One of the basic elements that make up the structure of sentences is a noun. There are different types of nouns but they all have the same general function. Today we're going to discuss different types of nouns as well as pronouns. We'll also talk about what they do and how to use them properly. Nouns are words that name a person, place, or thing. For example, dad, son, jet fighter, influenza, chalk, Halsted Street, and puppy are all nouns. This may seem broad, but nouns can be broken down even further into different categories depending on what the noun is doing in the sentence. Common nouns, like most of the words mentioned earlier, are words that refer to general things. These things do not have a specific name like "John," or "Eiffel Tower," those would be proper nouns, we'll discuss those later. Here's an example of common nouns used in a sentence: "Dinner was ready at 6pm." The common noun used in this example is "Dinner," dinner in this case is a thing. Let's look at one more. "The eggs were scrambled in the hot pan." This sentence has two common nouns, "eggs" and "pan" because they are both things or objects in the sentence. Seems simple enough, right? Proper nouns are people, places, or things that have specific names or titles. For example, "dad" is a common noun, but your dad's name might be Drew. "Drew" is a proper noun. A Chevy is the name for a brand of car, so it's also a proper noun. In addition, proper nouns are always capitalized. Let's see proper nouns in a sentence. "Aunt Jackie is my favorite aunt on my mom's side." "Aunt Jackie" is someone's formal name, therefore it is a proper noun. Mom, in this sentence is not someone's formal name, therefore it is just a common noun. Let's look at one more example. "James proposed to Jesse near the Eiffel Tower in France." This example is full of proper nouns. "James" and "Jesse" are the given names of people while the "Eiffel Tower" is the proper name of an object and "France" is the official name of a country, a place. Collective nouns are nouns that refer to a collective group or multiple number of something. A class of students. A flock of birds. A team of players. A crowd of fans. Nouns can also come in plural and singular forms. Just as it sounds, some nouns describe a single object, person, or idea that stands alone or multiple objects, people, and ideas. Let's look at an example and see if we can identify the singular nouns in the sentence: "The dog fell asleep on the porch with its toy nearby." Here we see a few singular nouns: there's only one dog, one porch, and one toy mentioned, therefore, we know these are the singular nouns in this sentence. Identifying plural nouns can be just as simple. Most nouns can be made plural by adding an "s" or "es" at the end of the word. Here, we'll look at an example using our previous example and see if we can spot the plural nouns. "The dogs fell asleep on the porch with their toys nearby." In this sentence we made a few changes. We see now an "s" was added to "dog" and "toy." By adding an "s," these once singular nouns are now plural. Now the sentence is describing multiple dogs and toys on one porch. Here's one more example: "The businesses had a huge increase in savings this year." In this sentence we can see that "businesses" is the plural noun because it is describing more than one business. We made the word plural by adding an "es" on the end. Remember, when making a singular noun plural, if the noun ends in ch, sh, x, z, s, or sometimes o we add "es" to the end of it. There are other rules to properly make singular nouns plural. For example, nouns that end in "y" must have the y taken out and replaced with "ies." There are always some exceptions to these rules, but the way you make a singular noun plural depends on what letter the word ends with. As you learn more words these rules and exceptions will become easier to remember. Possessive nouns are nouns that describe ownership of something. We show ownership by adding apostrophe s to the end of a noun or an apostrophe to the end of a word that ends with "s." One way to determine which noun is the possessive noun is to identify the object and ask, "to whom or what does this belong to?" No worries if this rule seems confusing, here are a few examples to practice: "Liz scratched Mom's car while driving." In this sentence we see three nouns but only one of them is possessive. "Mom's" would be the possessive noun because the aforementioned car belongs to her not Liz. Nouns that don't refer to humans or animals can also be possessive. Here's another, can you spot the possessive noun in this sentence? "The buses' doors were jammed and the students couldn't board." In this example, the possessive noun is "buses," because the doors mentioned belong to the bus. Did you notice the placement of the apostrophe? Here, not only does buses' end with an s, but "buses'" is also plural. Remember, nouns that end with an "s", like "bus" or "boss," are made plural by adding an "es" at the end. When trying to make nouns that end with an "s" possessive you must first determine if the noun is singular or plural to know where to put the apostrophe. To make a singular noun possessive, we simply add apostrophe s to the end of it. Even if the noun already ends in "s," because we want to show that there is only one of this thing or person possessing something. When dealing with plural nouns that end in "es," we make the noun possessive by adding the apostrophe at the end of the word. Pronouns are words that take the place of nouns. To keep from sounding repetitive, pronouns can describe a person, place, or thing without naming it multiple times in the same sentence or paragraph. Pronouns also come in many forms. Today we'll only talk about personal pronouns and a few others as well as nominative, objective, and possessive cases. Like other nouns, pronouns can also be singular, plural, and possessive and represent a person or thing. Here's an example of a sentence with no pronouns. "Jasmine loves movies. Jasmine goes to the theater often and has Jasmine's own members' pass." These sentences sound strange. Most people don't repeat someone's name over and over like that. That's why pronouns help eliminate the redundancy. Take another look at these sentences with pronouns used instead. "Jasmine loves movies. She goes to the theater often and has her own members' pass." This example looks and sounds a lot better. Here, we replace Jasmine, with the pronouns she and her. As mentioned earlier, pronouns can also be possessive. We see that in the previous example Jasmine owns a members' pass. So instead of saying "Jasmine's pass," we use the possessive pronoun "her" to describe her possession of the members' pass. Other possessive pronouns include: Singular: his, her, mine. Plural possessive pronouns include: theirs, ours, and yours. When talking about pronouns it's also important to mention nominative and objective case. Nominative case refers to a noun that is performing an action or verb. In contrast, objective case is a noun that is having an action or verb taken upon it. Here's an example: "Mariah drank water." Here, Mariah is in the nominative case because she is performing an action on the water - the verb drink. Let's look at an objective pronoun example: "Mariah caught the ball." Here, the ball is the objective pronoun because it was the object that had an action performed on it - which was it being
