by Donna | Apr 14, 2011
Moving on from National Poetry Month–though if someone would like to send poetry, I will still publish it until the end of April.
With Easter so close, I thought we would look at a tricky Wacky Word pair–rise and raise (followed by sit and set and lie and lay since you really should learn them together, if possible).
First, an overview:
Rise and sit have I’s–and lie does too.
“Coz these are things that I, all by myself, can do.
Raise, set, and lay are words that you choose
When each one has an object after it to use.
What does that mean? It means that I and rIse, I can sIt, and I can lIe without any object.
But I raise something; I set something; and I lay something….
More tomorrow…then one at a time. These are confusing ones, but with LL’s tips and tricks, you will be raising your head high, sitting with grammarians with confidence, laying your dictionary aside, rising up to the occasion, setting the stage for future success, and lying down at night, knowing that you understand lie, rise, and sit! 🙂
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 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 3, 2011
Find the action verbs (those that are infinitives—to plus a verb and those that are action verbs without to. Remember—a sentence can have many action verbs throughout it.
- Joshua and Jonathan drove to the church early, opened the doors, and began shooting hoops.
- Ray went to work early since he wanted to be home in time to go to basketball practice with Jacob that evening.
- Since the regular coach attended a meeting that day, Josiah coached the kids with enthusiasm.
- Kayla went to work right away, meeting people and helping where ever she was needed.
- Donna loved to write, edit, and teach.
- Kids tend to laugh loudly, play rough, and jump around when the weather starts dumping rain too many days in a row.
- She was going to cook the meal, clean the dining room, and pay bills, but her novel was calling her name.
- They did not want to be late arriving since they were about to perform a very important piece.
by Donna | Mar 3, 2011
Are you ready to see how good you are at finding action verbs? Time for another pop quiz!
Find the action verbs (those that are infinitives—to plus a verb and those that are action verbs without to. Remember—a sentence can have many action verbs throughout it.
- Joshua and Jonathan drove to the church early, opened the doors, and began shooting hoops.
- Ray went to work early since he wanted to be home in time to go to basketball practice with Jacob that evening.
- Since the regular coach attended a meeting that day, Josiah coached the kids with enthusiasm.
- Kayla went to work right away, meeting people and helping where ever she was needed.
- Donna loved to write, edit, and teach.
- Kids tend to laugh loudly, play rough, and jump around when the weather starts dumping rain too many days in a row.
- She was going to cook the meal, clean the dining room, and pay bills, but her novel was calling her name.
- They did not want to be late arriving since they were about to perform a very important piece.
