The Basics of Grammar

Believe it or not, grammar is pretty easy. Sentences are basically made up of words (nouns, pronouns, verbs, etc.), parts (subject, predicate, direct object, prepositional phrases, etc), and clauses (independent, dependent/subordinate, etc.).

Three times a week, we will do tasks to explore some big concepts that will get you to think about sentences and how they are put together. My hope is for you to think about the sentences you write and become better writers through examining your use of grammar.

Task 1: Words- Identify all parts of speech!

All sentences have words, and each word in a sentence has a function. Sometimes, a word can have multiple functions depending on where it is in a sentence. Here is a list of the basic types of words or parts of speech:

Noun (person, place, or thing)                

Pronoun (takes the place of a noun: he, they)          

Adjective (describes a noun)                  

Article (a, an, the) these are specific adjectives that indicate a noun

Verb (shows action, jump, run,  state of being is, appears,   or helps another verb  can, does )        

Adverb (describes a verb, adjective, adverb: slowly, really)          

Preposition (shows position or relation: on, in, above)                 

Conjunction (joins words, clauses, or phrases: Coordinating: for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so

                                                                            Subordinating: because, since, when)

Task 2: Parts- Identify sentence parts.

All sentences have parts like subjects and predicates. These parts all work together to help create meaning.  Here are the different terms that go along with sentence parts:

Verb-the action that occurs

Subject- someone or something doing an action. Ask. “who verbed?”   Ex: Joe threw the ball.

        Who threw?   Joe!

Direct Object- something or someone directly receiving the action. Ask, “verbed what?”

        Ex: Joe threw the ball.         Threw what?        The ball!

Predicate- the action/verb and other information about that action    Joe threw the ball.

Here’s how to find all these things:

Step #1:  FIND THE VERBS!                           Step #2: Find subject Ask “Who/What verbed?

Step #3: Find the predicate (contains the verb and states everything about the subject)

Step #4: Find any objects using the verbs.      Ask     “verbed what?”

^^^^ Verbs= gave, understood                                                                        ^^^^

        Subjects=   Who gave?    The amazing Mr. Duffy           Who understood?  his students

        Objects=     Gave what?      good examples                    Understood what?   grammar

Task 3: Clauses- Identify the clauses.

Sentences are divided into clauses. A clause is just a chunk of a sentence with a subject and verb. All sentences must have at least one independent clause. Clauses help with sentence style and purpose. Sometimes authors use long sentences with many clauses to describe things or short sentences with one clause to make a simple point. Here are the two basic types of clauses:

Independent-a clause that sounds like a full sentence on its own. It can stand alone.      “Duffy dances.”

Dependent/Subordinate- a clause that can’t stand alone because the subordinating conjunction (when, because, though, etc.) makes it sound incomplete          “When music plays”

When you’re figuring out where to split a sentence into clauses, it’s usually near the subjects. The number of subjects in a sentence equal the number of clauses in a sentence.

Joe threw the ball.   Subjects=1(Joe) This sentence only has 1 clause.          

Joe threw the ball, and it hit me.  Subjects 2 (Joe, it)  This sentence has 2 clauses.

Here’s how to find clauses:

Step #1: Find the verbs. They tell all!         Step #2: Find the subjects  (who/what verbed??)

Step #3: Find where the sentence splits into clauses. Look close to the subjects!   Draw a line   /

Step #4: Look at what comes before your subject to correctly label the clause. If you see a subordinating conjunction (when, because) before your subject, you have a subordinating/dependent clause. If you see punctuation, nothing, or a coordinating conjunction (for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so) before your subject, you have an independent clause.

Verbs= gave, understood

Subjects= The amazing Mr. Duffy,  his students

Split=it looks like the sentence splits at the comma

Clauses= The word because comes before the first subject, so the clause is subordinating/dependent; there’s a comma before the second subject, so that clause is independent!

Now you have the basics of grammar! Hopefully, you will get better at these each week and begin to reflect on the words you use and how you structure your own sentences.