1. Unit 3: Grammar and Usage
Lessons
Unit 3: Grammar and Usage

2. Nouns There are two main classes of nouns: common and proper nouns.
A common noun names any of one class of objects.
Examples: boy, country, flower
A proper noun names a particular person, place, or thing. It begins with a capital letter.
Examples: Ms. De Masi, Parliament Buildings

3. Underline each noun. Then write C or P above it to show whether it is a common or proper noun.
Levi is my best friend.
Victoria is the chief city on Vancouver Island and capital of British Columbia.
The Magdalen Islands are located in the Gulf of St. Lawrence.
A killer tornado ripped through southern Ontario last May.
John Bassett II and Elmer Iseler, two famous Canadians, died in April 1998.

4. A concrete noun names things you can see and touch.
Examples: sea, book, train, hotel
An abstract noun names an idea, quality, or feeling.
Examples : cowardice, stubbornness, jealousy
A collective noun names a group of persons or things.
Examples : audience, crowd, committee

5. Create meaningful sentences using the nouns in brackets
Create meaningful sentences using the nouns in brackets. Note that collective nouns usually take a singular verb.
(honesty)
(Jury)
(motorbikes)
(Family)

6. Singular and Plural Nouns
The following chart shows how to change singular nouns into plural nouns.
NOUN
PLURAL FORM
EXAMPLES
Most nouns
Add –s
Ship, ships
Nouns ending in a consonant and -y
Change the –y to –i and add –es
Sky, skies
Nouns ending in –o
Add –es or-s
Hero, heroes
Solo, solos
Most nouns ending in –f or –fe
Change the –f or –fe to -ves
Half, halves
Most nouns ending in –ch, -sh, -s, or –x
Add –es
Bush, bushes
Loss, losses
Tax, taxes
Many two-word or three-word compound nouns
Add –s to the principle word
Son-in-law, sons-in law
Nouns with the same form in the singular and plural
No Change
Sheep
Nouns that are exceptions to the rules
*Special Cases*
Woman, women

7. Use the correct plural form for each singular noun.
Piglet
Hobo
Duck
Tragedy
County
Elf
Sheep

8. Rewrite the sentences, changing each underlined singular noun to a plural noun.
The hero saved the child from the burning building.
Dan took five photo of the reindeer.
Her son-in-law and brother attended the ceremony.

9. Possessive Nouns
A possessive noun shows possession of the noun that follows.
Form the possessive of most singular nouns by adding an apostrophe (’) and add –s.
Examples:
The girl’s car
Mr. Lewis’s book

10. Form the possessive of a plural noun ending in –s by adding only an apostrophe.
Examples:
The Wongs’ home
Boys’ jeans
Brothers’ business
Form the possessive of a plural noun that does not end in –s by adding an apostrophe and –s.
Children’s clothes
Women’s shoes

11. Rewrite each phrase using a possessive noun.
The cap belonging to Jim.
The wrench that belongs to Kathy.
The smile of the baby.
The shoes that belong to the runners
The lunches of the children

12. Verb Tenses
Verb tense tells the time of the action or the state of being of a verb.
The present tense tells what is happening now.
Example: Sally loves her husband.
The past tense tells about something that happened in the past.
Sally loved her husband.
The future tense tells about something that will happen in the future.
Example: They will meet again when the war is over.
A common writing error is inconsistency in verb tenses.

13. Write a few sentences in the present, past, and future
Write a few sentences in the present, past, and future. Be sure that the verb tenses are consistent.

14. Present perfect and past perfect tenses
The perfect tenses express action that happened before another time or event.
The present perfect tense tells about something that happened at an indefinite time in the past. The present perfect tense consists of has or have + past participle.
Examples: I have eaten already. He has eaten, too.

15. The past perfect tense tells about something that happened before something else in the past. The past perfect tense consists of had + the past participle.
Example: I already had eaten when they arrived.

16. Complete each sentence with have, has, or had to form the verb tense indicated in parentheses.
(present perfect) The dog __________ eaten the ham on the table.
(past perfect) The doctor ___________ warned him to stop smoking.
(present perfect) The diver __________ located pieces from the shipwreck.
(past perfect) The lacrosse team __________ won every game last season.

17. Past tense of some irregular verbs
Never use a helping verb with: froze, chose, spoke, and broke.
Always use a helping verb with: frozen, chocen, spoken, and broken.
Underline the correct verb form to complete each sentence.
Haven’t these politicians (spoke, spoken) yet?
Has the ice (froze, frozen) on the pond?
Romina (broke, broken) the handle of the baseball bat.

18. Never use a helping verb with came, rang, drank, knew, and threw.
Always use a helping verb with come, rung, drunk, known, and thrown.
Write a sentence using each verb below:
Come
Rang
Threw
Drunk

19. Never use a helping verb with gave, took, and wrote.
Always use a helping verb with given, taken, and written.
Underline the correct verb:
Who (wrote, written) the best essay?
Have you (gave, given) her name to the police?
Haven’t you (take, taken) your seat yet?

20. Never use a helping verb with ate, fell, drew, drove, and ran.
Always use a helping verb with eaten, fallen, drawn, driven, and run.
Write the correct past tense form of each verb in parentheses to complete the sentences.
(draw) Since Selma knew the city well, She ___________________ a map for us.
(fall) The police warned us that the hydro lines had ___________________ on the highway.
(eat) In order to avoid crowds at the snack bar, we ___________________ our dinner later.

21. Never use a helping verb with saw, went, and began.
Always use a helping verb with seen, gone, and begun.
Write a sentence using each verb below:
Saw
Seen
Began

22. Never use a helping verb with did.
Always use a helping verb with done.
Doesn’t is the contraction of does not. Use it with singular nouns and the pronouns he, she, and it.
Example: Hannah doesn’t live here.

23. Write one sentence using did and one sentence using done.
Don’t is the contraction of do not. Use it with plural nouns and with the pronouns I, you, we, and they.
Example:
Mr. And Mrs. Matters don’t have teenagers.
You don’t have your wallet.
Write one sentence using did and one sentence using done.