Sophomore Grammar Let’s review!

What are the five different types of phrases? 1. Prepositional Phrase 2. Appositive Phrase 3. Infinitive Phrase 4. Gerund Phrase 5. Participial Phrase (Participle)

An appositive phrase contains an appositive noun that provides information about the preceding noun. Appositive: (Not part of a phrase) My sister Sylvia has a pet salamander. Appositive Phrase: My brother, the one eating the meal, teaches history.

Infinitives and Infinitive Phrases Infinitives: to eat, to sleep, to dream, to ponder Infinitive Phrases: to eat the meal, to sleep all night, to dream the impossible dream, to ponder life’s magnificence Infinitive phrase begins with to + a word that looks like a verb: She would like to be a doctor.

Now our next concept: Gerunds and Gerund Phrases

What do these phrases have in common? Gerund Phrases: eating the meal, sleeping all night, dreaming the impossible dream, pondering life’s magnificence

Grammar Gerund phrases begin with a word that looks like a verb and ends in –ing. Gerund phrases act as a noun in a sentence. Treat them as if they are one word. They can act as subjects, direct objects, objects of a preposition, predicate nouns, and appositives.

Do you know what these are? Direct Object A direct object is a noun or pronoun that receives the action of a verb or shows the result of the action. Gerund as a D.O.: I love splashing.  Direct Object Harry heard splashing in the pool.

Gerunds as the subject: If the verb expresses action—like sneeze, jump, bark, or study—the subject is who or what does the verb. Gerund Phrase as the SUBJECT: Splashing in the pool was challenging.  Subject

Object of a Preposition A preposition is a word that shows a relation between a noun or pronoun to another word in the sentence. The object of the preposition is the noun or pronoun that comes after the preposition. By splashing in the pool, I cooled myself off.  Object of a Preposition

predicate noun A predicate noun is a noun that is used to rename the subject of a sentence. It follows a form of the verb "to be". For example, in the phrase "She is stupid", stupid would be the predicate noun because it follows is, which is a form of "to be". A predicate noun is a noun or noun phrase portion of a clause used to express a description of the subject. As in, 'He is a good man.' Here, 'a good man' is the predicate noun. My favorite activity is splashing in the pool.  Predicate Noun

Appositive My favorite activity, splashing in the pool, makes me feel refreshed.  Appositive

One challenge in identifying gerunds is being able to determine whether the –ing word is being used an action verb or a predicate noun My favorite activity is splashing in the pool.  Activity is the subject. Splashing in the pool equals the subject which makes it a predicate noun, and is is the linking verb. Another test is to make sure the subject can actually perform the action of a verb. The subject activity cannot perform the action of splashing.

Action verb? Predicate Noun? John is splashing in the pool.  In this case, splashing is an action verb because the subject John is performing that action.

Write a sentence using the following words in a gerund phrase according to the instructions. 1. dreaming (subject) 2. cruising (object of a preposition) 3. skiing (direct object) 4. thinking (predicate noun)