English 1 Study Guide: Grammar
Correct punctuation of titles: poems and short stories go in quotation marks; novels get underlined when writing and italicized when typing
You must be able to identify the subject of a sentence.
Concrete and abstract nouns
Count and non-count nouns. Know when to use “few” v. “less,” “many v. much,” and “some” v. “any”
Nominative and objective case pronouns. In your notes.
Indefinite pronouns: singular, plural, and those that can be both. Memorize your singular indefinite pronouns so that you can recognize them easily. Do the same for the SANAM pronouns.
Possessive pronouns: my, ours, theirs, yours, his, hers, its, everyone’s
Direct objects: verb + what? or whom?
i.o. d.o.
Indirect objects: verb + to whom or for whom? George told Martha a secret.
Prepositional phrases. Just be able to recognize one. You don’t have to know at this point whether a prepositional phrase works as an adjective or adverb. You do need to be able to find the object of a preposition in a sentence. That’s part of the phrase. Fred fell into the lake. The object of the preposition “into” is lake.
Transitive and intransitive verbs: transitive takes a direct object and intransitive doesn’t.
Transitive takes an object.
Verb tense: be able to distinguish between present perfect and past perfect.
Irregular verbs (you have a list—it’s a handout at the website). Know the past participles on the list so you can use them correctly. For instance, have/had driven, have/had begun, have/had written, etc.
Linking verbs. Memorize them. It’s the only way to learn them. Once you identify the verb in a sentence as a potential linking verb, you must decide whether it is used as a linking verb in that sentence. If the word that follows the verb describes the subject, the verb is a linking verb. Plague is a terrible thing. “Thing” describes plague, so “is” is a linking verb.
You also have to know the term “subject complement.”
There are two types of subject complements: predicate nominative and predicate adjective.
Adjectives. They modify nouns and only nouns. They don’t modify anything else. Only nouns.
Adverbs. They modify verbs, adjectives, and other adverbs.
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You have notes on most of this. The exception may be concrete and abstract nouns. That’s pretty simple. The best way to review is to use your notes and go to the Purdue University Online Writing Lab. Everything we have covered is covered there. You will find clear explanations and practice exercises.
For example, if you go to the OWL home page and type in “count nouns,” you will get a link to a thorough explanation of the difference between “count” and “non-count” nouns.