GRADE 6
ENGLISH
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A person, place, or thing that you can become aware of through one or more of your five senses is concrete. Feelings, characteristics, qualities, and ideas are named by abstract nouns.
Examples
of concrete nouns:
honey
Examples
of abstract nouns: thought, Example sentences using concrete nouns: The
breeze ruffled his feathers. Example sentences using abstract nouns: 1. I
don't have much knowledge on the subject, Professor. The important thing to remember is that common nouns are general names. Thus, they are not capitalized unless they begin a sentence or are part of a title. Proper nouns, those that name specific things, are the class of nouns that require capitalization. Nouns name people, places, and things.
Collective nouns, a
special class, name groups [things]
composed of members [usually
people]. A concrete noun names something you can
experience with at least one of your senses (sight, hearing, touch,
taste, and smell). Most nouns are concrete nouns.
Don't confuse a concrete noun with an
abstract noun. Not all nouns are
concrete. A second class of nouns is abstract. You cannot
experience abstract nouns with your senses. Read this
example:
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Cases (Nominative, Objective, Possessive) Pronouns take the place of nouns. Personal pronouns have what is called case. Case means that a different form of a pronoun is used for different parts of the sentence. There are three cases: nominative, objective, possessive. Nominative case pronouns are I, she, he, we, they, and who. They are used as subjects, predicate nominatives, and appositives when used with a subject or predicate nominative. Objective case pronouns are me, her, him, us, them, and whom. They are used as direct objects, indirect objects, objects of the preposition, and appositives when used with one of the objects. You and it are both nominative and objective case. Possessive case pronouns are my, mine, your, yours, his, her, hers, its, our, ours, your, yours, their and theirs. They are used to show ownership. Possessive pronouns never have apostrophes, but possessive nouns do. Do not confuse the possessive personal pronouns its, your, and their with the contractions it's (it is, it has), you're (you are), and they're (they are). Although most students never truly think about it, nouns and pronouns have case. Latin has five; German has four. English has three cases: nominative, objective, and possessive. Regardless of how a noun functions in a sentence, it doesn’t change form. Therefore, no one bothers to think whether a noun is in the nominative or objective case; it simply doesn’t matter to a neophyte. However, a noun does change form when it falls in the possessive case. A noun changes form in the possessive case by adding an apostrophe and an s or if the noun is plural by adding s and an apostrophe: The student’s book was found lying in the floor. Boys’ gym clothes may be found in the bookstore. The personal pronouns in the nominative case are:
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Pronouns take the place of nouns. Personal pronouns have what is called case. Case means that a different form of a pronoun is used for different parts of the sentence. There are three cases: nominative, objective, possessive.
Objective case pronouns are me, her, him, us, them, and whom. They are used as direct objects, indirect objects, objects of the preposition, and appositives when used with one of the objects. You and it are both nominative and objective case.
Possessive case pronouns are my, mine, your, yours, his, her,
hers, its, our, ours, your, yours, their and theirs. They are
used to show ownership. The same information in a more visual format:
*Possessive pronouns never have apostrophes, but possessive nouns do. Certain pronouns called possessive pronouns show ownership. Some are used alone; some describe a noun. Used alone: mine, yours, his, hers, ours, theirs, whose
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Adjectives (Descriptive, Limiting, Comparison) Adjectives modify a noun or pronoun. There are two basic categories of adjectives. They have very different functions:
COMPARISON OF ADJECTIVES FORMING THE COMPARATIVE AND SUPERLATIVE
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Verbs (Transitive, Intransitive, Linking, Simple and Compound Tenses, Mood, Agreement of Subject with Verb) The verb is king in English. The shortest sentence contains a verb. You can make a one-word sentence with a verb, for example: "Stop!" You cannot make a one-word sentence with any other type of word. Verbs are sometimes described as "action words". This is partly true. Many verbs give the idea of action, of "doing" something. For example, words like run, fight, do and work all convey action. But some verbs do not give the idea of action; they give the idea of existence, of state, of "being". For example, verbs like be, exist, seem and belong all convey state. A verb always has a subject. (In the sentence "John speaks English", John is the subject and speaks is the verb.) In simple terms, therefore, we can say that verbs are words that tell us what a subject does or is; they describe:
There is something very special about verbs in English. Most other words (adjectives, adverbs, prepositions etc) do not change in form (although nouns can have singular and plural forms). But almost all verbs change in form. For example, the verb to work has five forms:
Of course, this is still very few forms compared to some languages which may have thirty or more forms for a single verb. Verbs carry the idea of being or action in the sentence.
