Crct Review Sheet

ELA 8th GRADE-2013-2014

CRCT REVIEW

GRAMMAR/SENTENCE CONSTRUCTION

Weighted 30% ON CRCT

1. Study for the CRCT by reviewing the Study Guide. Ask questions about anything you don't understand. We have open review time in class.

 Analyzing Sentences

Okay let’s start at the beginning with sentences. All sentences are made from using the eight parts of speech (nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, conjunctions, prepositions, interjections) To make a sentence you must have a minimum of a subject (noun or pronoun) and a predicate (verb).

The boy slept. This is a sentence-not a very meaningful one, but nevertheless a sentence by definition. No matter how complicated the sentence gets, you can always find the subject by asking what or whom the sentence is about. By the way this is a simple sentence-one subject and verb. The way I remember a simple sentence is that it has no conjunctions (and, but, because or + another phrase/clause after it) Mary and her mom slept through the night. This is still a simple sentence even though there is a compound subject. You can also have a simple sentence with a compound predicate (verb): Mom ironed and hung up the clothes.

Even though it was raining last night, I slept well. Who is the sentence about? I. What did I do? Slept. If you ask these two questions you can always figure out the subject and verb/predicate of a sentence. Notice that the complete subject has been underlined once and the complete predicate has not been underlined. It’s easy to remember how to do this, because every word before the subject is considered the complete subject and the verb and everything after it is the complete predicate. This, by the way, is an example of a complex sentence. One part of it can stand alone, if it is separated from the main part and the other cannot. I slept well is the part that would still be a sentence. Even though it was raining last night would be a sentence fragment or an incomplete thought.

I slept well last night and I enjoyed going to work the next day. Now I have made this into a compound sentence, because if I remove the conjunction and, both the phrases can stand alone as sentences.

Hey, what kind of sentence is this? I saw Rick last night and he said that you said that I was a fat slob I don’t appreciate you saying that about me so just stop it. It is a run on, because it just keeps running on and on without any punctuation. Remember punctuation tells the reader when one thought ends and another one begins. Could you fix it? Sure you could. I saw Rick last night and he said that you said that I was a fat slob! I don’t appreciate you saying this about me. So just stop it.

Sometimes those old tricky CRCT people will ask you to locate a subject of a sentence. Then they give you a sentence where they have inverted the subject and place it after the verb or they will put so many modifiers in front of the subject, that you mess up. For instance what is the subject of this sentence? Here is the car of my grandparents. (S=car) Do these clothes interest you? (S=clothes). Down the road, the fat, old woman traveled. (S=woman) Watch out for their tricks!

 Parts of Speech

Think of the parts of speech like parts of your body. Different parts of your body have different functions right? Well the eight parts of speech operate much the same way. Your head always functions like a head. I mean your arm could never be a head right? Well unfortunately parts of speech can function as other parts of speech depending on how they are used in a sentence. Are you ready to scream yet?

 Nouns are words that name people (mom), places (forest), things (desk) or ideas (liberty, freedom, happiness).

 Common nouns (nouns that name general things-school, canyon, city).

 Proper nouns (nouns that name specific things-Kennedy Road Middle School, Grand Canyon, Griffin) Did you notice that all proper nouns begin with capital letters? * This is particularly important that you remember this on the test because capitalization is one of the areas of emphasis!

 A collective noun names a group of people, animals or things (team, band, crowd, and congregation). Collective nouns are a little bit tricky because they can be followed by a singular or a plural verb depending on the meaning. You use the singular form of the verb if the members in the group act as a single unit. The team shares the field with its opponent.

You use the plural form of the verb if the members of the collective noun act separately. The team share their jokes with one another. (Yeah, I know, it still doesn’t sound correct.)*The only reason I mention this is because of that subject-verb agreement stuff that will be on the CRCT.

 Verbs tell what the subject of a sentence is doing. .

 Action verbs-verbs that express a physical action: lift, hit, swallow

 Linking verbs- verbs that do not express an action. They tell about a state of being: is, be, are, seems, was, looked, tasted, felt, appeared, became. Here are some examples. She became a fine lady. He is cute. The food tasted funny. But if I say: I tasted the food-guess what-tasted is now an action verb. (Boy do I hate all these rules and exceptions to the rules!)

 Helping verbs-are just that-they help out the main verb. (has, have, will) We have eaten here before. By the way have eaten is called a verb phrase (any time you have more than one verb, it’s called a phrase.

