LATTC, English 21, Mr. T. Stevens

Memorized all the non-action verbs (linking, BE, helping) listed below, all of them in order.
Memorized all the prepositions listed below, all of them in order.

If you have not learned the "small" stuff listed below while you were in elementary through high school, you NEED to do it now. You will not be able to punctuate properly until you know the "small stuff." It is impossible to know when to use a comma or use semicolon or use nothing unless you know the "small words" and know their function is.

If you move on beyond this page before you know them, you will continue to "guess" whether your sentence is correctly written or correctly punctuated. Knowing most of them will NOT DO you any good; you need to be able to identify all of the "simple," childish words, and what they do in a sentence, especially the verbs. You cannot expect to write an errorless paragraph and essay unless you can write "perfect," errorless sentences that go into your paper. Good Luck. Or perhaps I'll see you next semester; on the other hand, you really don't want to see me a second time; once is enough.

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VERBS

A verb lets know about an action (hit, fell) or a state of being (is, can). There are three types of verbs: action (hit), linking (seems) , and helping or auxiliary (should).

Action Verbs

An action verb shows action. It tells what a person or a thing does.

There are three types of action verbs:

Type of Action Verb	Verbs	Sentence Examples
Transitive	swim, jump, run, play, swing, etc.	He swims. She jumps. He plays. They swing. They ran. Muskrats swim.
Transitive with Direct Object (DO)	kicked, slapped, pushed, threw, kissed, picked-up, hung, etc.	He threw the toy. She kicked the ball. They pushed the car. He hangs the picture. We built a sandcastle.
Transitive with Direct Object (DO) and Indirect Object (IDO) (only a few verbs can create two nouns within a sentence with a DO and IDO.	handed, made, make, mail, mailed, send, sent, find, found, give, gave, show, showed, ask, asked, tell, told, sell, sold, offer, offered, promise, promised, chose, chosen, take, took select, selected, elect, elected, etc.	He handed Sara her comb. She gave Mary the job. I will promise Bill the money. I might send her a letter.

To find out whether a word is an action verb, ask yourself whether that word expresses something you can do. Can you little? No! Can you window? No. But can you swim? Yes—swim is an action verb.

Linking Verbs and Be-verbs

A linking verb links the subject of the sentence with information about it. Sometimes linking verbs are called "state-of-being verbs."

The eye is brown.

This orange tasted so sweet.

In the first sentence, is links eye to information about it--the fact that it is brown. That is its state of being = "Be-Verb." However, his eye is not the same as "brown;" hence, "brown" describes the eye (or X describes Y). The two are not interchangeable or the same ; you cannot say, "Brown looks eye." So, whenever you have a linking verb it is always followed by an adjective (brown in this case ) that describes the subject (eye in the case)

N LV Adj.
The eye is brown. (Pattern 2)

In the second sentence, tasted links sweet to information about it—its sweetness. Did you think tasted was an action verb? Well, it is—when the subject is doing the tasting. But in example two, the orange isn't doing any tasting. The orange itself tasted soft. That is its state of being.

Auxiliary-helping Verbs

An auxiliary-helping verb goes with another verb. Most of the time auxiliary-helping verbs are called "helping verbs" because they introduce or "help out" the main verb.

Mr. Stevens is reading the story.

We should be going dancing.

In the first sentence, the auxiliary-helping verb, is, helps out the main verb, reading, by telling when the action is taking place—right now.

In the second sentence, the auxiliary-helping verb, should, helps out the main verb, go, by telling about its importance—dancing must be important, if it is something that should happen.

Note that you can't is or should something. This let's know you that they are not action verbs. Is and should just are; they do nothing. Try to "is'ing" something; for example, "is" a ball. You can't because "is" wouldn't allow you do do anything to the ball.

Be, have, and do are the most common auxiliary-helping verbs. Other common auxiliary-helping verbs include can, could, should, would, may, might, and must.

ASSIGNMENT: NON ACTION VERBS (Be/Linking/Auxiliary-helping)

You are required to memorize the non action verbs below. Knowing these verbs will help you to properly identify a sentence so that you can punctuate correctly. One cannot use a coordinator, subordinator or semicolon properly unless you can accurately identify a sentence/sentences. You will be expected to write a list of the non-action verbs during the second week of class from memory. Memorize them in order; your mind works in order or sequence: top to bottom, left to right, one through 20, and A through Z, so learn them, alphabetically, A-Z, because that is how your memory works.

