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GRAMMAR SUMMARY

BOOK 1

Unit One Chapter One: The Sentence

A sentence always has a subject and a verb. Many sentences also have an object.

Basic Sentence Order

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Subject Verb Object
William shot the arrow.

Capitalization Rules

Rules Examples
Capitalize the first word in a sentence. He ran home.
Capitalize the pronoun I. I like oatmeal.
Capitalize all proper nouns. John Smith lives there.
Boston is cold in the winter.
We leave on Saturday.

Chapter Two: Objects and Complements


Definitions Examples
Objects can be nouns, pronouns, or noun I eat big meals.
phrases. They are produced by the action He saw her yesterday.
of the subject and verb. I threw away the old, broken
television.
Complements can be nouns, noun phrases, The boy looked sick.
or adjectives. They follow linking verbs such I am a trained engineer.
as be, become, look, appear, seem, and feel. Watching too much
television is bad for you.

Punctuation
Begin sentences with a capital letter and end them with a period (.), an excla-
mation point (!), or a question mark (?).

Capitalization Rules

Rules Examples
Capitalize the names of nationalities, Japanese, American, Hungarian,
races, languages, and religions. Muslim, Christian, Chinese
Capitalize the names of special days. New Years Day, Easter, Halloween,
Hanukkah
Unit Two

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Unit Two Chapter Three: Adjectives
Definition Examples
An adjective is a word that describes Sam bought a used car.
a noun. It usually answers the question The girl had a red balloon.
What kind? The little dog bites.

Adjectives are the same with both singular and plural nouns.
Dad makes great sandwiches.
We saw huge buildings.

Adjectives come before nouns.


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I love a cold drink on a hot day.

Adjectives can also come after the verb to be.


The drink is cold.

Chapter Four: The Comparative Form of Adjectives


Rules for Forming the Comparative Examples
In most cases, add -er to the adjective fast, faster
and put than after the adjective. green, greener
If the adjective ends in one consonant and sad, sadder
there is one vowel before it, double the fat, fatter
consonant. red, redder
If the adjective ends in y, change y to i happy, happier
and add -er. Then put than after it. easy, easier
When the adjective has two syllables or Los Angeles is more polluted
more and does not end in -y, put more than San Francisco.
in front of the adjective and than after it. That house is more expensive
than yours.

Unit Three Chapter Five: Using when


Rule Examples
Use when to show two things happening Amanda drinks tea when she has
at the same time. A comma follows the a cold.
first clause in a sentence when it begins When she has a cold, Amanda
with when. drinks tea.

Chapter Six: Adverbs


Definition Examples
An adverb modifies or tells you something He eats quickly.
about a verb. It answers the question Snow is falling slowly.
How? and usually follows the verb. The police officer is shouting
loudly.

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To form an adverb, we usually add -ly to an adjective.

Adjectives Adverbs
serious seriously
shy shyly
nervous nervously
bad badly

Unit Four Chapter Seven: Count and Noncount Nouns


Count nouns name things that can be counted. Noncount nouns name things
that cannot be counted.

A noun is a count noun when Examples

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You can put a or an in front of it. He has a cat.
Sheila has an apple.
It has a plural form. We have many cats.
You can put a number in front of it. one cat
two apples

A noun is a noncount noun when Examples


You cannot put a or an in front of it. She buys cheese.
It usually does not have a plural form. There is lots of money.
You cannot put a number in front of it. Id like some milk.

Chapter Eight: Prepositional Phrases


A prepositional phrase is a group of words that begins with a preposition and
ends with an object. The object can be either a noun or pronoun.

Prepositional Phrases Prepositions Objects


in the house in house
behind him behind him
among her friends among friends
without help without help

Unit Five Chapter Nine: Writing Instructions/New verbs


When you write instructions, the verb comes first and does not change its form.
Fill the kettle with water. Boil the water. Put some tea into the teapot. Fill the
teapot with boiling water. Pour the tea into the cup. Leave for a few minutes.

Chapter Ten: The Pronouns it and them


Use it to replace singular nouns: Use them to replace plural nouns:
He gave the book to me. I liked it. Mike opened the doors then closed them.
I see the building. It is very tall. We race cars, but we dont wreck them.

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Unit Six Chapter Eleven: Comparing Things with as . . . as
Things to be compared Adjective Use of as . . . as
girl, boy big The girl was as big as the boy.
your house, my house nice Your house is as nice as my house.
this cake, those cookies sweet This cake is not as sweet as those
cookies.

Chapter Twelve: Using too and very + Adjective


Rules Examples
Very goes before an adjective and He is very happy today.
emphasizes it. It usually has a positive
1 GRAMMAR

meaning.
Too has a negative meaning when placed That coat is too big for you.
before an adjective; it means also at I would like to go, too.
the end of an affirmative sentence.

Unit Seven Chapter Thirteen: Prepositions of Time


Prepositions Rules Examples
in Use in with years or months. Jason graduated in 1998.
In April, were going home.
from . . . to Use from for the beginning of We read from nine to
an action and to for the end of eleven at night.
an action. He was away from March
15 to March 28.
for Use for to show how long. He was away for 13 days.

Chapter Fourteen: Different Ways of Saying when


Substitutes for when Examples
At age At age 4, she went . . .
The next year, When she was 5, she went to Hollywood. The
The following year, following year, she went . . .
One, two, three years later When she was 7, she returned to Madison,
Wisconsin. Two years later, she returned . . .

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Unit Eight Chapter Fifteen: Review of Parts of Speech
Definitions Examples
A noun is a word that names a person, place, Bob, office, table
or thing.
A verb is a word that describes an action or a state. buy, bought
Every sentence has a verb, which changes form open, opened
depending on tense and number. I eat, she eats
An adjective describes a noun or pronoun. a cold drink
dry clothes
Adverbs can be used to describe how The rain fell heavily.
an action is done. The man ran quickly.

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Chapter Sixteen: Paraphrasing
When you paraphrase a sentence, you say or write it again in your own words.
Example: Actions speak louder than words.
Paraphrase: What you do is more important than what you say.

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