Khan Academy Grammar

Singular They (4)

"Anyone will tell you the truth if you ask them the right questions," and you may have noticed that these sentences use the word "they" to agree with a singular antecedent like journalist or anyone. Now for some of you, you might not have noticed and for some of you, you might have, your immediate reaction might have been, oh wait, eh, let me get my red pen.

Verb-Perfect Progressive Aspect (1)

...

Irregular Plural Nouns-Mutant Plurals

1. Foot to feet. 2. Woman to women. 3. Man to men. 4. Tooth to teeth. 5. Goose to geese. 6. Mouse to mice 6. Louse to lice.

Three Ways to End a Sentence (4)

A question mark goes at the end of a question. So it basically just signifies I don't know the answer to this thing and I would like an answer to it please. Example: Is this edible?

Prepositions of neither Space not Time (1)

About, by, for, of, with. The five previous words are examples of what we would call prepositions that have connotations for neither time nor space. Some of them do have time connotations and some of them do have physics connotations and what we're going to talk about today, however, are the uses of these words, these prepositions, that don't have anything to do with time or space, they just have, they encode other relationships.

Adjectives (1)

Adjectives change stuff. They're part of a larger category of words that we call modifiers. Because that's what they do, they modify, they change things. So let's say I were to draw you a bear, I could refer to this bear and I could say, the bear. But I could also refer to this bear with a description, like, the friendly bear.

Intro to Adverbs (2)

Adverbs modify everything else. So adverbs modify everything that's not a noun. And the way we usually see this applied, is with verbs, and it's right there in the name too. As-Verbs. And this comes from the Latin meaning on or to verbs, action words. Adverbs are words that you slap on to verbs, basically.

Personal Pronouns (3)

Another way to divide up these pronouns is to divide it into the singular and plural.

Definite and Indefinite Articles (2)

As opposed to if you wanted the orange. This usage is much more specific, and it seems to indicate hat there is only one orange. You see the orange in particular that you want , you're identifying it, you're asking for it. That's what this definite usage is.

Singular They (15)

Austen used this construction, Chaucer used this construction, Shakespeare used this construction, C.S. Lewis used this construction, these are the people that we look to as paragons of correctness and of style in English literature, and they used this form without any compunctions.

Who Versus Whom (9)

Because both possibilities are equally understandable. Yes, technically if you wanted to be very correct you would say whom are you talking to, or you are talking to whom, because whom is the object of this preposition. It's whom, and so therefore we would use the object form.

Verbs

Can express or show action. All sentences contain verbs.

Who Versus Whom (2)

Continued: I loved whom? In this sentence, I am doing the loving. In this sentence it is the spy who is doing the loving. That's the basic rule.

Affect and Effect (1)

Hello grammarians, today we're going to talk about two of my, well, I don't know if I'd call them favorite, but two of my most frequently confused words. I make this mistake all the time and I think it's important to keep it straight. Affect and effect are two very different words. What is the difference you might ask. Well, that's why I'm here. To sum it up, let's just put the TL, DR right at the top. Affect is a verb, just think of that as a verb.

Subordinating Conjunctions (11)

Here are some of the most common subordinating conjunctions in English. And some of these you might recognize as being adverbs or prepositions in other contexts, but you could also use them to unite dependent and independent clauses. So, here we go. After, although, as, as if, because, before, even if, even though, if, if only, like, rather than, since, that, though, unless, until, when, where, whereas, wherever, whether, which, and, while.

The Scale of Formality (6)

Here's what it looks like if you're too formal. [Rosie] Please join us for little Philip's first birthday celebration. This festive occasion will include an abundance of delightful diversions in which you can partake. [David] This is a little boy's birthday party. (both chuckling) [Rosie] Let's get a hold of ourselves. [David] Let's, you know, this is not a steak dinner. Maybe reel it in. You have to tailor the content of what you're trying to write to it's context, right? [Rosie] Right.

Possessive Pronouns (7)

How do we know it's acting like a noun? Because we can use it independently of the word book. So if someone says to me, "David, where is your book?" I can say, "Mine is on the bedside table." Nowhere in this sentence does the word book appear, but we can use mine independently because we've established in a previous sentence that the thing we're talking about is this book.

Commas in Dialogue (3)

However, sentence number two-- [Paige] "They're probably pirates, Roxane said." [David] So here, since we're putting the dialogue tag after the reported speech, this were otherwise going to be a period. We're gonna put a comma here. "They're probably pirates," comma, "Roxane said," period. And why is this? It's because we're trying to separate between the reported speech and the dialogue tag itself.

Salutations and Valedictions (5)

I think salu is hello and wale, or vale is goodbye and so this is really just like a helloining and a goodbye saying so if you're saying hello in a letter or an email you use a comma. If you're saying goodbye in a letter or email...Use a comma.

Semicolons (3)

I'm afraid of heights, and that ride sounds terrifying. Exclamation point. These can work on their own, as different sentences. But they're so closely tied together. You know, I say I don't want to ride the Mega Sky Coaster, it's sort of telling us the back story as to why I don't wanna ride it.

Pronoun Number (2)

I'm part of a group now, or for a more normal prosaic, non-cloning example, let's say my sister and I are going out for coffee. I'd refer to the two of us together as us. That's the grammatical number, it's plural.

Pronoun-Antecedent Agreement (2)

If we wanna refer to Jillian again, but we want to use a pronoun, well, we refer to Jillian as she. That's a women's name, so she. She bought some garlic and a spoon, like you normally would when you go to the grocery store. When we talk about this pronoun she, in relation to this word, this proper noun Jillian, Jillian is the antecedent, is the thing that goes before the pronoun she, so that whenever you use a pronoun, you are referring back to something else, the thing that went before, the antecedent, the thing that has come previously.

The Colon as a Separator (3)

If we want to reference First Corinthians, Chapter 13, Verse four, we can write it like 1 Corinthians 13:4. Finally, we can use the colon to separate the hour from the minutes in the time of day. If I want to tell someone what time it is, I can say it is now ten-oh-nine AM. And between the ten, which is the hour of the day, and oh-nine, which is the minutes, we put a colon. So that's how the colon works as a separator. We can use it in titles, citations, and times.

Pronoun (1)

It allows you to take out the unnecessary noun when we're very certain we know what we're talking about. They are words that stand in for other words. Examples: her, he, and it.

Comma (3)

It can also set off things at the beginning of sentences, like "Basically, everything is great." The comma has a bunch of different functions. It's this super-useful multi-tool. It's the superhero of a piece of punctuation. So we're not going to cover all of that in this video. The most important thing to remember about the comma is what it does is separate sentence elements.

Ellipses (5)

It can be so easy to misconstrue someone's actual words. So this shows that this isn't exactly what Albus Dumbledore said, but it's the point that I want to get across with my quote. Does that make sense? [David] I think so. So you're saying that there's kind of like an ethics question here. [Paige] Right. [David] So how do we like accurately reproduce someone's words without misrepresenting them?

Irregular Plural Nouns-F to Ves

Leaf to leaves, loaf to loaves, and calf to calves.

Prepositions (2)

Let me demonstrate. So, okay, using just this hamster and this box, we can move this box around and talk about how the hamster relates to the box, right. So right now the box is under the hamster, that word under is a preposition because it's establishing this relationship of where. It's connecting the box to the hamster. But if I move it up like so, now we can say the box is over the hamster.

Indefinite Pronouns (10)

Let's get to one of the weirder examples, though, because sometimes the context can carry you along into something that might seem a little quote, unquote "ungrammatical" but really reflects the way that language is used today.

To, Two, and Too (4)

Next, T-W-O, also pronounced tu, you're welcome, is a number. It's this thing so we'd use this mostly as an adjective to describe how many things there are. So I would say, at the pizzeria, I ordered two pizzas and ate them by myself. Right, so when we're talking about the number of things, you wanna use T-W-O. And finally we have T-O-O, too, which is an adverb and they can either mean an over abundance of something or also.

Irony (8)

Now, the third kind of irony we're going to talk about today is called verbal irony. So, the irony of words. And this one's a little different, because verbal irony is the difference between a stated meaning and an actual meaning. And this means that it can come in a couple of flavors. The most notable, and perhaps the most confusing, is called sarcasm. And sarcasm is when you say a thing, but it actually ends up meaning something quite different, usually the opposite.

Subject and Object Pronouns (3)

Now, there are cases when a sentence doesn't have an object. For example, we could just say Reina wrote. It doesn't have an object, it's just Reina's the subject, and then there is no object. This is what we call intransitive usage.

History of the Possessive Apostrophe (9)

Okay. Then, so (laughs) that's middle English, And then, the printing press gets invented. Now, all of the sudden, people are writing texts in English all over the place, but nobody knows how to spell yet, right? So, we've got that possessive form, and then we have, what's called, the his possessive. So, at this point, we're in modern English, right, and so some bit of middle English and old English have fallen away.

Prepositions of Space (5)

On, which usually notes being on a surface, as opposed to in which is an enclosed area like I said. So we could say, there's a goblin on the front steps. The goblin is on the steps. The bunny is in the box. Do you see the difference?

Verb-Progressive Aspect (2)

Past Progressive- I was walking Present Progressive-I am walking, I'm walking (I have walked, I have been walking) Future Progressive-I will be walking ABC- Always BE ConjugatING

Intro to Adverbs (4)

Pearl arranged the furniture...slowly. Little sticker that we just, poof, put on there. But a word is also considered an adverb, if it modifies an adjective. So let's say adverbs modify verbs and adjectives. So we could say something like, "Vanessa was very hungry". Right, because hungry is an adjective, and very, is doing this thing, where it's modifying hungry. It's not Vanessa wasn't very. You can't be very; very is not an adjective.

Prepositions of Time (2)

People took this literal meaning of "Before" and "After" and made it representational. This moment occurred in front of this other one in time. It's a metaphor. We're using space to represent time.

Noun

People, places, ideas, things

Phrases and Clauses (2)

Phrases and clauses are both groups of words but they each do different things. So let's break that down. So, Rosie, if you'd please, what is a phrase? [Rosie] So phrase is a group of words and it acts like a single part of speech, but it's not, it will never be a full sentence, because phrases don't have both a subject and a verb. [David] Right, so a phrase can never be a sentence. [Rosie] Right. [David] What are some examples of phrases?

Prepositional Phrases (8)

Prepositional phrases can be really powerful, elegant, and cool. Like in Hamlet, in the "to be, or not to be" speech, he describes death as the undiscovered country, from whose bourn, no traveler returns. And bourn is an Early Modern English word meaning boundary. What Hamlet is saying in the soliloquy is that death is a mystery. People don't come back from it. And I think that's a powerful use of a prepositional phrase.

Compound Prepositions (1)

Prepositions that have more than one syllable. And a syllable is like a unit of rhythmic measurement in language. So for example you could say, com-pound prep-o-so-toons. The word compound has two syllables here and the word prep-o-si-tions has four. And it's how many rhythmic word sounds there are. That's all it means. And it generally tends to mean that a word is more complicated.

Contractions (7)

Right, it just takes letters from the middle of the word, and it takes them away, it stands in for the fact that there are letters missing. [Paige] You got it. [David] Cool. [Paige] So "I will" goes to "I'll", "She would" becomes "she'd", "He is" becomes "he's", and "will not" becomes "won't". So that's contractions.

Intro to Comparative and the Superlative (3)

Raul is happier than Cesar. This is what we call a comparative, because we're comparing Raul to Cesar, and we're comparing their happiness levels. And Raul has more happiness in him than Cesar does. Poor Cesar. However, Gabriela is the happiest penguin. The happiest is something that we call superlative in English. So it's not a comparison. It's not Raul is happier than Cesar. Gabriela is happier than all the other penguins.

Grammatical and Person Pronouns (4)

Right, so both me, us, I, and we are first person pronouns, because they are about me or a group that contains me. Likewise, you is second person. That's kind of it, both singular and plural. Everybody else, that's he, she, they, them, everybody, it, nothing, everything that is neither me not you falls into the everybody else third person category.

Subject and Object Pronouns (5)

Reina is a girl's name, and if we know that Reina is a girl, we can refer to her as either she or her. These are two of the feminine pronouns. One of these is a subject, and one of them is an object. She is the subject form, and her is the object form.

Compound Prepositions (11)

Right, and we're not asking, you know, what's the condition of his cardiac muscles, we're not talking about the blood, we're not talking about the blood, we're talking about what spiritually or what emotionally is going on inside Ralph.

Intro to Comparative and the Superlative (4)

She is the happy-est, she is the happiest, she is the most happy. So one way to think about this is that Raul's happiness is slightly larger than Cesar's happiness, but Gabriela's happiness is double plus, is unbeatably more than both of them. Undisputed, she is the happiest penguin.

Irregular Plural Nouns-Base Plural

Sheep, fish, and bison remain the same even when pluralized. When talking about individual species of fish, use fishes.

Affect and Effect (4)

So, we'd wanna say: the drought had a nasty effect. Another way to think of this is effect with an E is the same way as saying result. Similarly, if we wanted to write this sentence again, but with affect, with a verb, we'd say: the drought affected Angela's crops. So, affect, we're using it as a verb, effect we're using it as a noun. And I'm exaggerating the pronunciation of those just to give you the distinction.

Beginning Sentences with Conjunctions (1)

Some of you may have been raised like me, with the superstition that it wasn't okay to start a sentence with a conjunction. Like for, or and, or nor, or but. But I'm here to tell you, not to bury the lead, totally fine. Like, you may do this. There is nothing ungrammatical about this construction. Let me show you what I mean and what sort of sentences have historically been regarded, by some people, as unacceptable.

Definite and Indefinite Articles (3)

Something that's interesting about the word "the" is that it can be used for both singular and plural nouns. So it's both singular and plural. So you can say, "May I have the orange?" You can also say, "May I have the oranges?" And "a" and "an" does not really allow this, it is only singular. So you can't say "May I have an oranges." This is not standard. What you'd probably say instead is, "May I have some oranges?"

Past Tense Verb

Stuff that has already happened. Ed endings common in past verb tense. Just add d if ends in e (Example: sneeze to sneezed).

Verb-Simple Aspect

The bare tense of whatever conjugation you choose to do. Past-I walked Present-I walk Future -I will walk If it doesn't have any helper verbs for the past or the present and the only helper verb it has for the future is will, then it's simple.

The Scale of Formality (13)

The more formal you are, as Rosie was saying, the more less likely you are to use contractions, so full constructions? An example of that would be, on the informal side of the scale, you might say can't, where the formal you would say cannot. [Rosie] Yeah, I think the other side of the profanity is potentially more respectful, depending on who you're speaking with. So, you might address someone, you know, you might address someone as sir.

Prepositions of Space (4)

The preposition from has this connotation of coming from somewhere else to here. As in, we came from Mars. In denotes an enclosed area, so you could say something like there's a bunny in a box. Off denotes away from, she hopped off the rock.

Terminal Prepositions (7)

The question is, why did Lowth have such a bee in his bonnet about prepositions at the end of sentences? And the answer can be found in Latin. Here is the deal with Latin. In Latin, prepositions have a very particular function, similar to how they work in English.

Apostrophe (3)

The second thing that an apostrophe can do is show that something belongs to someone, what we call possession. You can use an apostrophe to say something like "That's David's cursed skull." So the sentence basically means that cursed skull belongs to David. The first sentence, "That's David's cursed skull" is kind of just an easier way to say that.

Indefinite Pronouns (8)

The third cool thing about indefinite pronouns is that they're usually treated as singular, usually. So words like both, neither, and either are obviously plural but there are some that are a little bit fuzzier. For example, in this sentence, "Nobody was home," we use the word was, the singular form. Even though that nobody could refer to multiple people, or it's really referring to the absence of anyone.

Prepositional Phrases (5)

The verb to steal, when it's presented like this, in the to form never conjugates. It's not affected by time, so it's kind of infinitive and infinite. But we are treating this whole thing as a noun, right, because to steal the queen's diamonds is kind of all being considered one thing, this big, old prepositional phrase, would, right, to steal the queen's diamonds would be a terrible crime. So, this prepositional phrase is acting like a noun.

Prepositions of neither Space nor Time (3)

The word for denotes use. So if you were to ask me, for example, "David what's a wood chipper used to do?" I would say, "It's for chipping wood, for turning wood into chips, it's purpose is chipping."

Adjectives (5)

The word part, ad-, comes from the Latin meaning to or toward or on. And the -jective part comes from a Latin word, jecere. It means to throw. So, an adjective is something that's kind of thrown on or thrown on top of something, because you don't necessarily need adjectives in order for a sentence to make sense the way that you need to have a verb or the way that you need to have a noun.

The Scale of Formality (3)

There are a couple of ways we could do this. We could say, Gary Evans, the esteemed chairman of the board, is a pretty decent dude. Now, there are a couple of things that tell me that a pretty decent dude is not stylistically appropriate for this sentence. And it's both that we're applying the adjective esteemed to Gary, and that we're giving him this high highfalutin title, chairman of the board, and so probably, in this situation, we wouldn't wanna say, we wouldn't wanna use this kind of slangy, informal language, pretty decent dude.

