Week 10: Class was lovely, and my students remain clever.

Class Overview

Grammar Rule

We really nailed the who/which clause (7a,b  pp. 74-75).  These clauses help add more detail to a sentence and can combine two short sentences into one.  They are set off by commas.  If the clause is removed, the remaining words should still be a complete sentence.  Also, we talked about the fact that an invisible who/which can sometimes be mistaken for an appositive and that, in those instances, an argument can be made for going either way.

Adjectives

We looked at Chart L, Adjectives.  On this chart, as on all charts, the gray boxes are the most important to master.  These provide the definition: adjectives modify a noun or pronoun by describing, qualifying or limiting.  And the gray boxes also tell us the most important thing to remember about adjectives, that they answer the questions, 

What kind? 

How many? 

Which? 

Whose?

Drill these questions! 

We answered these questions by modifying the word cat.  What kind? tabby cat, How many? all cats, Which? the sleepy cat, Whose? Jane's cat

S/Vl/PA

This week, we continued to focus on compound, declarative sentences, but we introduced a new sentence pattern, S/Vl/PA.

We learned that a predicate adjective can modify or describe the subject, and a linking verb is never an action verb.  Those are the two key components to understanding the S/Vl/PA pattern.

The questions that you need to ask to identify an S/Vl/PA are...
1) Who or what is this sentence about?  Answer: subject
2) What is that subject doing? action? being?  Answer: verb
3) Now ask, could the verb be linking? (from memorized list and used as state of being?)
4) Does an adjective that describes or modifies the subject follow the linking verb?
Answer: S/Vl/PA

We looked at the example The rose is red, and then substituted other linking verbs from the list to show how a predicate adjective describes or modifies the subject.  So, The rose is red, became, The rose...smells beautiful, became wilted, feels soft, grows limp.  Notice that all the verbs could be replaced with the word is. This demonstrates that the linking verb remains a state of being, not an action.

Next, we talked about the pitfall of mistaking action verbs for linking verbs (or vice versa).
The rose smells beautiful. (State of being, could be The rose is beautiful.) S/Vl/PA
She smells the rose. (Action verb, could not be She is the rose.) S/Vt/DO

We also spent some time using the task sheet to work the sentence, Nathan feels happy, and Jenny seems content.  This sentence is a compound, S/Vl/PA.  The line between the linking verb and predicate adjective is just like the predicate nominative line. It slants back toward the subject.

I neglected to diagram other adjectives in a sentence, but will do that next week.  They go on a slanted line just like adverbs, except they go under the word that they modify.

Grammar

Drill memory work.
Memorize the questions used to identify adjectives.
Memorizing the linking verbs.  There is a song to help on the sidebar of this blog. This will make identifying S/Vl/PN and S/Vl/PA easier.  Especially focus on the "to be" verbs (am, are, is, was, were, being, been).
Review charts.

Dialectic

Use the task sheets to work through sentences.

Sample sentences
The flowers smell lovely, and the bride looks beautiful.
The day remains sunny, though the forecast is dreary.
Greensboro is small, but North Carolina is large.
Voting is responsible, yet it can feel challenging.
Books are thrilling, and reading is fun.
The candy was yummy, and Mom remains happy.
The shiny apple looked tasty, yet it was rotten on the inside.