Grammar Video Project!

English COL Concept Paragraph

The grammar concept given to us was adverbs, adjectives, pronouns (types), articles, and common vs proper nouns.

Let’s begin with adverbs. An adverb is a word that alters or enhances an adjective, verb, other adverb or word group. I’ll use this sentence for example. “The fire spread rapidly”. The adverb, rapidly, explains how the action in the sentence is to be fulfilled. “The fire spread” is an example of the sentence without an adverb. Without the adverb, the sentence has context, but does not explain (in this case) how fast the fire was spreading. Along with this, how the action word “spread” would be carried out was not mentioned.

Now, we can move on to adjectives. An adjective is a word that describes a noun or pro-noun; explains its characteristics to provide further imagery of it. An example of an adjective is the word tall. Its use in a sentence could be “the tall man sat to my right”. In this sentence the word tall is a word being used to describe the man sitting next to the person in the sentence. Another example of an adjective would be the word bright. Its use in a sentence could be “the bright light was painful in my eye”.

Let’s take a look at pronouns. Pronouns are words that can function alone and replace nouns or noun phrases. Some well – known pronouns are: I, he, she, me, you it, that, they. Their use in a sentence could be “Jacob ate so fast you’d think he was starved.” The pronoun “his” saved us from repeating the name Jacob again.

Time to discuss articles. Articles are words that are used alongside nouns. (There are two kinds of articles: definite and indefinite). Their use in a sentence could be: “After the long day, a relaxing bath was just what she needed”. By using the article, the, we’ve shown that it was one specific day that was long and that a particular bath was relaxing.

The last and final rule is common vs proper Nouns. Proper nouns name specific people, places, or things. They require capital letters no matter where they are in a sentence. On the other hand, common nouns are general people, places and/or things. They do not need to be capitalized unless at the beginning of a sentence. Here are some comparisons of common vs proper nouns. Common = teacher, Proper = Mrs. Thompson. Teacher on its own is a common noun because it is an unspecified person whereas Mrs. Thompson is a specified person.

All of these simple rules/concepts play some big roles in everyday grammar, making each and every one of them extremely important.

Grammar Concept Quiz:

Questions:

1. What are the two types of articles?

1. a) Definite and Indefinite
2. b) Specific and Unspecific
3. c) Dependent and Independent

2. What category is the word in brackets under?

“The carnival was covered with [huge] balloons.”

1. Adjective
2. Adverb
3. Noun

3. What defines a noun as specific or unspecific?

3. Adjective
4. Article
5. Pronoun

4. Which is the correct pronoun to use in this sentence?

“ ____ students must learn the vocabulary by next Friday”

1. We
2. Us
3. Them

5. What is the proper noun in this sentence?

“She drove by Niagara Falls last weekend.”

1. Weekend
2. Niagara Falls
3. She

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Answer Key for Quiz:

1. A (Definite and Indefinite)
2. A (Adjective)
3. B (Article)
4. B (Us)
5. B (Niagara Falls)