traditional grammarians define a noun as "a person, place, thing, or idea." child...

Traditional grammarians define a noun as "a person, place, thing, or idea."

Child designates a person; therefore, child is a noun.

Similarly, democracy designates an idea; therefore, democracy is a noun.

In addition, nouns can be identified by the presence of signal words such as the.

Copyright 2011 © Terry Hudson

http://towson.edu/ows/determiners.htm

Verbs have traditionally been defined as words that show action or state of being.


•Subjects

and verbs must AGREE with one another in number (singular or plural). Thus, if a subject is singular, its verb must also be singular; if a subject is plural, its verb must also be plural.

•In present tenses, nouns and verbs form plurals in opposite ways:

• nouns ADD an s to the singular form,

• BUT

• verbs REMOVE an s from the singular form.

•


http://towson.edu/ows/nouns.htm#Subject








http://towson.edu/ows/verbs.htm

http://towson.edu/ows/verbs.htm

•There are three main verb forms for showing time or tense:

•Simple tense does not use auxiliary verbs

•refers to specific time period during which

something happens OR something happened and is over OR something will happen

• Simple present (action goes on now): I sit

• Simple past: (action happened and is over): I sat

• Simple future (action will happen): I will sit


http://towson.edu/ows/aux_verbs.htm

A complete sentence needs only two elements:

a subject - predicate unit AND a complete thought

In other words, a simple sentence is actually the SAME thing as an independent clause.

Dependent clauses or phrases are called fragments because they are missing one or more parts needed to make a sentence.

Therefore, they are only pieces or fragments of complete sentences.


Sometimes two independent clauses (simple sentences) can be joined to form another kind of sentence: the compound sentence.

Two major errors can occur when constructing compound sentences.

Writers make the error of the Comma Splice when they try to separate the two independent clauses in a compound sentence with a comma alone.

A comma is not a strong enough punctuation mark to separate the two independent clauses by itself; thus, using it causes the clauses to be spliced together.

Example of a comma splice:


http://towson.edu/ows/sentelmt.htm#independent%20clause

http://towson.edu/ows/sentences.htm#COMPOUND%20SENTENCE

Writers make the error of the Fused Sentence by joining two independent clauses into a compound sentence without using any punctuation between them.

No punctuation between the two independent clauses causes them to "fuse" into an INCORRECT compound sentence.

Example of a fused sentence:


•1. by adding a comma and an appropriate coordinating conjunction

•

•

• 2. by placing a semicolon between the two clauses

•

•

•3. by adding the needed punctuation and an appropriate conjunctive adverb

•


Another way to repair a comma splice or fused sentence is to make each independent clause into a simple sentence.


A prepositional phrase embellishes a sentence and more fully explains things.

Examples of prepositions: about, above, among, at, because of, before, behind, beside(s), but, by, except, for, in, near, of, on, since, throughout, to, upon, with without, etc.

In a prepositional phrase, a preposition sits in front of (is “pre-positioned” before) its object. For example: “to the store,” “up the hill,” “by the office.”

A prepositional phrase should not be confused with a subject or verb; it can never be a subject or verb.


traditional grammarians define a noun as "a person, place, thing, or idea." child...

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