Indefinite Pronouns (7)

There are not a whole lot of words in English that refer to that, so I think that's really cool.

Semicolons (7)

There's another place we can use semicolons, which is in a complex list. In this case, it's called a super comma, but we're gonna get to that in another video. So for now, this is how you use a semicolon to link parts of a sentence. If the words to the left and the words to the right of the semicolon can stand as individual sentences with a period in between them, you can put a semicolon there instead.

Future Tense Verb

Things that will happen in the future. Word will used to indicate that. Words is going to can also be used.

Modal Verbs (6)

Things they can do: *Indicate modality. Which, like we said, establishes conditions.

Semicolons and Complex Lists (3)

This has a pretty high chance of being misunderstood. It could look like I'm saying I lived in New York, a place called New York, San Francisco, just California in general, and Knoxville, Tennessee. That's just a lot of commas and a lot of chances for misinterpretation. So this is not what we want. Another sort of complex list is when we have a list inside of another list. This looks something like "I need to buy a textbook, a workbook, and a dictionary for Spanish; a calculator for math; and a map for geography."

Adjective Order (2)

This is something that I think we just pick up as English speakers but if you didn't grow up speaking English it gets a little tricky sometimes. So the question is, in order to make this seem right, what order do you put these adjectives in? That's near about as I can reckon it. Making this into old white French house. Because there is an order and it goes like this. Determiner, opinion, size, age, shape, color, origin, material, purpose

Pronoun Number (5)

This is the plural (our) and this is singular (I). Another example: The dog wagged its tail. Dog and its singular. Want to make sure these things match up. We made our beds. We and our plural. As opposed to we made my beds. Which, who has multiple beds first of all. But it would also sound like multiple people, including me, were assisting me in making my many beds.

Possesive (7)

This is this one kind of obnoxious exception to the rule. So, for possessive pronouns, they don't, they just, they never take apostrophes. Okay, so the possessive in English usually formed with apostrophe s, The rabbit's carrot was delicious, Alexander Hamilton's surfboard, but when we're talking about possessive pronouns like his, or hers, or ours, or theirs, or my, or its, no apostrophes are needed. Possessive pronouns never take apostrophes.

Forming Comparative and Superlative Modifiers (2)

To be like, oh well I've got this word cute, like that's a cute little penguin, but how do I say that it's more cute than another animal. Well, there's a shorthand for that. Sometimes you can say more cute, certainly. But you can also say cuter. And you can furthermore say cutest. And it turns out that there are a series f sound rules in English that govern the way that we choose to make these words go.

Intro to Comparative and the Superlative (2)

To compare Raul to Cesar, or to compare Raul to Gabriela, or any combination thereof. We call these comparative and superlative adjectives. And before I get too into the weeds on that, let me just show you what that looks like. So we can say Raul is a happy penguin. He's got all the fish he wants, life is good.

The Colon as a Separator (1)

Today we're gonna talk about third and final function of the colon. So this final function of the colon is that it can be used as a separator. So it might sound like we're talking about the comma again, right? The comma separates elements of a sentence. But the colon does it in kind of a different way. So, let's look at some examples. So one common use of the colon as a separator is in titles.

The Sound of Language: Alliteration, Assonance, and Onomatopoeia (10)

To get across a pattern. [David] Um-hum. [Rosie] Like if your going to use words that all sound the same at the beginning, with a bunch of "Ss" that kind of, could potentially build some momentum to your sentence. Like, it kind of makes the reader sit up and pay attention, too, like oh, this is an interesting pattern. So that could be one reason why a writer might use, for example, alliteration.

Subordinating Conjunctions (1)

Today let's start talking about subordinating conjunctions. Words like, although and after and because. It's a pretty complicated topic, because in order to understand subordinating conjunctions, you have to understand the difference between an independent, and a dependent clause. Because that's what subordinating conjunctions do, is they unite independent and dependent clauses.

Verb Tense

Verb tense is nothing more than the ability of verbs to situate themselves in time. Three different times: past, present, and future. Example: I talked, I talk, and I will talk.

Run-Ons and Comma Splices (7)

We could say I love Li'l Tony 2: Pony Up 2 the Streets, comma, and it's my favorite movie in the Li'l Tony franchise or as we did in the previous example, we could also throw in a semicolon, which is I think what I would rather do. I love Li'l Tony 2: Pony Up 2 the Streets; semicolon, it's my favorite movie in the Li'l Tony franchise.

Three Ways to End a Sentence (3)

We have the period, which kind of all purpose terminal punctuation you can just say a regular declarative sentence. Here is a fact, my mom ate a cookie. Or you can use exclamation points to demonstrate excitement or strong emotion whether good or bad, so like an interjection like aaah! Or a command like go to your room! Or if you're super excited, I'm gonna eat so much candy!

Emphatic Pronouns (1)

We know that there's one way to use this thing we call reflexive pronouns and that's to say you're doing something to yourself, as in the sentence I made myself breakfast. Right, I'm making myself breakfast. Or in the sentence Ronaldo cut himself shaving.

Phrases and Clauses (12)

We'll go into what the difference between a dependent and an independent clause is next time, but just know for now, this is a clause over here and this clause over here, the falcon soared majestically, is also a clause by dint of the fact that it has both a subject, the falcon, and a verb, soared majestically. [Rosie] All right. [David] Cool. That is phrases and clauses.

Three Ways to End a Sentence (1)

We're going to talk about the three ways to end a sentence. This is what we call a terminal punctuation of English. The first is a period (.). And then exclamation point (!). And a question mark (?). A period is sort of the standard ending to a sentence. Example: My mom ate a cookie. Which is a straight up, regular old sentence. Just a standard declaration of a fact. We just put this period there to say that's the end of a line.

Hyphens vs. Dashes (10)

Well, now sometimes it appears like that. Like that, like C-O-O-P, but if I said something like, "I wanna by my coop from the co-op," like that, it'll end up looking like this. [Paige] I wanna buy my coop from the coop. [David] Right. [Paige] Or my co-op from the co-op, or co-op from the coop, or something. [David] So, in order to be clear, it really helps to put in that little hyphen.

Singular They (21)

What happened to the word "you" is happening to "they," the plural is expanding into the realm of the singular again. The language is changing because that's what languages do, and now this is something that's already done unconsciously, you see it in literature, you see it in the Bible, in formal as well as informal speech.

Affect and Effect (6)

What we're saying here is really, make change. When we say effect as a verb that really just means to make. And the other obnoxious exception is affect as a noun, which is like a psychology term, it really means someone's personality. So, for example Percy had a smug affect. And that just means his personality is smug. Now, I wanna hit again that these are exceptions and they're pretty rare.

Verb-Perfect Aspect (1)

Whatever action we're talking about is complete. So we use the perfect aspect in all tenses to illustrate when something has been completed prior to the present moment.

Prepositions of neither Space nor Time (2)

When we say about it can mean you're talking about a specific subject. So I could say to you, "Tell me about yourself!" The word by can be used to denote agency or doing this. You'll see what I mean by that. I mean we can figure out who is responsible for something with the use of the word by. The book was written by Sudhir. So who did the thing? Sushis did the thing, he's the person with the agency, he's the doer.

Articles (5)

When you know who and what you are talking about for sure use "the". And when you're not sure, you say "a" or "an". So if you knew you were talking about a specific elephant. Say for example the queen of the elephants, you would say "the". And if you we're talking about any old elephant, you'd say "an". You'd use the indefinite article. So "the" for the specific, "a" or "an" for nonspecific.

There, Their, and They're (6)

Which one of these things do you use? And so when you come across this thorny little issue "Do I use there, their or they're?" you have to ask yourself a series of questions. Questions #1, "Does it answer the question 'where is it'?" If so, use T-H-E-R-E. If the use answers the question, "Who does it belong to?" then you use T-H-E-I-R. If what you're trying to say is a contraction of "they are" then what you're looking for is T-H-E-Y-'-R-E.

Who Versus Whom (12)

You are talking to who is a little bit more formal of a construction, and therefore you would probably want to use whom. Saying you are talking to who is not as common.

Run-Ons and Comma Splices (10)

[Beth] Right, the comma's being used but we need some bigger punctuation in place of the comma, something like a semicolon, in order to make a distinction between those two independent clauses. [David] So that is how you identify and fix run-ons and comma splices.

Three Types of Sentences (3)

[David] So we can say Lavender hated baseball. You know, you could start a short story with that. [Paige] Right, that's just a fact about Lavender. [David] That's a fact about Lavender. So a declarative sentence is a statement. Just straight up.

Less Versus Fewer (12)

[Rosie] Yeah. I don't see any problem with that especially since the only real reasoning that anybody can find to go on is this one persons opinion from 1770. So I think we can say 'less' to refer to countable items [David] And lest you think that we're replacing one dudes opinion from 1770 with two peoples opinion from the present like I get that that's a legitimate criticism that you can make but what we're trying to say is that this reflects the way that language is commonly used and understood now. [Rosie] Right.

FANBOYS Mnemonic Song (5)

[Voiceover] Though we lay down our fan this day, you too can have the power to unite phrases, words and clauses with the coordinating conjunctions of English. Which are: [All] For. And. Nor. But. Yet. Or. So.

Modal Verbs (1)

A class of auxiliary or helper verbs. These are verbs that have special properties and help other verbs. Modality is when we use these verbs to express conditions on stuff.

Verb-Perfect Progressive Aspect (1)

A combination of the perfect and progressive aspect. You can use the perfect progressive aspect to say that you've been doing something for a long time, or you will have done something for a long time, or that you had been doing something continuously in the past and now it's stopped. You take the verb "to have" and then you combine it with the word "been," and then the verb in question, and then the ending "ing".

Concrete and Abstract Nouns

A concrete noun refers to a physical object in the real world, such as a dog, a ball, or an ice cream cone. An abstract noun refers to an idea or concept that does not exist in the real world and cannot be touched, like freedom, sadness, or permission.

Three Ways to End a Sentence (2)

An exclamation point is pretty much if someone is excited about what they're saying. So if I were to say I'm gonna eat so much candy when I get home! But its not just for good excitement either. It can be used for anger, like, "go to your room!" Or like fear. If you said, "Aaah!"

That Versus Which (7)

And to try that once more, without commas, now we have, "The carrot that was orange was tasty." This is restrictive usage again. And this one works. So, the distinction here is that that doesn't play well with commas.

Indefinite Pronouns (2)

Any time I need to remember what words fall into this category of indefinite pronouns, I jus think of the song Everybody Needs Somebody to Love, originally by Solomon Burke, and then later made famous by The Rolling Stones and the Blue Brothers.

Singular They (18)

Anyway, that group of grammarians, that group decided that when speaking of a generic person we should say "he," a hypothetical person in a sentence was always "he" on the grounds that according to 16th century grammarian William Lily, "The masculine gender is more worthy than the feminine."

Compound Prepositions (14)

Because the difference between that and the literal sentence is you can open the box, you can't really open someone's mind. Not physically, anyway. You could open someone's mind by showing them new foods and movies and books and music and stuff. But you can't really get inside someone's head unless you're a psychic mind wizard.

Relative Adverbs (3)

Because the word, where, modifies the word grew. It's I grew up, where. And it also connects this whole thing to cave. Because where did Peggy grow up? A cave. And it connects this whole chunk to the rest of the sentence. To the sentence being, that is the cave. We use the word, when, to ask questions about time.

Linking Verbs

Besides showing action, verbs can also link ideas to one another. Linking verbs are also known as state of being verbs. Include all to be verbs. Examples: am, is, are, be, being, been, was, and were. State of being verbs used to show what something is. Examples: The bear is hungry. / The bear looked lonely. / The bear smells like cinnamon.

Oxford Comma (5)

Both of these things are kind of examples of assumed apposition that we're using. We're using Mahatma Gandhi and my pet hamster to explain or clarify parents. Or that we're using a tiny Norwegian harpist to explain or clarify Elvis. And this is not the case. I think you have to choose which kind of confusion is more important for you to avoid. Frankly, the way to fix these sentences is to put the uncertain thing elsewhere in the sentence.

Beginning Sentences with Conjunctions (5)

Brian Garner, the author of the usage manual that I use most of the time, Garner's Modern American Usage, says that about 9% of sentences by, what he calls, first-rate writers begin with "and," "but" and "so" or other words in the FANBOYS mnenomic, if you remember FANBOYS. And that's "for, and, nor, but, or, yet, and so." And then those are the coordinating conjunctions.

Recognizing Fragments (9)

But all together, because of the snowstorm, comma, we stayed home from school, period. That is a sentence. So in order to make sure that you're building sentences you have to make sure that what you've got is a subject and a predicate. You gotta have a subject and a verb, put 'em together, slap on a period, you've got a sentence. [Beth] You've got some good sentences there David.

Singular They (12)

But something marvelous happened in English, the social distinction between you and thou fell away and you overtook thou and its subject form thee so now for both the singular and the plural, for the informal and the formal, for the subject and the object, all we have here is you, you, you and you. It would be as if I, me and we were all replaced by us, I cannot emphasize how revolutionary this is!

Parallel Structure (6)

But, if we're going to assume that sprinkled is now a verb that means to be covered in sugary cake decorations, we would say the cake was baked, frosted, and sprinkled, or decorated with sprinkles, but I kind of like sprinkled. So that's active versus passive. We've already covered infinitive versus other verb forms, so that's, you know, skiing, well, that's to ski versus skiing, so this is what we call an infinitive form, and this is another form that's called a gerund.

Verb Agreement

Correct Examples: The dog barks. The dogs bark. Jake bakes a cake. We bake a cake. Incorrect Examples: The dog bark. The dogs barks. Jake bake a cake. We bakes a cake. Wrong sounds like Gollum. Sentence parts match.

Terminal Prepositions (14)

During the 17th and 18th century, you really see this move towards Latinizing English, trying to make English grammar behave more like Latin Grammar. But English comes from a different language heritage; it's a Germanic language. And that doesn't mean it's better or worse than Latin, it just means it's different, and it behaves differently. We shouldn't try to treat English as though it we're anything other than English. So, if anyone tells you can't end a sentence with a preposition, send them this page.

Verb-Perfect Aspect (3)

Example: "I have washed the dishes." Uses the present form of to have, and the past form of washed. So as with the progressive aspect, the thing that changes is the helper verb. The main verb doesn't change. It remains in the past tense, even if we're talking about the present or the future. The part that changes is have.

FANBOYS Mnemonic Song (4)

Fanboys Fanboys The boys who had a plan The boys saw the land was crying for justice Yet they knew that this wasn't the way So they put down their fan And this is what they had to say ♫

Relative Pronouns (4)

For example: You could say, the salad that I bought was wilted. But as the same time, I can also use that in this sentence. Ex: The man that I saw smiled. See, I'm using that to refer to him. I could also use who, but the word which, however, does not play very nicely with people.

Coordinating Conjunctions (4)

For has this connotation. You can use it the way you'd use a word like since or because, as in...I do not eat buttons, for they are not food. You can see I'm combining these two little sentences using the word for. We're using this for to explain my reasoning. I do not eat buttons because they are not food, and for is a simpler way to express that.

To, Two, and Too (1)

Hello grammarians. Today, we're gonna talk about the confusion that happens between these three homophones, these three words that sound exactly the same. The preposition to, the number two and the adverb too. Now these words all sound very similar. In fact, they sound exactly the same. If I were to write this out phonetically, here is what I would do. That's how you'd write it in the international phonetic alphabet for every pronunciation.

Appositives (5)

I could just say, "They stopped selling my favorite snack." [David] That could just be its own sentence right. They stopped selling my favorite snack. My older sister is going to college in the fall. This stuff isn't essential to the understanding of the sentence. [Paige] Right, but if you don't know what my favorite snack is, then it's helpful for me to say, the Cookie Cat.

Dependent and Independent Clauses (14)

I feel that there should be a comma here, so I'm gonna put one in. That's not our pet rabbit, unless I'm mistaken. I hope this has cleared some stuff up. So an independent clause is a subject and a verb and it can be a sentence. A dependent clause is a subject and a verb, but also a subordinating conjunction and it cannot be a sentence.

The Scale of Formality (12)

I mean, look, we here at Khan Academy, we're not advising you to curse all over the place, but if you must, do it in an informal setting, right? Right. Like, formal settings are not suitable for obscenity, that's why it's called obscenity. And then the more formal your language becomes, the more likely your vocabulary is to become more complex or specialized, like if I were, let's say if I were a doctor, and I were addressing a doctors' convention, I would probably use a lot of doctor language, right, like specialized vocab.

Terminal Prepositions (1)

I wanna talk about ending sentences with prepositions, and I wanna tell you, straight up, it is totally okay. Like, it is perfectly grammatically correct and sensible and fine to end sentences with prepositions in English. And if you don't know what I mean, that's fine. Let me throw out some examples. "It's a crazy world we live in, for example, is a sentence that ends in "in" which is a preposition.

