Welcome to my online grammar study guide. Please use this as a tool to refresh your memory and better your understanding of grammatical concepts. Remember, grammar is not out to get you, but it can be tricky. Study and succeed!!!
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NOUN: A noun is a person, place, thing, or idea. They can be classified in two ways:
*Common nouns are general people, places, or things. They are not capitalized unless one is the first word of a sentence.
Examples: teacher, school, city........All of these are common nouns because they denote very general/common groups of nouns. The word "teacher" can represent anyone, just as the word "city" can represent any place in the world.
*Proper nouns are specific people, places, or things. No matter where they appear in the sentence, proper nouns are ALWAYS capitalized.
Examples: Mr. Lindgren, Warren Township High School, Gurnee, IL........All of these are proper because they denote SPECIFIC nouns.
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VERBS: a word that expresses action or a state of being.
The tricky thing about verb phrases for many students is that there are three classifications of verbs!
*Action verbs are perhaps the easiest to recognize. Just as the name suggests, these verbs represent any form of action, which can be physical, emotional, or mental.
Examples: Jim ran to the store. Betty loves her dog. The doctor thinks he will recover quickly.
*Linking verbs express a state of being. In other words, they are used for description or to join two things together. Usually linking verbs are forms of the word be (am is are was were be being been), but they may be different words.
Think of them as an equal sign = because just like an equal sign, they connect two ideas.
Example: Mr. Lindgren is my English teacher.
-No action is being performed here. This is a statement that equates Mr. Lindgren as an English teacher. In mathematical terms, Mr. Lindgren = my English teacher. The two halves are linked with a linking verb!
Example: That cheese smells funny.
-Okay, let's get tricky. "Smells" can be both an action verb, and a linking verb. To tell the difference, you must analyze the meaning of the sentence. Is the subject performing an action, or is it being described? In this case, the cheese is being described, so it is a linking verb. Plus, a piece of cheese generally does not have a nose, so it is physically impossible for it to perform that action!
Helping verbs do just what their name says: help! A verb phrase may be made up of more than one word, depending on the sentence and the meaning of the verb phrase itself. In order for the verb phrase to make sense, the main verb needs the help of smaller verbs.
Example: The band was playing when I walked into the stadium.
-The word "was" is a helping verb that helps the sentence make sense. First, "the band playing when I walked into the stadium" makes no sense at all! Second, by including the word "was," the reader knows that the band was already performing when the person walked into the arena. That meaning is made clear by the three-letter word, was, a helping verb.
Example: Tanya would not have gone to the bank if she had remembered to cash her check.
-The entire verb phrase in this sentence is "would have gone." Again, the helping verbs "would" and "have" help the sentence make sense, and they provide more meaning to the sentence. Again, the sentence would be worthless without them. "Tanya not gone to bank" is jibberish.
****ALERT.......Hopefully you noticed that the word "not" was not included in the previous example's verb phrase. Good! Many times other parts of speech will interrupt a verb phrase for meaning, but that does not make them a verb! Students must be aware of this and watch out for words that butt into phrases.