caught. Indefinite pronouns represent a person or thing that we don't have a specific number of. For example: "Anybody can learn another language." In this case the indefinite pronoun is "anybody" because it refers to an immeasurable amount of people. These pronouns are used to ask a question. What is her name? Whose keys are those? Intensive pronouns are pronouns that emphasize the pronouns that immediately preceded. "She herself made sure to set the alarm." In this case, "herself" is meant to emphasize "she," making "herself" the intensive pronoun. "I myself made time to work out before bed." Here, "myself" refers to the pronoun "I," making "myself" the intensive pronoun. Reciprocal pronouns are words that express an action is happening to two or more people or things at the same time. Reciprocal pronouns include "each other" and "one another." "The students switch tests with one another." "We exchanged vows with each other." Demonstrative pronouns are pronouns that point to specific things. Examples of demonstrative pronouns are: this, that, these, and those. Nouns and pronouns are essential pieces needed to complete sentences. Before we end, let's do a few practice examples to make sure we got the hang of all we went over today. What kind of noun is "Tuesday"? a. Common noun. b. Possessive noun. c. Proper noun. Or d. None of the above. The answer is c. Proper noun, because it's the name of a specific day. Which of the following singular nouns was made plural incorrectly? a. singer to singers. b. dish to dishes. c. church to churches. Or d. tax to taxs. D. because nouns that end in x take an es to make them plural. "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog." This silly sentence contains all of the letters of the alphabet, and you might notice it also is stuffed full of adjectives. In this video, we'll talk about what adjectives are and how to use them in a sentence. An adjective is a word that describes a noun. It describes something's size, color, age, origin, material or shape. Adjectives can be used to make the subject simpler to understand and to shed light on what an author wants their ideas to truly convey. The adjectives used in the sentence about the fox and the dog are "quick" and "brown", describing the fox, and "lazy", which describes the dog. Here's another example: "She is the smartest student in the class." "Student" is the noun and "smartest" is describing what kind of student she is, so "smartest" is the adjective. Shakespeare has been credited for adding hundreds of new words to the English language when he was writing, and many of those were adjectives. Some examples of Shakespearean adjectives are: "Thou cold-blooded slave, hast thou not spoke like thunder on my side, been sworn my soldier, bidding me depend upon thy stars, thy fortune and thy strength, and dost thou now fall over to my fores?" Cold-blooded is an adjective that describes the slave. It helps us to know what type of person the slave was. Cold-blooded is a word that had been used to describe snakes and reptiles, but Shakespeare used it for the first time to describe a person. Here's an example from the book Little Women: "She remembered her mother's promise and, slipping her hand under her pillow, drew out a little crimson-covered book." Crimson-covered describes the color of fabric that was covering the book. As you can see, using adjectives can make your sentences and ideas come to life. Instead of just saying that the firework display was beautiful, you can make it much more exciting and easier to envision what the fireworks actually looked like by saying: "The fireworks this year were bursting brightly overhead as the bright, dazzling sparkles lit up the sky." "Bright" and "dazzling" are just two of the many, many adjectives that make writing so descriptive and fun to read! Describing situations in detail helps readers more vividly understand what is taking place. When describing things in more detail, adverbs are a helpful addition to make your sentences more colorful and portray the event clearly. In this video, we'll take a look at what adverbs do, how to identify them, and how to best use them in our writing. Let's get started! The easiest way to find an adverb in a sentence is to ask these questions: Where was something done? When was it done? How was it done? And, to what extent was it done? An adverb will always answer one of those questions. For example, the adverb "here" answers the question, "Where?" And the adverb "randomly" answers the question, "How?" An easy identifier for adverbs is the suffix ly. Not all adverbs use it, but the majority of adverbs do. Let's identify some adverbs by using our four questions. "She went outside and walked the dog." Do any of those words in the sentence answer the question "where, when, how," or "to what extent"? In this example we see that "outside" is the adverb because it tells us where she went. Let's look at another: "They briskly jogged through the park." Here, we see that the word "briskly" answers the question how something was done, making it the adverb in the sentence. Let's try one more example. "She almost tripped while jogging but regained her balance." This one might be tricky. In this example we see that "almost" describes the extent to which something happens, which in this case was "tripped." "She almost tripped," making "almost" the adverb here. Adverbs not only modify verbs, they are also used to describe comparisons of two things. Adverbs have three degrees of comparison: positive, comparative, and superlative. The best way to explain positive, comparative, and superlative adverbs is to think of them as "well, better, and best." When we want to describe the quality of something, we can say the thing itself is done well, that would be a positive adverb. We may compare that thing to something else and say, "this thing is better than something else", which is known as a comparative adverb. Or we may simply say, "this thing is the best", which is superlative. As you can see, with each comparison the degree of its descriptor is increased. There are many ways of changing adverbs from positive to comparative and superlative. Let's go over each one with real examples and