Beginning Sentences with Conjunctions (10)

If you're gonna start a sentence with a conjunction of any kind, you have to make sure that you're actually producing a sentence. So think about your follow through, is ultimately the take away here. If you start a sentence with a conjunction, make sure you're building towards some kind of independent clause.

Compliment/Complement and Desert/Dessert (8)

If you're missing that second S, it means things are a little lean. There's not a lot of water. There's a lot of cacti and rattlesnakes. Don't get me wrong. I have had some excellent desserts with two Ss in desert places. There happens to be a very fine ice cream parlor in Scottsdale, Arizona, but what I'm trying to say is that in the landform that we call a desert with one S, you are unlikely to find an ice cream sundae just sitting out.

History of the Possessive Apostrophe (13)

It's attested in print, and this is how it was collapsed, and, what happened as a result of this usage, is the same thing happened to this. So, the kinges hat became the king's hat, and it was just well, frankly, because if you were talking about the queen's hat, in this his possessive context, it just...You'd either have to do the Queen her hat, which is fine, I suppose, or the Queen his hat, which doesn't make a ton of sense.

Linking Function of the Colon (6)

Lastly, a colon can introduce a quote. My friend Liz says it best: "Never open a jar of pickles you can't close." I'm not really sure what that means, but she does say it best. So, as you can see, like it was in the first couple of example sentences, there's kind of information missing from the first parts of all three of these sentences. We needed to find three more items on the scavenger hunt. Well, what did you need to find?

Irregular Plural Nouns-Foreign Plurals

Latin words: (singular to irregular to regular plural) •a to ae: larva to larvae to larvas. •us to i: fungus to fungi to funguses. •um to a: datum to data. •ex/ix to ices: index to indices to indexes. Greek: (singular to irregular to regular plurals) •is to es: thesis to theses to thesises. •on to a: criterion to criteria

To, Two, and Too (5)

Let me give you examples for both of those cases. So example case number one, the excessive amount. I ate too much pizza, I feel awful. Now some of you may take issue with that because you don't believe that there is such a thing as too much pizza, I understand. So that's our excessive amount, that's just mountains and mountains of pizza more than one person can or should reasonably eat. That's that definition. And then there is the in addition or also meaning so my sister wanted pizza too, but because of my greed, she did not get any, sorry Julie.

Modal Verbs (3)

Modals: May, might, must, can, could, shall, should, will, and would.

Subject and Object Pronouns (4)

Now, understanding the relationship between e-mail and Reina enables you to understand how subject and object pronouns are used. When we're subbing out these nouns for pronouns, we can figure out which ones we have to use, because pronouns have different forms depending on whether or not they are subjects or objects.

Possessive Pronouns (6)

Or I could say, "That book is mine." And here we're using is to connect book to mine, and so in that case we're using mine as a noun.

Indefinite Pronouns (9)

Similarly, in this sentence "Everybody knows that I love onions," we use the word knows, just like we'd say he knows, she knows, it knows. So that's the singular form of that verb. Even though the idea of everybody would seem to refer to more than one person. The indefinite pronoun that we use to refer everybody usually conjugates the third person singular form of verbs, usually.

Oxford Comma (7)

So Paige and I are here to report. We're not here to make law. We're trying to tell you about the language as it is and the way people use it. Well we do at Khan Academy is we use the Oxford comma, so parents, comma, Mahatma Gandhi, comma, and my pet hamster, or Elvis, comma, a tiny Norwegian harpist, comma, and Frida Kahlo.

Three Ways to End a Sentence (5)

So we have periods, just statements of facts, exclamations, expressions of strong emotion, or question marks, which ask a question.

Modal Verbs (16)

So would say "He will win the competition." Or "He shall win the competition." And use of this modal verb will, or shall, indicates that that thing you're talking about is happening in the future.

Forming Comparative and Superlative Adjectives (1)

So, I'm gonna say that the dog food is less blarfy, and the cheese is blarfier, in fact this cheese is the blarfiest food on the planet. Now don't get me wrong,

Terminal Prepositions (10)

So, you could say, "Carrum ponere ante equum." And just because of the way Latin works, because of its case endings and because of this prepositional relationship, we can always tell, no matter what order the words are in, how the sentence parts relate to one another.

Dashes (13)

The dash kind of serves that role, because it's a very fancy actor. So I wouldn't say that the dash as an actor can perform the same roles as terminal punctuation, as periods or question marks or exclamation points, but rather I would say that it is cutting off the sentence before we can even get to where those would live.

Appositives (2)

The definition itself is also kind of confusing, but it'll make a lot of sense when we see some examples. My older sister, Griselda, is going to college in the fall. [David] Okay, so, an appositive, what is the definition of an appositive then? [Paige] So it is a noun phrase that clarifies or redefines its antecedent.

Who Versus Whom (7)

The only one that's not fine is this guy here. The spy whom loved me. Because this language change is going on one direction. And it's in the direction of whom being used less often. So whom never expands from its original position. Who does.

Correlative Conjunctions (3)

The opposite of either/or is neither/nor. So, either/or sets up this choice between two options and neither/nor rejects both options, so, neither Jia nor Becca liked Howard. Both/and: Both Bigby and LaDoux were career criminals. Why we're using both to indicate a connection between two things and then we use and later in the sentence to really firm that up.

Definite and Indefinite Articles (4)

The other thing about "a" or "an" is that it's "a" or "an". The indefinite article changes depending on the vowel sound that comes after it. So it changes for vowel sounds. Now what does that mean? It means that if you know that word that you're going to say next like ah or ooh or eh or uh or ee (vowels), then you're gonna change it to "an".

That Versus Which (6)

There's nothing about the word that or which that says, "This is what it must be used for." But, of all the combinations that could be made using either which or that or commas or not commas, that, with commas, is the least common, and that is why to me, as a speaker and writer of standard-American English, it doesn't look regular.

Singular They (17)

These are falsehoods and they are confusing and they are needless, pompous class markers and defeating them, and making you feel more comfortable with English is why I got into this profession in the first place.

Emphatic Pronouns (4)

This is how it works. So instead of just saying...and the difference, the key difference, between reflexive and intensive or emphatic usage of this kind of pronoun is you could take these right out of a sentence and it would still make sense. I'll do it, I heard it, the princess will run the marathon. Right, we're using them as intensifiers which really means they can come right out.

Dashes (4)

This is kind of like an abrupt cutoff. So, like the comma, right, the dash is uniting these two independent clauses. "I ran to the bus stop, the bus had already driven away." Right, so, like, you know, comma, but we connect those two independent clauses the same way the dash but is connecting those two clauses. But it has a slightly different connotation. It's just more abrupt in the way that it connects these two things together.

Intro to Adverbs (1)

Today we're going to talk, skillfully and patiently, about adverbs. And what it that adverbs do. And in order to do that, I think it might be useful to talk about what adjectives do first. So adjectives can modify stuff. And I should have been clearer in the last video, and said that they modify nouns. But I, didn't wanna introduce too many rules and strictures. What adjectives modify is nouns, and only nouns.

Salutations and Valedictions (1)

Today we're gonna be talking about commas in correspondence and what that means is how to use commas in letter writing, so saying hello and saying goodbye. When you start writing letter or an e-mail to somebody, you use commas so let me show you an example. So if you're writing a letter to someone you open it with something like this. Dear Prudence, I received the plum jam you sent me.

Prepositions (5)

We can also use a word like of to express the how relationship and that's just sort of to say what belongs to whom. So we could say, "That is the hat of the hamster." That is the hat of the hamster. So that's what prepositions are in the most basic sense, they can help you figure out what the relationship is between two things in time and space or how one thing relates to another. So you can figure out when, where, and how using prepositions.

Commas in Space and Time (1)

We're gonna be talking about commas in space and time because commas have basically one function, which is-- Separating parts of sentences. And what's neat is that we can use commas to separate stuff out in space and separate stuff out in time. So I'm gonna handle space; Paige is gonna do time. It's gonna be sweet.

Pronoun-Antecedent Agreement (5)

We're referring to multiple monkeys, so it would be incorrect to say the monkeys threw snowballs, but it had crummy aim, because this makes it seem like we're talking about one monkey, when in fact, we're talking about an army of snowball chucking monkeys. We got our little monkey, maybe a calobus or diana monkey. Got a little tuft, it's throwing a snowball. And if that's an Old World monkey, it probably doesn't have a fancy tail, this one has a little tail.

The Scale of Formality (10)

We're taking this content, there's an abundance of delightful diversions, which, I suppose at a first birthday party, would probably, again, be cake and games. There's not really that much that a one year old can do at a party. [Rosie] That's true. [David] So we're taking this, high register, this formal register language and then just kinda dialing it back a couple of notches. So we've got formal on this side, informal over here.

Possession for Words Ending in S (1)

We're talking about possession for names or words ending in the letter S. There's some confusion, I think, about what to do if you've got to make someone's name possessive if their name ends in an S, for example, my friend Jess. If we're talking about Jess, and we're talking about something that belongs to her, like Jess's hat. We know that there should be an apostrophe in there, but should there also be an S? The answer is, yes.

Compound Prepositions (17)

We're using this physical relationship as a figurative metaphor. We're using that to say that this strawberry over here is way better than anything else that we've had previously. Like this square rock. This is, you used to eat rocks before. Now you've had a strawberry for the first time and oh my goodness it's just blowing you away. Anyway, these are eight of the most common compound prepositions. There are more listed in the exercises.

Dependent and Independent Clauses (13)

Well, the verb is kind of hiding in here. So unless I am mistaken, right. So, the presence of this subordinating conjunction unless makes this into a dependent clause. So unless means it's kind of hinging on some other information. So the other information is that's not our pet rabbit, unless I'm mistaken.

Grammatical Person and Pronouns (1)

What's the difference between me and you? I mean that in like a conceptual way. What's the difference, in terms of these two pronouns, what separates them? Well, one's about me and one's about you, but that seems kind of like a pretty easy distinction that's right there on the face of it, right. English, like other languages, has this thing that grammarians call person.

Hear/Here and Accept/Except (7)

Which is how we're going to tell the difference between these two words, this gives us the basis for our mnemonic so remember that except is spelled, E-X-C-E-P-T which is also the first three letters of a similar word, exclude, so except excludes stuff. And accept is spelled A-C-C-E-P-T, so we're going to say that's very similar to access. So accept with an A, brings something in, and except with an E, keeps something out.

Compound Prepositions (10)

Within is a word that basically just means in or inside. And you can use it literally, you know, to say, "There's a frog within the pond." Which is maybe a little ponderous but you get the idea. But if you wanted to get metaphorical, you could say non-literally, "Who can say what is within Ralph's heart?"

Compound Prepositions (12)

Without is an interesting one because it kinda has, it used to mean something different. It used to mean something more akin to outside, but now it has this connotation of just not with. It's the opposite of with. "I guess we're going to the Candy Planet without Stu, then."

More Uses for Commas (7)

You would use, say, yes or no and follow it with a comma. So this is just another example of how powerful commas are. You can use them in all these different separating abilities. So you can separate between the tag question, the positive assertion and the negative question, like: "You like cheese," comma, "don't you?", or "This won't hurt," comma, "will it?"

The Scale of Formality (11)

You're here, you wanna be at about here. The main thing, your main indicator for whether or not language is formal or informal is the kind of vocabulary that you choose to deploy. So the more informal you are, the more likely you are to use silly vocabulary or made up words. [Rosie] And contractions. [David] Contractions. So the more informal, contractions, slang, profanity.

Recognizing Fragments (6)

[Beth] So you've got a part that names, that's your subject, and then you've got the part that finishes the thought, that's your predicate. [David] Let's look at another example. All right, what about because of the snowstorm? Is that a sentence, Beth? [Beth] Nope. [David] Why not? [Beth] Well you don't tell what happened because of that snowstorm.

Recognizing Fragments (4)

[David] All right, so, the whole story began 10 years ago. And now we've got our subject here, the whole story, and now we've given it a predicate. Similarly, if we just had this predicate, and we just said it began ten years ago, oh, that's not enough to be a sentence either, that's also a fragment. Because now we've got a predicate but no subject. [Beth] Right, we're telling about something but we don't know what.

The Scale of Formality (16)

[David] So reserve your formal and informal language for contexts when it is necessary. Just like you wouldn't wear formal shoes to the beach, neither would you show up, you know, in flip flops before a joint session of Congress. [Rosie] Exactly. [David] Whether you're writing or speaking, always consider your context, consider your audience, and from that, consider the way that you deploy language.

Dashes (6)

[David] So that's use number one, it can interrupt the structure of a sentence. Use number two for the dash is that they can act like parentheses in pairs. [Paige] So the dash is in the same place as another type of punctuation could be again? [David] Correct. [Paige] Okay. [David] The dash, I guess, is kind of like, so let's look at another example sentence. And I'll switch colors.

Contractions (4)

[Paige] Yeah, that's pretty amazing. I mean this tiny apostrophe stands in the place of all of these letters. [David] Yeah it's doing a lot of work. Have I got a deal for your, Paige. How would you like three letters for the price of four? 'Cause you can shorten, you know, something like "he is" to "he's". [Paige] Right. Yeah, I mean, that's what the principle we were talking about is all about. Like "he is" isn't that hard to say, but "he's" is a lot easier.

Commas and Adjectives (6)

[Paige] Yeah, yeah. [David] So, it's the order in which you would use, if in which you were stacking these adjectives you would use them in this DOSASCOMP order. [Paige] Right, so like in the second sentence, mushy is an opinion, like you said, and green is a color.

What is a Sentence? (9)

[Paige] Yes, I am. [David] So, a sentence is a grammatically complete idea or expression. [Paige] Mmm-hmm. [David] And it has to have a noun or pronoun part, which we call the subject, and it has to have a verb and all it's baggage part, which is what we call the predicate. And sometimes that subject can sort of be implied, or invisible, as in the command. "Pick up that muffin!" [Paige] Right. - [David] Cool.

Possesive (3)

[Paige] You can say something like the rabbit's carrot was delicious. [David] Oh, interesting, so you're actually containing, there's like a lot of information that's contained within the rabbit's, that little thing. 'Cause you're expressing the relationship between the rabbit and the carrot, just with that little apostrophe s, that contains so much information in it. [Paige] Yeah, the whole idea of the rabbit owning the carrot comes from that apostrophe s.

Less Versus Fewer (3)

[Rosie] Alright. I'm gonna make a broad statement to start with and we can kinda dig into it but my argument is that you can use 'less' to mean or to refer to both countable items, count nouns and to larger mass nouns but you can only use 'fewer' to refer to count nouns like, 'five items or fewer' but you couldn't say 'fewer water'. [David] So you are acknowledging that there is a difference. [Rosie] Oh definitely!

Complex Sentences (7)

[Rosie] Although our tent was zipped up, the sound of hyenas in the distance still frightened us. [Paige] So again, this sentence starts with a dependent clause, although our tent was zipped up. This would be independent if it said our tent was zipped up, but again, we have this subordinating conjunction, although, at the beginning. And there's kind of a whole bunch of different subordinating conjunctions.

Less Versus Fewer (7)

[Rosie] And the reason that I feel this way [David] Okay [Rosie] Is that this trend or this idea that fewer always has to go with the count noun is really just as far as I can figure just a thing that some guy named Robert Baker wrote in this book. [David] What do you mean "some guy"? [Rosie] He was, well okay [David] Just like some dude invented it?

The Sound of Language: Alliteration, Assonance, and Onomatopoeia (8)

[Rosie] Assonance, where you repeat the same vowel, like abolished all anguish. [David] And onomatopoeia, where you make a word that sounds like what the word's effect is. So the bees buzzed, the pudding cup went splat, the boxing bell fell to the floor with a clang, the firework went off with a bang, a flight of bats whooshed past my head, and the robot, the little baby robot beeped at me, insistently. [Rosie] I like those.

Less Versus Fewer (14)

[Rosie] Exactly. And the one exception that I would say comes back to this question of context and style that David and I have been talking about. If you're writing a formal paper you probably wanna use 'fewer' to refer to count nouns because in that context I mean that's still kinda what's on the books as the "right way".

Under- and Overstatement (1)

[Rosie] Hello, grammarians, hello David. [David] Hello, Rosie! [Rosie] So today, we're going to talk about understatement and overstatement. [David] And I could not be more excited. This is like the coolest thing that's happened to me all week! [Rosie] Oh my gosh. Really? (laughs) [David] Uh, uh, uh, no. I mean, I'm excited. This is a really interesting topic, but I was deliberately overstating.

Less Versus Fewer (11)

[Rosie] I guess not. It's just not the way that we speak in Standard English. [David] It's just style and culture right? [Rosie] Right. [David] That dictates the way that we feel about words. [Rosie] Right. And so I guess that's what I'm getting at is in Standard English these days we see 'less' being used when referring to both count nouns and mass nouns and I think that's fine. [David] Alright.