List to memorize in this order: is, are, was, were, have ,has, had, might, could, would, should, do, does, did, be, am, must, might, may been, being, will, shall, AND other non action verbs used as linking verbs: looks, sounds, feels, smells, tastes, remains, became, turns, seems, grew, appears, turns, prove, stays

Non-Action Verbs Displayed

NON ACTION VERBS		TYPE OF VERB
Be Verbs
is, are, was, were, have, has, had, might, could, would, should, do, does, did, be, am, must, might, may, been, being, will, shall		Be Verb: —I am. She can.—a state of being. "Am and can specify a state of "being." These are intransitive verbs or a non active verb. These verbs do not allow anything to be done or act on something or someone.
Linking Verbs
is, are, was, were, have, has, had, might, could, would, should, do, does, did, be, am, must, might, may, been, being, will, shall - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Plus there are Liking verbs that can be used as both linking verbs and action verbs, such as looks, sounds, feels, smells, tastes, remains, became, turns, seems, grew, appears, turns, prove, stays, etc.		Linking Verb; —She turned angry. = Linking Verb He turned around = Non-linking Verb "Turned" is the linking verb and links "She" and "angry." angry describes "she." A Linking Verb is followed by an adjective. These are intransitive verbs or a non active verb Examples: He seems sad. The milk turned sour. The story remained true. He grew wise. He should be nice. He might have been happy. He will be sad. He is sad.
Auxiliary-helping Verbs
is, are, was, were, have, has, had, might, could, would, should, do, does, did, be, am, must, might, may, been, being, will, shall		Auxiliary-helping-Verb (HV): —It will happen Helping verbs, such as will plus another verb (happen) combine into verb phrases = will happen. So, will is the helping verb and happen is the main verb. Many active verbs need a helping verb.

NOUNS (determiners, possessives & adjectives)

Identifying a noun. You cannot write a sentence correctly unless you know you have a subject/noun. How do you know when you have a noun in your sentence. It is very simple. You can locate a noun by locating or identifying two/three simple type of words: determiners/articles and possessives which are the most accurate to identify nouns plus adjectives. Yep, more of the simple/small words that can make it impossible to write clearly unless you know what they are and how to use them correctly in your writing.

ONE: Determiners/articles are special kinds of words that come before nouns.

More, each, every, either, all, both, he, an, a, several, many, some, most, few, less, this, these, those, and any are just a few determiners.
a six-year-old child

Also, a determiner is any number—one, two, three, four, five, etc.: one house, two dogs, five people.

A determiner is always followed by a noun. If you use a determiner, it will be followed by a noun; it has to happen: a house, the dog, many people, etc. However, an adjective can come between a determiner and its noun: a large house, the brown dog, many loud people, etc. So if you use "crazy," it is manly used as an adjective: The crazy girl ran. But, if I say: A crazy was elected. The word "crazy" is now used as a noun because "a" precedes or comes before it. Determiners are said to "mark" nouns. That is to say, you know a determiner will be followed by a noun

More importantly, determiners are not part of any sentence pattern. For example: "The boy ran." Cross out the determiner, "the," because it is not part sentence patterns. Articles, determiners, and quantifiers are those little words that precede and modify nouns; there are hundreds of them. Again, it is impossible to know how to write a sentence unless you know what these "small words" do and know their function is.

TWO: Possessives show "ownership that come before nouns." They are not part of a sentence pattern; the merely tell you where the noun is because they are always followed by a noun.

My, mine, your, yours, his, her, hers, its, our, ours, your, yours, their, theirs, whose are just a few possessives.

As the determiners do so does the possessive, it is always followed by a noun:

my house (possessive-my followed by the noun house)
your dog (possessive-your followed by the noun dog)
his people (possessive-his followed by the noun people)
his book (possessive-his followed by the noun book)
their fense (possessive-their followed by the noun fense)

Also, possessives can be proper nouns, such as John's house, Larry's dog are possessives followed by a noun. When you spell a possessive for a proper noun, you do not put in the apostrophe in until you have written the persons name. If the persons name is Stevens; you make it possessive by placing the apostrophe after the "s" because it already has the "s" in the name. Stevens' is the proper way to make the name Stevens into a possessive. On the other hand, if the name is without an "s," you add the apostrophe then the "s." If the persons name is Henry, the possessive would be spelled Henry's.

