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GRAMMAR

Since grammar is all about forming sentences correctly, we had better start by clarifying exactly what a sentence is.

A sentence is a group of words that expresses a complete thought.

By complete thought, we mean that a sentence has to make sense.

No, no, no—not cents!

It has to make sense, as in, it must be easy to understand!

In order to express a complete thought, a sentence has to be about something.

In other words, it has to have a subject.

The subject of a sentence is the person or the thing that is either...

• doing something
  

• having something, or
  

• being something
  

...in the sentence.

In other words, the subject is the person or the thing that the sentence is about.

However, even if a sentence has a subject, it still needs something else to express a complete thought.

That's because the subject in the sentence cannot do anything, have anything, or be anything without something called a predicate.

The predicate tells what the subject of a sentence is, does, or has.

And of course, sentences always begin with a capital letter and end with some type of punctuation mark—either a period, question mark, or exclamation point.

One of the first skills students must develop is the ability to recognize and use complete, coherent sentences when speaking or writing.

If you already possess this skill you are sure to progress through the next few lessons rather quickly.

For now however, we will not be convinced that you have really learned something unless you can verbalize it on your own.

So, let’s pause a moment and allow you to prove that you know what is a sentence.

If you are unable to recite the definition without any assistance, you should take a moment to memorize it NOW:

A sentence is a group of words.

Oh, but we can't stop there!

You see, not every group of words is a sentence. No, a sentence is a group of words that expresses a complete thought.

Okay, so what did we say before? We said that you need to be able to recognize and use complete, coherent sentences when speaking.

We now know that all, sentences have to begin with a capital letter.

And we also know that sentences are also required to end with a punctuation mark—either a period, a question mark, for an exclamation point.

By combining this knowledge with the fact that a sentence has to make sense, you should have no trouble unscrambling the mixed up sentences you will find when you go to play Monkey, Monkey!

Unscrambling sentences is one thing, but deciding whether or not a group of words makes a sentence in the first place is quite a different matter altogether.

So, exactly what are we talking about when we say that...a sentence is a group of words that expresses a complete thought?

First of all, in order to express a complete thought (or in order to make sense) every sentence must have two main parts.

The first part tells who or what the sentence is about. That part is called the subject.

The next part tells what happened in the sentence. That part is called the predicate.

Every sentence must have a subject and a predicate because without both of them, it cannot express a complete thought.

So, now we have our final definition for sentence:

A sentence is a group of words that

has a subject and a predicate, and expresses a complete thought

Locating the Subject

Now that we know a sentence is a group of words that has a subject and a predicate, and expresses a complete thought, our next step is to come up with a plan for figuring out whether or not a group of words has a subject.

To do that, we have to ask three basic questions...

• Does this group of words tell me who is something or what is something?
  

• Does this group of words tell me who did something or what did something?
  

• Does this group of words tell me who had something or what had something?
  

On the other hand, if the group of words had said...

Is a scientist.

...we would have had no idea who or what is a scientist.

The group of words would have been lacking (or missing) a subject.

Let's continue with the second question and use this sentence as an example...

The brown bear is juggling three balls.

Does this group of words tell us what did something or who did something?

Why, yes it does. It tells us that the bear did something—he juggled three balls.

We can therefore conclude that this group of words does indeed have a subject.

On the other hand, if the group of words had simply said...

Is juggling three balls.

...we would have had no idea who or what is doing the juggling.

The group of words would have been lacking a subject.

And finally, let's continue with the third question, using this next sentence as an example...

The bearded man had a cup of coffee.

Does this group of words tell us who had something or what had something?

Why, yes it does. It tells us that the bearded man had something—he had a cup of coffee. We can therefore conclude that this group of words has a subject.

But, what if the group of words had merely said...

Had a cup of coffee.

Well, we would have had no idea who or what had a cup of coffee. In this instance, the group of words would have been lacking a subject.

Without a subject, a group of words cannot form a complete sentence because it will be unable to communicate an entire thought.

So, don’t forget...

The subject of a sentence is the person or thing (or idea) that the sentence is about.

When a group of words does not have a subject, it is called a sentence fragment.

Introduction to Nouns

The subject of a sentence is usually a noun or a pronoun, so knowing about nouns and pronouns will probably make it easier for us to figure out whether or not a sentence is complete and coherent.

Let’s begin with a noun:

A noun is a word that names a person, place, thing, or idea.

It is the first of eight basic parts of speech.

A noun that names a person, place, or thing is usually something you can see, hear, touch, taste, or smell.

For example, in the sentence...

  My grandmother is here.

...you can't see a “my,” an “is,” or a “here.”