Phrases and Clauses (3)

[Rosie] My best friend. [David] So this is a group of words that ultimately behaves like a noun? [Rosie] Right. [David] Okay. [Rosie] Then there's an adjective phrase, with the blue shirt. [David] So this is a prepositional phrase that, as you said, is behaving like an adjective. [Rosie] Right. [David] Okay. [Rosie] And then for 20 days, which behaves like an adverb.

Compound-Complex Sentences (3)

[Rosie] Right. [Paige] So, Rosie, just to make sure this all makes sense, can we get an example of a compound-complex sentence? [Rosie] After the storm passed, I went outside and I picked flowers. [Paige] That's lovely. [Rosie] Isn't that nice? [Paige] Okay, so I went outside and I picked flowers are both independent clauses. Ignoring after the storm passed, if we just had I went outside and I picked flowers, that's a compound sentence, that's two independent clauses.

Parallel Structure (5)

[Rosie] So an example if we're not gonna have parallel structure would be something like the cake was baked, frosted, and I put sprinkles on it. [David] So what we're saying here is that here is a passive thing that happened to the cake, the cake was baked. Here's another passive thing that happens to the cake, the cake was frosted by someone else. And then that someone else comes in and Paige says, "I put sprinkles on it."

Complex Sentences (4)

[Rosie] So the sentence is relying on some information that's not provided, but it does still stand as its own sentence. [Paige] Right, like we can have a sentence before it that's like, we're gonna go buy a birthday cake, we have to make sure it's lemon, right, those can be two separate sentences. In this case we have this other clause, this what's called a dependent clause.

Prepositions of Time (5)

"By," this is a really precise end time, but not a very precise beginning time. So you could say something like, "This place has better be clean by 3 p.m., buddy." If you say something like that, you're not especially concerned that the place might be cleaned before 3 p.m. That would be nice, but it's only relevant to you that the cutoff time is relevant to you that the cutoff time is 3 p.m. So the end is precise. That's the connotation there. But the beginning is not.

Indefinite Pronouns (12)

"Everyone was crouched behind furniture to surprise me, but I already knew they were there." And you can see in the beginning of this sentence, we say "Everyone was," but then in the second part of the sentence, we say "they were," and we're using they to refer to everyone. So how can this be? This doesn't seem grammatical. But as Garner says, "Sometimes meaning rather than grammar governs agreement."

Prepositions of Time (6)

"For" denotes duration. How long something has been going on. So you could at, "I've been a chef for 40 years." "In" denotes a bounded duration. So it's something that lasts for a specific amount of time, like a limited period. Okay, so let's say bounded duration. So that covers usual like, "In March" or "In the Middle Ages." Both of those things are like set periods. March and the Middle Ages has a beginning and and end. It's a bounded duration.

Prepositions of Time (7)

"On" has a specific connotation. It's something that happens on a specific day. You could say something like, "On the 4th of July, many Americans watch fireworks and eat encaged meats." Mind you not everybody eats hot dogs or likes fireworks, so I said many not all.

Prepositions of Time (8)

"Since" is kind of like "By" except it's more about the precision of the start point rather than the end point. So, precise beginning. "Since 1974, our company has made "nothing but toasters."

Dashes (7)

"The bug--which landed on my nose--had to be the size of a softball." Enormous bug. But, Paige, as you rightly pointed out, you know, this is the same as having it in parentheses. You wouldn't have both of these together like that. [Paige] But they do the same thing. [David] Yeah, they have the exact same function. [Paige] In this case. [David] In this case. So when you have them in pairs like so, it's "The bug—which landed on my nose—had to be the size of a softball."

There, Their, and They're (3)

"There" is modifying "went". And here is an adjectival use. Because "there" is modifying "dog". The second member of this confusing trio is their T-H-E-I-R which is a possessive determiner. Let's just call that a possessive. So this is when something belongs to a "they" and it's an adjective. So let's just call this a possessive adjective for some, for a "they". "Sue and Frieda ate their ice cream cones."

Prepositions of Time (9)

"Until" is also precise, but it's a precise ending time. "You have until midnight to rescue the Ambassador, break the curse and save Prince Wilbur." All right. So there's a precise ending there. You have "until midnight," and then you can't rescue the Ambassador, break the curse or save any princes.

Ellipses (11)

'Cause like, the ellipsis, you know, looks just like three periods, but it is it's own thing, and doesn't stand in as a period. [David] So that's what, so if we didn't have that final period, it would just sort of look like you were trailing off like there was a pause. I like cheese. [Paige] Yeah, there would be no end to that sentence. [David] Right. But those are the two functions of ellipses, then, is that it indicates a pause in speech, like, "Hello...Paige."

Punctuating a List (2)

'Cause right now this just looks like squid pickles, which, I mean probably delicious, pickled squid. [Paige] Yeah. [David] But not what we were looking to get today. [Paige] Right. [David] If we don't want to get pickled squid today, then we have to put commas in between the elements of the list, because this is what commas do. They separate elements of everything.

Oxford Comma (3)

'Cause you can make, I think, a pretty convincing argument against each one, like whether to use the Oxford comma or whether to not use the Oxford comma. Paige, could you take me through the possible ambiguity in this first sentence? [Paige] Sure, so this sentence without the Oxford comma can kind of look like you're saying that you're parents are Mahatma Gandhi and your pet hamster, which is pretty crazy.

Prepositions (1)

(Draws little hamster) Now I'm going to use this critter to establish what prepositions are and what they do because in addition to there being a hamster there's also going to be this box. So what do prepositions do is they establish relationships between stuff in place and time so it can show us where things are, when things are, and how things are.

Prepositional Phrases (7)

A cathedral is a place or a structure, so it's a noun, right, so if of glass is modifying this noun, that would make it an adjective. So of glass here, this prepositional phrase, is behaving like an adjective.

Possessive Pronouns (1)

A pronoun that we use to show possession of something which is just sort of a fancy way of saying you have it." So possession equals having stuff.

Compound Prepositions (2)

Adding to the complication is that a lot of these words have multiple meanings. Beginning with between. So between can have a literal meaning, but it can also have a metaphorical meaning. And what it means is that when you use between in a sentence, you're considering multiple objects as objects as individuals. So, between considers individuals.

Adjectives (6)

Adjectives are a little bit extra, they're thrown on top. These sentences would work on their own without the adjectives in them. Steven is Connie's friend. The pie is not for sale. You know, they would work. But what's nice about adjectives, and modifiers of all kinds, is that they add something extra, they add more detail. They change and describe stuff

Possession for Words Ending in S (3)

Again, we're just taking all of that information about the air conditioning that belongs to the bus, all of that is just sort of being bundled up into this apostrophe S. It doesn't matter that bus already ends with an S, this works the same as any other word, we're just gonna say, "bus's." If we wanted to talk about the chili culture of the state of Texas, for example, we would say, "Texas's chili culture."

Compound Prepositions (9)

Against, right, has this connotation of opposing or opposition. And literally you can say something like, "Rudyard leaned heavily against a tree." Or you can use it metaphorically, by saying you're opposed to something, you're opposed to an idea, right? "Georgie campaigned against clog dancing." Which for the record, is a beautiful tradition.

Irony (2)

All jokes in English function on this engine of the difference between expectation and result. You expect to hear one thing and then a joke plays with your expectations. There's nothing less funny than explaining why things are funny. But this is why things are funny. So, today we're gonna talk about three different kinds of irony. And I'm going to give you an example of each. Now, the first kind is called situational irony.

Terminal Prepositions (13)

All of that added up to make Latin really cool and very powerful. And because of the history of the English language, which basically entails people in boats coming over the North Sea to bear the tar out of Celts and Anglo-Saxons and leave Latin-or Norse- or French-shaped dents in their language, English has this kind of uncomfortable relationship with Latin. English scholars kind of had an inferiority complex.

Subordinating Conjunctions (12)

All of these words have the power to unite independent and dependent clauses. You may notice some of them like, after and before, are prepositions. They can be used in many ways. English is complicated, but I am confident that you can figure this out

Prepositional Phrases (9)

All of this is describing country in a way that undiscovered is also doing. So country is being modified from both sides, which is really cool, and it imbues the word country with a really strange power. But, you have to be careful because you can set yourself up for a lot of ambiguity with prepositional phrases.

Singular They (8)

All of this is to say that English used to have the same distinction so this kind of lines up with tu and vous. Once upon a time the singular second person subject form was thou, the object form of the singular was thee. The plural second person subject form was ye or ye and the object form was you.

Subordinating Conjunctions (8)

All right so, another thing about the difference between a coordinating and a subordinating conjunction, is that coordinating conjunctions only unite independent clauses with each other. Which means, any sentence that has a coordinating conjunction like, but or anything else in fanboys,. Which is for and nor, but, or yet so, right. Can be separated into two sentences, two separate sentences. Look at this, so Jimothy liked to wash the dishes, but Beckany preferred to sweep the floor.

Compound Prepositions (13)

All right, let's look at two more examples. So inside basically means the same thing as in, or within. You can use it much the same way as you would use any of those other two words. So you could use it literally. And ask, "What's inside the box?" But we can also use this kind of interiority as a metaphor and say, "What's inside her mind right now?"

Beginning Sentences with Conjunctions (7)

Alright, consider the following utterance. "Because I said so." Is this a sentence? No, actually this is what's called a sentence fragment. "Because I said so." is a dependent clause, it can't stand on its own in a sentence. "Because" is what we'd call a subordinating conjunction. So dependent clauses follow subordinating conjunctions, which means that they grant context, but they can't stand on their own as sentences.

Indefinite Pronouns (15)

Alright, here are the three cool things about indefinite pronouns. Number one, they can be used as subjects or objects. Both, neither, and either retain the dual form, which is super weird. And number three, indefinite pronouns are usually treated as singular.

Subject, Direct Object, and Indirect Object (5)

Alright, so we have this sentence, straightforward, Althea threw a frisbee. So, we've got subject here, and we've got direct object here. Who's doing the throwing? Althea. What did she throw? A frisbee. But, what if we have the sentence, Althea threw me a frisbee? Well, we know from context, because we have the word frisbee in here, that Althea is not hurling me, bodily, right? She's not chucking me across a field for a dog to catch.

Hyphens vs. Dashes (5)

And I should first say what a compound word is, right? A compound word is two words smacked together somehow, right? So, if we take the...so once upon a time, at the dawn of the Internet page, [Paige] Okay. [David] when dinosaurs walked the Earth, and I was just a wee little baby, [Paige] Yes.

Dashes (3)

And I'm gonna make up a word here, it feels more interrupty. [Paige] Okay, right, so a comma sort of helps the sentence keep flowing and the dash kind of stops it for a second. [David] And even though, grammatically, those two sentences are identical, right, "I ran to the bus stop, but the bus had already driven away." Even though that's, technically, that means the exact same thing, "As I ran to the bus stop—but the bus had already driven away."

Run-Ons and Comma Splices (8)

And Rosie, you will notice that I have underlined these titles. [Beth] Oh yes. [David] Because these are the names of published works, even though we made them up. [Beth] Right, exactly. [David] But okay, but for real I would love to see like a Li'l Tony, Crime Fighting Pony series. [Beth] Totally. [David] So to review, when you're looking at a run-on, you're looking at two independent clauses that are together in one sentence, that are joined inappropriately without punctuation or conjunctions.

That Versus Which (11)

And again, this isn't because of some kind of rule of official grammar. This is just the way that the language has shaken out. Which just doesn't have a connotation of human beings.

History of the Apostrophe (9)

And all the definite articles that come out of this in all the Romance languages take some fraction of the original from Latin and omit some part with an apostrophe. So "amico" in Italian, to add a definite article to make it "the friend," you can add just l apostrophe. "L'amico." [David] Cool. So yeah, so during this time of apostrophe expansion across the continent, people are just going nuts, right?

Prepositions of Time (4)

And before this occurs prior to some point in time, so it is behind an action. So you can say, "Can you take out the garbage before you leave the house?" "At" is very precise. When we're talking about "at" we're talking about a single moment in time. We could say, "The vampire wakes at 10 p.m."

Affect and Effect (2)

And effect, think of that as a noun. It's more complicated than that, obviously, but most of the time, when you're looking at these two words and you're trying to decide, oh which one do I use? Affect is a verb, effect is a noun. That's the too long, didn't read of this video, and who reads a video, but this is your key takeaway. Let me give you some examples. Let's take this sentence: the drought had a nasty blank on Angela's crops.

Coordinating Conjunctions (9)

And finally, the last part of FANBOYS, so shows consequences. Dougal was allergic to sheep, so he skipped the wool festival. Right so, so we're trying to set up that as a consequence of the first clause, Dougal being allergic to sheep, the thing that follows is, because of that, he decided to skip the wool festival. This is FANBOYS, For, And, Nor, But, Or, Yet, So.

Terminal Prepositions (2)

And for years, for hundreds of years, there have been people, language authorities that have been telling you it's not okay to end a sentence with a preposition. Let me tell you, by the power vested in me, it is totally okay. This is one of those language superstitions that will not die. Taking away the terminal prepositions takes sentences like, "That's not behavior I'll put up with."

History of the Apostrophe (6)

And he's the person that used it originally in French to start representing eliminated letters. So if you have an expression like "la heure," meaning "the hour," Tory would have it "l'heure," like that. You know, and this apostrophe in there, boom, represents this missing vowel sound. So, okay, so it's around this time that this apostrophe starts making its way into English, because remember, England has been under French rule for centuries at this point.

Irony (7)

And here is character B, who is a bear, but is a bear in disguise wearing a hat and a tie. Now, character B knows that character B is a bear. The audience knows that character B is a bear. Character A is unaware. So, we have this unevenly distributed awareness of the difference between expectation and result. Character A expects that character B is not a bear. But character B and the audience knows that the opposite is true. That's dramatic irony.

Emphatic Pronouns (6)

And if it's really crazy that the princess is running this marathon then you would say, "whoa, the princess herself will be there, and that's nuts." And that's the intensive or emphatic pronoun. That's how you use it.

Verb-Perfect Aspect (5)

And if we want to talk about something in the future that happens before that future moment but after now, we would use the future perfect to say, "I will have washed the dishes."

Commas and Adjectives (7)

And in DOSASCOMP, opinion comes before color, so that's the order that you write them in. So, like in the first sentence, when you have mushy and sticky, which are both opinion adjectives, these are called coordinate adjectives. They're in the same category of DOSASCOMP. And if you wanted to, you could reverse the order.

Hear/Here and Accept/Except (5)

And in order to keep this one straight, I like to remember that here, rhymes with near, which is what it means, right? When something is here, it's directly next to you or near you. So for here with an A, there's an ear in it too. But with here with an E, it's nearness to you. Next, the words accept and except. These are pronounced very slightly, differently. So accept here, is a verb and it means to go along with, or to receive.

Beginning Sentences with Conjunctions (6)

And it's not just Garner, 'cause that's a relatively recent publication, but we're talking about language authorities going back to like, Anglo-Saxon times?! I've never had a problem with starting sentences with conjunctions. I think where the prohibition has traditionally come from, where this language superstition comes from, is a conflation with another problem.

There, Their, and They're (2)

And it's used to signify where something is. So the way to remember that this one is all about location is just to take the "T" and replace it with a "W". The question is "Where?" and the answer is "There". So, "Have you been to Greece? Yes, I went there." I have not gone there. "Have you seen my dog? Yes, there's my dog!" So you asked the question, "Where did you go? I went there. "Where is my dog? There is my dog." And technically this is an adverbial use, here.

Forming Comparative and Superlative Modifiers (8)

And now we're getting into the weird stuff. So if you take a word like shiny, which is two syllables, and it ends in Y, then what you have to do is you change Y into I, and you add ER. So shiny becomes shinier. Same thing for superlative, the Y becomes an I, and then you add EST, so shiniest.

Dependent and Independent Clauses (5)

And part of natural informal speech is that we do use a lot of sentence fragments. And sentence fragments are not as common in formal writing. You may sometimes use them for effect, but I want you to remember that these videos are about standard American English, and a kind of formal version of standard American English. And so, we're trying to teach you to distinguish between independent and dependent clauses so that you can use them skillfully in the full knowledge and mastery of your choices.

Indefinite Pronouns (11)

And so although you might say "Everyone is looking at me," here's an example from Garner's Modern American Usage, which is one of the several car-sized books I'm using to construct this grammar course.

History of the Apostrophe (8)

And so it's around this time, around the early 17th century, late 16th century that we're starting to see this apostrophe usage in English. This is around the time when you first see the contraction of "I am," "I'm," show up, is around this period. Jake, does this square with how apostrophes are used in other languages too? [Jake] Yeah, it's the same in pretty much all the Romance languages. So anything derived from Latin, you have in Latin these long definite articles like "ille," i l l e, or "illa," i l l a.

