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Grammar Made Easy
—Part Two—
Sentence Types: Building Blocks for Sentence Types
Concept One- Five Different Types of Phrases
Review the prepositional phrase with students. Ask students, “what does a prepositional phrase not have?” Prepositional phrases do not have a subject and/or verb pair. Prepositional phrases are the same as any phrase, and a phrase by definition does not contain a subject and/or verb pair.
Five Different Phrase Types
- Prepositional Phrase See Grammar Made Easy Part I
- Appositive Phrase
- Infinitive Phrase
- Gerund Phrase
- Participial Phrase (Participle)
*Note: Other phrases may not fit these five types. A group of words without a subject-verb pair, not satisfying any of the above criteria can be considered a “generic” phrase.
Concept Two- Appositives and Appositive Phrases
Appositive:(Not part of a phrase) My sister Sylvia has a pet salamander.
Appositive Phrase: My brother, the one eating the meal, teaches history.
An appositive phrase contains an appositive noun that provides information about the preceding noun. They do not begin with a definite type of word like the other phrases (prepositions, infinitives, participles, and gerunds). Appositive phrases are useful in sentence combining. It allows the writer to take two simple sentences, eliminate weak verbs, and bury information from one sentence inside the other. Most appositive phrases are set off by commas at the beginning and at the end of the phrase:
John is a carpenter during the day. John spends his evenings recuperating.
John, a carpenter during the day, spends his evenings recuperating.
However, an appositive should not be set off by commas if the information is deemed essential:
My sister lives in Columbus, Ohio. Jenny is a doctor.
My sister Jenny, a doctor, lives in Columbus, Ohio.**
**Jenny is an appositive noun, considered essential to identify which sister, so it is not set off by commas. A doctor, on the other hand, is not essential information, and is set of by commas.
Concept Three- Verbal Phrases
Participles, Gerunds, and Infinitives are called verbal phrases because they contain words that look like verbs but are not being used as verbs in a sentence.
Concept Four: Infinitives and Infinitive Phrases
Infinitives: to eat, to sleep, to dream, to ponder
Infinitive Phrases: to eat the meal, to sleep all night, to dream the impossible dream, to ponder life’s magnificence
Infinitive phrase begins with to + a word that looks like a verb:
She would like to be a doctor.
Don’t confuse infinitives with prepositions. Some prepositional phrases begin with to, but they end with an object of a preposition (noun/pronoun) and not a word that looks like a verb:
She went to her house.
Unlike prepositions, infinitives can be used as a singular infinitive and not as part of a phrase:
She would like to be.
Concept Five: Gerunds and Gerund Phrases
Gerund Phrases: eating the meal, sleeping all night, dreaming the impossible dream, pondering life’s magnificence
Gerund phrases begin with a word that looks like a verb and ends in –ing. Gerund phrases act as a noun in a sentence. Treat them as if they are one word. They can act as subjects, direct objects, objects of a preposition, predicate nouns, and appositives. Gerunds, like infinitives, can appear as a single word and not part of a phrase:
I love splashing. Direct Object
Splashing in the pool was challenging. Subject
Harry heard splashing in the pool. Direct Object
By splashing in the pool, I cooled myself off. Object of a Preposition
My favorite activity is splashing in the pool. Predicate Noun
My favorite activity, splashing in the pool, makes me feel refreshed. Appositive
One challenge in identifying gerunds is being able to determine whether the –ing word is being used an action verb or a predicate noun:
My favorite activity is splashing in the pool. Activity is the subject. Splashing in the pool equals the subject which makes it a predicate noun, and is is the linking verb.
Another test is to make sure the subject can actually perform the action of a verb. The subject activity cannot perform the action of splashing.
John is splashing in the pool. In this case, splashing is an action verb because the subject John is performing that action.
Concept Six: Participles and Participial Phrases
Participle Phrases: eating the meal, sleeping all night, dreaming the impossible dream, pondering life’s magnificence.
Participle phrases look just like gerunds, but they function as adjectives and not nouns. Participle phrases begin with words that look like verbs ending in –ing and –ed, or with irregular past tense forms of verbs as in eaten by the bear. Most participle phrases will be separated from the sentence by commas (gerunds are never separated by commas because they are gerunds although commas might be present for other reasons). Participle phrases may appear at the beginning, in the middle, or at the end of a sentence:
Blinded by the light, I lost my bearings. Adjective modifying I.
Splashing in the pool, Sue got her hair wet. Adjective modifying Sue.
The young man, sauntering down the street, is my brother. Adjective modifying man
I went to the meeting, expecting the worst. Adjective modifying I
Students must be able to identify the noun or pronoun modified by the participle. The noun being modified should precede or follow the participle phrase.
Concept Seven: Dependent and Independent Clauses
Clauses: while Sally was eating, although she slept all night, he dreamt the impossible dream, she was pondering life’s magnificence
All clauses contain a subject/verb pair.
Dependent Clauses: Contain a subject/verb pair, but you cannot put end punctuation on it. All phrases and dependent clauses are sentence fragments when alone. Many dependent clauses begin with subordinate conjunctions, such as: after, although, as, because, before, even, even though, in order that, if, how, just as, once, rather than, since, so that, than, unless, until, when, whenever, while.
