Transcript Literary Notes
English Writing Conventions
Nouns
• A noun is a person, place, or thing. Some of the things nouns name can be seen or touched; some cannot.
Person Place Thing
Obama student Franklin High School school dog anger
Compound Nouns
• A compound noun is made up of more than one word.
Separated
sweet potato inner tube
Hyphenated
son-in-law drive-thru
Combined
highway railroad
Exercise 1
• Underline the two nouns in each sentence. Some nouns may be compound.
1. Charlotte helped us win the championship.
2. There are no longer any animals in that zoo.
3. Uncle Pete has been studying to become a pilot.
4. All of the silverware fell out of the drawer.
5. “This is not a good sign,” said Dennis.
Common and Proper Nouns
• • A common noun names any one of a class of people, places, or things.
A proper noun names a specific person, place, or thing. Proper nouns are capitalized.
Common Nouns
river war I called my mom after school.
Proper Nouns
Rio Grande Civil War I called Mom after school.
Exercise 2
• Write the proper noun in each sentence in the blank at the right, adding the missing capitalization.
1. We think aunt claire is funny. _____________ 2. We own a ranch in texas. __________________ • 3. His favorite language is spanish. _____________ Fill in each blank with a proper noun.
1. Some day I would like to see ______________.
2. We were amazed when we saw _______________.
Pronouns
• A pronoun is a word used to take the place of a noun. The noun a pronoun substitutes for is called an antecedent.
Pronouns and Antecedents
ANTECEDENT PRONOUN PRONOUN Elizabeth Macintosh asked her parents if she could go.
PRONOUN ANTECEDENT Because of his sore knee, the star quarterback couldn’t play.
Personal Pronouns
• Personal pronouns refer to (1) the person speaking, (2) the person spoken to, or (3) the person, place, or thing spoken about.
First Person Second Person
I, me, my, mine we, us, our, ours you, your, yours
Third Person
he, him, his, she, her, hers, it, its, they, them, their, theirs
Exercise 3
• Underline the personal pronoun in each sentence. Then, circle its antecedent.
1. Lisa, are you going to the party?
2. When Paul drove up, everyone piled into his car.
3. “I must no forget,” the child said over and over again.
4. During the tornado, the house lost its roof.
Reflexive and Intensive Pronouns
• • A reflexive pronoun ends in –self or –selves and adds information to a sentence by referring to a noun or pronoun that appears earlier in the sentence. An intensive pronoun has the same ending as a reflexive pronoun but simply adds emphasis to a noun or pronoun in the same sentence.
Exercise 4
• Fill in each blank with a personal pronoun.
1. Randy, would _________ please give us a hand?
2. With _________ money ready, Jose stood in line for the concert.
3. All of her friends sent her __________ best wishes.
4. These books are so good that I wish _______ were longer.
Singular First Person
myself Second Person yourself
Plural
ourselves yourselves
Third Person
himself, herself, itself themselves
Demonstrative Pronouns
• A demonstrative pronoun directs attention to a specific person, place, or thing.
this that these those
Relative Pronouns
• A relative pronoun begins a subordinate clause and connects it to another idea in the sentence.
that which who whom whose
Interrogative Pronouns
• An interrogative pronoun is used to begin a question.
what which who whom whose
•
Indefinite Pronouns
Indefinite pronouns refer to people, places, or things, often without specifying which ones. Some indefinite pronouns may have an antecedent, but many do not have a specific antecedent.
another anybody anyone anything each either everybody everyone everything little
Sing ular
much neither nobody no one nothing one other somebody someone something
Plural
both few many others several
Singular or Plural
all any more Most None Some