Reflexive Pronouns (9)

And so there's a test you can do. If you're unsure of whether or not it should be Vidya or myself or Vidya or me, which is what I would say, how do you tell? Take the other person out of the object, just for a little bit. So, would you say, you can talk to myself or would you say, you can talk to me? Well, since we know you is not the same thing as myself, and you can only use reflexive pronouns when the subject and the object are the same thing, the answer is me.

The Sound of Language: Alliteration, Assonance, and Onomatopoeia (3)

And so this is why we call this alliteration because "S" is a consonant and all of these things share a similar consonant sound. Now I want to contrast that with assonance, which is what, Rosie? [Rosie] Assonance is when a series of words all start with the same vowel. Althea abolished all anguish. [David] So you can see, all of these words in the sentence in the same vowel neighborhood. [Rosie] Right.

More Uses for Commas (2)

And so what's cool about tag questions is that they kind of follow this positive-negative flow. So it begins with a positive assertion, like: "Here is a thing that is true", and then the doubt, so you then negate it to ask the question. You can also do this backwards and begin with a negative assertion and ask a positive question, like: "This won't hurt", comma, "will it?"

Apostrophe (7)

And that we're trying to say that there are multiple j's and i's. [Paige] Right. Especially with something like i's, if you didn't have that apostrophe there, it would probably just look like you were trying to write the word is. [David] Sure. So this is kind of a work-around. So this usage is extremely rare, that's why I put it in parentheses, because I really want to de-emphasize this last usage. Super rare.

Relative Adverbs (7)

And that's an old fashioned way of saying why. So we don't really say wherefore anymore. We don't really say whence anymore. But while, is another way to say when. Where, you ask about place. When, you ask about time. Why, is for reasons. These are the relative adverbs of English.

Hyphens vs. Dashes (11)

And that's the difference, right. So you're using this to say, oh, you know, this is actually short for cooperative, you know, cause it's operated by a bunch of people working together, as opposed to this word, which is just C-O-O-P. [Paige] Right. [David] So you wanna hyphenate for clarity when you can. [Paige] Makes sense. [David] So let's bring all this together, right. So I made a yellow-green coop with the co-op.

Verb-Perfect Aspect (6)

And that's what the perfect aspect allows us to do. It allows us to travel backward in time a little bit extra. It allows us to say, oh, well, before the point in the story that I'm mentioning, this thing was already completed. So the perfect enables us to say, here is a thing that happened in the past, here is a verb action that has completed in the past prior to the moment I'm talking about. So to recap, the perfect refers to something finished.

Commas and Adjectives (11)

And that's why, in the case of the second sentence, with mushy green apple, you don't put a comma between them. They're in different categories in DOSASCOMP, and so they must stay in that order and there's no need for a comma. [David] Thanks, Paige. I'm gonna get back to drafting my angry letter.

Irony (5)

And the irony is that they are now aware that the lengths that they went to for the other kind of ruined each other's gifts. That's situational irony. It's kind of a happy ending, 'cause it proves stuff is just stuff and they love each other very much. That's situational irony. Everyone is aware of the discrepancy. Irony variant number two is called dramatic irony. This means that there's an unevenly distributed awareness of the difference.

Adjective Order (6)

And the last thing here is the thing itself. So we're looking at, so this thing is cool, big, old, square, black, Texan, leather, riding mower, but frankly in most normal English sentences you'll probably never going to use more than three adjectives to describe a given thing. Like old white French house. Now sometimes, you might find yourself using more than one adjective that fits into the same category.

Relative Adverbs (6)

And there are other relative adverbs like while, is another way to say when. And whence, which is archaic and nobody really uses it but it's another way to say where. And if you're familiar with Romeo and Juliet from Shakespeare, you've probably heard the word wherefore. You know as in, "Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo? Deny thy father refuse thy name." Etcetera.

Prepositions of Space (7)

And there's plenty of other prepositions but let's talk about to, which when you're talking about to in the physical sense it has this connotation of direction. So you could say, I'm going to Mozambique. There are some of the spatial prepositions of English.

The Sound of Language: Alliteration, Assonance, and Onomatopoeia (2)

And these are all words that are related to the way language sounds. But let's begin with alliteration. Rosie, what is alliteration? [Rosie] Alliteration is when a series of words all start with the same consonant. [David] So what's a good example of that? [Rosie] Robert Park swam swiftly, surely, and straight ahead. [David] So you can see that all these pink words here, swam, swiftly, surely, straight ahead, all begin with "S."

Coordinating Conjunctions (2)

And these three are the most commonly used conjunctions because I would be remiss if I didn't mention the seminal conjunction song that got me into the grammar game in the first place, Conjunction Junction, which I think was written by Jack Sheldon or performed by Jack Sheldon in like, 1973. Schoolhouse Rock. It's great. Look it up.

Intensifiers and Adverbs of Degree (7)

And these words like incredibly and somewhat and barely, these are adverbs of degree, so they illustrate the degree to which the viper is deadly dangerous. So that's basically what intensifiers and adverbs of degree do. So, whenever you think of an intensifier just think of the word very, and when you're trying to figure out what an adverb of degree is, well that kind of answers the question, how much?

Terminal Prepositions (9)

And this is a very ancient expression, in fact, one that can be attested in Latin like so. "Ante equum carrum ponere," right? Okay, so this is."Before the horse, the cart to put." Here's the thing about prepositions in Latin is that in Latin, this, "ante," before, always has to be positioned before the word it's attached to, so before the horse. But in Latin, you can rearrange this sentence any way you like.

Indefinite Pronouns (6)

And this is really strange because, in English, this dual case doesn't really exist anymore except for in very limited amounts because English distinguishes between whether or not there's one of something and more than one of something, but this is one of the very few cases where we ever distinguish between more than one of something and specifically two of something.

Commas in Space and Time (4)

And this isn't just for writing addresses; this is for referring to any point in space on the Planet. So if I wanted to tell you the name of my favorite city on the Planet, I would say: "Ouagadougou, "Burkina Faso." Real place. And that is how you use commas in space.

Terminal Prepositions (5)

And we can trace all of this back to Robert Lowth, a man who was the Bishop of London during part of the 18th century, and he wrote about terminal prepositions in his 1762 "Short Introduction to English Grammar," which reads in part, "This is an idiom which our language is strongly inclined to; it prevails in common conversation and suits very well with the familiar style in writing; but the placing of the preposition before the relative is more graceful, and agrees much better with the solemn and elevated style."

Compound Prepositions (5)

And we could say this because we're not really distinguished between each individual daisy, the way that the firefly up here in this sentence is distinguished between each individual daisy, the way that the firefly up here in this sentence is distinguished between each individual raindrop that it flies between. I imagine Ashley and Cyrus as dancing through or frolicking through a field of daisies, and they are not distinguishing between each one.

Adjective Order (8)

And we'll get more into commas in punctuation section, but for now, all you need to remember is dosa scomp. And if you've never had a dosa, I strongly urge you to look up recipes online or go to a South Indian restaurant and make and eat this delicious food. And then, you're just gonna scomp on some dosas. So determiner, opinion, size, age, dosa. Shape, color, origin, material, purpose, and then the thing.

What is a Sentence? (2)

And we'll go into all of that in much greater detail, but in order to do that, first of all we have to figure out what a sentence actually is. So, the definition that you and I came up with, Paige, is that a sentence is a grammatically complete idea. [Paige] Right. It's a bunch of words that say one complete thing. [David] So, all sentences have a noun or pronoun component, [Paige] Mmm-hmm.

More Uses for Commas (3)

And we're using the comma to perform its separating function because that's what commas do, and separate between the assertion and the doubt question. And that's what tag questions are. So today we're gonna talk about tag questions, direct address, and using commas in the context of yes and no.

Commas and Adjectives (9)

And what is a dosa, Paige? [Paige] Oh, it's like a pancake, right? [David] Yeah, it's like a South Indian pancake. [Paige] That's pretty cool. [David] And to scomp is a word we made up that means, "to eat." [Paige] Sure, eat some pancakes. [David] Scomp on 'em.

Italics and Underlining (2)

And what it refers to is text that is kind of on its side, so like this. Kind of slopes to the right. That's italic. And he was one of the first printers, so he had this movable type printing machine, this press. And he developed these letters. He cut them into pieces of metal and he developed this kind of slanted style. And today we call this the italic typeface. [Paige] Wow!

Prepositions of neither Space nor Time (5)

And with means together or part of. There goes that small snail with the painted shell which indicates that the snail and the shell are part and parcel, they're together.

Terminal Prepositions (3)

And, in fact, some of you have maybe heard the statement that is supposedly attributed to Winston Churchill where he says, "That is something with which up I will not put," which kinda emphasizes how clunky that is, you know? If that's supposed to be formal high language, it sounds really inarticulate.

Subject-Verb Agreement (9)

And, that's kind of the basic idea of subject-verb agreement, 'cause you want to make sure that the number of things in your subject matches up with the number in your predicate. So, is the subject singular or plural? if it's third person singular, the verb probably ends in an S, even though the third person singular noun or pronoun does not.

Irony (4)

And, unbeknownst to the other, the woman buys her husband a watch chain and the man buys his wife a comb. But, in order to do that, he sells his watch to buy her the comb and, in order to buy him the watch chain, the woman sells her hair. And so, they give each other gifts that are now useless. This watch chain and this comb. For the hair that isn't there and the watch that isn't there.

Indefinite Pronouns (4)

Another really cool thing about indefinite pronouns is that the words both, neither, and either retain the dual. They are some of the only words in English that refer to only two things. So these three pronouns are actually a little bit less indefinite than most indefinite pronouns because they refer to a set of two things.

Hear/Here and Accept/Except (6)

As in, I accept this gift in the name of Spain. And except, on the other hand, is a conjunction and a preposition. Which can kind of be used the same way that but is used. Sort of an everything but, way. So, for example, I like every vegetable except zucchini, which isn't true, I like zucchini a great deal, but you can see how it's being used like but. It's kind of exclusionary.

Correlative Conjunctions (4)

As/so, is kind of an interesting one. It's a little formal and it kind of allows you to set up this relationship of consequence, right, to say, if one thing is happening then, another thing happens as a consequence, so... As goes Kansas, so goes the nation. So, you know, as one thing happens, so must another thing happen, is what this is trying to set up.

Parallel Structure (9)

Baked, frosted and sprinkled, large, damp, and dangerous, you know, and then when you want to have access to that ability, to really draw attention to that last element, then you can say, "Oh, you know what? "I'm gonna make this perpendicular." (girls chuckle) Now, is perpendicularity, is that a thing that I just made up right now? Yes. Are we going with it? Maybe. (girls chuckle) [Rosie] Yeah, I like it. [Paige] Yeah. [Rosie] It's not parallel. [David] It's not parallel. Well, I suppose that just about covers parallel structure.

Subordinating Conjunctions (7)

Because a dependent clause leans against an independent clause. It's like a ladder laid up against the tree. The tree is still gonna be standing there whether or not the ladder is there or not. But, the ladder is useful because it allows you to get up further into the tree and explore its leaves, if that makes sense. It allows you to get further context and further understanding. But the tree could just as easily, it's still a tree without the ladder. Right, you don't have to have a ladder in order to be a tree.

Grammatical and Person Pronouns (8)

Because if you don't do this, you run the risk of being confusing and unclear. So, you have to make sure that if you start off using one grammatical person, you have to maintain use of that grammatical person for as long as you're talking about the same notion, the same idea, the same person. Stay in your lane!

That Versus Which (3)

Because the carrot, comma, which was orange, comma, was tasty means that you could take out the comma-bracketed clause without changing the meaning of the sentence. "The carrot was tasty."

Intro to Comparative and Superlative Adjectives (5)

Because the comparative is the same thing as saying more. The comparative equals more, and the superlative equals most. So this is slightly more, this is super much more. And something that's neat about English is that you can use the comparative and superlative for both positive relationships and also negative relationships.

Semicolons and Complex Lists (4)

Because we have semicolons here separating elements of the list instead of commas, we can tell that the textbook, the workbook, and the dictionary are all for Spanish class. To get the same information across without using semicolons we'd have to say something like "I need to buy a textbook "for Spanish comma a workbook for Spanish comma a dictionary for Spanish comma a calculator for math comma and a map for geography."

Commas and Introductory Elements (6)

But I can tell you that when an independent clause comes before a dependent clause, you don't use a comma. And if you are uniting two independent clauses, in the following sentence, "I rode an elephant "and then I ate a mango," these two things are both independent clauses, right? I rode an elephant. Then I ate a mango, right? These two things need to be connected by this conjunction, and.

Less Versus Fewer (2)

But I do think that there is a distinction in usage between the two. But you told me that there is not as much as I would like to believe. Look, like I'm the last person that wants to needlessly subscribe to grammar superstitions, right? [Rosie] Right. [David] Our job is to go around with our little needle of truth and pop 'em. [Rosie] Yes. That's what I'm gonna try to do or I'm gonna try to argue this. [David] Okay. Dislodge me from my perch.

Dependent and Independent Clauses (9)

But all of these have some kind of, everything in orange has something that's either a subordinating conjunction like while or unless, or a relative pronoun like that. So while the salmon flopped. You can see in this context the bear roared while the salmon flopped, you can kind of understand why this is called the dependent clause, because by the context of this sentence, while the salmon flopped, something else was going on, right.

Using Quotation Marks in Titles (6)

But an article that you wrote for it would be in quotes. I think that about does it for quotation marks, Paige. [Paige] Yeah, David? [David] Yeah. [Paige] I think I thought of a bread poetry book name. [David] Okay, what is it? [Paige] Loaves of Grass? [David] Yep. - [Paige] Yep. [David] Yep, that's pretty good! [Paige] Okay. - [David] All right. Putting it in there. (Paige laughs) That's quotation marks.

Prepositions (4)

But another interesting thing that prepositions can do is they can help express how something is or how it's, what it's for, what its use is. So we could say that this hat is for parties or is for wearing at parties. Oh, and at, also, is a preposition. This hat is for wearing at parties. So this is the how and this is the where. So what's the purpose of the hat? Well, we established that with the word for, the hat is for wearing. The where is it supposed to be worn, at parties, that's the where.

Singular They (5)

But before you do, in order to explain the context and the history around this usage, around singular they, I would like for a moment to talk about "you." Not you the person, you the person are a vast unknowable ocean but I mean you the pronoun and how weird and transgressive and transformative it is. In many languages today there are second person pronouns for both singular and plural usage.

Singular They (22)

But formalizing this understanding is what undergirds the decisions of The Economist and The Washington Post to start using singular they formally.

Adjectives (2)

But if that bear were blue, for instance, I could describe the bear as the blue bear. And in the blue bear the word blue modifies bear. Blue is an adjective that describes bear. So adjectives change stuff and they describe stuff. And if that bear were a different color it would be, you know, the red bear.

Beginning Sentences with Conjunctions (14)

But if you begin a sentence with a coordinating conjunction, like one of the FANBOYS conjunctions, you're in good shape. Just try not to overuse it, as you'd avoid overusing anything. Moderation in all things! So, take away? Write full sentences, and put your best "but" forward.

Intro to Comparative and Superlative Adjectives (8)

But if you stick around for the next video, I'm gonna talk about how to figure out, how to form the comparative and superlative when you're looking at the word you've never seen before, like, what if we made up a word, like blarfy. What do you do with that? Well, you'll find out next time.

Ellipses (7

But if you use it over and over or in the wrong places, you can still misrepresent what a person was saying. [David] If you wanted to, you could render that sentence, "Words are my opinion." [Paige] Yeah. - [David] Right. [David] If you didn't use ellipses, you could just render that however you please, because those were words that were said approximately in that order, right. [Paige] Yeah, without ellipses or-- [David] Without ellipses.

Linking Function of the Colon (12)

But in the case that the second clause, or the second part of the sentence is emphasized or explaining the first clause, then you'll want to use a colon. Just keep that in mind. Usually this independent to independent clause linking happens with a semicolon and not a colon.

Compound Prepositions (8)

But in the metaphorical sense, we can also use this connotation of going around something in a circle, you know, "The mayor talked around the issue." You can use the word around as a metaphor to say that someone is avoiding something. By instead of addressing it head-on, just going what's that? Nope. And here's your little trouble box. So you can take this physical idea and extend it into the realm of the figurative in language.

Dashes (12)

But it could be anything, really. So if you're trying to write down dialogue that is being cutoff by something, by another person interrupting, by an avalanche of ice cream, I don't know, whatever it is, then you would use a dash at the end of the sentence. So, no space. So we'd go, that, dash, quotation marks. And you wouldn't have to do any kind of terminal punctuation, no need for a period or a question mark or an exclamation point.

Intro to Adverbs (5)

But it is a modifier, and the word that it's modifying is hungry. How hungry was Vanessa? Vanessa was very hungry. Vanessa could also be, slightly hungry. And this leads me to one of the most important things about adverbs. Which is that generally, they tend to have ly on them. So generally the way to make an adjective, and add ly to it. So you take the word slow, you add ly and you get the adverb slowly.

