Pronoun (Cont.)

Use this page to unpack the classes of pronouns.

• Personal pronouns (I, we, us, you, your, he, she, they) are the most common class. Reflexive personal pronouns reflect back on the subject (I often talk to myself). Intensive personal pronouns place greater emphasis on another pronoun (I myself talk).
• Relative pronouns (what, who, whose, whom, which, that) relate a subordinate clause to a noun or pronoun. (The counselor who helps with scholarships works on Tuesdays.)
• Indefinite pronouns (all, anyone, both, each, something) refers to a nonspecific person or thing (Anyone can sign up for this class.)
• Interrogative pronouns (who, whose, whom, which, what) ask questions. (Who left a backpack on the floor?)
• Demonstrative pronouns (this, that, these, those) point at something, in effect demonstrating it. (That is my backpack.)

Forms of Personal Pronouns (Cont.)

The case of a personal pronoun indicates how it is used in a sentence.

• Nominative case pronouns function as subjects or predicate nominatives.
• Possessive case pronouns show ownership.
• Objective case pronouns serve as direct objections, indirect objects, or objects of the preposition.

Gender of personal pronouns include masculine (he, his, him), feminine (she, her, hers), and neuter (it, its).

Note that relative, indefinite, and interrogative pronouns also have indefinite gender (who, whose, someone, anyone). For many years, English speakers have substituted the plural (they, their) for singular indefinite antecedents: "Everyone should bring their own calculator." In writing, this shift from singular to plural has been considered nonstandard, but using gendered singular pronouns has been considered sexist. Inventing an indeterminate singular personal pronoun would resolve this issue, but no attempts so far have gained widespread usage. Advise students to "write around" the situation by replacing a singular antecedent with a plural one: "All students should bring their own calculators."

Verb (Cont.)

Action verbs tell what the subject is doing. Some action verbs are complete in and of themselves (intransitive), but others transfer the action from the subject to an object (transitive verbs).

• A direct object receives the action from the subject. (Stacy threw the ball.)
• An indirect object tells to whom or for whom the action happened. (Stacy threw me the ball.)
• An object complement renames a direct object. (Stacy called me the MVP.) This rare construction works with only a few verbs, such as named, nominated, called, elected, appointed, and chose.

Some verbs can be either intransitive (I left) or transitive (I left my textbook).

Forms of Verbs

Use this page to teach students about the tenses of verbs. In addition to the simple tenses of past, present, and future, English can express perfect and continuous tenses:

• Perfect tenses express action that began and either continues or is completed: "I had finished the exam five minutes before the bell rang."
• Continuous tenses express ongoing action: "I am gathering my homework" or "I was gathering my homework."

Forms of Verbs (Cont.)

The number and person of a verb are closely related. Usually, students can use the base form of a verb. The verb changes form only for present tense, third-person singular subjects.

Give special attention to the voice of the verb.

• Students should try to write in active voice when possible, in which the subject of the sentence is performing the action of the verb. Active voice is energetic, concise, and direct.

I built the set.

• In passive voice, the subject receives the action of the verb. Passive voice is more sluggish, wordy, and indirect.

The set was built by me.

Often, students write passively out of habit. They should learn to recognize passive constructions and make them active in most cases. (Passive voice is valuable to emphasize the receiver of the action or to avoid being too direct in sensitive situations.)

Adjective

Adjectives modify nouns. Most often, they appear before the word (fresh apples), but sometimes they follow a linking verb (These apples are fresh).

Proper adjectives come from proper nouns and should be capitalized.

Some words (both, any, some, that, this, etc.) are adjectives when they appear before a noun and pronouns when they stand on their own.

Adverb

Use this page to teach students about the four types of adverbs: time, place, manner, and degree. These types answer the basic adverb questions: how (manner), when (time), where (place), why (manner), how much (degree), or how often (time or degree).

As with adjectives, adverbs have positive, comparative, and superlative forms.

Conjunction

Conjunctions join parts of sentences. Just like Lego bricks or Tinkertoy sets, conjunctions join ideas in different ways:

• Coordinating conjunctions join equal ideas (and, but, or, nor, for, so, yet).
• Correlative conjunctions emphasize the equal nature of the ideas by using pairs of words (not only . . . but also, either . . . or, both . . . and, whether . . . or, etc.).
• Subordinating conjunctions deemphasize (subordinate) one clause, making it depend on another (independent) clause (after, although, as if, as though, as long as, etc.).

Interjections

Interjections, of course, express emotion or excitement.