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 | 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 9, 2011
You are probably starting to notice that even a rudimentary knowledge of prepositions can unlock many more prepositions for you. I hope, that in the various studies we will do on LL 365, that you do not lose sight of the purpose of each one. Follow the links below to review prepositions—and join us tomorrow as we start our “sentence month”—and focus on fragments, sentences, clauses, and more!
by Donna | Feb 8, 2011
We have already learned prepositions that are antonyms (opposite). Now for our last day of preposition work, we will learn prepositions that are synonyms (meaning the same or almost the same).
First a little mnemonic for antonyms and opposites!
Antonyms—Opposite (both begin with vowel sounds—ant—opp)
Synonyms—Same (both begin with S—syn—same)
When you consider that prepositions show position, it makes sense that if you know one preposition that means a certain direction (i.e. over), then other words that mean the same thing may also be prepositions (above, on top of, etc.).
Consider these prepositions that might be considered synonyms—if you know one from each list, you are likely to be able to think of the others:
1. aboard
a. on
b. atop
c. atop of
d. astride
2. about
- amid
- amidst
- among
- amongst
- around
- by
- near
- next to
- round
- above
- atop
- atop of
- on
- on top of
- over
- up
- upon
- Against
- anti
- barring
- despite
- in spite of
- opposite of
- Ahead
- ahead of
- before
- in front
- in front of
- Along
- about
- alongside
- alongside of
- Along with
- Amid
- Amidst
- Among
- Amongst
- At
- Beside
- Besides
- Round
- Close
- Close to
- By means of
- Near to
- Next to
- amid/amidst
- about
- against
- among
- amongst
- around
- at
- beside
- beside of
- by
- next to
- round
- through
- throughout
- anti
- across from
- against
- barring
- opposite
- opposite of
- versus
- around
- about
- amid
- amidst
- among
- amongst
- aside
- aside of
- circa
- aside
- along
- alongside
- alongside
- aside of
- beside
- beside of
- by
- next
- next to
- close to
- near to
- astride
- a. atop
- atop of
- on
- on top of
- over
- up
- upon
- at
- beside
- beside of
- by
- toward
- close to
- barring
- anti
- opposite
- opposite of
- outside
- outside of
- due to
- except for
- save
- before
- ahead
- ahead of
- in front of
- behind
- beyond
- following
- in back
- in back of
The purpose behind the “synonym prepositions” is two-fold: (1) help students realize that if a word is a preposition (and they know that one), then more than likely other words that mean the same thing and fit in the same space are probably prepositions as well; (2) to help students think of even more prepositions—that they might not realize they know. Again, if a student learns to recognize prepositions well, he will recognize prepositional phrases well and will be able to isolate them (mentally, at least) in his sentences to achieve correct subject-verb agreement. (Also, it will help in using prepositional phrase openers in sentences and punctuating them correctly.)
