Grammar Lesson 24

• Vocabulary:

• Latin root lev- means to lighten or raise

• Alleviate- to relieve, diminish, or lighten

• Levity- frivolity, giddiness, and lack of appropriate seriousness

The Limiting Adjectives

• Help to define or “limit” a noun or pronoun

• They tell “which one”, “what kind”, “how many”, or “whose”

• Six categories: articles, demonstrative, numbers, possessive, indefinites

Articles

• The most commonly used adjectives

• A, an, the

• We use a before words beginning with a consonant sound

• We use an before words beginning with a vowel sound

Demonstrative

• Answers the question “which one?”

• This, that, those, these

Numbers

• Answers the question “how many?”

• Two Senators

• Seven articles

Possessive Adjectives

• Both pronouns and nouns commonly function as adjectives

• They answer the question “whose?”

• Pronouns- his, their, her, its, your, my

• Nouns- Hamilton’s, Washington’s

Indefinites

• Answers the question “how many?”

• Some, few, several, any, no, many

Diagramming adjectives

• We diagram adjectives by placing them on a slanted line beneath the noun or pronoun they describe, modify, or “limit”

• Example:

• America’s (possessive adjective) first (limiting adjective) President united the (article) many (indefinite adjective) senators.

Grammar Lesson 25

• Vocabulary:

• Amendment- the act of changing by correction, deletion, or addition; a Constitutional amendment is a change made after the Constitution was ratified

• Suffrage- the right to vote

Capitalization: Areas, Religions, Greetings/No Capital Letter

• Areas of the country- we capitalize North, South, East, West, Midwest, Northeast, when they refer to certain areas of the country (we do not capitalize them when they indicate a direction)

• Religions, Deity, Bible- we capitalize religions, denominations, the Bible and its parts, and the Deity

Greeting and closing of a letter

• We capitalize the first words in the greeting and closing of a letter

• Example:

• Dear Alexander,

You’re great!

Sincerely, Bob

No capital letter

• Animals, plants, diseases, foods, trees, musical instruments, and non-trademarked games are not capitalized unless a proper adjective appears with them

• Examples:

• beagle/German shepherd

• willow tree/ Australian willow

• card game/ Monopoly

Seasons of the Year/ Hyphenated words

• Seasons- we do not capitalize seasons of the year- fall, winter, spring, summer

• Hyphenated words- we treat hyphenated words as if it were a single word, if it is a proper noun or the first word of a sentence, we capitalize only the first word, and not all parts of the hyphenated word

• Example: In mid-October we enjoy the fall colors.

• Fifty-six years ago, Izzy left home.