by Donna | Mar 12, 2011
Beside each of the phrases provided, write an I if each is an infinitive; write PP if it is a prepositional phrase.
1. to go
2. to sing
3. to the government
4. to a boy
5. to walk
6. to be
7. to see
8. to France
9. to John Adams
10. to crush
11. to believe
12. to his belief
13. to write
14. to the sun
15. to confess
by Donna | Mar 11, 2011
Infinitives continued…
- They are easily confused with prepositional phrases containing the preposition to. If students learn early on when to is being used as part of an infinitive (when it is with any verb) and when it is used as a prepositional phrase (when it has an object following it), they will become better writers (for many reasons we will discuss later).
- Infinitive: He wanted to run.
- Prepositional phrases: They went to town.
3.
Infinitives are easy to recognize
because they always are to + verb.
Examples:
a. to think
b. to be
c. to show
3. To can also be a preposition (a word
that shows position). To know if the to is an infinitive or a preposition,
follow these rules:
a. Look at the word following the to.
b. If the word following to is a verb, you know
it is an infinitive. For
example: to know
c. If the word following the to is anything else
(noun, pronoun, adjective, etc.), it is a prepositional phrase. For
example: to the house
4. Any verb can be an infinitive. It just has
to have a to in front of it.
5. The to is part of the infinitive. For
example: in the case of to see, the complete verb is to see, not just see.
Tomorrow: Infinitive “pop” quiz…can you tell the difference between an infinitive and a preposition with to? J
by Donna | Mar 10, 2011
Want to share a super source for those helping kids with homework, reading a difficult book, teaching…well, really, anybody. It is Merrriam Webster’s Online Dictionary.
Some of the features we like:
1. Type in any word–it finishes them for you (for those who say, “I can’t use a dictionary if I don’t know how to spell the word to begin with”!)
2. Type in any word and get the definition
3. Type in any word and click “thesaurus” to get synonyms and even some antonyms
4. Click on the speaker and listen to someone say the word–we do this every week before we give spelling tests to ensure that we are pronouncing harder words correctly for our students
5. Links at the bottom of the dictionary page for each word with more sites, etymologies, and much more!
Trust me…you will love Merriam Webster Online!
https://www.merriam-webster.com/
by Donna | Mar 9, 2011
Earlier I said that we teach two main categories of verbs—action and Be a Helper, Link verbs (BHL verbs).
There is another “category” of verbs that you should learn, however. That is the group of verbs (also used as other parts of speech) known as the infinitive.
We teach infinitives as verbs (and early on) for a couple of reasons:
- While they might act like other parts of speech (i.e. modifying, being the sentence’s main subject, etc.) at times, more often than not, they act like verbs.
- They can describe what a subject is doing: The girl decided to write the letter.
- They can have BHL verbs with them: She had to take her medicine.
- They can have adverbs with them (when they are comprised of action verbs): She wanted to write beautifully.
- They can have direct objects with them (when they are comprised of action verbs): The girl wanted to eat chocolates.
- They can have predicate adjectives with them (when they are comprised of BHL verbs): She wanted to be careful.
They can have predicate nominatives with them (when they are comprised of BHL verbs): She wanted to be an actress.
Tomorrow—more on infinitives.
by Donna | Mar 8, 2011
You have been learning the characteristics of a subject and a verb. There are unique subjects, however, as well as unique verbs.
You have already learned that the sentence’s main subject has the following characteristics:
- It is usually in the first part of the
sentence (the subject part of the sentence as opposed to the predicate part).
- It is usually a noun or pronoun.
- It is the word that the whole sentence is about.
- It is the word that tells who or what did the verb.
However, what do you do if a sentence does not appear to contain a subject?
For example, what is the subject in this “sentence”:
Learn your subjects well.
In the sentence that you examined above, it looks like there is no subject!
In this sentence, the subject is you! The sentence is really saying You learn your subjects well.
Sometimes sentences that are direct commands or parts of conversations do not have a subject written down, but the writer intends for the subject to be an understood you.
This is called the understood subject.
Sentences with understood subjects have the following characteristics:
1. They do not have the subject
written. Examples:
1) Do not forget to write to Grandma.
a) Who should not forget?
b) You
2) Try to be a light in your home.
a) Who should try to be a light?
b) You!
2. They are often commands of some type. For
example: Get off the furniture!
3. They usually begin with the verb of the
sentence: Water the plants.
4. Sometimes they can begin with adverbs:
Carefully water the plants.
by Donna | Mar 7, 2011
What “language mishaps” have driven you crazy lately? Mine is how everybody puts up signs that say “Sorry for the inconvenience” without checking how inconvenience is spelled! Agghh…..surely it isn’t that much of an “inconvenience” to look it up! 🙂
Others? Signs that have the following errors are recent ones:
1. It’s when the person means its
2. “There going fast” instead of They’re (say it uncontracted—they are…and you will know if you have the correct one!)
3. No mark between phrases to show that a phrase ended and another one started—
Great Sale on
Tires Get Your
Oil Changed Today
Even this is better:
Great Sale on
Tires—Get Your
Oil Changed Today
Enough complaining for tonight! Have a happily-correct grammar week!
