Grammar

What is active and passive voice? 

●  The voice or ​way a sentence is narrated
●  Active Voice​: sentence has a ​subject that acts upon its verb
●  Passive Voice​: ​subject is the recipient​ of a verb’s action
 

How to identify active and passive voice? 

●  Look at the sentence and ​identify the subject, verb, and object
●  If the subject does the action of the verb on the object​, then it is active
●  If the subject receives the action of the verb​, then it is passive
     ○  Example: ​The girl ate the cake​. 

• Subject: girl 
• Verb: ate 
• Object: cake
  ●  The girl is eating
  ●  The subject is doing the verb
  ●  This sentence is active. 

      ○  Example: ​The question was answered by the student. 

• Subject: question 
• Verb: answered 
• Object: student
  ●  The is being answered
  ●  The action of the verb is done to the subject
  ●  This sentence is passive. 

●  Common Structure of ​Active Voice 

     ○ Subject​ does ​Verb​ to ​Object​. 

● Common Structure ​of Passive Voice
   ○ Subject​ is being done to by the ​Verb​ from the ​Object​. 

What is subject and verb agreement? 

●  In a sentence, the ​subject and verb must both be singular or both be plural​. 

●  Example of agreement:
    ○  Singular: The girl skips at recess
    ○  Plural: The girls skip at recess
        ●  In both of those sentences, the ​subject (girl or girls) agrees with the verb (skips or skip)​, because they are the same tense
 

How to construct a cohesive sentence? 

●  When turning a singular noun into a plural noun, you add an “s”
●  When turning a singular verb into a plural verb you take away the “s” from the singular verb
●  Singular indefinite pronoun subjects such as:
     ○ Each, nobody, everyone, something 

           ■ Take singular verbs
● And Plural indefinite pronoun subjects such as: 

    ○ Several, few, both, many 

         ■ Take plural verbs 

What are tenses? 

●  Tenses are ​different verbal forms based on what time period the events mentioned in the sentence occurred, are occurring, or have occurred​.
●  There are ​12 basic tenses​ in the English language
 

What are the types of tenses?
●  Simple Present
●  Present Progressive
●  Present Perfect
●  Present Perfect Progressive
●  Simple Past
●  Past Progressive
●  Past Perfect
●  Past Perfect Progressive
●  Future: Will
●  Future: Going to
●  Future Progressive
●  Future Perfect
 

How do you identify what the tense is?
●  Simple Present
     ○  Happens ​during the time it is said
     ○  I ​play​ tennis a lot.
●  Present Progressive
     ○  Continuous action​ in the present
     ○  Has -ing verb ending (Unless verb is irregular)
     ○  I am ​play​ing​ the piano right now.
●  Present Perfect
    ○  Action has ​recently been completed
    ○  Usually included ‘has’ or ‘have’ and verb ends with -ed (Unless verb is irregular)
    ○  I ​have​ just ​bak​ed​ some cookies.
●  Present Perfect Progressive
     ○  Continuous action ​that has just is ​yet to be completed
     ○  Usually includes ‘has been’ or ‘have been’ and verb ends with -ing (Unless verb is irregular)
     ○  I ​have​ ​been​ read​ing​ for the last 4 hours. 

●  Simple Past
    ○  An action ​done once in the past
    ○  Usually ends in -ed (Unless verb is irregular)
    ○  I ​lik​ed​ that movie.
●  Past Progressive
     ○  A c​ontinuous action in the past
     ○  Usually included ‘was’ or ‘were’ and verb ends with -ing (Unless verb is  irregular)
     ○  I ​was​ cook​ing​ dinner yesterday.
●  Past Perfect
    ○  Something ​completed before a point in the past
    ○  Courtney was glad that she ​had packed​ a swimsuit for the trip.
●  Past Perfect Progressive
     ○  An ​action in the past continued until a time in the past
     ○  She ​had been​ playing the guitar for 6 years before she played her first show.
●  Future: Will
     ○  Used to say an action that a person ​will do or thinks will happen in the future
     ○  Yes, I ​will​ marry you!
●  Future: Going to
     ○  To express something that ​will happen in the near future
     ○  I’m ​going to​ take my cat to the vet tomorrow
●  Future Progressive
     ○  Used to show that ​something will happen in the future and it will progress for  a certain amount of time
     ○  I will be​ watching “The Bachelor” on Monday night.
●  Future Perfect
     ○  Used to express actions that ​will be completed sometime before a point in the future
     ○  I ​will have eaten​ ​lunch by then. 

What are prepositions? 

●  A word ​explaining a relationship between the noun or pronoun and another word in the rest of a sentence
●  Typically answer the questions: ​Who? What? When? Where? Why? How?
     ○ Example: The party started ​after​ we arrived.
        ● After explains when the party started 

● There are about 150 prepositions in total 

Common Prepositions:
above, across, against, along, among, around, at, before, behind, below, beneath, beside, between, by, down, from, in, into, near, of, off, on, to, toward, under, upon, with ​and​ within 

What are prepositional phrases? 

●  A ​group of words that consist of a preposition, its object, and words that modify that object
●  Modify the verb or noun​ in the sentence
     ○ Example: She won the competition ​at the age of​ 10. 

• Preposition:​ at 
• Explains additional information about how she won the competition 

What are Clauses?. 

 ●  A phrase that ​contains a verb ​and ​sometimes a noun​, and can ​sometimes stand on its own.  

What are the types of clauses? 

●  Independent Clauses
●  Dependent Clauses
    ○  Adjective​ Clauses
    ○  Noun​ Clauses
    ○  Adverb​ Clauses
 

How do you identify each type of clause?
●  Independent Clauses
     ○  Independent Clauses can ​be sentences by themselves, as they express complete thoughts.
     ○  They have a ​subject and a predicate​.
     ○  Example: ​The store ran out of the item quickly. 

• This is an independent clause because the rest of the sentence could be “...because supplies were low.” 
• The rest of the sentence is not necessary to make the independent clause make sense. 

●  Dependent Clauses ​- These three types of clauses can’t stand on their own as sentences, as they are not complete thoughts.
    ○  Adjective Clauses 

• Explain nouns or pronouns in a sentence 
• Example: The person ​who lives next door​ is really nice. 
• Phrase “who lives next door” explains person 

     ○  Noun Clauses 

• Takes the place of a subject or object in a sentence 
• Example: ​Whoever wins the competition​ ​will win a trophy. 
• “Whoever wins the competition” is the noun because we don’t exactly
  know who that is right now. 

     ○  Adverb Clauses 

• Modifies the verb in a complex sentence 
• Example: ​If Sam calls​, tell him that I am busy right now. 
• “If Sam calls” says what to tell Sam if he calls 

What is Direct Speech?
● A form of writing dialogue where ​the exact, actual, words of someone are repeated in quotation marks: 

     ○  “I’m going home!” ​said Martha.
    ○  Look under Indirect Speech to see the indirect version of this statement.

What is Indirect Speech?
●  Another name for indirect speech is ​“reported speech”
●  When someone says what someone else said or what they themselves said in the past, and it isn’t a word for word copy​, the tense of the phrase said in the past changes.
    ○  She said she was going home.
    ○  Look under Direct Speech to see the direct version of this statement.