see how they differ. What's important to note about positive adverbs is that the words used don't necessarily have to be positive or "good" words. For example, the word "badly" is a positive adverb because it is the first or basic degree you can use to describe something without comparing it to anything else. Many adverbs can be modified to show different degrees by simply adding -er or -est to the end of the word. Adding -er to a word makes it comparative, meaning it's not the most of something, but it is more than something else. Adding -est to the end of a word means that the word it is describing is the most of something and nothing can be compared as being better than it. Here's an example: "He ran through the field faster than his sister." In this example, the adverb "faster" responds to the question of how something was done. We also know this is a comparative adverb because of the added -er to the end of "fast," this lets us know that this person ran at a higher speed compared to his sister. Here's another example: "She was the quickest of everyone who ran the 5k." Here we see the adverb "quickest" answers the question of how something was done. Because there is an -est at the end of quick, we know that this adverb is superlative because no one else ran more quickly than this person. Some adverbs, especially those that end in -ly can't have their degrees increased to comparative or superlative forms by simply adding -er or -est to the end. These adverbs must have more and most preceding the word to be modified. Let's look at a few examples. The crowd cheered for her more joyfully than for the other performers." Here, we can see that "joyfully" is the adverb because it answers the question of how the crowd cheered. We can also see that joyfully is a comparative adverb because of the word more before it. With this, we know that the crowd cheered more, but not the most joyfully. "He completed his task most efficiently of all the employees." Again, in this example, the adverb "efficiently" is easy to spot, not only because it ends in -ly but because it answers the question of how the task was performed. We also find the word most proceeding efficiently, which means this is a superlative adverb and no task was completed more efficiently than his. Some adverbs can't be made comparative and superlative with the use of -er, -est, more, or most. For irregular adverbs, changing their degree of comparison means changing the word and its spelling entirely. There is no special trick to these irregular adverbs, so they must be memorized over time to understand their implied degree of comparison. The word badly is an example of an irregular adverb. To make it comparative, you wouldn't say "more badly" or "badlier." The comparative form of badly is worse, and the superlative form is worst. Other examples of irregular adverbs include little, which becomes less and least, and good, which becomes better and best. Now let's look at adverbial phrases. Adverbial phrases perform the same function as adverbs and describe when, how, to what extent, and where something happens. What makes them different from normal adverbs is they are phrases, which means they are a group of two or more words and they don't always contain a typical -ly adverb in the phrase. Here are some examples that answer the question "When?": "He goes camping every summer." "They are going to sleep earlier than usual." Here, these highlighted phrases signify a time in which something occurs. In this sentence, "He was driving haphazardly and recklessly." this adverbial phrase is made up of two adverbs and a conjunction to make a phrase that describes how something occurred. An adverbial clause is similar to an adverbial phrase; however, adverbial clauses, just like the name suggests, are clauses, which means they contain a subject, verb, and subordinating conjunction. Let's look at some examples: "Sit at the table until your food is eaten." In this example, the adverbial clause, "until your food is eaten" describes when something occurs. We also know it is a clause because it has a subject, "food", and verb, "eaten", as well as a subordinating conjunction, "until." "My sister, although she was hungry, wouldn't eat until I arrived." Here the adverbial clause starts with the subordinating conjunction, "although", has a subject, "she", and a verb "is." Together they describe the extent to which the sister wouldn't eat. "Make sure you are polite to people wherever you go." This example shows the subordinating conjunction, "wherever", the subject ,"you", and verb, "go", to show when something happened. Before we go, let's do a little practice to refresh what we've learned. Number one: Which of the following are not adverbs? a. Entirely. b. Rather. c. Them. or d. Cautiously. The answer is c, Them. The word "them" is a pronoun. Number two: The highlighted word is an example of what? Some people agree that Serena Williams is the greatest athlete of all time. a. Adverbial phrase. b. Subordinating conjunction. c. Comparative adverb. Or d. Superlative adverb. The answer is d. Superlative. Prepositions are words that specify how something is related to something else in time and space. They work in a sentence to connect nouns or pronouns with other words and elements. Let's start with this example: "The dog swam in the lake." There are two nouns in this sentence: "dog" and "lake." We know from the verb "swam" what the dog is doing, but we need the preposition "in" to tell us where the swimming is happening. The dog is swimming in something, and that something is the lake. The second noun connected with the preposition, in this case the word "lake," is called the object of the preposition, and together with the preposition, forms a prepositional phrase. There is no subject in the phrase "in the lake," only a noun. Because of the preposition "in," we know it's a prepositional phrase. This is an article, not a noun, so we know it can't be the object of the preposition. "Lake," the noun we are trying to connect with our first noun "dog," is the object of the preposition. Most of the time, though not always, the object of the preposition comes after the preposition in the prepositional phrase. When we're trying to find the prepositional phrase in a sentence, first try to spot the preposition. Prepositions show direction, location, or time. Many of the most common prepositions are small words you use every day. "At," "by," "for," "from," "in," "of," "on," "to," and "with" are all prepositions. Think about this sentence and try to pick out the prepositional phrase: "After work, Joe drove to the store in his car." There are three prepositional phrases in this sentence. Let's start with a simple one. Joe, the proper noun, is connected to the noun "store" by the preposition "to." It answers a directional