Grammar Notes Unit 3 Week 1 and 2 (lessons 29 – 33)

GRAMMAR – UNIT 3 LESSONS

 Please take out your notes for your studies in Grammar …

 You have your nouns, verbs, pronouns, but how do you add color and texture to those words? With modifiers, of course! They describe or make something specific.  Adjectives and adverbs are modifiers–the parts of speech that describe nouns, verbs, pronouns, and in some cases one another.

 An adjective describes a noun (or a pronoun) by telling you which one, what kind, or how many.  Aardvark threw some pillows at Squiggly.  Aardvark threw a square pillow at Squiggly.

 An adverb works harder than the adjective. It can describe verbs, other adverbs, clauses, and whole sentences. The adverbs tells you where, when, and how (how often and how much). Adverbs often end in –ly, but not always.  Squiggly deftly dodged the pillows.  Squiggle quite deftly dodged the pillows.  Squiggly dodged the unusually hard pillow.

 Today – answer in ONE concise sentence.  Thank you.  Today – answer in ONE concise sentence.  Thank you.  The Critical Question of the day: What are the two types of speech that are called modifiers and what do they describe?

 Please take out your notes for your studies in Grammar …

 Some words can be adverbs or adjectives depending on how they are used in a sentence. You can tell the difference by noting what the word is modifying.

POP Quiz – Adverb or Adjective??? 1. He kept a weekly calendar. 2. He jogged weekly. 3. He stayed late. 4. They made it a late night. 5. The hard nails worked. 6. He worked hard.

 Today – answer in ONE concise sentence.  Thank you.  Today – answer in ONE concise sentence.  Thank you.  The Critical Question of the day: Can some words be adjectives or adverbs?

 Please take out your notes for your studies in Grammar …

 Remember linking verbs?

 When dealing with sensing verbs, such as taste, smell look, or feel, you have to take a minute to decide whether you’re describing the noun or the verb.  Consider the different meanings of these two sentences:

 You just ran a marathon your and you have been sweating. Bad describes your physical being. It is an adjective describing the pronoun “I”.  Remember to test the sentence by replacing the verb with a form of “to be.”  I am bad works so you know smell is a linking verb in the sentence. It’s correct to say “I smell bad” when you are expressing an emotion.

 Adjectives follow linking verbs.

 Since the action verb “smell” can imply “to smell things” smelling badly can imply that something is wrong with your sense of smell.  I know that people think that they need to describe how they feel so they can use an adverb by mistake. It is those pesky linking verbs that cause such confusion. Do not fall into the sinking- linking-verb quicksand. When you say “I smell badly,” the adverb “badly” describes the action verb “smell.”

 Use adverbs with action verbs. For example, I you give a horrible speech you could say, “I spoke badly.” because “spoke is an action verb. You can tell that because “speaking” is an action and the test sentence :”I am badly” doesn’t work.  With sense verbs, first test whether they are linking verbs or action verbs. Then use my adjective/ adverb tip :

 Adjectives follow linking verbs.  Adverbs modify action verbs.  Critical question --- Do action and linking verbs take different modifiers?

 Please take out your notes for your studies in Grammar …

 Adjectives and adverbs can be used to compare nouns or verbs.  When comparing items, notice whether you are comparing two things or more than two things.

 When comparing two items, use a comparative.  You can remember this word is used to compare two things because it has the word pair in it, and a pair is always two things.

For Comparatives, use -  more before the adjective or the adverb OR the suffix –er on the end of it.

 When comparing three or more items, use a superlative. You can remember that superlatives are more than two things because superlative has the word super in it, and when you want a whole bunch of something, you supersize it.

 With superlatives use  most before the adjective or the adverb, or the suffix -est on the end

 Please take out your notes for your studies in Grammar …

 Comparison involving words with one syllable or three or more syllables follow clear rules. The two syllable words are tricky.

 NOTE: Some people ask about fun. Technically, it is not an adjective, so you shouldn’t use “funner” or “funnest.” One-syllable words use suffixes er or est.

Three-syllable words use more or most in front of them.

Two-syllable words use more or most and er and est depending on the word. With words ending in y, change the y to i

 If you have a two- syllable adjective that doesn’t end in y, ow, or le (if it is not yowlier), you’ll need to rely on your ear or your dictionary.