English: Unit 5

Lesson 1: Interjections

An interjection is a word or a group of words that expresses feeling or represents a sound.

Ah / Goodness / Oh dear / Ow / Uh oh
Aha / Hey / Oh my / Phew / Well
Bam / Hooray / Oh yes/no / Pow / Whee
Bravo / Hurrah / Okay / Shh / Whoops
Good grief / Oh / Ouch / Ugh / Wow

Use an exclamatory point after an interjection that expresses strong feeling.

Wow! That was a great play!

Shh! I can’t hear.

Use a comma after an interjection that expresses mild feeling.

Whoops, I dropped my book.

Oh, I forgot my lines.

An interjection may represent a sound.

Bam! That was a loud noise.

Lesson 2: Sentences and Interjections

·  Begin every sentence with a capital letter.

·  Use a period at the end of declarative and imperative sentences.

·  Use a question mark at the end of exclamatory sentences.

·  Use an exclamation point at the end of exclamatory sentences and after an interjection expressing strong feeling.

·  Use a comma after an interjection expressing milder feeling.

Declarative: I read a book.

Interrogative: Did you read it?

Imperative: Read it.

Exclamatory: It’s great!

Lesson 3: Proper Nouns and Adjectives

·  A proper noun begins with a capital letter.

·  You can form proper adjectives from proper nouns.

·  Capitalize proper adjectives

Geographical Names and Proper Adjectives

1.  Capitalize cities, states, countries, and continents

2.  Capitalize bodies of water and geographical features.

3.  Capitalize the names of areas. Do not capitalize directions.

4.  Capitalize streets and highways.

5.  Capitalize buildings, bridges, and monuments.

Proper Nouns / Proper Adjectives
Mexico / Mexican art
North America / North American birds
Paris / Parisian fashion
Jefferson / Jeffersonian democracy

Titles, Organizations, Dates, and Subjects

  1. Capitalize titles for people. Do not capitalize titles if they are used alone as common nouns.
  2. Capitalize organizations, institutions, and businesses
  3. Capitalize languages and specific school subjects followed by a number. Do not capitalize general school subjects.
  4. Capitalize history events, periods of time, and documents.
  5. Capitalize days, months, and holidays, but not seasons.

Lesson 4: Uses for Commas

·  Use a comma to separate items in a series. A series is three or more related words, phrases, and clauses.

  1. He photographed cities, people, and cars.

·  Use a comma between 2 or more adjectives that come before a noun. Do not use a comma if they express a single idea.

  1. Leon photographed the old, rusty car.
  2. She used expensive French perfume.

·  Use a comma to separate the simple sentence in a compound sentence.

  1. We wanted a picture of a sunrise, but it rained that day.

Lesson 5: More Uses for Commas

·  Use commas after words, phases, and clauses that come at the beginning of sentences.

o  Oh, I need a sharper pencil.

o  During the long meeting, he fell asleep.

o  While I waited, I made some phone calls.

·  Use commas to separate interrupters, nouns of direct address, and unnecessary appositives in a sentence.

o  John, I will need your help.

o  Staple these pages together, James.

Lesson 6: Dates, Addresses, and Letters

·  Use a comma to separate the month and the day from the year.

o  July 4, 1776.

·  Use a comma between the city and the state. Use a comma after the state if the address is within the sentence. Use a comma to separate each item except the Zip Code.

o  Woodland Hills, CA 91356

·  Use a comma after the greeting in friendly letters and after the closing in both friendly and business letters.

o  Dear Grandma,

o  Your friend,

Lesson 7: Quotation Marks

·  Use quotation marks to set off direct quotations from the rest of the sentence.

o  “Please open your books now,” said Mr. Emory.

·  Use quotation marks around the titles of short stories, poems, book chapters, magazine articles, and songs

·  Capitalize all-important words in a title. Do not capitalize any unimportant word such as as, the, a, and , of, or to unless it is the first or last word in the title.

Lesson 8: Titles of Long Works

·  Underline the titles of major works such as books, magazines, newspapers, plays, movies, paintings, and long musical works to represent italics.

Lesson 9: colons and Semicolons

·  Use a colon after a greeting in a business letter, between the hour and the minute in time, and before a list.

·  Use a semicolon to connect independent clauses that are closely related in thought or that have commas within them.

Lesson 10: Abbreviations and Numbers

Names / Mr.- Mister, Mrs.- married woman, Ms.- Any woman, Dr.- Doctor, Sr.- Senior, Jr.- Junior, James K. Polk- Knox, Gen.- General
Addresses / St.- Street, P.O.- Post Office, Rd.- Road, H.S.- High School, Ave.- Avenue, Apt. – Apartment
Businesses / Co.- Company, Inc.- Incorporated, Corp.- Corporation, Ltd.- Limited
Organizations / NATO- North American Treaty Organization, SBA- Small Business Administration
State Names / ME- Main, Il- Illinois
Days / Mon.- Monday, Thurs.- Thursday
Months / Jan.- January, Aug.- August
Units of measure / Mph- miles per hour, hp-horsepower, l-liter, in.- inches
Time / A.M.- midnight to noon, P.M.- noon to midnight

·  Most abbreviations begin with a capital litter and end with a period.

·  Spell out numbers under one hundred and numbers at the beginning of a sentence. Use numbers over one hundred and for sections or lines of writing.

Lesson 11: Apostrophes

·  Add an apostrophe and s to singular nouns and to plural nouns not ending in s to show possession. Add an apostrophe to plural nouns ending in s to show possession.

o  Mrs. Ross’s class.

o  girl’s dress

o  girls’ dresses

o  Johnsons’

o  children’s

·  Add an apostrophe and s to form the plural of letters, numerals, symbols, and words used as the names of words. Use an apostrophe in contractions to replace missing letters.

o  i’s

o  p’s

o  7’s

o  *’s

o  #’s

Lesson 12: Hyphens, Dashes, and Parentheses

·  Use a hyphen to divide a word at the end of a line, to join the parts of compound numbers, and to join two or more words that work together as one adjective before a noun. -

·  Use dashes to show a sudden change of thought. —

·  Use parentheses to enclose unnecessary information. ( )