.Copyright, Terry Gibson, BA, MEd
|
.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Swan's Practical English Usage, published by Oxford is the 1995 text that serves as reference. It is recent but will be replaced within the next few years as we get more and more muddled.
. . . . . .Both British and American Forms are updated. e.g. dialog, US
.
GLOSSARY...
., ..
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Copyright Terry Gibson
The Grefs GLOSSARY
All you really need to know
to use grammar like a pro
------------------------------------------------------------.. . . .. . . GRAMMAR REFERENCE GLOSSARY, PARTS OF SPEECH
.. . . .. . . . . . . .. . .More complete than your dictionaryCheck the glossary for
Nouns, pronouns, adjectives, articles, verbs, adverbs,
prepositions, conjunctions, participles, gerunds
phrases and clauses
In response to a request, for all to COPY/PRINT and keep
If you cannot find what you need in a dictionary or here, e-mail
mattma at vianet.ca
Q: What is PUNCTUATION?
A: Marks placed after or between words to separate parts of a sentence
or bring it to a full stop. Their function is to make meaning clear.
Separators are comma, colon: semicolon; (parentheses) [brackets]
Joiner, the hyphen - "quotation marks" apostrophe'
Terminators are dash-- ellipsis ... period . exclamation mark!
Go to A-1 for hyphen, commas, period, question mark, ellipsis, brackets
. . . . . . . . . . .question mark?
. . . . . . . . . .
For details and examples
. Go to A-1 for hyphen, commas, period, question mark, ellipsis, brackets
. . . . . . . . . . .quotation marks, apostrophe's uses, parentheses
. Go to B-1 for uses of commas, [enjambment in poetry] quotation marks,
. . . . . . . . . . .paragraphing
. Go here in C-1 for uses of Hyphen, Dash, Ellipsis, Colon, Semicolon .
. Go to D-1 for three uses of apostrophes
.
Q: What is an ADJECTIVE?
A: a word (or group of words) to describe a noun, or to limit its
meaning. The whole thing. --A smooth, sandy shore
Adjective phrase: The boy with red hair...
Adjective clause (has a verb): The man who lives next door...
Q: What is an ARTICLE?
A: an adjective like 'the,' or 'a' or with a vowel, 'an' (apple)
Q: what is a VOWEL?
A: a letter, a, e, i, o, u, at the end of a word, y
All the rest are CONSONANTS: bcdfghjklmnpqrstvwxyz
Q: What is a NOUN?
A: a name of a person, place, thing, a condition, an idea: child, home,
spoon, health, honour, theory
Q: What is a PRONOUN?
A: a word standing for a noun: I, it, him, us, they, them, who
Q: What is a VERB?
A: usually an action word telling what "it" does. It also expresses
existence or occurrence.
Also verbs, 'is, was, seems' ( give a state or condition
as in, 'I feel sick' )(When we verbalize, we express in all kinds of words.)
Q: What is an ADVERB?
A: a word or group of words answering how?
describing (1) a verb: He sat still, and gazed sadly
or describing (2) an adjective: the leaning tower was terribly tall,
or describing (3) another adverb, He ate too slowly,
She sang very well. )
ADVERBS also answer when? as a word: 'soon'
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . as a phrase: 'after lunch'
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . as a clause: 'while he sleeps'
ADVERBS also answer where? as a word: He went 'home'
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . as a phrase: 'to school' 'on page ten' 'behind me'
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . as a clause: 'where he works'ADVERBS also answer why?
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . as a phrase: 'as a lawyer' --he'd know what to do.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . as a clause: 'Because he knew the way'
Q: What is a PARTICIPLE?
A: (1) A verb ending in '-ing' acting as an adjective, "winding road"
. . . . ."running water" "prosecuting attorney" "winning pitcher"(2) Used with an auxiliary verb it forms a progressive tense
. . . . .Present progressive: "I am working." "They are learning.
. . . . .Past progressive: "I was walking" "We were talking"
. . . . .Future progressive: "It will be coming" "You will be winning"
Q: What is a GERUND?
A: A verb ending in 'ing' acting as a noun. "Walking is healthy."
. . . . ."Smoking is addictive." "Writing and reading display literacy."
Those were all subjects. As objects of the verb we get:
. . . . .He likes singing. They watch figure skating. We enjoy talking.Object of a preposition would be: "It is an example of thinking.
. . . . By waiting we learn patience.
. . . . Forgiveness is due to understanding.
Q: What is a PREPOSITION?
A: Pre, "front position" introduces a phrase, "with a noun or pronoun"
. . . . "without you" "in the sky" "under the table" "into the box"
Q: What is a PHRASE?
A: With preposition but no verb in it, a group of words that describes:
. . . . "during the winter" "of apples" "between friends"
Q: What is a SUBORDINATE CLAUSE? A "Fragment."