Henry's umbrella (possessive-Henry's followed by the noun d umbrella)
month's pay (possessive-month's followed by the noun pay)
Stevens' class (possessive-Stevens' followed by the noun class)
Orange County's freeways (possessive Orange County's) followed by the noun freeways)

On the other hand, you can have an "adjective appear in between the "determiner" and its "noun." Please see the four examples below under "Adjectives." In the sample below "the" is followed by the noun "professor."

determiner adjective noun
the tall professor

Like determiners possessives are said to "mark" nouns. That is to say, you know a determiner will be followed by a noun.

Lastly. Why is it important to be able to locate a noun? Unless you cannot identify your subject in your sentence, you cannot make sure your subject/noun agrees with your verb. Plus, if you cannot make sure you have a sentence with a subject and verb, you will have problems using the comma and semicolon properly in a complex or compound sentence.

Lastly,

THREE: Adjectives are words that describe (modify) something.

the tall professor
the lugubrious lieutenant
a solid commitment
the unhappiest, richest man

Before getting into other usage considerations, one general note about the use—or over-use—of adjectives: Adjectives are delicate; don't ask them to do more work than they should. Let your heavy-duty verbs and nouns do the hard work of description. Be especially careful in your use of adjectives that don't have much to say in the first place, such as interesting, beautiful, lovely, exciting. It is your job as a writer to create beauty and excitement and interest in your story telling not your adjectives.

Chew on on the uses of adjectives (modifiers) in this adjectivally loaded paragraph from Thomas Wolfe's Look Homeward, Angel--slightly altered. (Charles Scribner's, 1929, p. 69.)

Adjectives are highlighted in this "pink" and the described-nouns are underlined in brown:

He remembered yet the East India Tea House at the Fair, the sandalwood, the turbans, and the robes, the cool interior and the smell of India tea; and he had felt now the homesick thrill of wet mornings in Spring, the cherry scent, the cool earth, the wet earth of the garden, the strong breakfast smells and the floating snow of blossoms. He knew the sharp excitement of hot dandelions in young earth; in July, of watermelons bedded in sweet hay, inside a farmer's covered wagon; of cantaloupe and crated peaches; and the scent of orange rind, bitter-sweet, before a fire of coals. He knew the good smell of his father's sitting-room; of the smooth old leather sofa; of the blistered varnished wood upon the hearth; of the heated calf-skin bindings; of the flat moist plug of apple tobacco, stuck with a red flag; of burnt leaves in October; of the brown autumn earth; of honey-suckle at night; of a clean rosy farmer who comes weekly with printed butter, eggs, and milk; of fat limp underdone bacon and of coffee; of a bakery-oven in the wind; of large stringbeans smoking-hot and seasoned well with salt and butter; of a room of old pine boards in which books and carpets have been stored, long closed; of Concord grapes in their long white baskets.

Please note a few of the words in Wolfe's paragraph above have been slightly altered for intelligibility.

In the first part of the sentence above East and India tell us more about the noun, "Tea House." Although "India" is usually used as a noun in a sentence, here it is used as a descriptive word. India wants more jobs. In this sentence India is in a noun position at the beginning of the sentence.

In Contrast, in the same paragraph above cool is a typical adjective that describes the noun, interior, one that seems more familiar to use as an adjective.

Consequently, you cannot ever know what part of speech a word is until you see what it is doing in its sentence. If you say unusual is an adjective without knowing what it is doing in a sentence, you may be wrong: The unusual rule the world. Here "unusual" is in a noun position.

PREPOSITIONS

You are required to memorize the prepositions below. Knowing these verbs will help students to properly identify prepositional phrases in a sentence. You cannot use a coordinator, subordinator or semicolon properly unless you can accurately identify prepositional phrases, which expand a sentence and are not a major part of the sentence . You will be expected to write a list of them during the second week of class from memory. Memorize them in order; your mind works in order or sequence: top to bottom, left to right, one through 20, and A through Z, so learn them alphabetically, A-Z.