When a writer creates dependent clauses, they are making those ideas secondary to the primary ideas in the independent clause.
Because I ran a mile…
After I ate the meal…
…which made me sick.
…who won the race.
…that I know about.
*Note: A subordinate clause is a type of a dependent clause that begins with a subordinate conjunction.
Independent Clauses: Set of words that have a subject/verb pair that you can put end punctuation (period). An independent clause is the same as a simple sentence.
I am.
Run.
He fell down the stairs.
The garbage man picked up the garbage.
Concept Eight: Sentence Types (simple, complex, compound, and complex-compound)
All sentences must have at least one independent clause.
Simple Sentence: Equals one independent clause (IC).
She is funny.
Complex Sentence: Equals one dependent (DC) plus one independent clause (IC). Complex sentences can be arranged in three different structures:
DC, (comma required) + IC
After I awakened, I rode my bike to school
IC + DC
I rode my bike to school after I awakened.
I + DC + C
**Note: If it is non-essential information, the DC does not need to be set off by commas.
I, after I awakened, rode my bike to school.
Compound Sentence: Two independent clauses connected by a comma followed by the coordinateconjunctions (FANBOYS): for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so.
You can create compound sentences in eight different ways. Seven of those ways are using two independent clauses with a comma and a FANBOY.
She is an immigrant, and she is learning English.
The eighth is connecting two independent clauses with a semi-colon.
She is an immigrant; she is learning English.
A run-on sentence is two independent clauses not connected correctly (using one of the eight methods above). A run-on has nothing to do with content. It is a structural mistake. Also, while complex sentences subordinate one idea to another (which means one idea is more important than the other), compound sentences coordinate ideas (which means they are equal in value).
Compound-Complex Sentences: Are made up of two independent clauses connected by a semicolon or a comma and a FANBOYplus one or more dependent clauses.
After she walked into the door, she bounced off the knob, and she landed on the pillow.
Concept Nine: Jigsaw Activity
In the Jigsaw Activity, students construct the four sentence types using different kinds of phrases, dependent clauses, and independent clauses. Instead of writing their own phrases and clauses, they will use pre-prepared, color-coated, sentence building blocks (phrases, dependent clauses, independent clause) to generate as many different kinds of sentences as possible.
Prepare color-coated word-strips that represent the different kinds of phrases and clauses. Each type of phrase has it’s own color and each type of clause has it’s own color. Also prepare color-coated FANBOYS word strips as well as punctuation marks. You can use the following template to get you started:
Note: You can make this activity as challenging as you like by incorporating more and more of the different phrases, but in terms of teaching sentence structure, phrases don’t affect the overall sentence type in any way, they merely modify sentence meaning but not the sentence type.
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Coordinate Conjunctions & Semi-Colon- Yellow
, for
, and
, nor
, but
, or
, yet
, so
;
Independent Clauses- White
> the sun sent it’s brilliant rays
> colorful leaves moved slowly
> the majestic scene was filled
> he talked for fifty minutes
> he reminded me
> I fell
> I was embarrassed
> high seed boats were invented
> I paddled to school
> Joann left the scene
> she tried
> we were tired
> we felt exhilarated
> the squid eyeball soup is thick
> you can stab it
> shovel it
> I added your marshmallows
> Rocky ignored his servings
> I got a spoon and ate it
> Joe studied calculus
> he can now set his math book
> we decorated the top
> we hoped it would scare her
> she just ate the whole thing
> the small houses are all the same size and style
Dependent Clauses- Blue
> after the sun sent its brilliant rays
> as colorful leaves moved slowly
> because the majestic scene was filled
> while he talked
> when he reminded me
> just as I fell <
> even though I was embarrassed
> unless high speed boats were invented
> once I paddled
> although Joann left the scene
> because she tried
> since we were tired
> when we felt exhilarated
> whenever the squid eyeball soup is thick
> while you can stab it
> before you shovel it
> as I added your marshmallows
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> if Rocky ignored his servings
> unless I got a spoon and ate it
> once Joe studied calculus
> since he can now set his math book
> sincewe decorated the top
> Althoughwe hoped
> because it would scare her
> although she just ate the whole thing
> because the small houses are all the same size and style
Prepositional Phrases- Pink
> to the earth <
> in the wind <
> with beauty <
> before the show <
> of the boring science teacher <
> from Wonder Years <
> down the stairs <
> in my rowboat <
> of the accident <
> after the collision <
> after our long hiking trip <
> with a fork <
> with a spoon <
> to the ice cream recipe <
> for seven hours <
> at Tacobell <
> on fire <
> with his salsa breath <
> of Kristy’s cupcake <
> with a dead grasshopper
> in my neighborhood <
> with no difference <
> except color <
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Finally, after students have practiced working with these phrases and clauses, provide students with similar colored blank strips where they write their own independent & dependent clauses and phrases on each corresponding strips.
Concept Ten: Sentence Combining
Knowing the different sentence building blocks, especially phrases, enables a writer to increase sentence variety by combining simple structure sentences into higher-level sentences, the goal of applied grammar. Knowing the structures allows students to control their writing.