by Donna | Feb 23, 2011
The main subject of a sentence is never in a prepositional phrase.
This is why we spent so much time on prepositions last month. If you can find prepositions, you can find prepositional phrases. If you find prepositional phrases, you can isolate them (mentally or with parentheses) and discover that the main subject is not in a prepositional phrase. This will help you determine subject verb agreement in your sentences more clearly.
For example:
1. Kara, (along with her sisters), is coming.
a. Kara is the subject and needs the verb is
b. Sisters is not the sentence’s subject.
2. Josiah and Jake, (though not Jonathan), are at basketball.
a. Josiah and Jake are the subjects of the sentence, not Jonathan.
b. Thus, Josiah and Jake need a plural verb—are.
In review, a sentence’s main subject has the following traits:
a. It is the person or thing that the sentence is about.
b. It usually comes at the beginning of the sentence.
c. It is usually a noun or a pronoun.
d. It is the source (person or thing) of the action.
e. It is never found in a prepositional phrase.
Better study up! Tomorrow is a pop quiz! Smile…
by Donna | Feb 22, 2011
A sentence’s main subject is usually one of the following:
a. A noun (person, place, thing, or idea)
b. A pronoun (a word that replaces a noun—he, she, it, they,
etc.)
A sentence can have one subject, two subjects, or even three or more
subjects.
a. One subject: Kayla is my first daughter.
b. Two subjects: Kayla and Cami are my first two daughters.
c. Three subjects: Kayla, Cami, and Kara are my daughters.
A sentence can have one subject at the beginning, and then later in the
sentence have another subject. However, most of your sentences will have
only one subject until you are at a more advanced level of writing.
Tomorrow—putting together the subject lessons and preposition lessons—a sentence’s main subject (and actually most other subjects in the sentence) are not usually found in prepositional phrases!
by Donna | Feb 22, 2011
Last “Presidents’ Day” post, honest! In discussing how to punctuate Presidents’ Day and when to capitalize and when not to capitalize president, I can’t help but bring up another commonly-miswritten error–that of capitol and capital.
Here is the low-down, along with a trick or two to help you remember the details:
1. Capital
a. Means upper-case letter–most people do not use this word incorrectly here
b. Can be used as an adjective to mean primary–that was a capital idea!
c. Can be used as an adjective to describe punishable by death–capital punishment
d. A city that is the seat of the government for a state–this is where people sometimes use capitol instead
2. Capitol
a. Refers to the building in which the U.S. Congress meets (when it is capitalized)
b. Refers to a state’s main government building (when it is not capitalized)
c. Tricky Trick to Help It Stick: Only use capitol when referring to a goverment building—capitol does not have any other uses; all other uses need capital
by Donna | Feb 22, 2011
With the introduction of Presidents’ Day last night, I decided that I couldn’t pass up this opportunity to discuss when to capitalize president, I mean President.
Generally speaking (as with all grammar rules, of course!), the word president is capitalized when referring to a specific president but not when it is referring to the office in general.
Capitalize:
1. The President will be in town next week.
2. President Lincoln spoke first.
Do not capitalize:
1. A president must be thirty-five years of age.
2. The presidents reside in the White House.
The “capitalize when referring to a specific president” guideline is true of the highest official of any land–King, President, Queen, etc. It is not, however, true for other offices, such as senator, mayor, etc.
by Donna | Feb 21, 2011
Tomorrow is Presidents’ Day. Or is that Presidents Day? Or President’s Day?
Well….it depends on which expert you ask! Here is the run down:
1. It is NOT President’s Day
a. President’s denotes one President…and this holiday honors Washington and Lincoln both…as well as all presidents
b. President’s Day says that it is the day that belongs to one President (singular)
c. It follows the rule of writing the noun first (President) then if the word does NOT end in s, put apostrophe s (President’s Day)
2. Some say it is Presidents’ Day
a. The Gregg Reference Manual (my favorite handbook) cites it as such
b. This denotes many presidents all owning one day (or at least Lincoln and Washington)
c. It follows the rule of writing the noun first (Presidents) then if the word ends in s, put an apostrophe on the outside of the s
d. This is the correct way to show possession of one thing to more than one “owner”
3. Some say it is Presidents Day
a. The Associated Press Stylebook cites is as such
b. This method does not denote possession, but rather uses the word President as an adjective (actually a “proper adjective” in that it is an adjective made from a proper noun–some of the time–we will not even get into whether it is (President) or isn’t (president) in this post!)
c. This is like saying that, that is a Grisham book (as opposed to a book that Grisham owns–Grisham’s book), and it is certainly not incorrect
So there you have it! More subjectivity in our English language. Happy Presidents’ Day! And Happy Presidents Day!
by Donna | Feb 18, 2011
The main subject is the word or words in the sentence that the entire
sentence is about.
Two facts about the main subject for today:
a. It is often found at the beginning of the sentence.
1) He turned his head.
2) The boy had heard something.
b. It is the person or thing that the whole sentence is
about.
1) The girl ran. Who ran? girl
2) The father prayed. Who prayed? Father
Tomorrow–compound subjects!
