1. And everything else

2.  S V O (IO)  Subject + predicate  Subject normally does the verb.  If the Object is acted on by the verb it is a Direct Object: “John kicks the ball.”  The Indirect object tells you to/for whom/what the Direct Object is acted on: “John kicks the ball to Peter.”

3.  Verbs tell us three things:  Action  Number of “doers”  Tense  Verbs tell us actions like “kick,” “eat,” “swim” etc

4.  There are different types of verbs:  Auxiliary verbs are “helping verbs” such as “to be” and “to have”: I have to go to sleep; We are eating spaghetti.  Transitive verbs: take a Direct Object: “I wrote a letter.” (The letter is acted on)  Intransitive verbs: do not take a Direct Object. “I wrote for many reasons.” (“Many reasons” are not acted on)  The infinitive of the verb: The “name” of the verb, must be preceded by “to” and needs a finite verb before it: “She wants to jump” DO NOT split the infinitive: “to bravely go” or “to hungrily eat”

5.  Finite verbs  These are happy, complete verbs  They have a doer and a tense.  To identify them:  Find the verb  Find the person/thing doing the verb.  Ask yourself if the verb shows you when it happened.  Non-finite verbs  These are broken verbs.  They are missing either a doer or a tense.  To identify them:  Find the verb.  Ask yourself whether it has a doer and then see if you can identify when the action happened.

6.  Participles are a verb ending in “ing” or “ed” and an auxiliary verb. “I am eating” or “I have passed the test.”  Participles work in different tenses: Present participle and past participle.  Present participles usually show the continuous of the tense and the past participle shows the past tense.

7.  This is called “Concord” in a sentence; concord means “harmony” so the correct concord makes your sentence at peace with itself.  Concord means that the Subject and the Verb need to agree with each other.  When they do not you end up with something like this: “He are a student.”

8. To be: I am You (s) are He/she/it is We are You (pl) are They are To have: I have You (s) have He/she/it has We have You have They have  So “he are a student.” “ are” is the form of the verb that matches “you, we or they.”  “She have a bruise.” “have” is the incorrect form of the verb. According to our conjugation “she has” is the correct form of the verb.  “There’s many people at the beach.” “There’s” is “There is” “is” is the singular form of the verb but “many people” is plural so your singular verb conflicts with your plural subject 

9. To like I like You (s) like He/she/it likes We like You (pl) like They like To swim: I swim You (s) swim He/she/it swims We swim You (pl) swim They swim  When it is very warm we likes to eat ice-cream  We only swim when it is hot but she swim even when it is cold!  To identify errors of concord: 1) Find your subject 2) Find your verb. See if they match each other.

10.  Past Tense  Simple: I kicked the ball.  Continuous:  I am kicking the ball.  Perfect: I had kicked the ball  Future Tense:  Simple: I will swim.  Continuous: I will be swimming  Perfect: I shall have swum. Present Tense: Simple: I eat the ice-cream. Continuous: I am eating the ice-cream. Perfect: I have eaten the ice- cream

11.  When writing in different tenses you need to change both the auxiliary and other verbs to show the tense.  Regular verbs usually take “ed” at the end to show past tense or perfect tense. “kick”  “kicked” “look”  “looked.”  Irregular verbs are far more fun and change in entirely in the past tense: “run”  “ran” “eat”  “ate.”  You must be certain that you have changed the verb correctly.

12.  Four different sentences:  Statements: “It is raining.”  Questions: “Is it raining?”  Commands: “Stop raining.”  Exclamations: “It is still raining!”

13.  Simple Sentences: SVO only: John catches bats.  Compound Sentence: uses a conjunction to join 2 complete sentences. You usually use a pronoun in the place of the subject in your second sentence.– John catches bats and scares his sister.

14. Complex Sentence: John catches bats and scares his sister by putting them in her bed. The underlined part of the sentence is not a full sentence. It has no SVO. What do we call this underlined part? It is most likely a phrase or a clause. Phrase: Contains no finite verb. Clause: Contains a finite verb. To identify it you must Find the verb; If there is no verb; it is a phrase. If there is a verb then see if it has a doer and a tense: If it is missing one of them it is a phrase. If the verb is finite then the section of the sentence is a clause.

15.  Also called a “fragment.”  Contains a single idea and adds information.  Different types:  Adjectival phrases: The boat with the green propeller sank.  Noun phrases: (Answers the question ‘who’ or ‘what.’ The principal entered the hall to begin assembly.

16.  Adverbial phrases: Add information to the verb:  Of manner: The cat ate slowly and carefully.  Of time: The cat ate punctually at noon every day.  Of place: The cat ate in the kitchen.  Of reason: The cat ate due to extreme hunger.  Of concession: The cat, although already full, ate again.

17.  Contains a finite verb and conveys a single idea.  Main clause: the main part of the sentence and usually contains the Subject.  Subordinate Clause: cannot stand alone and depends on the main clause for meaning.

18.  Noun clause: Do the same job as nouns, can be replaced by “it” or “that.”  Adjectival clause: Adds information to the main clause, usually begins with “who, which, that, whom or whose”  Adverbial clause:  Of time  Of place  Of manner  Of reason  Of concession  Of result  Of purpose  Of condition

19.  Active voice follows SVO: “The shark ate the fish.”  Passive Voice: The order of the sentence changes: OVS “The fish was eaten by the shark.”  Change the verb – often into the past perfect.  Change the pronouns “he - him” “they-them.”  Only use the passive voice when necessary!