But, you can see a “grandmother.”

Directions: Carefully read the sentences below. Identify the noun in each sentence by printing the numeral “1” above it. Then draw a picture of the noun in the box.

1.  This orange tastes good.

2.  Go to school right now!

3.  The doctor is nice.

4.  The television is broken.

5.  Wash the dog.

Introduction to Pronouns

As we said before, the subject of a sentence is usually a noun or a pronoun, so knowing about nouns and pronouns would probably make it easier for us to figure out when we are dealing with complete, coherent sentences.

We therefore learned that a noun is a word that names a person, place, thing, or idea, and that it is the first of eight basic parts of speech.

It is now time to learn about the second of the eight basic parts of speech: the pronoun. The definition to pronoun is very simple.

Definition: A pronoun is a word that takes the place of a noun

Pronouns can be used in different ways, but right now, we want to look at pronouns that are used as the subject of a sentence.

Here are a few examples:

I, you, he, she, it, us, we, they, anybody, anyone, each, either, none, someone, somebody, both, everyone, one, no one, neither, many, few, several, who, whom, what, which, whose, this, that, these, those

All of these words can take the place of a noun or nouns.

For instance, instead of saying...

Tatianna, Barry, Pete and Ruben went to the store.

We could simply say...

They went to the store.

Introduction to Verbs

Every complete sentence contains two parts: a subject and a predicate.

The subject is what (or whom) the sentence is about, while the predicate tells something about the subject.

We learned that to figure out whether or not a group of words has a subject, we can ask ourselves if the group of words tells us who or what something is, does, or has.

As was said previously, in order to express a complete thought, a sentence must have something called a predicate.

However, before you can fully understand predicates, you need to know about verbs.

A verb is a word that expresses action, or a state of being.

To identify an action verb, you look at each word in the sentence and ask yourself, "Could I show someone how to do this?"

If not—the word probably isn't an action verb.

Let's look at the sentence below to get a better picture of how this works.

EXAMPLE: Anthony jumped.

Could I show someone how to "Anthony?" No, I could not. Therefore, Anthony is NOT the action verb.

Well then, could I show someone how to "jump?"  Yes, I could. So, in the above sentence, the word jumped is the action verb. Do you see how that works?

Now, the best way to identify the state-of-being verbs is to simply memorize them.

They are:

am

are

is

was

were

be

being

been

Let's take a look at another sentence to see how this strategy works in action.

EXAMPLE: Roberto Valencia was my father's best friend.

Because of my having memorized the state-of-being verbs, I'm able to immediately recognize that the word was is the verb in the above sentence.

Pretty simple, huh?

So then, let's spend a little couple of minutes memorizing the state-of-being verbs.

Then we can practice identifying verbs in sentences.

After that, we will go back and finish looking at predicates

What is grammar? Well, grammar has to do with how the parts of our language fit together to form sentences. It’s the process of combining words (and punctuation) so that they are positioned in the right place.

When you need to appear professional or educated, you need to be able to use "proper" English or what is officially known as Standard Edited American English (SEAE)—the kind of writing you find in most textbooks, magazines, newspapers and business communication.

Standard means that it is what most people have agreed to use. Edited implies that you have taken the time to write it down. And American English refers to the dialect used here in the United States, as opposed to Great Britain, Australia, or New Zealand, though they are all rather similar.

Well, coherent is just a word that lets us know a sentence makes sense. In other words, it has to communicate an entire thought. That is what we mean when we say...

A sentence is a group of words

that expresses a complete thought.

It simply means that a sentence is a group of words that makes sense.

But, what is met by complete?

And what is meant by coherent?

(Click on the

link above.)

Let’s begin with the first question and use this sentence as an example:

My neighbor, Dr. Hewitt, is a scientist.

Does this group of words tell us what is something or who is something?

Why, yes it does. It tells us that my neighbor is something—that he is a scientist. We can therefore conclude that this group of words does have a subject.

Unless it is representing an idea, you can usually draw a picture of a noun. So, to find the noun in a sentence, try to find a word that is something you can draw a picture of.

And the best way to determine whether or not a group of words tells us who or what something is, does, or has is by first finding the verb, and then making a question by placing “who?” or “what?” in front of it.

Oh, but that’s right!

We have yet to verify that you possess a thorough understanding of the concept of verbs.

Well then, we’d better do that right now.

Verbs are the fourth of eight basic parts of speech.

As you could see from the definition on the previous page, there are two kinds of verbs: action verbs, and state-of-being verbs.

• An action verb tells you what someone or something (the subject) in a sentence does or has.
  

• A state-of-being verb tells you what someone or something (the subject) in a sentence is.