Terminal Prepositions (8)

But let's break apart what the word preposition is. In Latin, the word "preposition " comes from "pear positio," which means "placed before," because here's something cool about Latin. Latin's word order rules are different than English's word order rules. You know, in English, we have this expression, "To put the cart before the horse," which means to embark on a project before you're really ready.

Prepositions (3)

But let's get rid of the box and let's imagine that our hamster is having a midlife crisis. And our hamster decides it's going to go out and it's going to splurge on a fabulous, new hat. Now, another use of prepositions is we can talk about when things are in relation to each other. So I could say, "Before the hamster got the hat" and "after the hamster got the hat." Right, and these words after and before express relationships in time.

Who Versus Whom (11)

But otherwise, it's probably more likely gonna be who. Which is why it's not that big of a deal to say who are you talking to. It's not technically correct, but it's been used for so long that it's fine.

Linking Function of the Colon (13)

But regardless, this is important to know. It's possible in these specific cases. What's most important for you to take away is that the colon can link things and introduce things as part of its many functions. And that's the linking function of the colon. We've got independent clauses, dependent clauses, phrases, words, and introductions for lists, and items, and quotes.

History of the Possessive Apostrophe (10)

But so, for example, we're still looking at something like, "The kinges hat," but what we're starting to see in this one weird little period between like the late-16th and early-17th centuries. This brief fad for this thing, where people went, "the king "his hat." And, if you can imagine, like, post-Elizabethan era Londoner saying this, it kind of sounds the same, to my mind, "The kinges hat," "the king his hat," right, like you're losing...This 'h' is kind of swallowed.

The Sound of Language: Alliteration, Assonance, and Onomatopoeia (5)

But that word is derived from the buzz sound. But that's not the only example of onomatopoeia. We've compiled here a list. What have we got, Rosie? [Rosie] Okay, we've got splat. That's kind of the sound of something hitting pavement. [David] Splat. [Rosie] Yep. We've got clang, which is like the clanging of a bell. We've got bang, which sounds like something exploding. Whoosh, which sounds like air or wind. Beep.

Commas and Introductory Elements (7)

But that's not all. They also need to be joined by a comma. Now, you could also sub out, if you wanted to, get rid of this comma and this and and put in a semicolon, but that's a story for another time. So, if you're uniting two independent clauses, just do comma and then a conjunction. So, that's one way to think about how to use commas for introductory elements like dependent and independent clauses.

Commas in Dialogue (6)

But there has to be a comma in there to end it. [David] So if the statement were going to end with a period, we'd use a comma in reported dialogue when the tag follows the reported speech. Otherwise, we'd use all the other relevant punctuation marks. So this is like the only time ever when you can end a sentence with a comma. So that's how you use commas in dialogue.

Commas and Introductory Elements (8)

But there's also another thing I wanna introduce you to, and that's sentence adverbs. Follow us over to the next screen. So, Paige, what is a sentence adverb? How does it work? [Paige] So, we've been talking about starting sentences with clauses, but that doesn't always have to be the case. You can start a sentence with an adverb. Like, let's say, "Initially, I was afraid."

Using Quotation Marks in Titles (3)

But track two on that record is called "On Reflection." [Paige] Okay, so we put quotes around each individual song on the album. [David] Right. So, this is the album, and this is a single song on it. Paige, let's say you and Jake wrote a book of bread poetry. [Paige] Okay, yes. - [David] Right? [Paige] That is something I would do. [David] And you called it The Yeast I Can Do. [Paige] That is a great title. (laughs)

Subject, Direct Object, and Indirect Object (6)

But we do know that the subject of the sentence is Althea, and we know that the direct object of the sentence is frisbee, but where is that frisbee going? Well, it's going to me. Okay, so we've got this, is the direct object, this is the subject, and this is the indirect object. So, the pronoun, me, is the recipient of the direct object, the frisbee. Rosie, would you read me this sentence, please? [Paige] Wanda gave Louie a gift card.

Coordinating Conjunctions (3)

But what I'm going to talk about today is a mnemonic, or a memory aide, called FANBOYS. You may have heard this before, FANBOYS. And this is how we remember the coordinating conjunctions. And you don't need to worry about the name coordinating conjunctions, we'll get to that later. For now, just remember FANBOYS. For, And, Nor, But, Or, Yet, and So. FANBOYS and each of them have a different basic function.

Complex Sentences (2)

But with complex, we're gonna add this dependent clause. So, Rosie, what's an example of a complex sentence? [Rosie] When we buy his birthday cake, we have to make sure it's lemon. (chuckles) [Paige] So this sentence, when we buy his birthday cake, we have to make sure it's lemon, is made up of two clauses, and I've written them in different colors here. So, the second one, the pink one, can stand on its own as a sentence. We could just say, we have to make sure it's lemon.

Compound Prepositions (16)

But you can also use it as a metaphor, we can use this physical relationship as a metaphor. You can say something like, "This strawberry's flavor is "beyond anything I've ever had before." Right, this is like the world's most delicious strawberry and its taste, its flavor, surpasses, it goes past you know, over the mountains and into Terrellia, that's how delicious it is. Oh my goodness, what a strawberry, you know?

Relative Adverbs (2)

But you can also use them to ask a question like, where are you from? Because we use the word, where to figure out where stuff is in space. So you know, where figures out place. So Peggy could respond and say that is the cave where I grew up. And you can see that where, here is not being used in a question way. It's actually connecting the clause I grew up, to cave. And this is why we call this a relative adverb.

Who Versus Whom (10)

But you find that when you separate it out in this question, when you put the to at the end, and the whom question particle at the beginning, this m just kind of falls away. Cause we're more likely to use whom when it's immediately preceded by a preposition.

Forming Comparative and Superlative Modifiers (12)

But you have to describe them using the word blarfy, this word we've never seen before. Well, what do we know about blarfy?Well, it's got two syllables, Blair-fy, so that automatically crosses out any of this stuff (one syllable info), it does end in a Y, so we know that it's going to behave like shiny, because it's got two syllables and ends in Y. So, I'm gonna say that the dog food is less blarfy, and the cheese is the blarfier, in fact this cheese is the blarfiest food on the planet. Now don't get me wrong, I love a good stinky cheese, but this one in particular, I'm just gonna go so far as to say it's the blarfiest.

Terminal Prepositions (6)

But, Bishop Lowth, May I direct your attention to this part of your statement? "This is an idiom which our language is strongly inclined to." Even Bishop Lowth is using what he calls this solemn and elevated style, he himself can not avoid ending a clause, boom, with a preposition. Game, set, match, sir.

Beginning Sentences with Conjunctions (13)

But, again, you can absolutely begin sentences with conjunctions. It's just that if you start a sentence with a conjunction, you have to follow through, and actually make it a sentence. If you begin a sentence with a subordinating conjunction, you're writing a dependent clause that needs to be followed up by an independent clause, right? So if you're beginning with a subordinating clause, you're making the ladder and you need to follow it up with a tree to lean on.

Subordinating Conjunctions (6)

But, because he was curious asks more questions than it answers. Because he was curious, what? You know, if a clause causes you to ask. Yeah, so what? Then it's probably a dependent clause, write that down. Put that in the doctrine. So, a dependent clause should cause you to ask, yeah so what?

That Versus Which (4)

But, the carrot, no comma, which was orange, no comma, was tasty that which part is a relative clause. The fact that the carrot is orange is essential to the sentence. "The carrot which was orange was tasty," doesn't preclude the idea that there might have been a non-orange, non-tasty carrot involved somewhere else.

Intensifiers and Adverbs of Degree (3)

But, the question is, what does really mean? What is it's function? And the answer is that it's a type of word we call an intensifier. So the function of really is to just double down on the idea of interesting. So it's not just an interesting topic, it's a really interesting topic. You could also say it's a very interesting topic. And that kind of gets us into this other category which is called adverbs of degree.

Who Versus Whom (3)

But, this does not adequately reflect the way that our culture actually uses and has used whom or who for some time. In many cases it has become permissible to use who as an object. Let me show you what I mean. So the thing to remember is that the basic rule is a one way street. Because the way language is changing, whom is on its way out.

Subordinating Conjunctions (2)

But, what are these? You know, what is an independent and a dependent clause? Well okay so first of all, let's back up again. What is a clause? A clause is just a language chunk that has a subject and a verb. That's what a clause does. All sentences are clauses, but not all clauses are sentences.

Reflexive Pronouns (6)

But, when do you use reflexive pronouns? You use reflexive pronouns when he subject and the object of a sentence are the same thing. Example: Janelle made herself breakfast. So in this sentence, herself and Janelle are the same person as opposed to the other possibility which is Janelle making breakfast for someone else.

Irregular Plural Nouns-En

Child to children and ox to oxen. Brother to brethren and sister to sistren originally, but form rarely used today.

Common and Proper Nouns

Common noun is a more general noun. Proper nouns are specific, such as the specific name of a person or place, etc. Proper nouns always capitalized. Common nouns are only capitalized if at the beginning of the sentence.

Compliment/Complement and Desert/Dessert (3)

Compliment, with an I, C, O, M, P, L, I, M, E, N, T, is a verb that means to praise or noun that just means praise. So complement with an E is the verb of actually matching, but when we point it out, and we say, that hat complements your suit, Melvin, and we say, that looks pretty good, Melvin, that in itself is a compliment. So this sentence is a compliment. So Melvin would say in response, "Thank you for the compliment."

Coordinating Conjunctions (1)

Conjunctions are this part of speech that has a very particular function in English and what it does conjunctions unite words, phrases, and clauses. Let me, let me show you an example. So if you want to talk about two things, you could say it's a peanut butter and jelly. Or if I were going to paraphrase Eddie Izzard, I might offer you the choice of cake or death. You could also describe something as being sad but true.

Reflexive Pronouns (7)

Continued: Janelle made us breakfast. In this case, this usage is not reflexive. She's not doing a thing for herself or to herself. She's making breakfast for other people. And so, you'd just use the regular personal object pronoun there. You can only use the reflexive pronoun when the subject and the object of the sentence are the same thing.

Reflexive Pronouns (10)

Continued: So then, we bring Vidya back, we bring the other part of the object back, and it becomes, you can talk to Vidya or me. So when in doubt, sub it out. Take the other part of the object and just pretend it's not there and just think about the subject and the object connect. Chances are, you won't actually end up using a reflexive pronoun.

Adjective Order (4)

Determiner, and that's words like the or an. Opinion, this is when you're describing something there are certain descriptors that not everyone would agree with. So if you're looking at a piece of black metal, everyone would be able to agree that it is black. But if you think it's cool looking or ugly looking, you know, everything that anyone could conceivably disagree about, that's an opinion. So, cool for example, that would be an opinion.

That Versus Which (1)

Distinction 1: That is bad with commas. Distinction 2: Which is bad with people. Distinction 1: 9 out of 10 times if you want to use a relative pronoun and you're trying to choose between that and which you should probably that and that one time out of ten that you do want to use which, you're supposed to use a comma first. So, a comma, which, as in, "The carrot, which was orange, was tasty."

That Versus Which (8)

Distinction 2: which is bad with people. So the way I like to remember this is that I imagine a witch who does not like other people. So I just imagine kind of a cranky witch who lives all alone in a house in the woods, and anytime someone comes up to her house and asks her if she wants a subscription to a magazine, or does she want to come over for dinner, she says, "Blah!", and she slams the door.

Irregular Verbs

Don't follow the usual pattern of adding -ed to verb for past tense and adding will to future tense. Example of irregular verb: run for present tense, will run for future tense, and ran for past tense.

Subject and Object Pronouns (2)

Example: In the sentence, Reina wrote an e-mail, the subject of the sentence, the doer of the thing is Reina, Rigg, as the subject. The thing she is doing is writing an e-mail, so Reina wrote an e-mail. E-mail is the object of the verb wrote. It is the object of the sentence.

Who Versus Whom (6)

Example: So here are the four possible options, right? The spy who loved me, the spy whom I loved, the spy who I loved, and the spy whom I loved. Now of these, only this one is incorrect (the second). Because we're trying to use whom as a subject. But here, the spy who I loved, where who is being an object, by the informal rules of our grammar today, this is fine. Either of these is fine (third or fourth).

Verb-Perfect Aspect (4)

Example: So if we want to put this story in the past, you know, talk about a period that is "then" but also say that we washed the dishes at a period before then, right, before the moment in the past that we're talking about, if that makes sense, we would say, "I had washed the dishes."

Possessive Pronouns (5)

Example: So let's say that there was a book that I owned. How would I talk about it? Well I could do it two different ways using these possessive pronouns. I could say, "That is my book." And here my is working as an adjective that modifies and describes book.

Possessive Pronouns (8)

Example: So let's talk about my coworker Girish. Nice fella. And let's say that Girish has a very nice hat. We would say, "That is Girish's hat." This is what we'd call a possessive noun. But talking about Girish again, we could say, "That is his hat." Now we're using that possessive pronoun as an adjective to modify hat. Whose hat is it? It is his hat.

Subject and Object Pronouns (8)

Examples: I give her a present. Right now, I is the subject, her is the object. What if we switched it? What would it look like then? Well it wouldn't be her give I a present, because we're switching the subject and the object, we're gonna be switching the pronouns that we use too, so it would be, she gives Grame a present. Now, she is the subject form of her, and me is the object form if I.

Subject and Object Pronouns (7)

Examples: I give her a present. Right now, I is the subject, her is the object. What if we switched it? What would it look like then? Well it wouldn't be her give I a present, because we're switching the subject and the object, we're gonna be switching the pronouns that we use too, so it would be, she gives me a present. Now, she is the subject form of her, and me is the object form if I.

Personal Pronouns (1)

Examples: I, we, you, and they. We decide which personal pronouns are appropriate for a given sentence depending on whom we're talking about.

Possessive Pronouns (9)

Examples: If we wanted to use the personal pronoun that acted like a noun, we would say, "That hat is his." And we can also use his independently of the word hat by saying, "His is the hat with polka dots."

FANBOYS Mnemonic Song (1)

Fanboys Fanboys The boys who carry the fan Fanboys Fanboys The boys who had a plan For the way was long And the day was hot The boys were always prepared Neither sand nor heat Would assail their feet They did what no others had dared Fanboys Fanboys The boys who carry the fan

FANBOYS Mnemonic Song (2)

Fanboys Fanboys The boys who had a plan The Fanboys were on a train to Laredo When bandits made an assault But the Fanboys fan made a wind so mighty The banditry came to a halt Fanboys Fanboys The boys who carry the fan

FANBOYS Mnemonic Song (3)

Fanboys Fanboys The boys who had a plan The magistrate said we're all very grateful But it's time for an end to your fun He said to the boys It's your fan or your freedom And you may only have one Fanboys Fanboys The boys who carry the fan

Compound Prepositions (15)

Finally, beyond. And beyond is a preposition that has this connotation of being far away. Like far away and past some point. It also has a literal meaning and it has a metaphorical meaning. So for example, you could say literally, "Beyond those mountains is Terrell's kingdom." Right, we're using these mountains as like a literal, literal boundary. Little snow-cap peaks. And past them is Terrellia.

Irony (16)

Finally, it's perfect for lyin' on. Now, Anna does not realize this, but she is unwittingly punning on the fact that there is a lion on the Murphy bed. So, this is verbal irony. Because, in fact, there is a lion lyin' on the bed. So, there you have it. Encapsulated in one ridiculous case, here are all three basic examples of irony. So, situational irony, dramatic irony, and verbal irony.

Three Types of Sentences (6)

Finally, the third kind of sentence we want to talk about today is the imperative. An imperative is a command. [Paige] Right, so when you tell someone to do something. [David] So a command like, Paige, follow, the bunny! (laugh) [Paige] And the bunny stole the cheese. [David] Yeah. So this is one of those sentences that doesn't have a subject that is literally spoken out loud.

Relative Adverbs (5)

Finally, we use the word why to figure out reasons for doing stuff. So if something strange were happening in the countryside and I asked Peggy, oh mighty dragon do you know why it is raining fish? Peggy could say, I don't know why that's happening. So again we've go these two clause that is happening, and I don't know. And, why, connects and relates them. And why is modifying is happening here.

History of the Apostrophe (5)

Follow me over to the next screen. Let's do a little bit of history. So the apostrophe was introduced to the French language by an engraver and humanist named Geoffroy Tory, I think, is how you would say his name. That's a guess. And around the late 16th century, I think it's around the 1580s, Tory is the man who also introduced a lot of diacritic or accent marks into French. So, you know, instead of like, "aime" meaning "loved," it would be "aime" like that.

Relative Pronouns (2)

For example, in the sentence, the man who sold the world is coming by on Tuesday, the pronoun who, is the relative pronoun there, it's linking the independent clause, the man is coming by on Tuesday to the dependent clause, sold the world.