question. Where did joe go? He went to the store. The word "store" is the object of the prepositional phrase "to the store." Let's look for another preposition in this sentence. You might have noticed our preposition "in" appeared again in this sentence. "In" isn't a directional preposition like "to," but it tells us where Joe was during his drive. He was in his car. "Car" is the object of the preposition "in," and "in his car" is the prepositional phrase. Now let's look back to the first word in the sentence, "after." This is also a preposition. Remember, prepositions show direction, location, or time. After dinner is a prepositional phrase that tells us when Joe went to the store. "Dinner" is the object of the preposition. Not all prepositional phrases are quite so simple. Think of it like a sandwich: you have to have bread and filling to make a sandwich, right? A sandwich can be as simple as cheese between two slices of bread, but it can also have meat, veggies, and spreads. We can jazz up prepositional phrases the same way, with adjectives and adverbs. As long as you still have the "bread and the filling," preposition and object of the preposition, you'll still have a prepositional phrase. Take this sentence, for example: "The swallows flew over the trees near the lake." "Over the trees" and "near the lake" are the two prepositional phrases in this sentence. "Over" is a preposition that tells us the direction the swallows flew, and near is a preposition that tells us where the trees were located. These prepositional phrases are fairly simple, but look what happens if we make the sandwich more interesting. "The swallows flew over the dark trees near the town's renowned lake." We still have the same two prepositions and prepositional phrases, but the words "dark," "town's," and "renowned" are all adjectives. "Dark" is modifying, or adding meaning to, the object - "trees" - of the first prepositional phrase, but it is otherwise not changing the preposition in any way. The same is true of "town's" and "renowned." They are modifying the object of the preposition, "lake," in the second phrase "near" is still the preposition and lake is still the object of the preposition. So let's recap. A preposition is a word that answers the question when or where something happened in a sentence. It connects nouns or pronouns to other nouns in the sentence. "About," "to," "with," "up," "down," "under," "inside," "after," "before," and "for" are a few examples of common prepositions. The object of the preposition is the noun that the preposition is talking about, and together with the preposition those objects make prepositional phrases. Hello and welcome! Today we're talking about subjects. Now, the subject of a sentence is the person, place, or thing, or idea that is doing or being. The subject is sometimes called the "naming part" of a sentence or clause. It shows what the sentence is about, or who or what is performing an action in the sentence. The subject is most often a noun, pronoun, or noun phrase. Now it's easier to find the subject of a sentence if you first find the verb. Remember, a verb is any word used to describe an action, a state, or an occurrence. Ask yourself, "who or what 'verbed' in this sentence?" The answer to that question is the subject. Let's try it with this sentence: "Rachel ate her breakfast." The verb in this sentence is the word "ate," it describes an action that Rachel took. So let's ask our question: who or what ate? Rachel did! Rachel is the subject of this sentence. A simple subject is the subject of a sentence without all of its modifiers. Modifying words help tell us more about the nouns and verbs and sometimes even adverbs in a sentence, but they can make it difficult to find the subject. If you pull these away, you find your simple subject. Let's look at an example: "The main reason, after all was said and done, wasn't enough to keep her there." There are quite a few things going on in this sentence, but if we strip away the modifying phrase "after all was said and done," we see the following sentence: "The main reason wasn't enough to keep her there." Now you may be tempted to assume the subject is "her," since sometimes people are subjects, but let's ask our question: "What wasn't enough?" Not "her," but the "main reason." "Reason," here, is the simple subject. Sometimes a simple subject can be a phrase rather than a single word; that's when things get a little more complicated. Take this sentence for example: "What he didn't know about life in the city could fill whole volumes." "What he didn't know about life in the city" is the simple subject. You can't strip it down any more than that. What could fill whole volumes? "What he didn't know," "life in the city," and "he" are all incomplete explanations. They must be taken together as a complete phrase. Now that we have a good grasp on simple subjects, let's talk about compound subjects. Take the following sentence: "Jack and Jill went up the hill." Who went up the hill? Jack? Well, yes, that's not all though. Jill did as well. They are both subjects of the sentence. A compound subject is when two or more nouns are joined together to act as a subject. Think about this sentence: "Rain, snow, and ice made driving impossible." Rain, snow, and ice are all three compound subjects of the sentence. Now, let's have a little fun. What do you think is the subject of the following sentence? "Come here now!" Is it come? Is it here? Is it now? Is it non-existent? No on all accounts. If grammar wasn't confusing enough, now I'm asking you to evaluate invisible words. But don't worry, we can find the subject by asking our question. "Who or what needs to come here now?" The answer is "you." If a mother is calling her son, she could say, "You come here now." If you're calling your friend, you can say, "You come here now." This is called an understood subject. Often the subject of a command, order, or suggestion - "you" - is left out of the sentence. Strong and well-placed subjects make for strong writing. Avoid beginning sentences with the word "there," it's a filler for other words in the sentence that are the true subjects. Look here: "There are my shoes on the floor." In this sentence, "there" looks like the subject, but in reality the word shoes already fills that role. "There" only adds words and makes the meaning less clear. We can clean the sentence up this way: "Shoes are on my floor." Avoid mixing up the order of your subjects in verb phrase in the sentence. Take a look at this example: "The plumber is Ben." This sentence would mean the same thing if you said, "Ben is the plumber," but as it is the subject is inverted and confusing. In general, it's best to write with a clear subject followed by the verb phrase that describes what the subject is doing. And don't