English Language Arts Study Guide

Subjects and Predicates –

  • Subject is who or what the sentence is about (a noun)
  • Predicate is what the subject does or is; the action of the sentence (a verb)
  • Simple subject is the main word or name that tells exactly who or what it’s about
  • Simple predicate is the main word that tells exactly what the subject does

Ex –A fluffy white cloud drifted across the sky.

A fluffy white cloud drifted across the sky. complete subject

A fluffy white cloud drifted across the sky. simple subject

A fluffy white cloud drifted across the sky. complete predicate

A fluffy white cloud drifted across the sky. simple predicate

Parts of Speech –

  • Noun: a person, place or thing
  • common noun: a noun that names ANY person, place, or thing – are NOT capitalized
  • proper noun: a noun that names a SPECIFIC person, place, or thing – are ALWAYS capitalized
  • Ex – Their trips to Florida are always exciting! (trips is common, Florida is proper)
  • Verb: an action word
  • helping verbs: verbs that come before the main verb in order to make sense
  • Ex – She was racing in a wheelchair race. (was is the helping verb, racing is the main)
  • common helping verbs – am, is, was, are, were, will, has, have, had
  • Verb Tenses: past (already happened), present (happening now), future (will happen)
  • Adjective: a word describing a noun; tells how many or what kind
  • Ex of how many – two dogs, many cats, several men
  • Ex of what kind – large dog, curly coat, friendly man, black spotted cow
  • Adverb: a word describing a verb; tells how, when, or where
  • Ex of how – Maggie typed the letter carefully. Typed how? carefully
  • Ex of when – Yesterday I sealed the deal. Sealed when?yesterday
  • Ex of where – All the kids played upstairs. Played where? upstairs
  • HowWhenWhere

angrilyalwaysdowntown

fastfinallyinside

loudlyoftenoff

Contractions –

  • Contractions: joining 2 words to make a shortened word by adding an apostrophe in place of letters left out
  • Ex – is not = isn’t; are not = aren’t; was not = wasn’t; do not = don’t; I am = I’m; she is = she’s

Homophones –

  • Homophones: words that sound alike but are spelled differently
  • Ex – their, they’re, there; to, two, too; hour, our; for, four

Spelling Rules –

  • Plural nouns:
  • most nouns just add ‘s’ to the end of the word – Ex - goat, goats; hen, hens
  • add ‘es’ to noun that ends with s, x, ch, or sh – Ex- bus, buses; peach, peaches; box, boxes; wish, wishes
  • if the noun ends with a vowel and y, add ‘s’ – Ex – toy, toys; monkey, monkeys
  • if the noun ends with a consonant and y, change y to i and add ‘es’ – Ex – family, families; baby, babies; city, cities
  • some irregular nouns have special plural forms – Ex – child, children; foot, feet; ox, oxen; mouse, mice; goose, geese

Kinds of Sentences –

  • Declarative: makes a statement; REMEMBER it states a fact like the Declaration of Independence (ends with a period)
  • Ex – The airport was crowded.
  • Interrogative: asks a question – REMEMBER to think about an interrogation and how police asks a lot of questions (ends with a question mark)
  • Ex – Have you fastened your seat belt?
  • Imperative: gives a command – REMEMBER even if it’s in a nice way and has “please” on the front (ends with a period typically)
  • Ex – Please answer all questions carefully.OR Ex – Board the plane.
  • Exclamatory: shows extreme emotion – excitement or anger – (ends with an exclamation point)
  • Ex –This is such an exciting city!

Simple and Compound Sentences –

  • Simple sentences have one subject and one verb/predicate.
  • Zoe went to New York City.
  • Compound sentences can have more than one and more than one verb/predicate.
  • Zoe went to New York City. She visited the Statue of Liberty. BOTH are simple sentences
  • Zoe went to New York City and visited the Stature of Liberty. compound sentence with 2 predicates/verbs
  • Alex loves chocolate ice cream. John loves chocolate ice cream. BOTH are simple sentences
  • Alex and John love chocolate ice cream. compound sentence with 2 subjects

Conjunctions –

  • Conjunctions: words that are used to combine simple sentences in order to make compound sentences
  • Ex – and, but, or
  • Sally went to the store. Marcy went to the store. Sally and Marcy went to the store.
  • I know the notes. I cannot play any songs yet. I know the notes but I cannot play any songs yet.
  • Were you there? Did you see it on TV? Were you there or did you see it on TV?

Antonym – words that are opposite – Ex – clean and dirty; mean and friendly

Synonym – words that mean about the same – Ex – large, big; close, near