A: like a phrase, but with relative conjunction and verb:
. . . . "after we ate lunch" "while we watched TV" "since he arrived"
Q: What is a CONJUNCTION?
A: (1) Co-ordinating conjunctions join words.
. . . . Dick and Jane, tired but happy, hot or cold
(2) Co-ordinating conjunctions join phrases:
. . . . We looked under the bed and behind the door
Conjunctions join clauses:
(1) With a co-ordinating conjunction Two principal clauses:
They prepared dinner and soon the guests arrived.
A Compound Sentence
(2) With a relative conjunction, at least one subordinate clause
The traffic remained stalled while they waited patiently.
A Complex Sentence
Q: What is a PRINCIPAL clause?
A: It can be short, as a complete thought.
Examples: Come in. This is handy.
Q: What is a COMPOUND sentence?
A: It has two or more principal clauses, only.
Uses: He came, he saw, he conquered. It has 3.
Cat, come in or stay out. Two
Q: What is a COMPLEX sentence?
A: A principal clause with a subordinate clause:
We thought it was a perfect house, until the roof leaked.Q: What is a COMPOUND-COMPLEX sentence
A: At least one principal clause, more possible, and two or more
subordinate clauses. Charles Dickens could fill a page with these.
After two years of progressively more desperate searching and house inspections, we thought it was a perfect house, until the unmistakable stains in the ceiling of the spare bedroom and dank smell of mould told us that the roof leaked.HINT: First find the verbs; they are in clauses.
"After two years " adverb phrase [when?]
"of progressively more desperate searching and house inspections,"
adjective phrase describing the noun years.
"we thought it was a perfect house," Principal clause"until the unmistakable stains and dank smell of mould told us" Subordinate adverb clause [when?]
"in the ceiling of the spare bedroom" adverb phrase. [where]
[told us what?]"that the roof leaked." subordinate noun clause, object of the verb "told."
A compound-complex sentence, such as you will meet again in E- 8.
Punctuation is already available in parts 1
..
.
,.This is probably the most valuable page in the course.
,.More complete than your dictionary, straightforward,
,.teaching with examples. Remember it is here, ready ,. ,. ,.to help at various times through the assignments.
,. ,. ,. ,. ,. ,. ,. ,. ,. ,. ,. ,. ,. ,. ,. ,. ,. ,. ,. ,. ,. ,. ,. ,.--Terry
. . . The Hyphen, Dash, Ellipsis, Colon, Semicolon . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . .Grefs
. . . . LET'S TAKE ANOTHER LOOK AT THESE HANDY THINGS
Hyphen, a single ' - '
connects sets of words to act as a single word
to describe something: "a six-year-old boy" or when "unfortu-
nately" must be split at the end of a line. (seldom seen now).
Type two of them ' -- ' to make a dash.
Dash, --made with two joined hyphens-- can be an interjection,
or an extra thought, --as in this statement--, giving more information.
It is used often in conversation where someone is suddenly interrupted. "I meant to tell-- "
Note, there is no space after the last word.
Ellipsis usually shown with three dots . . . (with some software,
space-dot space-dot space-dot) is a more thoughtful interruption
where more could have been said, but was not.
Sometimes it waits for an answer . . . ? or shows surprise . . . !
or lets us know that a lot more was not said . . . . but won't.
It ends then, with a period.
Uses of the COLON ( : ) and the SEMICOLON ( ; )
No, it's not the guts of this thing, neither is it a wink!.
Colon: A major use of the colon is to indicate that something follows, a quotation, a list, a series, or after the word, 'Example.'
Semicolon connects parts of a sentence which might otherwise
have had conjunctions 'and,' 'or,' 'but.'
. . Common sense convenience:
. Like traffic signs, punctuation clarifies, saves . . ....time, and prevents misunderstanding. --Terry
.
I hope you enjoyed Course C1. It was shorter than A1, but only because the "spiral-curriculum" method was used. This will continue to be the case in future.
(Teachers know the Spiral Curriculum keeps adding more and more to things that were introduced before.)
.
.
We recomend that you call up Course C-1 in Allpoetry
when at least five parts have opened it for credits.
and work the assignments THERE to make the work easier to submit.
Please submit answers at once to AP Class box directly.We have had trouble receiving graded works in the submit-box in AP Class toward the trophy.
By being graded in the box, they cannot be lost!For full feedback, please also IM your E-mail address to DeeCrepit. Feedback will be sent to you there.
Your five best assignments are now the minimum for a trophy. There have been eight parts in each of the courses from the start. That means the pressure is off as you do the advanced #7 and #8 worth a percentage of 50 bonus points each, dependent on your results.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Back to Top or onward to Part C2
. . . . . . . .. . Copyright: Tiled wallpaper drawn by Terry Gibson 1996