Page 12 - Good News

NOUNS
Words which refer to people, places and things.
Common nouns are words like these:
country space shuttle
Proper nouns are capitalized: United States Columbia
PRONOUNS
Pronouns are words that replace nouns:
she he it them
Pronouns are used in three ways:
• in the nominative case (the subject
of the sentence)
• in the objective case (the object of
the sentence)
• in the possessive case (shows own-
ership)
PERIOD
The period ends a sentence and is used after the letters of an abbreviation:
Sam Smith, M.D. Susan Smith, Ph.D.
COMMA
The comma—
• separates words in a list:
I rented CDs, videos, and DVDs.
• is used before a conjunction that joins two clauses with subjects and verbs:
Jason and Jill went for the ball, but neither caught it.
• sets off clauses and phrases:
Steve, who just turned 13, had never been out of the city.
• is used after a dependent clause that starts a sentence:
When your grades come up, I will raise your allowance.
• sets apart words that refer to each
other:
Johann Gutenberg, the printer, lived over 500 years ago.
• separates the words like cities and states or the numbers in dates: Detroit, Michigan, is “Motown.” September 29, 1993, is my birthday.
Capitalize:
• the rst word of every sentence.
• the rst word of a quotation, even
when it appears within another sentence.
She said, “We don’t need help.”
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PARTS OF SPEECH
ADJECTIVES
Adjectives modify nouns and pronouns:
dif cult cool restricted
VERBS
Verbs express physical and mental actions:
tabulate repair meditate
Verbs also express states of being:
is will be has been
ADVERBS
Adverbs describe verbs, adjectives or other adverbs:
She moved slowly.
The diamond was very expensive. The bass part seemed too loud.
PUNCTUATION
QUOTATION MARKS
Double quotation marks are used at the beginning and the end of a quotation. Single quotation marks begin and end a quote within another quote:
Jesus said, “So should it be with you. When you have done all you have been commanded, say ‘We are unpro table servants.’”
Commas and periods usually fall inside the quotation marks, but colons and semicolons usually fall outside.
COLON
The colon introduces a statement, a list or a quotation:
Please bring the following things to class: pencils, calculators, and notebooks. Discuss the following well-known quota- tion: “It was the best of times; it was the worst of times.”
SEMICOLON
The semicolon may be used instead of a conjunction between independent clauses or when a word like “however” joins them:
The detective stopped; he gasped.
I did not nish my homework; however, I did clean my room.
CAPITALIZATION
• proper nouns—
President of the United States
July is the seventh month. Advent is a season of the Church.
• proper adjectives—
A Christian school
CONJUNCTIONS
Conjunctions connect words, clauses and phrases:
The store sold DVDs and videos. The meaning became apparent, but
the wording was unclear.
PREPOSITIONS
Prepositions come before a noun or pronoun and tell how that word relates to another word in the sentence:
The doctor pushed on the bruise as she looked at my face.
INTERJECTIONS
Interjections are words or phrases that express strong feelings, often used with an exclamation point:
No! Watch out! Man, that was hard!
Semicolons are also used to separate lists in which commas are already being used: The lm opened in these major cities: St. Louis, MO; Denver, CO;
and Los Angeles, CA.
HYPHEN
The hyphen separates the parts of some compound words, some pre xes and suf xes, and some descriptive words:
After-school program Pre-World War II airplane President-elect
APOSTROPHE
The apostrophe is used in contractions (when letters are left out of a word or combination of words):
We’d come if we weren’t busy.
Apostrophes also are used with the let- ter s to show possession:
This is Mary’s boombox.
For nouns ending in s or for plural nouns, only the apostrophe is used to show possession:
•
They are Jesus’ disciples. Jesus is the disciples’ Lord.
They share the Hispanic heritage The Democratic party
titles or substitutes for proper nouns
Professor Smith walked to the
podium to begin his lecture.
Wait until Uncle John says so.
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