forget, if you're having trouble finding the subject in a sentence, just find the verb and find out who or what is connected with that verb. Hey guys! Welcome to this video on sentence structure. In this video, we'll learn about the different types of sentences so you can make sure your writing is interesting and engaging to the reader. Listen to this paragraph: "Daniel went to the grocery store. He wasn't sure if it had any more fresh apples. The store did not have any apples. Daniel was very sad. Apples are Daniel's favorite food." How did this paragraph sound to you? Monotonous, boring, and uninteresting, right? How about this version: Daniel went to the grocery store, but he wasn't sure if it had any more fresh apples. Much to his dismay, the store did not have any apples, and Daniel was distraught. After all, apples are Daniel's favorite food." Sounds a lot better, right? While there are many differences between these two paragraphs, the main difference is that the first used the same, simple type of sentence throughout, while the second used many different types of sentences in order to enhance the content. The first type of sentence we're going to look at is a simple sentence, which consists of both a subject and predicate and can stand independently as its own sentence. A simple sentence is essentially the same thing as an independent clause. Let's look at an example: "The old car survived the drive across the country, despite the weather conditions." There's only one independent clause with the subject, "the old car," and the predicate, "survived the drive across the country despite the weather conditions." Let's move on to the second type of sentence: compound sentences. A compound sentence consists of two independent clauses, joined together by a conjunction. Here's an example: Max drove to the store, and Ben picked up the girls." Note that there are two independent clauses here that could stand alone as sentences. You could just as easily write: "Max drove to the store. Ben picked up the girls." But we've joined these two independent clauses together by using the conjunction "and." Another example would be: With all the heavy traffic, Josh was able to get home in time for dinner, but Ariana was stuck on the busy freeway." The first independent clause is "Josh was able to get home in time for dinner" and the second is "Ariana was stuck on the busy freeway." The two clauses are joined by the conjunction "but." The beginning of the sentence, "With all the heavy traffic" is a prepositional phrase and does not have any bearing on this type of sentence. The third type of sentence is a complex sentence, which consists of one independent clause with the addition of one or more dependent clauses. Let's look at an example: "After she took the time to clean her room, Sarah could finally play with her new dollhouse." The first part of the sentence, "After she took the time to clean her room," is a dependent clause - more information is needed for it to serve as its own independent sentence. The second part of the sentence, "Sarah could finally play with her new dollhouse," is an independent clause, because it has a subject and predicate and can stand alone as a sentence. The last type of sentence is a compound complex sentence. This type of sentence contains two independent clauses, as well as a dependent clause. An example would look something like this: "Before the treehouse is used for the first time, all the beams need to be checked and the ladder must be connected." The two independent clauses are "all the beams need to be checked" and "the ladder must be connected." They are combined using the conjunction "and." The start of the sentence, "Before the treehouse is used for the first time," is a dependent clause, since it has a subject (the treehouse) and a predicate (is used for the first time) but cannot stand independently as its own sentence. At its base, a sentence is made up of a subject and a verb. We'll call this the main clause or the independent clause. But what happens when there's not a subject or a verb? Or when two clauses aren't combined correctly? Hello everyone, and welcome to this Mometrix video. I hope you've got your running shoes on because today, we'll be learning about sentence fragments and run-on sentences. When you hear the phrase sentence fragment, you should immediately begin thinking about pieces, incomplete pieces, or parts of a whole. A sentence fragment is just that; it does not form an independent clause. This means that the sentence is lacking a subject, or verb, or both a subject and a verb. Independent clauses are sentences that stand alone because they contain a subject and a verb in agreement with one another; no other pieces are necessary to consider the sentence complete. Dependent clauses, on the other hand, cannot stand alone because they form incomplete sentences. Today, we're going to look at six different types of sentence fragments that you'll most definitely see in the course of your writing career. The first type of fragment that we'll look at is the subordinating clause. The subordinating clause is a sentence that has a dependent clause that needs an independent clause to attach to it in order to form a complete sentence. To form this attachment, a subordinating conjunction such as after, although, before, while, whenever, etc. must be used. Here's an example: "Before the race" A correction might look as follows: "Before the race, you need to lace up your shoes." The second type of fragment is the participle phrase. The participle phrase lacks both a subject and a verb. It must also modify a noun (person, place, or thing) and be paired with an independent clause. Here's an example: "Preparing for the race" In order for this clause to form a complete sentence, we must add an independent clause containing a noun for this clause to modify. For example: "You ran five miles each day, preparing for the race." The third type of fragment is an infinitive phrase. Infinitive phrases most often involve using the word "to" within a dependent clause. These phrases can function as nouns, as adjectives describing nouns, or as adverbs describing verbs. While all of this is true, at the end of the day, an infinitive phrase does not have the necessary components to form an independent clause. Here's an example: "To run the race" A complete sentence might be: "You are prepared to run the race." In this example "to run the race" is functioning as an adverb that describes what the subject is prepared for. The fourth type of sentence fragment is verb phrase. A verb phrase, as you could guess, only contains the verb of a sentence and is missing the subject. These are a little tricky, at first glance, because the verb phrase seems to be able to stand alone. Since the phrase does not contain a subject, it