As we will see on this page, verbs are classified in many ways. First, some verbs require an object to complete their meaning: "She gave _____ ?" Gave what? She gave money to the church. These verbs are called transitive. Verbs that are intransitive do not require objects: "The building collapsed." In English, you cannot tell the difference between a transitive and intransitive verb by its form; you have to see how the verb is functioning within the sentence. In fact, a verb can be both transitive and intransitive: "The monster collapsed the building by sitting on it." Although you will seldom hear the term, a ditransitive verb — such as cause or give — is one that can take a direct object and an indirect object at the same time: "That horrid music gave me a headache." Ditransitive verbs are slightly different, then, from factitive verbs, in that the latter take two objects. Verbs are also classified as either finite or non-finite. A finite verb makes an assertion or expresses a state of being and can stand by itself as the main verb of a sentence.
Non-finite verbs (think "unfinished") cannot, by themselves, be main verbs:
Another, more useful term for non-finite verb is verbal. In this section, we discuss various verbal forms: infinitives, gerunds, and participles. Making Subjects and Verbs Agree Simple TensesTense is the form a verb takes to indicate a particular time period. Roughly speaking, the tense indicates whether something happened in the past, the present or the future. Tense - (tens) n - A form of a verb that relates it to time viewed either as finite past, present, or future, or as non-finite. ►Sequence of tenses In inflected languages, the customary choice of tense for a verb that follows another in a sentence, particularly in reported or in direct discourse. ►The general principle of sequence of tenses in English is that present follows present and past follows past. Thus, the tense of the subordinate clause tends to shift back to agree with the tense of the main verb. "He wants to go," becomes, in indirect discourse, "They said that he –wanted to go." However, if continued, habitual, future, or universal action is expressed, the present tense may be retained in the subordinate clause: They told me that he is still in town; Columbus proved that the world is round. The present tense is also retained in the subordinate clause for emphasis: They just learned he is going after all. In subordinate clauses of purpose the general rule of tense sequence holds true: We are working so that we can go to Europe; we worked so that' we could go to Europe. In conditional sentences expressing a simple fact or open question, the main and subordinate verbs remain independent: If he said that, l can' t prove it. However, sequence of tenses is strictly observed in a highly improbable or contrary-to-fact statement. Time present is then expressed by the use of the past tense: If he had any sense, he wouldn't drive that car. Time past is expressed by the past perfect tense: If I had had my wits about me, I would have telephoned immediately. [<0F - tens <L - tempus time, tense] |
Adverbs modify (describe) verbs, adjectives or other adverbs communicative intent of adverbs Adverbs answer these questions. Where? When? How? Why? and To what extent? Adverbs are an adjective which can modify a verb, a clause, another adjective or a phrase. Adjectives are generally turned into adverbs with the addition of a -ly suffix, though this is not a concrete rule. Examples of adverbs are:
Manner - Adverbs which answer the question How? Place - Adverbs which answer the question Where? Time - Adverbs which answer the question of When? Number - Adverbs which answer the question of How Often or How Many? Purpose - Adverbs which answer the question Why? developmental order Since adverbs are used to answer WH questions, it might be assumed that the acquisition order of the communicative intent of manner, place, time, number, and purpose might well follow the same developmental order of question forms. If that is the case, then the resulting developmental order would be: Place - Answers Where questions Number - Answers How often or How many Manner - Answers How question Purpose - Answers Why question Time - Answers When question
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Prepositions, Conjunctions, Interjections
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Using Clauses as Nouns, Adjectives, and Adverbs
Simple Sentence - Clauses can be combined in various ways. But, if a sentence contains only an independent clause -- with no other clause -- it will be a simple sentence. A simple sentence is an independent clause. IC = Independent Clause (simple sentence) Why Sentence Structure Matters Before elaborating too much on the nature of sentences or trying to define a sentence's parts, it might be wise to define a sentence itself. A sentence is a group of words containing a subject and predicate. Sometimes, the subject is "understood," as in a command: "[You] go next door and get a cup of sugar." That probably means that the shortest possible complete sentence is something like "Go!" A sentence ought to express a thought that can stand by itself, but it would be helpful to review the section on Sentence Fragments for additional information on thoughts that cannot stand by themselves and sentences known as "stylistic fragments." The various Types of Sentences, structurally, are defined, with examples, under the section on sentence variety. Sentences are also defined according to function: declarative (most of the sentences we use), interrogative (which ask a question — "What's your name?"), exclamatory ("There's a fire in the kitchen!"), and imperative ("Don't drink that!")