Adjective Order (10)

For example, the way we're using adjectives here, we're always putting them to the left of whatever they modify, the exciting, unparalleled green dragon. It's all to the left, it's all old white French house. It's all on this one side of it. And other languages don't do that necessarily. So when you're trying to just throw a bunch of adjectives together on the left side of the noun, this is the order. Just remember dosa scomp. And that's how adjective order works in English.

Forming Comparative and Superlative Modifiers (4)

For the comparative, all you have to do is add ST, and you get the word cutest. But what if you have a word like big? If you try to add just R to that, it would just look like bugr, or ST to that, it would look like bigst, and that's not really how we would form these words in standard English

Forming Comparative and Superlative Modifiers (7)

For words like short and sweet that have one syllable, but either have two vowels like sweet does, so it's E and E or two consonants at the end, what you do is you just add ER, so shorter or sweeter. And the superlative form, add EST. So shortest or sweetest.

There, Their, and They're (1)

Hello Grammarians! Today I want to talk about one of the absolute thorniest issues in usage of English. And it's the difference between there, their and they're. And if you can't tell the difference from the way I'm saying it that's because it's really confusing and evil. And that is why I'm here. Is to help you make a distinction between these three sound alike words. Now, first of all we have there T-H-E-R-E which we're gonna use orange for is an adverb and an adjective.

Hear/Here and Accept/Except (2)

Hello, Grammarians, today we're going to talk about two sets of frequently confused words. Hear and here, and accept versus except. These words are pronounced very similarly to one another, but they have very different meanings. And so what I'm going to try and do is define those words for you and then come up with mnemonic devices, memory aids to help you keep them straight.

Hear/Here and Accept/Except (1)

Hello, Grammarians, today we're going to talk about two sets of frequently confused words. Hear and here, and accept versus except. These words are pronounced very similarly to one another, but they have very different meanings. And so what I'm going to try and do is define those words for you and then come up with mnemonic devices, memory aids to help you keep them straight. x

Compliment/Complement and Desert/Dessert (1)

Hello, grammarians. Continuing our journey through the world of frequently confused words, I'd like to begin with complement with two Es and compliment with an I and E. How the heck do we keep these separate? Well, first let's get some definitions. Complement with two Es, C, O, M, P, L, E, M, E, N, T, is a verb, and it means to match, pair, or work well with something as in, that hat complements your suit Melvin.

Helping Verbs

Helping verbs help other verbs. Helping verbs also called auxiliary verbs. Helping verbs really just inflected forms of the to have and to be verbs. Helping verbs establish certain facts about a sentence, usually when they are happening in time. Examples: Brian is eating a pizza. / Brian has eaten a pizza. / Brian was eating a pizza. / Brian has been eating a pizza.

Commas and Adjectives (1)

Hey, so Paige, I went to the grocery store yesterday and I got this apple and I put it in the fridge. And this morning, when I opened the fridge, the apple was all gross and sticky and mushy and I really wanna write a letter to the grocery store and say, "Hey, you sold me a gross apple." [Paige] Yeah. [David] But I'm stuck. [Paige] Okay? [David] I feel like I ought to put a comma in here. So, here's the sentence I've got so far. You sold me a mushy, sticky apple!"

Intensifiers and Adverbs of Degree (6)

However, if this viper had a cousin that was the somewhat deadly viper. We can see that somewhat, this word here is changing the meaning of the phrase. It's not just the deadly viper, it's the somewhat deadly viper. It's import has been blunted slightly as have its teeth. And you could also say, what if he didn't have any teeth at all, this ostensibly deadly viper? What if he just had little gums? Well then he's the barely deadly viper, instead.

That Versus Which (5)

However, if we try to use that in a non-restrictive way, to say, "The carrot, that was orange, was tasty," it, to me and other native English speakers, that just sounds a little weird. It's not ungrammatical, per se.

Singular They (14)

I cheer this development, I think it's awfully democratic and affirming of the principle that all human beings are worthy of respect, which brings us to "they." This didn't really used to be a problem in English composition, people were writing sentences like, "Everybody has their failing, "you know, and everybody has a right to do what they like with their own money," which is a Jane Austen quote by the way from Northanger Abbey.

Phrases and Clauses (7)

I guess I would have to say no, because it's got this verb, soared, and this adverb, majestically. So, the falcon soared majestically, I would have to say this is a clause. Would I be right? [Rosie] You would be right. [David] Hooray! [Rosie] That's not only a clause, but it's an independent clause. [David] So it can be its own sentence. With a period right. So let's get a little bit of a George Harrison in here. While my guitar gently weeps.

Who Versus Whom (4)

I imagine in another 50, 76 years we won't be using it at all. So, we know the basic rule is the you use who as a subject and whom as an object. Well you can also now use who as an object. The only thing you can't do is who is not a subject. That's the thing you need to remember, is that whom's use is not expanding. It is contracting. Who is taking over some of whom's duties.

Subject-Verb Agreement (7)

I is singular, there's only one me. We is plural, there's many of us. And, if it's singular third person, so like she, he, it, ends it in an S. Another thing to remember, is that most what we call indefinite pronouns are third person singular. So, if you wanted to ask whether or not anyone knows the way to San Jose as a quest, but you're not sure whether or not it would be does anyone know the way to San Jose, or do anyone know the way to San Jose?

Singular They (2)

I know that I got dinged all the time for using "they" as a singular pronoun in papers in high school, along with "is," I got in a lot of trouble for using "is," which would always be circled. Some teachers of mine just really hated "is." I get it now, it's kind of weak but anyway we're not talking about that today, we're talking about they, singular they.

Under- and Overstatement (9)

I think, I think there's like, a little bit of a taboo in American English-speaking culture to too literally say the state of your emotions, and so we've discovered these cultural idioms, through which we transmit emotion. So like, compare the following two examples, delivered by Rosie. [Rosie] 'Kay. "I'm very angry." Or, "Yeah, you could say I'm a little upset."

History of the Possessive Apostrophe (1)

I want to continue our discussion of the history of the apostrophe, in English, and what I'm having Jake draw for me right now is an old English King because what's...The story of the possessive apostrophe, in English, is really the story of old English. Like, how did we get this like Paige's and Jake's? How did we get that ending up as our possessive form, in English, with that apostrophe s. Because it didn't always used to be that way.

Pronoun Number (1)

I want to talk about today, the way it applies to pronouns. So the singular form of me is me. The plural form is is. Assuming I was cloned. There's one of me, Fine, that's singular. But let's say I walk into like a cloning machine, you know, and it shits out another David. Suddenly there's two Davids. But how do we refer to ourselves? More than one me is us. The grammatical number increases.

Commas in Space and Time (3)

I would address it like so, separating all elements of his address with commas. So Nero Wolfe, 454 West 35th Street, New York City, or just New York, New York. And then I would put the zip code, which I think is 10001, but I'm not sure if they had zip codes when those stories took place, but it doesn't matter. You separate out all of these elements with commas.

Affect and Effect (7)

I would caution avoiding them most of the time. I think your big takeaway is that affect is a verb and effect is a noun, and yes these exceptions exist but I think in the interest of clarity, you need to be very certain when you're using them. Because affect here as a noun is professional jargon, frankly, this is psychologist talk and that means it's a very particular kind of English, it's to be used in a specific context.

Articles (1)

I would like to tell you a tale of two elephants. In order to get at the idea of this thing called the article. We'll explain what that is after I tell you about the elephant and an elephant. Now articles are words like "a" or "an" or "the". Articles are a kind of adjective, some people would call them a determiner, that help you figure out how important something is. Or how specific something is.

The Sound of Language: Alliteration, Assonance, and Onomatopoeia (7)

I'm, I'm terrified of spelling this word, but I managed to do it, apparently, and now you know what it means, and that should take away some of its scariness and impart to you some of its power. Because here at Khan Academy, we want you to have the power to harness language, and specifically, today, to harness these three different language styles. So, alliteration, repeating the same consonant a bunch of times in a row, so swimming, swiftly, surely, and straight ahead.

Commas and Introductory Elements (5)

If you have it the other way around though, if it's just, "Please take off your shoes when you come in," no need for a comma. I'll show you. So, I'm not sure why this is. I think it may just sort of be a style relic. I'm not entirely certain. I mean, if you go back in American history and you look at the Federalist Papers and you look at the way that people used commas in the 18th century, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense, relative to how we use commas today. So, a lot of this is cultural.

Terminal Prepositions (12)

If you move this thing, if you move "ante" out of order, there's no way to tell what's going on in this sentence. Latin, during the time that Lowth was Bishop of London, was the language I'd scholarship, right? It was this language that enabled people all over the European continent to communicate with each other in a common language of knowledge it was the language of religions and philosophy.

Beginning Sentences with Conjunctions (8)

If you remember the analogy I used previously, an independent clause, you know, is like a tree. And, a subordinating conjunction marking a dependent clause is like a ladder leaning up against that tree. You can have the tree without the ladder, but without the tree to lean on, the ladder's not gonna stand up. Now it's totally fine to begin a sentence with "because," as long as it's attached to an independent clause. So, you know, you could say, "Because I told them to, the goblins built me a sandcastle."

History of the Possessive Apostrophe (6)

If, for example, we had, and I'm gonna draw a queen that's not gonna be as nice, Queen Pun Hilda. So the difference between...So, okay, so the old English word for queen was, perhaps unsurprisingly, cwen, and if we're gonna talk about the queen's hat, we would use this singular, strong, feminine genitive ending which is cwene, right, with an e. So, secwene haet, and that's where all of this started.

Singular They (13)

In English you address a king and a peasant with the same address, under the language they are equal. Mind you the existence of a single form of direct address did not annihilate class distinctions or prejudice in the English-speaking world but it is no longer possible to encode a power relationship in English in the very specific way it once was.

Reflexive Pronouns (1)

In English, we have this distinction between the personal pronoun, so for example, me, and its reflexive pronoun, which is myself. And we use these pronouns in very specific cases.

Personal Pronouns (2)

In English,we divide personal pronouns into three basic types: pronouns that are about me, pronouns that are about you, and pronouns that are about people or things that are neither me nor you. In other words, first person, second person, and third person.

Singular They (6)

In French, for example, we'd say tu for singular you and vous for plural you. Tu to one person, vous to many. There's also a social distinction here that was once more pronounced, where you'd say vous to social superiors and tu to close friends.

Beginning Sentences with Conjunctions (3)

In fact, I think is a conflation, or a confusion of a couple separate issues in writing. But sometimes you wanna punctuate a sentence by beginning with a conjunction. There's a kind of dramatic tension you can access by beginning a sentence like that, kind of unexpectedly leaping into action.

Subject and Object Pronouns (1)

In grammar, the subject is the part of the sentence or clause that does a thing. The object, on the other hand, is the thing that is acted on, has stuff done to it. The subject acts, the object is acted upon.

Intensifiers and Adverbs of Degree (5)

In order to talk about adverbs of degree I'm going to talk instead about the Incredibly Deadly Viper, which is a creature from A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket. There it is, your terrifying, horned viper, yonder. And what the word incredibly is doing here is, it is serving as an intensifier, right. But it's also what we call an adverb of degree because it's saying the extent to which this viper is so very deadly.

Irony (3)

In situational irony, everyone is aware of the discrepancy of the difference between expectation and result. And a really classic example of this is the O. Henry short story The Gift of the Magi. And it's about a couple who are very poor, but who love each other very much. And each one wants to get the other a really nice Christmas present. The man has a very lovely watch and the woman has really lovely long hair.

Relative Pronouns (5)

In the sentence, the witch who cast the spell is kind, we could use either the witch who cast the spell or the witch that cast he spell because both that and who work with people. But which, strangely, does not. So we couldn't say, for example, the witch which owns a cat is cruel. That's just not how the language shook out, which is not a relative pronoun that applies to people.

Subject, Direct Object, and Indirect Object (9)

In this case, to Louie is no longer what we would traditionally consider an indirect object. So, if we've got Wanda gave a gift card to Louie, Wanda is the subject, gift card is the direct object, and then we can see to Louie is now this adverbial prepositional phrase that modifies gave. It's the manner in which she gave it to Louie, and if we switched it out, if we said Wanda gave Louie to gift card, that doesn't make sense at all.

Linking Function of the Colon (1)

In this video I'm going to tell you about a piece of punctuation called the colon. The colon is these two little dots right here, one stacked on top of the other. And it has quite a few functions, just like a lot of other pieces of punctuation. The idea of this linking function is that the colon can link an independent or dependent clause with another independent or dependent clause, or a phrase, or a word when there's a strong connection between the two things that it's linking.

Semicolons (1)

In this video, I'm gonna tell you about a piece of punctuation called the semicolon, which basically looks like a comma with a period on top of it. The semicolon has a few uses, but, the basic sort of standard use is to link two closely related ideas, that can stand on their own as individual sentences. So that might sound a little weird, you think there's two individual sentences, so they just have a period in between them, why do they need to be linked?

Correlative Conjunctions (2)

In this video, we'll go through five of my favorites. So, either/or, is a good pair to start off with. And when you start a sentence with either or, either, I don't know how you say it. It sets up the expectation that you're going to have to be choosing between two things, so, we're going to say, or, later in the sentence, as in, what is reputed to be Oscar Wilde's last words, either the wallpaper goes, or I do.

Modal Verbs (8)

Indicate modality examples: But if you're at an amusement park and the roller coaster you want to ride has a height requirement, the sign probably says, "You must be this tall to ride the Doom-Coaster." This is like a necessary condition.

Modal Verbs (7)

Indicate modality examples: Must. We can use must in a couple different ways. So, if you imagine a detective looking up from some tracks, some muddy boot prints on the floor, with her magnifying glass. She looks up and says "He must have gone that way!" That detective is using must to express a likelihood, a high likelihood. This must have happened.

Modal Verbs (14)

Indicates Modality Examples: You can also use modal verbs to give advice to someone, as in "You shouldn't do that."

Modal Verbs (11)

Indicates modality examples : Or to give someone permission, like "You May enter."

Modal Verbs (15)

Indicates modality examples: And something that is special to will, and to a lesser extent, shall, is that they can form the future. Shall used to be a lot more popular, and it still is in British English, but less so in standard American.

Modal Verbs (9)

Indicates modality examples: By a similar token, if you enter someone's house and they demand you take off your shoes, they would say "You must remove your shoes." An obligation.

Modal Verbs (10)

Indicates modality examples: Similarly with may, we can use may to express a possibility, like saying "It may rain." That's something that could possibly happen.

Modal Verbs (13)

Indicates modality examples: We also use modal verbs like this to talk about conditions, or stuff that isn't going to happen or maybe could happen. And so, for example, in this sentence, we would say "I would make the bed, but I'm tired." Because the possibility exists, however remote, that the bed would be made by me, but I don't feel like it. So I'm using would to offer an excuse.

Modal Verbs (12)

Indicates modality examples: You can use a word like can to express ability. You could say "I can eat ten pounds of broccoli!" And that's expressing your ability to do a thing. (Ability)

The Scale of Formality (15)

Is it going to be informal, talking to your friend, or is it a formal dinner party where you would use different vocabulary and more formal language. [David] The way our colleague Grant described it to me, is this: it's useful to have a tuxedo in your closet, but you wouldn't wear it to a beach party. [Rosie] Exactly!

Commas and Introductory Elements (3)

Is there a need for a comma here? [Paige] Of course. [David] Okay. Because we're leading with a dependent clause, and that means that this thing can't stand on it's own, right? It's like the ladder up against the tree. Because an independent clause, in green, can stand on its own; a dependent clause cannot.

Indefinite Pronouns (13

Is this grammatical? Yes, in that it makes sense. Does it adhere concretely and in an iron-clad way to these rules that we've established? No, but language is kind of messy in that way. Sometimes the meaning of the sentence, the fact that here everyone refers to multiple people is going to override the rules that are previously established. And that's okay, as long as you're making sense.

Commas in Dialogue (2)

It can ramp you up to get going for an utterance and take you down and land. Paige, would you read me this sentence? [Paige] "Guillermo said, I have no idea "where I put that moonstone." [David] So, we're starting into this sentence, and we're gonna use this comma as a ramp to divide between the utterance and what's called the dialogue tag. "So Guillermo said," comma, "I have no idea where I put that moonstone." This is the end of his utterance. We're gonna put a period here.

Comma (4)

It can separate clauses, it can separate items in a list, it can separate dates. Usually, when you're trying to make a separation within a sentence, you use a comma. Commas can't go at the end of a sentence. So I couldn't be like, "I want to go swimming," It couldn't end a sentence that way. You need to say something after the comma. So this is no good. Or you have to keep going, like "I'm going to go swimming, and then sailing."

Comma (2)

It can separate elements of lists. Example: For lunch I had tofu, spam, and seaweed. So it's separating elements of this list. Commas can also separate dates. Example: Here is the United States, National Blueberry Muffin Day is July 11th, and if we wanted to refer to a historical blueberry muffin day, let's say July 11, 1981.