Often you will be asked to read a passage and locate the sentence with the error. What is wrong in this sentence? The boys is going to the park. (The subject is plural and needs the plural form of the verb is, which is are) Neither of the athletes (practices, practice) after dinner. The correct choice is practice. It seems like it would be just the opposite. The plural form of a word ends with an “s”, so why isn’t the correct verb choice the one that ends with an “s”? That’s our English language-maddening. Try a few more. (Has, Have) you seen that new movie with Denzel? (Have) The instructors (teaches, teach) the importance of friendship.

Verbs can have forms: present, past and past participle. Regular verbs are easy: Help (present), helped (past-just added –ed), have helped (past participle) Irregular verbs are tricky: begin (present), began (past), have begun (past participle) hit (present), hit (past-stayed the same), have hit (past participle) or swim (present) swam (past), have swum (past participle). I (play, played) on the field yesterday. Why is played the correct form? (Because you did the action in the past.) I (cut, cutted, have cutted) my finger yesterday. Cut is always the correct form, because it is one of those irregular fellows.

Verbs also have tenses. This shows the time of an action or the time of the state of being: present tense (play), past tense (played), future tense (shall play, will play).

 Pronouns are words that take the place of nouns.

 *Personal-I, she, it, you, we, they, me, us, him, her, them-- Could you use them correctly in a sentence? (He, Him) and I went to the movies. “He” is the correct choice because it is the nominative form of this personal pronoun. What about this sentence? He went with (I, me) to the store. “Me” is the right choice because it is the objective form of this personal pronoun.

 Possessive-his, her, our, their, your, its, whose, mine (notice that “its” has no apostrophe)

 Demonstrative-these, those, this, that

 Indefinite-anybody, some, everybody, each, all, somebody

Some of us are going to the pep rally. (indefinite) BUT I want some candy (some now becomes an adjective, because it tells how much). You see how tricky the parts of speech can be. It just depends on how they are being used in the sentence.

 Interrogative-who, what, whose, whom, which

Did you notice that whose can also a possessive pronoun? Again, the word’s function in the sentence determines its part of speech.

Whose is this? (interrogative pronoun)

Whose car is this? (possessive pronoun)

 Adjectives are words that describe or modify NOUNS or PRONOUNS.

 Can tell what kind-blue, silly, stupid, crazy

 Can tell how many-one, ten, some, each

 Each piece of candy was delicious. (adjective describing the noun, piece). Each of us went. (indefinite pronoun, which is the subject for this sentence)

 Can tell which one-this, that that, these, those-Wait a minute these can also be pronouns. You’re not crazy; it just depends on how they are being used. This book is mine. (adjective, because it describes which book) This is mine. (pronoun-functions as subject of sentence)

 Articles-the, a, an

 A Conjunction is a word that connects words or groups of words.

 Coordinating conjunctions- (just think about how you coordinate your clothing) connect things that are related. The most common ones are and, but, or

 *Correlative conjunctions-are conjunctions used in pairs. The most common ones are

 Either…ornot only…but alsoboth…and

 Neither…norwhether….or

 Both men and women can vote. (Oops both can also be an indefinite pronoun or an adjective. Take both pieces of candy-adjective because it tells how much candy. Both of us went. (pronoun because it functions like the subject.)

 Neither rain nor snow will stop the mailman.

 *Subordinating Conjunctions-conjunctions that join two sentences that express relationships of time or cause. The most common ones: because, after, before, unless, until, if

The Civil War began because the North and South had many differences in lifestyles. You can go to lunch, if you are finished with your work.

 An Interjection is a single word or short group of words that is used to express a feeling or an emotion. It is usually followed by an exclamation point “!”, but not always.

Let’s go! We can’t rest until we get there.

Whew! I am so tired.

Oh, look at that beautiful sky.

 Adverbs can describe or modify a verb, adjective, or another adverb.

 Can tell how-carefully, quickly, sadly, stupidly

 Can tell when-sometimes, once, now, finally

 Can tell where-inside, underground, above, here, there

 Can tell to what extent-fully, very, quite, extremely

Finally, the door opened slowly.

Both these adverbs (finally and slowly) make the meaning of the verb opened clearer.

Big, big, big hint-adverbs usually (but not always) end in –ly.

 A Preposition is a word that links another word or word group to the rest of the sentence. Most common: to, on, in, of, by, at, out, across between. There are tons of them. I went to the store across town. Prepositions usually have nouns or pronouns as objects.

 OBJECTS-Are always nouns or pronouns

• Objects of verbs are words that complete the meaning of a sentence. Justin saw Keith (direct object).

