English and language usage

• period

  • is used to end a sentence.
• question mark is used at the end of a question, also known as a interrogative sentence
• semicolons are used to separate 2 independent, but related classes. It's simply a way to get rid of the pause without using and or but
• colons have 3 main functions

  1. introducing a list
  2. between 2 main clauses when the 2nd one explains the 1st
  3. before title or quotation
• nouns are words that identify people, places, things, ideas, or animals
• common nouns are "normal" nouns that identify things, places, people and animals.

  EX: The DOG barked at the MAILMAN.
• Proper sounds refers to specific people or places and always require capitalization.

  EX: George Washington was the first president of the United States of America.
• abstract nouns are used to identify or an idea or quality.

  EX:

  • truth
  • danger
  • beauty
  • intelligence
  • adventure
• Collective nouns represent a group of people, things or animals.

  EX:

  • family
  • staff
  • furniture
  • herd
• pronouns replace nouns and noun phrases in a sentence to avoid repetition. The pronoun we use depends on its role in the sentence. The antecedent is the word or group of words that the pronoun replaces.
• personal pronouns typically replace nouns identifying people, animals, or ideas. 2 types of personal pronouns : nominative pronouns and objective pronouns.
• nominative pronouns replace the subject of a sentence

  EX:

  • I
  • You
  • He
  • She
  • It
  • We
  • They
• Objective pronouns replace the object of a sentence.

  EX:

  • me
  • you
  • him
  • her
  • it
  • us
  • them
• Possessive pronouns are used to express possession. In other words, we use possessive pronouns when we want to show that something belongs to someone or something.

  EX

  • mine
  • his
  • yours
  • hers
  • its
  • ours
  • theirs
• Indefinite pronouns are used to show general quantities or choices.

  The singular indefinite pronouns are

  • each
  • either
  • neither
  • one
  • everyone
  • no one
  • someone
  • anyone
  • everybody
  • nobody
  • somebody
  • anybody
  • everything
  • nothing
  • something
  • anything
  • another
• Plural indefinite pronouns

  • Both
  • several
  • many
• reflexive pronouns refer back to the antecedent for extra emphasis

  EX

  • The oven keeps ITSELF clean.
• Adjectives are used to give us more information about nouns and pronouns. They are describing words like colors, sizes, quantities, numbers, nationalities, etc. They are usually found before the noun they modify, but can be found after linking verbs like "was" or "smells".

  EX

  • The cake was delicious.
• Adjectives help us answer the following questions.

  • What kind?
  • How many?
  • Which one?
  • How much?
• Sometimes we can use nouns as a way to describe other nouns.

  EX

  We're going to be late for history class.

  • History is a noun, but in this case it's acting as an adjective.
• When a verb is used as an adjective, it's called a participle and generally ends in -ed or -ing.

  EX

  • The <falling> tree scared a lot of people.
  • <Mashed> potatoes are one of my favorite foods.
• The suffixes -er is added when adjectives compare 2 things. The suffix -est is used when adjectives compare more than 2 things. When you use -er and -est endings do not add "more" or "most."

  EX

  • My brother is <taller> than I am.
  • The <coolest> room is the den; it has the <smallest> windows.
• verbs express an action like runs, or state of being like stays.

  EX: Jane runs after school every day.
• Linking verbs don't represent action. Instead, they "link" or connect the subject to a predicate noun, pronoun, or predicate adjective. The various forms of the verb "to be" are the most common linking verbs.
• Linking verbs include

  • am
  • is
  • are
  • was
  • were
  • being
  • been
• linking verbs also include words related to our senses.

  • look
  • smell
  • feel
  • sound
  • taste
• linking verbs may also show a state of being like

  • seem
  • remain
  • become
  • grow
  • appear
• Ex of linking verbs
• I before E, except after C, unless it sounds like A, as in neighbor or weigh.
• Drop the final E in a word before adding a suffix beginning with a vowel but not before a suffix beginning with a consonant
• double a final single consonant before adding a suffix when the word ends with a single vowel followed by a single consonant and the consonant ends a stressed syllable or a 1-syllable word.
• If a word ends in y preceded by a constant, change the y to I, then add the suffix, If a word ends in y preceded by a vowel, then the I is kept when a suffix is added.
• adding a prefix to a word does not change the spelling of a word
• When you form a compound word by joining 2 words, do not omit any letters
• morphemes are the smallest grammatical unit of meaning. Affixes (such as prefixes and suffixes) are morphemes that are attached to a word stem, or root, to form either a new word / grammatical variation of the same word.
• Anti = against, opposing
• dis = not, reverse, absence, separate, remove
• en = to make, have, become
• il = not
• im = not