cannot be an independent clause, thus making it a sentence fragment. Here's an example: "Waited at the starting line" In this example, we are not given the who or the what that waited at the starting line. A complete sentence might look like this: "You waited at the starting line to begin the race." Now we have a subject to go with the verb in our sentence. Five: appositives are also a form of sentence fragment. Appositives are used to rename the subject of a sentence but do not take the place of the subject overall. This one is a little more simply explained with an example: "The ones with the broken laces" By itself, it is clear to see that this clause is meant to define an object. Here's a correct way to write this sentence: "In a moment of panic, you thought you were wearing the wrong track shoes, the ones with the broken laces." Now we see that "the ones with the broken laces" could rename the noun "shoes." We also see with this sentence that, "the ones with the broken laces" could not function as the subject because it would be too unclear as to what was being described. The final type of fragment we will discuss is the afterthought clause. You might not have formally heard of this type of sentence fragment, but I guarantee you've probably seen it or accidentally used it. Some common afterthought clauses are: including, such as, like, for example, especially, etc. Often times, we'll use these words in our paragraphs to begin and form a sentence. But this is wrong! Let's look at an example to see how we should and should not use these words: "Including fruits, vegetables, and quality sources of protein" By itself, this is very clearly not an independent clause, but you'd be surprised how many sentences we see that are written just like this one. A correct use for the afterthought clause might look like this: As a runner, you should be sure to eat a healthy and balanced diet, including fruits, vegetables, and quality sources of proteins." Now that we've gone over six main types of sentence fragments, I want to give you a couple of tips for catching fragments in your own writing. Number one: Proofreading is a great opportunity for catching sentence fragments and for improving the quality of your work. Proofreading is simply re-reading your work once you've completed it and before you submit it anywhere. Number two: You might also try reading your sentences aloud, backwards. Reading your sentences backwards helps your brain to pick up on the awkward wording of fragments, that you might not otherwise notice if you read the sentence as is. Another concept in the race for the most grammatically correct sentence is the run-on sentence. What's the problem with a run-on sentence? You've got to work extra hard to catch them! Anybody? Anybody? Anyways, the run-on sentence is a pretty simple concept on paper, however when reading to yourself or speaking in everyday conversation, it's difficult to notice the run-on sentence. A run-on sentence occurs when two or more independent clauses are paired together without an appropriate conjunction or punctuation mark. Don't let the length of a sentence fool you. Length is not a good indicator of whether or not a sentence is running on; it really comes down to punctuation placement and appropriate separation of the two or more independent clauses featured in the sentence. Run-on sentences can be fixed by adding end punctuation, by adding a conjunction, or by adding a semicolon. Deciding which solution to use when correcting your run-on sentences will just depend on the makeup of the clauses you're working with. Let's go ahead and look at some examples: "I will run the race I will win the race." Here we have two independent clauses incorrectly connected. Clause One: I will run the race And Clause Two: I will win the race. We'll look at examples of corrections that use each of our three ways for fixing a run-on sentence. Correction with a semicolon: I will run the race; I will win the race. Correction with conjunction: I will run the race, and I will win the race. Correction with an end punctuation: I will run the race. I will win the race. A type of run-on sentence you'll have to work harder to catch is the infamous comma splice. A comma splice occurs when two or more independent clauses are connected only by commas. Here's an example: I will run the race, I will win the race. Comma splices can be easily fixed by adding a conjunction behind the comma and before the next main clause begins, by adding a semicolon instead of a comma, or by simply turning each clause into its own sentence. Today we're going to be talking about three things that can help you make writing more clear. These three things are writing well-formed paragraphs, maximizing coherence, and having a good structural pattern. Let's start with paragraph writing. A good paragraph has a topic sentence, a few supporting sentences, and a concluding sentence. A topic sentence is the main idea that is explained in the paragraph. The supporting sentences back that idea, and the concluding sentence sums everything up clearly. Take a look at this example from Brian Kilmeade's book George Washington's Secret Six: "But it was also a risky business. The Sound was patrolled by the formidable British navy and, even though smuggling was accepted as common practice, an example was sometimes made of violators. Men who were caught could face anything from a stern warning to a heavy fine to imprisonment." The first sentence is the topic sentence. It's actually referencing information in the previous paragraph that talked about smuggling to avoid British taxes, but it's backed up by the following sentence that explains why the smuggling was such risky business. The paragraph ends with a brief recap of the risk involved. Good paragraphs should have a unifying idea in a clear order, but they should also be coherent. Coherence in a paragraph is the technique of making words, phrases, and sentences move smoothly and logically from one to another. The idea should be "glued together" so that the reader doesn't have to stretch to understand what's being said. Transitional words and phrases, repetition, and parallel sentence structure are great tools to help link sentences in a paragraph. Transitional words and phrases tell the reader the relationship between what was said and what will be said. Let's take a look at the following example: "Bernard led a healthy lifestyle. He ate balanced meals, worked out three times a week, and drank plenty of water. He had diabetes." This is a paragraph, certainly, but not a very coherent one. The sentences are all true, but they don't seem linked at all. Why is Bernard's healthy lifestyle connected to diabetes? Let's look at the sentence with transitional words and phrases: "Bernard led a healthy lifestyle. He had diabetes, but