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The first word of every sentence.
The first-person singular pronoun, I.
The first, last, and important words in a title.
(The concept "important words" usually does not include articles,
short prepositions (which means you might want to capitalize
"towards" or "between," say), the "to" of an infinitive, and
coordinating conjunctions. This is not true in APA Reference lists
(where we capitalize only the first word), nor is it necessarily
true for titles in other languages. Also, on book jackets, aesthetic
considerations will sometimes override the rules.)
Proper nouns
Specific persons and things: George W. Bush, the
White House, General Motors Corporation.
Specific geographical locations: Hartford,
Connecticut, Africa, Forest Park Zoo, Lake Erie, the Northeast,
the Southend. However, we do not capitalize compass directions
or locations that aren't being used as names: the north side of
the city; we're leaving the Northwest and heading south this
winter. When we combine proper nouns, we capitalize attributive
words when they precede place-names, as in Lakes Erie and
Ontario, but the opposite happens when the order is reversed:
the Appalachian and Adirondack mountains. When a term is
used descriptively, as opposed to being an actual part of a
proper noun, do not capitalize it, as in "The California deserts
do not get as hot as the Sahara Desert."
Names of celestial bodies: Mars, Saturn, the
Milky Way. Do not, howver, capitalize earth, moon, sun,
except when those names appear in a context in which other
(capitalized) celestial bodies are mentioned. "I like it here on
earth," but "It
is further from Earth
to Mars than it
is from Mercury
to the Sun.
Names of newspapers and journals. Do not,
however, capitalize the word the, even when it is part of
the newspaper's title: the Hartford Courant.
Days of the week, months, holidays. Do not,
however, capitalize the names of seasons (spring, summer, fall,
autumn, winter). "Next winter, we're traveling south; by
spring, we'll be back up north."
Historical events: World War I, the Renaissance,
the Crusades.
Races, nationalities, languages: Swedes,
Swedish, African American, Jewish, French, Native American.
(Most writers do not capitalize whites, blacks.)
Names of religions and religious terms: God,
Christ, Allah, Buddha, Christianity, Christians, Judaism, Jews,
Islam, Muslims.
Names of courses: Economics, Biology 101.
(However, we would write: "I'm taking courses in biology and
earth science this summer.")
Brand names: Tide, Maytag, Chevrolet. Names of relationships only when they are a
part of or a substitute for a person's name. (Often this means that
when there is a modifier, such as a possessive pronoun, in front of
such a word, we do not capitalize it.)
Let's go visit Grandmother today. Let's go visit
my grandmother today.
I remember Uncle Arthur. I remember my Uncle
Arthur. My uncle is unforgettable. This also means that we don't normally capitalize
the name of a "vocative" or term of endearment:
Can you get the paper for me, hon?
Drop the gun, sweetie. I didn't mean it.
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Diagramming Sentences - Sentence Parts and Patterns Every year on the afternoon of December 24, you, a Christmas procrastinator, loaded down with sacks and boxes, walk from store to store, down endless aisles, your eyes scanning windows and racks to find the perfect presents for Mom, Grandpa, and Uncle Joe, but since you know in your heart of hearts that Uncle Joe will appreciate nothing you give him and that you will capitulate to necessity and buy Grandpa a fifth of Seagram’s, you concentrate on Mom, as you move into the aisle that you hope to be able to call the final stop of this holiday season.
The basic bones of this sentence are the subject and verb of each main clause (you walk and you concentrate) along with the coordinating conjunction but
The words to, from, and on are prepositions. Prepositional phrases consist of prepositions and their objects; thus, from store, to store, and on Mom are prepositional phrases. These prepositional phrases are adverbial in nature because they modify verbs. On the other hand, the prepositional phrase in the sentence The man on the roof is your father is adjectival because it modifies the noun man.
The noun procrastinator is said to be in apposition with the pronoun you. An appositive, which is usually a noun, is placed in a sentence to further identify or explain another word or words. The indefinite article a and the noun Christmas, a noun used here as an adjective, modify procrastinator.
Check out the rest of the paragraph!
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