1. “ I’ve never known a person who wasn’t interested in language.” -Steven Pinker, The Language Instinct Engaging Grammar: Practical Advice for Real Classrooms Presented by Amy Benjamin www.amybenjamin.com Part Three: Teaching the Parts of Speech

2. Two Categories of Words in English Form Class Words: Noun Verb Adjective Adverb Structure Class Words: Prepositions Conjunctions Determiners (aka articles: a, an, the) Intensifers Pronouns Interjections

3. Morphology Chart NOUNS: They will fit into the frame: The_____. VERBS: They will fit into the frame: To____ ADJECTIVES: They answer one of these questions: Which one? What kind? How many? ADVERBS: They answer one of these questions: Where? When? Why? To what extent? How often? In what manner? Stifle Stifles Stifled Stifling stiflingly It’s easier to teach parts of speech than you think. Simply use the cues above. Use the morphology chart to illustrate how a word can change its forms, adapting itself to more than one part of speech. Not all words follow the same morphology. It’s interesting to see how words morph into different forms. The morphology chart is great for grammar lessons, vocabulary expansion, and spelling.

4. Morphology Chart NOUNS: They will fit into the frame: The_____. VERBS: They will fit into the frame: To____ ADJECTIVES: They answer one of these questions: Which one? What kind? How many? ADVERBS: They answer one of these questions: Where? When? Why? To what extent? How often? In what manner? Transgression,s Transgress Transgresses Transgressed Transgressing transgressive It’s easier to teach parts of speech than you think. Simply use the cues above. Use the morphology chart to illustrate how a word can change its forms, adapting itself to more than one part of speech. Not all words follow the same morphology. It’s interesting to see how words morph into different forms. The morphology chart is great for grammar lessons, vocabulary expansion, and spelling.

5. Why Teach Verbs? 1. Strong verbs energize writing. 2. Writers must decide on a consistent verb tense. 3. Writers must decide whether to use active or passive voice. 4. Errors in verb usage are highly stigmatized: Incorrect form of irregular verbs (*I seen, *brung, *brang, *have went, *have sang, etc.) 5. Whether we have an action verb or a BE verb determines pronoun case use and adjective/adverb use. www.amybenjamin.com

6. Verb Land, USA Auxiliaries and modal auxiliaries combine with action verbs to create various tenses. ACTION TOWN BE TOWN TO BE: I am,was We are,were You are ;were He, she, it is They are,were Modal Auxiliaries: Would Will Should Shall Could May Can Might Must Auxiliaries: Have: creates the perfect tenses (has sung, etc.) Be: creates the progressive tenses (am singing, etc.) BE verbs are completed by adjectives: He is happy. BE verbs take subjective case pronouns as complements: It was I who stole the cookie from the cookie jar. Sense Verbs: feel, look, sound smell, taste Also: seem, become, appear grow Base form: walk, sing Progressive form: walking, singing Past form: walked, sang Participial form: (have) walked, (have sung) ACTION verbs are modified by adverbs:She sings happily. ACTION verbs take objective case pronouns as objects: We saw him steal the cookie from the cookie jar. Active Voice: I stole the cookie from the cookie jar. Passive Voice : The cookie was stolen from the cookie jar by me. (BE + Participial form= passive voice) Verbals: 1. Participle: (acts as adjective) the dancing bear; the stolen cookie 2. Infinitive: (acts as noun) Let us never fear to negotiate. 3. Gerund: (Acts as noun) Teaching makes me happy. “Where We Find Out the Action of Things” “Where We Find Out the Nature of Things” Hanout, 11 www.amybenjamin.com

7. Kinds of Information Noun Phrases: Who? What? Adjective Structures Which one? What kind? How many? Adverb structures: Where? When? Why? In what manner? How often? Verb structures: What is its action? What is its nature?