Common Prepositions

Time or space Other relationship
(position or direction) (addition, comparison, etc.)

about	into	according to
above	near	as
across	next to	as for
after	off	aside from
against	on	because of
along	onto	concerning
along with	on top of	despite
among	out	except
around	out of	except for
at	outside	excepting
before	over	in addition to
behind	past	in spite of
below	since	instead of
beneath	through	like
beside	throughout	of
between	till	on account of
beyond	to	regarding
by	toward	regardless of
down	under	unlike
during	underneath	with
for	until	without
from	up
in	upon
inside	within
inside of

Source: Fowler HR, Aaron JE. The Little, Brown Handbook., Addison, Wesley, Longman, New York.

A preposition connects a noun to another word in the sentence:

N V N P *N
Cats make beds on pillows. (*OBJECT OF THE PREPOSITION "on")

The noun (pillows) is the object of the preposition (pillows) . The preposition plus its object and any modifiers is a prepositional phrase; hence, "Cats make beds on pillows'." Prepositions normally come before their objects.

Preposition	Object of the Preposition
on	the surface
with	great satisfaction
upon	entering the room
from	where you are standing
except for	ten employees

On the other had, when a preposition is used in a sentence without an object (noun) at the end of a sentence; then it becomes an adverb that tells how, what, when, where. For example, in the sentence: He went down the road. "Down," a preposition, has an object noun, road, so down the road is a prepositional phrase. However, in the sentence: He went down; "down" does not have an object noun, so it is behaves like an adverb that tells “where” he went.

N V Prep N
Preposition used as a preposition: The ball bounced down the road.

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PREPOSITION USED AS ADVERBS

N V Adverb
Prepositions can be used as an adverb: The ball went down.

Prepositions can help show where something took place (under, on, across, etc.). So they can also be used as "adverbs." For example, the ball bounced down the road. "Down" is a preposition because it has a noun with it, "road." But, drop the noun "road" off and "down" becomes an adverb as show in sentence above.

Preposition used as a preposition, creating "prepositional phrase:"

The car went down the street.	down = Preposition:	Prep has a noun with it (street).
The car went over the curb.	over = Preposition:	Prep has a nown with it (curb).
The car went through the water.	through = Preposition:	It has a noun with it (water).

Preposition used as an "adverb:"

The car went down.	down = Adverb:	Prep does not have a noun with it (street).
The car went over.	over = Adverb:	Prep has a v with it (curb).
The car went through.	through = Adverb:	Prep has a noun with it (water).

Simply put, if a preposition has an noun-object with it, it creates a prepositional phrase (down the hill); however, if it does not have a noun-object with it, the preposition becomes an adverb--telling where.

Such as, the ball went over his head. In this case "over" is a preposition because it has an object-noun with it, "head."
The ball fell over. In this case "over" is an adverb because it does not have an object-noun with it.

Prepositions as "prepositions and adverbs"

A prepositional phrase links a noun, pronoun, or phrase to another part of a sentence. Because many pronouns show direction, some say that "a preposition is anywhere a cat (thing) can go."

Look at the Examples below; then, identify i the "colored" word as a "preposition" or "adverb."

The cat walked around the ball.
The cat walked around.

The cat leaned against the box.
The cat leaned against.

The cat strolled near the box.
The cat strolled near.

The cat sneaked across the box.
The cat sneaked across.

The cat leapt at the box.
The cat crept behind.
The cat hid below.
The cat went beneath the box.
The cat leaned beside the box.
The cat tip-toed by.
The cat crawled onto the box.
The cat strutted near.
The cat jumped off.
The cat marched over the box.
The cat rambled past.
The cat traipsed to the box.
The cat stalked toward the box.
The cat wiggled under.
The cat settled upon the box.
The cat snuggled next to the box.

Preposition
Adverb

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A preposition leads to an object, which is the part of the sentence that receives the action of the verb. The preposition also tells how the object is related to the rest of the sentence.

The cat walked across the ball.

The ball is the object because it receives the action of the verb—the walking. The preposition, across, tells how the ball is related to the rest of the sentence. It links the fact that the cat walked with information about where it walked: across the ball.

Besides the ones listed above, some common prepositions are about, after, among, between, beyond, but, despite, during, for, of, since, through, until, and without.

On the other hand, when a preposition is an adverb it does not have an object after it.

The cat walked across.

Answers to 1-16 quiz

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x VERBS

Action Verbs

Linking Verbs and Be-verbs

Auxiliary-helping Verbs

An auxiliary-helping verb goes with another verb. Most of the time auxiliary-helping verbs are called "helping verbs" because they introduce or "help out" the main verb.

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VERBS