although the place is a mess.

It was a great show whether you wanted to join in or just watch.

Try to avoid using the same conjunction over and over again. It is much better to ‘mix and match’.

Discover writing•Creative writing – this is where you use your imagination to delight your reader, creating stories, poems or plays out of your own head.

•Informative writing – here you learn to find, select and present facts and information in a lively and interesting way in articles, reports, leaflets etc.

•Persuasive writing – the purpose of this kind of writing is to persuade your readers to accept a particular point of view, putting the case for or against something. You learn how to present a logical argument.

•Reflective or analytical writing – for this you may be asked to reflect on your own experiences and feelings, and write about them. Or you might think about something someone else has said or written, and comment on it.

Rules for good writing1. Before you start, listen. Wait for the words to come

to you. Be patient. Don’t try to force anything.

2. Find the right word. Be sure you choose exactly the right word for the job. That means it must carry the precise meaning you want, and it must sound right in your sentence.

3. Simple is beautiful. Aim to write simply and clearly. On the whole, it is better not to use a long word when a short one will do just as well.

4. No unnecessary words. If you don’t really need a word, cross it out.

5. Be generous. Write fully. Don’t hold back. Think carefully whether you have covered all appropriate aspects of what you are writing about.

6. Vary your sentence structure. If you have written several long, involved sentences, follow them with a short snappy one. If your writing tends to consist of a series of short, jerky little sentences, practice writing longer ones using subordinate clauses.

7. Be logical. Divide your material into topics, with a separate paragraph for each one.

8. Get the flow. Link your paragraphs so that each one follows on smoothly and logically from the last one. That way your reader can easily follow your train of thought.

9. Listen. Listen to every word. Only by listening can you judge whether what you are writing is ‘just right’ or not. Listen to each sentence. Hear the whole sentence. Listen to each paragraph – to its beginning and ending.

Write about personal experiencesWriting about something you did. Oh dear, how

boring. But it needn’t be boring – not if you give it a little thought. The key is to decide which were the really interesting or unusual bits, and write about

them.

Grab your readers attention. In any piece of writing, you should always aim to get your reader hooked from the first sentence. Try to think of a striking or unusual way to begin

For practice1. Challenge yourself: write a really lively account

of one of these:

a. A visit to a friend’s house

b. Going to the local park

c. A day by yourself at home.

2. Think back over your life. What occasion stands out most vividly in your memory? Write about it.

3. What is the most exciting and memorable trip you have ever been on? Write about it. (Remember – leave out any dull bits.)

4. Write a piece called ‘My favourite place’. Really bring it alive. Make your reader feel he or she is really there, seeing it with you.