Language and Grammar
Grammar – rules used to organise and describe languageSyntax - the way sentences are structured
Parts of speech:
Nouns – people, places, things, ideas.
A noun is a word that names – people eg student places eg town things eg chair ideas eg anger, peace
Proper nouns are official names with a capital lettereg Ms Budge, Dunedin, Logan Park High School.
A concrete noun refers to things which have a physical existence or that can be seen, touched or heard e.g book, house, piano
An abstract noun refers to a quality rather than something which can be seen or touched e.g aroha, reputation, loyalty. Or ideas, attitudes, concepts or emotions e.g pain, education,
Collective nouns are used when there is more than one of something eg pack of dogs, pride of lions
Test for a noun: if you can put a, an or the in front of the word, it will be a noun (except for proper nouns) eg The boy, an apple, the education of young people…
Highlight your notes page 10 and 11 boxesDo activity 2 on page 12
Articles – the, a, an Definite (or specific) article eg the chair - specifies a particular thing or person
Indefinite (or unspecific) article eg a chair - doesn’t specify which particular thing
or an apple…..
An adjective is a word which modifies or adds meaning to a noun or pronoun eg the old book
They can come before or after the noun and are sometimes called modifiers. eg the runners looked hot and tired
Many adjectives can be used to compare one thing with another by using their plain (normative), comparative, or superlative forms.
Plain: Comparative: Superlative:bigsmallblue
Irregular adjectives don’t follow the er/est pattern eg good, better, best
Highlight notes page 17 and do activity 6 and 7
A pronoun is a word which takes the place of a noun to avoid repetition eg Hope took Hope’s bag She took her bag
Personal pronouns eg I, me, you, your, she, he, we, they …
Interrogative pronouns are used to replace a noun in questions who, whose, which, what…
Relative pronouns – who, when, which, that are also relative pronouns. They relate back to the nouns and pronouns that precede them. “Who” refers to persons… “Which” to things..
Read page 13 - 14 and highlight and do Activity 3 pg 15 Do Activity 4 and 5 page 16
A verb is a word which denotes: - action eg she runs - feeling eg he likes - possession eg they own - state of existence eg I am
Verbs also show tense, or when the action happened.
Some examples of tense: present tense eg paints past tense eg painted future tense eg will paint
In general we identify verbs by their infinitive (or base) form
An infinitive combines the preposition “to” with the first person, simple present form of the verb eg to join, to write, to imagine, to watch, to run, to paint…..
Imperatives are the command form of the verb. eg Go. Stop. Wait. Run.
Complete verbs change for person and tense and can form a sentence. eg She knew the answer. He thinks carefully.
The participles need the help of auxiliary (extra) verbs to make complete verbs.
Eg I walking XX I am walking (am is the auxiliary)
Highlight notes on page 20, 21 and 22 and do activities 8, 9.
Second handout do part 3 parts of speech:pronouns, adjectives, adverbs, root words,
conjunctions, prepositions
A simple sentence contains one subject and one complete verb. (It begins with a capital letter and ends with a fullstop, or question mark, or exclamation mark).
Eg The student completed the assignment.
The verb here is “completed.” The subject indicates the action and answers the question who or what in front of the verb. Who completed? Ans: The student. The student is the subject.
Object. This sentence also has an object. The object is a person or thing a verb acts upon. It answers the question, whom/what after the verb.
The student completed what? Answer: the assignment. The assignment is the object.
Active or Passive
A verb is active when the subject of the sentence is doing the action indicated by its related verb. A verb is passive when the subject of the sentence is having the action indicated by its related verb done to it.
The student completed the assignment. ACTIVE
The assignment was completed by the student. PASSIVE
Highlight note on page 23 Active and Passive Voice.
Do Activity 11 on page 24
And activity 12
Adverbs: An adverb is a word which modifies or adds meaning to a verb eg he walked quickly to an adjective eg extremely old man or to another adverb eg very quickly
They indicate how (manner) eg she called loudly where (place) eg they climbed down when (time) eg The news came yesterday how much (degree) eg She sang very well
Many adverbs end in “ly” eg slowly, quickly, recently….
Highlight the note on adverbs on page 25 and do activity 13 page 26
Prepositions are words that make connections between two things. They show the relationship in place of one thing to another.
Eg she went __________ the bridge
Eg over, under, across, around, through, on, past, behind etc
Another preposition is “of”
Highlight page 26 note on prepositions and do activity 14
Conjunctions literally mean joining words.A conjunction is a word which joins ideas, words or parts of a sentence.
There are 2 main types of conjunctions:
Co-ordinating conjunctions: both sentences are equally important.
eg I go to school and I have a job. Eg and, or, but, so
Sub-ordinating conjunctions: joins a sentence which gives a reason or condition. Most conjunctions are used to introduce subordinate clauses.
Because he revised his work, it had few mistakes.
If I pass my exams, I’ll go out.
If, because, although, whether, while, which, provided, unless….etc……
Highlight page 28 and 29 notes on conjunctions.
Sentences Types
Parts of speech in sentence types:
Parts of speech are combined to form sentences.
•Nouns and pronouns – say what you want to talk about
•Adjectives – give extra information about the nouns
•Verbs – explain the action
•Adverbs – give extra information about verbs, adjectives or other adverbs
A noun phrase, adjectival phrase, prepositional phrase, verbal phrase and adverbial phrase function in the same way as a noun, adjectives, verbs and adverbs.
Highlight page 29. Do activities 17, 18 and 19
Subject, Predicate and Object in Sentences
The subject is the doer – who or what is talked about.
If the subject is a noun phrase (e.g. the small boy) the main noun and verbmust agree (e.g. the small boy catches the ball)
The subject usually goes at the start of a sentence.
The predicate is what is said about the subject and usually follows the subject.
To check which is the subject and which is the predicate, pick out the verb and ask who or what. E.g. The babysitter lives across town but arrives on time.
Verb = arrives. Who arrives? The babysitter. The babysitter is the subject.
The object of a sentence part of the predicate so ask “what” or “to whom”.
Activities – sentence parts
Read and highlight pages 32-33. Do activity 20.
In second hand out do Part One Sentences.
Phrases and Clauses
A phrase is a group of words without their own complete verb or predicate. Phrases can not stand alone but are used to add detail to sentences.
Types of phrases –
prepositional phrase
adverbial phrase
adjectival phrase
noun phrase
verbal phrase
adverbial phrase
Clauses
A clause has its own subject and predicate so must have a verb.
A clause can be part of a sentence OR stand alone.
A subordinate clause depends on the main clause to make sense.
e.g. It was raining (main clause) so I took my umbrella (subordinate clause)
Your turn:
The aeroplane circled the airport because a storm was raging
Highlight page 34, do activity 21.
Revisit phrases and clauses handout from creative writing unit.
Sentence TypesThe type of sentence depends on the type of writing – informal writing uses
simple sentences, more formal writing uses more complex sentences. Sentences can be classified as one of the following:
Complete – has at least one complete verbMinor – part of the sentence is missing but it makes senseIncomplete – part of the sentence is missing and it doesn’t make senseSimple – complete and had only one verbCompound – two simple sentences joined with a conjunctionComplex – two simple sentence joined by a subordinating conjunction creating a major and minor sentenceCompound Complex – A compound and a complex sentence
Highlight pages 35-36 From second handout do part 4 Using a variety of sentence types
