by Donna | Feb 24, 2011
In the sentences provided, highlight the main subjects.
Hint: The main subject is usually one of the first few words of a sentence!
1. Sickness is caused by different things.
2. Some animals carry sicknesses.
3. People can get sick from them.
4. Other diseases are in the air.
5. People breathe them in.
6. Then they get sick.
7. People would get sick less often if they would stay clean.
8. Children need to learn to wash their hands frequently.
- People can use anti-bacterial soap.
- We can “wash away germs.”
Answers tomorrow!
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 17, 2011
If you learn that a sentence contains five things—and you learn to recognize these things easily, you will learn to evaluate whether every sentence you write is a “real” sentence or not more easily.
Remember, CAVES is the acronym we will use to examine a sentence.
C apital
A ll makes sense
V erb
E nd mark
S ubject
The last letter of CAVES—subject—is what we will examine today. Each “simple sentence”—that is, each “real” sentence must contain a subject. We will call this the sentence’s main subject—because a sentence may contain other subjects in other parts, but a sentence must only contain one subject (the main subject) to be a real sentence.
Tomorrow we will learn the details of a sentence’s main subject—the S of CAVES—subject–each sentence must have a subject.
by Donna | Feb 14, 2011
Read the phrases below. Put an S beside the phrases that are
complete sentences and an N beside those that are not.
1. A raccoon is an intelligent animal. Sentence
2. He does not avoid danger. Sentence
3. That he will go right into it. Not a sentence
4. When a raccoon studies sounds, smells, and sights that are new to
him. Not a sentence
5. Like tin cans and mirrors. Not a sentence
6. One trap a trapper likes to set is called a mirror trap. Sentence
7. When he puts a trap in shallow water and ties a mirror to it. Not a sentence
8. When the light hits the mirror. Not a sentence
9. When the raccoon sees the light. Not a sentence
10. When he does, the raccoon’s paw becomes caught in the trap. Sentence