focused on eating balanced meals, working out three times a week, and drinking plenty of water. He said the healthy lifestyle was even more important considering his diagnosis." Ah. See, that makes more sense. The coordinating conjunction "but" helps link the healthy lifestyle and diabetes together in a more coherent fashion. The clarifying sentence at the end of the paragraph goes a step further to make sure the reader understands the main point behind the paragraph. We also used repetition to make Bernard's situation clear. As you can see, the phrase "healthy lifestyle" was repeated in the first and last sentence, thereby reminding the reader that the first sentence about Bernard's lifestyle was a setup for the last sentence about his diagnosis. Now, it doesn't matter how clear your individual paragraphs are if you string them together in a confusing way. That's where structural patterns come in. Structural patterns are a way of organizing your paragraphs so your book or essay makes the most sense. There are many different structural patterns but some of the main ones are: Cause and Effect, Compare and Contrast, Sequential Order, Order of Importance, Problem and Solution. Cause and effect organization shows the different causes and effects of various conditions. It's effective for persuasive essays and books where the author is trying to convince the reader of something. Let's say we're writing an essay about Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. There are two ways to arrange this: either with all the paragraphs listing the cause of PTSD first in all the paragraphs listing the effect after, or a lineup of paragraphs where each paragraph contains a cause and the effect it produces. In a compare and contrast organizational model the author evaluates the similarities and differences between two subjects. Usually those subjects are in the same category. For example, you might write an essay comparing two different types of pets, or two different novels from the same historical period. In this pattern you should keep the elements you're comparing and contrasting close together. If you're comparing pets, you might have a paragraph on cat exercise immediately following a paragraph on dog exercise. Sequential order organization is used to describe a process. It arranges information in a step-by-step sequence. For instance, if you were writing an essay on bread baking you might start with a paragraph about proofing yeast, then move on to a description of combining ingredients, with your last paragraphs focused on rising and baking times. Order of importance organization is exactly how it sounds. Put the most important information first in your essay. This is very common in news writing. The first few paragraphs of a news article will always contain the most relevant information, that way if a reader loses interest part way through the story, they don't miss the whole main point. With problem and solution organization, the first paragraphs are generally focused on convincing the reader that problem exists. The closing paragraphs are focused on convincing the reader that a certain course of action in response to the problem is best. In summation, good writing doesn't happen by accident. You have to plan ahead so the reader has no trouble following your train of thought. Well-formed paragraphs, coherence, and good structural patterns can help with this. When you come upon a word you don't understand while reading, you have three options. You can choose to look it up in a dictionary, ignore it, or try to figure out what it means based on the context in which it's used. If you're in a test environment, you don't usually have the luxury of a dictionary, and it certainly isn't wise to ignore the word altogether. Therefore, it's a good skill to learn how a word's context can help you better understand what the word means. Searching for words context is as simple as looking at other words around the troublesome word. There are, in general, five main types of context clues: illustrations, synonyms, contrasts, inferences, and punctuation. The first context clues fall into the category of illustrations, examples, or explanations of the word. This may seem overly simple, but difficult words are often followed by information the writer uses to explain the word's meaning. Look for words like "such as," "including," "for instance," and "like." This can be the author's way of further clarifying a difficult word, and you can sometimes make a logical guess about the word's meaning from the example alone. Take a look at this sentence: "An occupation, such as that of a hat maker or a postman, is important for anyone who wants to earn a steady wage." In this sentence we're looking at the word "occupation." Not only is it a long word that we might not understand at first, but it also has multiple meanings. An occupation can mean a job, but it can also mean to take up space. It can even be used to talk about military invasion, when one country is occupying another. When we look at the sentence, though, we see two examples given of the word in question. Neither a hat maker or a postman are particularly prone to occupying other countries, or at least that's not their primary purpose, so we can assume that the word "occupation" is referencing a job or employment opportunity. A second category of context clues is synonyms. A synonym is a word that shares a near meaning with another word. For example, "loud" and "noisy" mean similar things, but are two different words. Take a look at the following sentence to see how synonyms can be good context clues: "The patient's hippocampus was an uncharted minefield. His memory was so bad, the psychiatrist wondered whether that part of the brain was even processing memory and emotion the way it should." "Hippocampus" is a very confusing word in this sentence. Right away the word "brain" tells us that the hippocampus is likely a part of the brain. In fact, it's the part of the brain thought to be responsible for memory and emotion. The sentence says, "the psychiatrist was concerned that the patient's memory and emotion weren't being processed the way it should be," so we can deduce that the hippocampus is responsible for those processes. The clue had both synonyms, the word "brain," and a full reinstatement of the initial sentence that clarified what the hippocampus was. A third helpful context clue is the contrast or antonym clue. Antonyms are the opposite of synonyms. For example, hot and cold are antonyms. Sometimes contrast sentences can tell us what a word is not, and that in turn can give us an idea of what the word is. Look at this: "Mary was known for having smooth skin, but to her horror she woke up on her wedding day with a papule on her nose." Do you know what a papule is? Neither did I, actually, but