GRANDMA’S GRAMMAR!
                                  Here are a few grammar tips that might help you in your writing.
                                                                     Basic Parts of Speech

Like in a story with different characters, words in sentences play different roles.

There are eight parts of speech, and each piece helps build a sentence.
Parts of Speech: Nouns, Pronouns, Verbs, Adverbs, Adjectives, Conjunctions, Prepositions, Interjections.

• NOUNS are essential in a sentence. NOUNS describe people, places, or things.

Common Nouns name general items: monkey, cat, dog, boy, girl.  Common Nouns can also be emotions, like anger or happiness, or ideas, like a patriot.  Words that end in -nes, -tion, or - meant, like Happiness, connection, and government, are usually NOUNS.
Proper Nouns name a particular person, place, or thing: Astronaut, Christmas, Chloe, George.  You always capitalize proper nouns.

• PRONOUNS are substitutes for NOUNS. There are four different types of PRONOUNS: personal, indefinite, demonstrative, and possessive

A Personal Pronoun can be used in the place of names for men and women or when the gender is unknown.  Personal Pronouns: Singular  I, we, you, he, him, she, her, it

Personal Pronouns: Plural: they, them, who, whom, whoever, whomever

Indefinite pronouns refer to males and females or males and females.  They don’t specify gender.

Indefinite Pronouns: everybody, anybody, either, neither, each any

Demonstrative Pronouns are used to describe particular people, places, or things. Demonstrative Pronouns: this, that, these, those

Possessive Pronouns show ownership.  Possessive Pronouns: my, mine, your, yours, her, hers, his, their, theirs, our, ours, its

• VERBS describe actions or states of being.

There are different forms of verbs to show when an action is happening, such as past, present, or future.  This is called a verb’s tense. (Past Tense, Present Tense, Future Tense)

VERBS can also be regular or irregular. A regular verb will allow you to form a Past Tense of the word by adding a  -d or -ed to the word.

Example: follow  -  followed, smile  -  smiled,  like  -  liked

Irregular VERBS follow a different rule.  You cannot simply put a -d or -ed to show the Past Tense; to show a Past Tense in an Irregular VERB, you create a different spelling of the word.

Example: sleep - slept, drink  -  drank, grow  -  grew

The most common form of Irregular VERBS shows a state of being (how you are).
Example:  I am  -  I was,  It is  -  It was,  We are  -  We were

Infinity VERBS form is a VERB form that begins with to.

Example:  to walk, to run, to play
To create a Future Tense of a VERB for both a regular and irregular VERB, put the word will before the Present Tense VERB.  

Example: will walk, will run, will play

• ADJECTIVES: give details

ADJECTIVES make sentences exciting and help us to clearly understand the world.  ADJECTIVES are considered Modifiers.  A Modifier adds to NOUN (a person, place, or thing) to make them more descriptive.

Example: You did a fantastic job!  Chloe wore a striped dress.

You can make NOUNS into ADJECTIVES by changing their endings by adding a - y,- ful, and -tic.

Example:  flower  -  flowery,  color  -  colorful, fantasy  -  fantastic. We use special words like a, an, and the Modify NOUNS, called Articles.

• ADVERBS ask: How? When? How much? Where?  They help us answer questions.

ADVERBS are also considered Modifiers and add detail to our speech.  ADVERBS Modify VERBS (describes an action, state, or occurrence).

Example: The dog barked loudly. (The adverb loudly modifies the verb barked)Many ADVERBS are ADJECTIVES with an -ly ending.

• CONJUNCTIONS: join words and ideas together.

CONJUNCTION words include: and, or, but, if, yet, nor, and so.

Example: The dog was hungry and thirsty. I wanted to take the dog to the park, but he was too lazy.

• PREPOSITIONS help to clarify action.

PREPOSITIONS indicate a location, such as above, aboard, about, near, in, out, on, between, near, by, and along. They are used with VERBS to clarify the action. They also refer to an Object, which is always a noun.

Example:  The cat sat in my basket.  In this sentence in is the PREPOSITION that refers to the object my basket to explain where the cat sat.

• INTERJECTIONS show excitement!

Yikes! Ouch! Wow!  Exciting words or words that express confusion are called INTERJECTIONS.   They may be followed by an exclamation point or connected to sentences using commas:

Example: Ouch, who left the Legos on the floor?