 Direct Objects-The word that receives the action of a verb is called the direct object of a verb. In the sentence above, Keith receives the action of saw; therefore it is the direct object. Did you know that direct objects are always nouns or pronouns?

 Indirect Objects-Some words tell to whom or for whom something is done. These words are indirect objects of the verb. Mrs. Sorensen gave me a good grade. Gave is the verb. What did I give? grade (direct object). To whom did I give it? me (indirect object). Watch out for tricks like this: Mrs. Sorensen gave a good grade to me. Gave is still the verb and grade is still the direct object; however, there is no longer an indirect object. There is now an object of the preposition to. Somebody help me!

 Object of the preposition-the noun or pronoun after the preposition is called the object of the preposition. One of the children got lost on the trip. The word children –is the object of the preposition of; trip is the object of the preposition on.

 Predicate Words-don’t get fooled by linking verbs! If you have a sentence like. Mike is nice. Nice is not a direct object, or an indirect object or an object of the preposition. It is simply described as a predicate word because it is in the predicate part of the sentence and links back to the subject. (It happens to be a predicate adjective! You can also have a predicate noun/nominative: Mike is the president of the class. President is another noun linking back to Mike.)

 ADEQUATE SENTENCE COMBINATION AND REVISION

A paper containing sentences of one short pattern bores both the writer and the reader for two reasons:

1. Repetition of a single, simple sentence pattern draws attention to itself, not to the ideas in the paper.
2. Simple, short sentences cannot show the reader the many relationships that exist among ideas of different importance.

If you read through a paper you've written and notice that you've written sentences in a single, short pattern, ask yourself the following questions. Your answers can help you revise the sentences to express your ideas more clearly and to add variety to your paper.

• Do adjacent sentences contain the same subject and/or the same verb?

If so, you can combine two or more short, simple sentences in a single, concise sentence.

• Join the sentences by omitting a repeated subject.

• Join the sentences by omitting repeated subjects and verbs and by using adjectives.

• Join the sentences by omitting repeated subjects and verbs and by using adverbs.

 DETERMINING THE APPROPRIATE USE OF PUNCTUATION:

• Colon (:). A colon is a punctuation mark. It is used to introduce a list and to separate the hour and minutes when you write the time of day. It is also used after the salutation in a business letter. Examples: 3:10/ Dear Sir: / You need to take: slippers, a change of clothes, toothbrush, and tooth paste.
• Quotation marks (“”) are punctuation marks used to enclose the exact words of a speaker. They can also be used for certain titles (short stories, poems, songs, articles, single TV shows). “A spider,” said John “has eight legs.” (Notice that the quote was split up and that when I continued with what John said, I didn’t capitalize has. Have you read the story, “To Build a Fire”? (This makes me crazy-Place a question mark outside the closing quotation mark if it’s just part of the sentence, but not part of the quotation.)
• Apostrophe (‘) is a punctuation mark used in possessive nouns, possessive indefinite pronouns, and contractions. In contractions an apostrophe shows that one or more letters have been left out. Examples: Melanie’s friends don’t always understand her. Mickey is asking for everyone’s help.

• Comma (,) is a punctuation mark that’s used to set separate items or to set them off from the rest of a sentence. Examples: Shoes, socks, hats, and gloves lay in the bottom of the closet. Tessa’s great-grandmother, who is ninety, loves to travel. (Did you remember that “who is ninety” is an appositive that is not necessary and that is why it is set off?

 Commas can also be used to set off an introductory word like: Yes, I will eat with you this evening.

 Commas can also be used before a coordinating conjunction. Jemarcus opened the door, and the dog ran out.

 They can also be used to set off an adverb clause at the beginning of a sentence. Whenever I feel afraid, I sing a happy song.

 In a date, set off the year when it is used with both the month and the day. Don’t use a comma if only the month and the year are given. Example: The ship struck an iceberg on April 14, 1912, and sank early the next morning. The ship sank in April 1912 on its first voyage.

 Use a comma to set off the name of a state or a country when it’s used after the name of a city. I live in Griffin, Georgia.

 Use a comma after salutation of a friendly letter and at the closing of a friendly or business letter. Dear Jack, or Yours truly,

• Semi-colon (;) Use a semicolon to join the main clause of a compound sentence if they are not joined by a conjunction such as and, but, or, nor, or for. Aja went to town; she bought some new tennis shoes. Use a semicolon to separate main clauses joined by a conjunctive adverb such as consequently, furthermore, however, moreover, nevertheless, or therefore. I started my homework immediately after school; consequently, my mother let me stay up late.

 CAPITALIZATION