8. Morphology Chart NOUNS: They will fit into the frame: The_____. VERBS: They will fit into the frame: To____ ADJECTIVES: They answer one of these questions: Which one? What kind? How many? ADVERBS: They answer one of these questions: Where? When? Why? To what extent? How often? In what manner? Product, products Productivity Produce Productiveness Expense, expenses expensiveness Produce Produces Producing Produced Expend Expends Expending expended Productive Expensive Productively Expensively

9. Noun-Making Suffixes Verb-Making SuffixesAdjective-making suffixes -ment -ness -ation, sion -ity -ism -hood -itude -ence -ance -ide -ate -ify -ize -acious,icious -y -ous, ious -ant -able, ible -er; est Morphology Kit Adverb-making suffix: -ly 5 This “Morphology Kit” is a great way to expand vocabulary because most of the words created by these suffixes express abstract ideas.

10. The expandable, shrinkable nominal (noun + its modifiers)

11. The expandable, shrinkable nominal the little pink standing over the fish bowl on the bookshelf, curious looking hungrily at the rainbow fish IT

12. Order of adjectives: cute well-trained little theseHimalayan two

13. Prepositions Suggested teaching methods: 1. Hidden Pictures (see directions in your handouts) 2. Somewhere ______ the rainbow 3. “Any place a mouse can go” (These devices produce only those prepositions that indicate location. Prepositions can also indicate time (at night, after dinner, before lunch, etc.), type (Queen of Hearts) and relationships (with me).

14. On top of the cornstalk Over the dragonfly In the brick walkway Within the picture somewhere Above the roof Below the roof

15. Six Reasons for Teaching Prepositions: 1. Prepositions add time and place detail to sentences 2. Students can vary their sentence structure and set the stage for a sentence by beginning some sentences with prepositions. 3. Students can add power to their writing by ending paragraphs with a prepositional phrase. (Conversely: Students can avoid ending sentences with prepositions so that their sentences are not weak or too informal.) 4. Students can avoid subject-verb agreement errors by recognizing prepositional phrases that intervene between the subject and the verb, as in “A box of matches (is, are) on the kitchen table.” 5. Students can create parallel structure by repeating prepositional phrases deliberately. 6. Students can select the appropriate pronoun case as the object of a preposition. (between you and me; for Joe and me)

16. Noun Determiners (aka Noun Signals or Noun Markers) These are words that announce that you are at the beginning of a noun phrase: Most common: the, a, an Also: this, that, these, those, any possessive pronoun

17. Pronoun Case Subjective Case: Singular Plural 1 st person: I we 2 nd person: you you 3 rd person: he, she, it they who The Yankees whom The Sox Singular Plural 1 st person: me us 2 nd person: you you 3 rd person: him, her, it them Objective Case:

18. Pronoun Case Subjective Case: Singular Plural 1 st person: I we 2 nd person: you you 3 rd person: he, she, it they who The Yankees I. Subject: Judy and I are friends. (We are friends.) He and I are to be married in June. (We are to be married in June.) He and she are to be married in June. (They are to be married in June) Who is to be married in June? (They are to be married in June.) Used for 2 functions: II. Predicate Nominative (the pronoun that follows TO BE form to complete the sentence): The culprit is she. The culprits were proven to be they. The guilty party was I. Who was the guilty party? (She was the guilty party.l)

19. Pronoun Case whom The Sox Singular Plural 1 st person: me us 2 nd person: you you 3 rd person: him, her, it them Objective Case: Used for 3 functions: 1. Direct object: Ask Joe or me (Ask us.) 2. Indirect object: We sent Joe and him invitations (We sent them invitations) 3. Object of preposition: This is between you and me. (This is between us.) Who/Whom: Who/whom do you trust? We trust him (whom). Who/whom stole the cookie from the cookie jar? He (who) stole the cookie…

20. Common Hitching Devices Coordinating Conjunctiions And But So Or/nor Can join two independent clauses to make a compound sentence. Warning: You must use a comma with these when they join independent clauses. Subordinating Conjunctions As, although, after While, when Until Because, before If, since AAAWWUBBIS Can hitch up to an independent clause, creating a subordinate (dependent) clause, forming complex sentence. Can appear after main clause (no comma) or before main clause (needs a comma) Conjunctive Adverbs However Moreover Therefore Furthermore Can move within own clause; Requires commas on both sides Warning: If you wish to use these to join clauses, you must use a semicolon. Relative Pronouns That Which Who, whom What Where Why How Whichever Whatever, etc. Can join clauses Warning: Many sentence fragments begin with these words. Usually, you must hitch these words and the clauses that they introduce to your previous sentence.