I can see the word "but" contrasting whatever it is with Mary's smooth skin. That, coupled with a clue about her nose, leads me to believe it is a zit of sorts, which in fact it is. A fourth clue to help you gain a bit of context surrounding words you don't understand is inference or general context. This is a bit more vague of an explanation, but it basically means that sometimes we don't have clear synonyms or antonyms, and we don't have an illustration after the difficult word. Sometimes we just have to look at the paragraph as a whole and put a few floating parts together. This is best explained with an example. "The haberdashery was Bob's favorite place. He bought all his suits there. The staff was friendly, and always respectful." There's no direct description of what a haberdashery is, but the second sentence tells us that at the very least it sells suits. We also see that it's Bob's favorite place, so we can guess -without certainty, but it's still a clue - that it's a clothing place for men. The word "staff" couples with the word "bought" to let us know it's likely a store of some sort. The final helpful context clue is the clue of punctuation. Sometimes commas or quotation marks can be used to clarify the meaning of a word. Quotation marks can show the word has special meaning, brackets can enclose additional explanation, and italics can further define a word. Think about the following: "Matcha (Japanese green tea) has many health benefits." The parenthetical phrase gives a pretty clear description of what matcha is. In many ways, this kind of punctuation is the easiest context clue of all to deduce. These are the five main clues you can fall back on when trying to decipher the meaning of a difficult word. But in general remember that when you come upon a word that isn't in your vocabulary you don't have to give up! Paragraphs often hold together clues that can give you helpful hints about what the mystery word actually means. Hi, and welcome to this video about determining word meanings. Regardless of our level of schooling, whether you're a student or working in a corporate environment, we all come across words that we don't know. Thankfully, figuring out the meaning of words can be done without google or a dictionary. Here are a few tips on how to find the meaning of an unknown word. Context is the setting or scene in which an idea or event takes place. In writing, context can help us understand the situation and how a word is being used. In other words, the sentence the unknown word is in can help you figure out its definition. Read the sentences before and after the unknown word to help you determine what the word could mean. The actual definition of a word can be changed depending on the context around it. Let's look at an example: "It's a match!" Here, the word match has little context to it. Are we referring to a match that makes fire, or did someone find an identical pair of shoes? We don't really know in this case what match means because there is no context. So, let's add some: "She pulled a three of clubs from the deck of cards and placed it next to the three of diamonds and yelled, 'it's a match!"' Here, because of context, we know we are not reading about a match that makes fire, but a matching pair of cards. As you can see, context can make quite the difference. Let's look at using structural analysis, or looking at the different parts of the word. Many words, even some of the shortest ones you can think of, are made up of some combination of prefixes, suffixes, and roots. Prefixes are the parts of words that come at the beginning. Examples of prefixes are: "re," "pre," "de," and many more. Each of these word segments has a meaning. Here's a few examples: The prefix "re" means "to do again", like in the word "reuse." The prefix "pre" means "before" like in the word "prepare." And the prefix "de" means "to undo" like in the word "detach." Prefixes can also change the original meaning of a word. For example, "do" means to perform an action, but what if we add the prefix "un" to it? It now becomes "undo," which means the opposite of do. Knowing what prefixes mean can help you determine a word's meaning. Suffixes serve the same role as prefixes, but suffixes come at the end of a word. For example: The suffix "ment" means "a result" like in the word "government." The suffix "ion" refers to process like in the word "invention." The suffix "ful" means "full of" like in the word "useful." Again, just like prefixes, suffixes can change the original meaning of a word. For example, to "govern" means to rule over something, it's an action or verb. When we add the suffix "ment" to the word it now becomes government which is a system that rules over something, a thing or noun. Though Latin is no longer used in the common world, many English words have Latin roots. Knowing and recognizing these root words in common English can help you determine a word's meaning. Here are a few examples of words with similar Latin roots: The Latin root "rhino" means "nose." You can see this in the words "rhinoplasty," "rhinoceros," and "rhinovirus." The Latin root "reg" means "to control." You can see this in the words "regulate," "regime," and "regal." The Latin root "tox" means poison. You can see this in the words "toxic," "detox," and "intoxicated." This doesn't mean you need to learn a dead language to learn the definition of more English words. However, the more English vocabulary you learn, the more connections you'll be able to make to new words you didn't know before. For example, if you don't know the meaning of a word, look at the root word and see if you can think of other words that you do know that have similar roots. For example, if you don't know the definition of "animate," but can identify the root "anim," you can think of words with the same root that you do know, like "animal." From there, you can determine what the root word "anim" means, alive or life, along with context, if there is any, and figure out how it relates to the unfamiliar word. In this example, we know "anim" means "life," just like animals are alive and move freely, therefore we can figure out that "animate," the act of moving objects, is aptly named because it's bringing still or motionless objects to "life." What if we took this example a step further and add a prefix to the word "animate"? The prefix "in" means "not." Therefore, if we add "in" and "animate" together, we get the word inanimate which means, you guessed it, to "not move." Prefixes, suffixes, and roots make up countless words; the context of the sentence these mystery words are found in can also bring its true meaning to light. When put together, these tools can be used to solve the meaning of unknown words and make reading and writing easier. Thanks for watching, and happy studying!