History of the Possessive Apostrophe (2)

It didn't always used to be apostrophe s. Oh, that's very nice, Jake. [Jake] Well, I try. [David] So, that's King Ethelred. So, okay, when we're talking about, you know, the possessive in English is very strange because it's this relic from history of these forms left over from old English. So, here's this table, this vastly simplified table. English used to have these things called case endings. And this is not a very, this is like a super-simplified version.

Complex Sentences (6)

It has a subject we and a verb buy, and it expresses a complete idea, it's an action that's happening and it tells you who's doing it. But we add this thing called a subordinating conjunction, that's this word when, here, and that makes this into a dependent clause, it can't be a sentence by itself, so it depends on the latter clause, we have to make sure it's lemon, to be part of a sentence. Okay, so, Rosie, what's another example of a complex sentence. x

Comma (1)

It is a piece of punctuation that has many more functions. The comma is ab extremely powerful piece of punctuation. Separating sentence elements is one of the most pertinent or important things that a comma does. A lot of stuff falls under that category. So it's like it has laser vision but it can not only use that laser vision to boil water, but it can also cut through steel.

Forming Comparative and Superlative Modifiers (10)

It just sounds unwieldy, 'cause the word's already pretty long, so if you've got a two or more syllable word, that doesn't end in U, then you just have to add the word more to the beginning, so more magnificent, and most magnificent.

Apostrophe (1)

It kind of looks like a comma, but it's one that floats in the air. If we say Paige's dog Atti, we're using the apostrophe in one of its three different applications. So the apostrophe can do three things. Thing number one: it can stand in for missing letters. So when an apostrophe stands in for missing letters that's called a contraction.

Bare/Bear, Allowed/Aloud, Advice/Advise, and Break/Brake (9)

It looks sort of like a spring, we want to halt its momentum by putting that 'e' at the end. So let's put these into a sentence. Jesse breaks a vase. And how do we remember to say breaks with 'e-a-k'? Well, we put the 'e' in the middle. We break the word in half, we put the 'e' in the middle. Let's do the other one. Paolo slammed on the brakes. And how do we remember we want to have the 'e' at the end?

Apostrophes and Plurals (4)

It's less likely that you're gonna gonna confuse capital A, lower case S in the middle of a sentence for the word as. [Paige] Right, 'cause you wouldn't just capitalize the word as in the middle of a sentence. [David] Right. So this is for only lower case letters, the little ones, the inside voice. (laughing) Paige, that's it, right? - [Paige] Yeah.

Subject-Verb Agreement (5)

It's only this weird third person singular, here, that's got that S on the end. So, if you're trying to figure out how to make something agree, if you're unsure as you're writing, so if you're looking at a sentence like the dogs bark. And, you can't figure out if it's suppose to be the dogs bark or the dogs barks, the dogs barks, as yourself first, what is the subject of the sentence?

Subordinating Conjunctions (3)

It's possible to have something that has both a subject and a verb, that doesn't stand on its own, and that's a dependent clause. We'd call that a sentence fragment. What a dependent clause does, is provide extra information that isn't necessary to the understanding of the sentence, right. But an independent clause has to be able to stand on its own.

Reflexive Pronouns (8)

It's really easy to get tripped up this way, especially if there's a compound object in the sentence. For example, you can talk to Vista or myself. In Standard American English this is not correct because you is not the same thing as me. And it's easy to get confused because you're talking about two people here in this object and that's befuddling. It kind of throws you off.

Pronoun Number (4)

Let me show you what I mean. For example, I would say I looked at my watch. Now I wouldn't say, I looked at our watch, unless, I don't know, a partner and I shared a watch. Unless my little sister and I both had the same watch and we traded it back and forth each month. Which is unlikely and silly. And so what I'm trying to say is that "our" doesn't Afro, doesn't match up with "I" or "my."

Bare/Bear, Allowed/Aloud, Advice/Advise, and Break/Brake (8)

Let's just imagine we've got this un-word, brak, here. Now, if I want to use the break and destroy sense, in order to do that I just have to break the word in half and put that 'e' right in the middle. I broke the word in half, I put the 'e' right in the center, and that means that I've cracked the word. But let's say I've got brak over here. I want to slow down its forward momentum. I'm going to put that 'e' (mimics braking noise) right at the end.

Commas and Introductory Elements (10)

Let's look at another example. [Paige] "Basically, you're the greatest." [David] Aww, thanks, Paige! So, we've got this word, basically, and basically is modifying the entire expression. It's kind of qualifying the whole thing. So, we're gonna put a comma between this sentence adverb and the sentence itself. Cool, so, initially, Paige, this seemed pretty complicated to me. [Paige] Right, but, basically, I think we got it down. [David] All right, we think that, essentially, you can learn anything.

Compound Prepositions (7)

Let's look at some more prepositions. Around is a word that has both a literal and a metaphorical connotation. And around is in the literal sense, is pretty explanatory. Pretty self-explanatory. "The fox ran around the tree." Right, so we got this tree, then we got a little fox going around it. There goes the weird lookin' little foxy.

Adjectives (3)

Let's put this in into action with some sentences. Steven is Connie's best friend. Now what is the word that describes or changes another word in this sentence. Best modifies friend. So Steven is Connie's best friend. What is Steven? A friend. What kind of friend is he? The best friend.

Pronoun-Antecedent Agreement (6)

Let's say we have a whole bunch of them, we want to make sure that we are operating under the standards of agreement. Beth, any questions? [Beth] So you can't have it anymore, because now you've got four monkeys. [David] Right, let me get rid of that. What should it be instead Beth? [Beth] They, because they is plural, and we don't know if they're he's or she's. [David] And even if we didn't, they kind of eliminates any kind of gender distinction.

Prepositions of Time (3)

Let's talk about how all of these work. I'm just going to list a couple of the most famous Prepositions of Time and write an example sentence. So let's go through these. "After" and "Before," as we've established, these are time relationships that refer to something happening after. So when something is completed, say, "The bats come out after the sun goes down."

Prepositional Phrases (6)

Let's try another one. I would enjoy exploring the Cathedral of Glass. Let's pay attention to how the prepositional phrase of glass works in the rest of the sentence. You know, what part of this is it attached to It's not I of glass, or enjoy of glass. It's the cathedral of glass, and that means that this of glass thing is describing cathedral.

Bare/Bear, Allowed/Aloud, Advice/Advise, and Break/Brake (5)

Let's use that in a sentence. Ginny muttered aloud. [David] So when we say aloud A-L-O-U-D we mean it is audible, it can be heard. It contains that word, aloud. Cool. What's this next one? [Eman] Allowed with two 'l's. And a good way to remember this is to think about the word legal, which has two 'l's. If something is legal, it is also allowed, or permissible. Let's think of an example. Oliver allowed no peppers in his soup.

Bare/Bear, Allowed/Aloud, Advice/Advise, and Break/Brake (2)

Let's use these both in a sentence. Bertram gives terrible advice. Mopewa advised us not to surf on a full stomach. So the word advice, the noun, contains another noun, the word vice, which is kinda like a, it's a type of clamp usually tightened by means of a metal screw and you turn it with a handle. In my context, in my experience, I've used it in woodworking projects to keep pieces of wood still.

Singular They (23)

Like if you had to ask me right now, "David, is singular they grammatical?" I'd say it's as grammatical as "you" but yeah, this is some of the context of singular they. This is where it comes from, this is why it's used, this is what it's replacing, it's replacing this generic "he" and this kind of a clunky "she or he."

Bare/Bear, Allowed/Aloud, Advice/Advise, and Break/Brake (7)

Like you could say the break in a vase. Whereas brake, also a noun and a verb, refers to slowing stuff down. So to slow down or the mechanism that does the slowing. We have here both a verb form and we have here the verb form and the noun form. [Eman] How do you remember the difference between them? [David] Let's take it from the decision point. I'm writing a sentence and I'm trying to figure out which one I want to use.

Subject-Verb Agreement (4)

Like, if English made sense—OK, like, if I ran the zoo, right, I would want it to work like this, the dogs barks, right, because there's an S, there's multiple. Unfortunately, for many weird reasons, and the history of English, it didn't work out that way. A third person singular verb usually ends in an S. Right, I talk that's first person. Third person is she talks. We eat. That's plural first person. They eat, see no S.

Linking Function of the Colon (4)

Like, what is this greatest fear? Well, it's parachutes. The colon is here to link between this whole independent clause and the word parachutes. I could just as well say going skydiving made me face one of my greatest fears. That's a perfectly fine sentence. But without a colon linking to what that fear is, that sentence just kind of leaves us wondering. So another sort of subset of the colon's ability to link things is that it can introduce things.

Dependent and Independent Clauses (12)

Likewise, Maureen pointed out the monster, that sentence works fine on its own. That she saw last night, sure there's a subject and there's a verb, she and saw, right, she saw something, she saw that, but this relative pronoun needs to refer back to something, and that makes it dependent on the monster. So this last one's a little tricky, right, because you might be looking and saying, well, unless I'm mistaken, where's the verb?

Affect and Effect (8)

Likewise, effect as a verb, frankly, I don't what you get out of this. I would just say make, frankly, I'm not sure it's worth the confusion. But that's just a style tip, obviously it's still grammatical to use it that way, you just have to be careful of confusion. So, what's the takeaway? Affect is a verb, effect is a noun, but there are exceptions.

Indefinite Pronouns (1)

Looks kind of complicated but really just does what it says on the tin. An indefinite pronoun is just that, it's indefinite, undefined, uncertain. These are pronouns that we use when we're not being especially specific. Words like any, anybody, each, everyone, nobody.

Less Versus Fewer (9)

No fewer than a hundred appears to me not only more elegant "than no less than a hundred, but strictly proper." [David] He did just kind of decide arbitrarily. [Rosie] He did. I mean he's really stating his opinion here. He says, "Appears to me not only more elegant "than less than a hundred but strictly proper." Okay so maybe this strictly proper sounds a little intimidating but he's stating an opinion here.

Coordinating Conjunctions (6)

Nor is similar to and, but we use it to combine untrue things. We use it to express negation. So if I were going to talk about an angry tree spirit, for example, just to pull an example out of a hat, I could say, "she won't leave her tree, nor will she speak with humans." We use but to express exceptions, as in..."We used every building material but chewing gum." Chewing gum is the exception to every building material.

Beginning Sentences with Conjunctions (11)

Now don't get me wrong, sentence fragments definitely have their place, but, not in formal writing. You would use this maybe for rhetorical effect, or, to approach a kind of realism in dialogue, but not in essay writing, not for the newspaper. I just wanna repeat, there's not really a rule against beginning sentences with a conjunction. It's a superstition, frankly. And in practice, the rule is generally ignored.

Parallel Structure (3)

Now each one of these is a gerund, right, it the ing form of a verb we're using as a noun. And this sentence exhibits parallel structure, but, you know, sometimes you'll see a sentence that'll mess that up, right? So let's say you were editing someone's personal statement, an athlete's personal statement and they said, "I love fishing, skiing, and to climb rocks." Now, there's nothing grammatically incorrect about this sentence, it makes sense, it is legal in the way that it is composed, but stylistically, it just doesn't harmonize.

Prepositions of Time (1)

Now here's something weird and cool about Prepositions of Time is that once upon a time all of these were physical prepositions. Like "Before" and "After" just used to mean behind and in front of. They later took on this additional connotation of time just over the course of English-Speaking history.

Articles (4)

Now if you're not being specific. If you're talking about any old elephant. An elephant that you're not especially familiar with. An elephant you haven't been introduced before. You'd say "an" elephant, because it's not specific and it's undefined. So grammarians call that an indefinite article.

Hear/Here and Accept/Except (4)

Now in order to remember that H-E-A-R involves listening, I like to point out that it actually contains the word ear, the very device to we use to hear things in the first place. That's a human ear, alright, there's your earlobe, the tragus, your scaphoid fossa, and parts of the ear. So, just remember, that hear contains the word ear. Here the adverb, however, let's use this in an example, the secret treasure should be right here.

Singular They (7)

Now in those languages the vous form is formal and the tu form is informal. You're addressing someone you don't know very well, you use vous. You're addressing your best buddy, you use tu.

Relative Clauses (7)

Now the challenge here is when you see sentences like this in the wild, then you see sentences like these in the exercises, they're not gonna be differentiated for your convenience with two different colors, so you have to be very careful to figure out where this dependent clause begins and ends. So you can parse, so you can make sense of this sentence, in order to make it work.

Subordinating Conjunctions (9)

Now these can each be their own sentences. Jimothy liked to wash the dishes. Beckany preferred to sweep the floor. We can combine these if we want to and, we have. Whereas, this subordinating conjunction sentence that begins with although, cannot be separated into two sentences. Although she loved Sir Reginald, Lady Penelope hated his pranks.

Oxford Comma (2)

Now this is a pretty big...controversy in English is where to put this comma. Some style guides for example the AP style guide recommends that you don't include this last comma. The style guide that Khan Academy uses, the Chicago Manual of Style, does recommend it. Ultimately this is less about grammar and more about style, less about sense and more about taste.

Possessive Pronouns (2)

Now we can essentially divide possessive pronouns in half, because on this side of the divide, we have a list of pronouns that behaves like adjectives, and on this side, we have a group of pronouns that behave like nouns.

Prepositions of Space (8)

Now we're lucky because prepositions are a closed group. We don't add many of them to the language the way that we add nouns, adverbs, verbs, and adjectives. There are a lot of them and you have to memorize all of them and their various obnoxious nuances, but there isn't a limitless number of prepositions. There's maybe 100 plus, and of those maybe 50 are quite useful, and of those, maybe 20 to 25 are super useful. And it's the super useful, most common ones that are in the past exercises.

Subject and Object Pronouns (10)

Now when it comes to you and it, you're in luck, the subject and object forms of these are the same, so the subject equals object, with you and it. So I could say you give it a present just as easily as I could say it gives you a present.

Singular They (10)

Now you may recall from our video on who versus whom that I said whom was on its way out of the language. Its usage is being overtaken by who, it is now usually permissible to use who as an object, as in the song Who Do You Love by Bo Diddley. Well the same thing that's happening to whom happened to ye.

Reflexive Pronouns (4)

Now, all of these are what we would call object pronouns. They can all be the object of a verb. So they're never the do-ers, they're always the do-ees. With the exception of you or it, none of these pronouns can be the subject of a sentence. In Standard American English it is not grammatical to say "Me eat a cookie" for example. It's part of why Cookie Monster sounds so funny.

Affect and Effect (3)

Now, both of these words mean something happened, right? They both mean that there was a change, but effect with an E is the result of that change, and affect with an A, or affect, is the change agent if that makes sense. So, we're looking at this sentence: the drought had a nasty blank on Angela's crops. We know we need to use one of those. Well, we're signaling here by using the article a and the adjective nasty that we're looking for a noun.

Forming Comparative and Superlative Modifiers (9)

Now, if you've got a word like magnificent, this is a four syllable word, it means like super huge, super great, super wonderful, you've got a word like that, you take a word like that, it's a little bit too big to be adding more parts to the way that standard American English works. So you wouldn't say magnifcenter, or magnificentest.

Affect and Effect (5)

Now, of course there are always obnoxious exceptions, let's cover them briefly, but just bear in mind that these are pretty rare. Number one: the word effect with an E as verb. When you see this as a verb it usually means to create. The way I usually see this is in the phrase effect change, which really means to bring about change. Effect here means to create. So, Kimiko hoped that the new mayor would effect change in her town.

To, Two, and Too (3)

Now, to, T-O, is a preposition and so that means that it's expressing some kind of relationship in time and space. In this case we can say, one of its many, many meanings is that it means it's moving towards something. So for example, I am headed to Frank Cerisano's Pizzeria. Right, so we can see in context this is intentional, it's in motion and that's why we'd wanna use a preposition. Where am I going? To Frank Cerisano's Pizzeria.

Irony (13)

Now, unbeknownst to our protagonist, let's call her Anna, and her cousin, let's call her Bella, a lion has crawled into the Murphy bed while the two of them were out. I promise this has a point. So, hidden behind this wall is a lion on top of this bed. Now, ignorant of all of this, Bella asks her cousin "Is the Murphy bed comfortable?" To which Anna replies "Yeah. It's perfect for lyin' on." I think you see where I'm going here.

Subordinating Conjunctions (5)

Now, we know that because he was curious, is the dependent clause. Because, it explains more of why Herbert did what he did. Right, it is explaining the reason for his performing irresponsible experiments. But, because he was curious on its own, doesn't work as a sentence, he was curious does. That's a sentence.

Grammatical Person and Pronouns (2)

Obviously, we all know what a person is, it's a human being, but person as a grammar concept is a way of distinguishing between me, you, and everybody else. In fact, we have special terms for this. So, any group containing me is the first person. Any group containing you is the second person, and everybody else falls into the third person.

Prepositions of neither Space nor Time (4)

Of has this connotation of belonging or being part of a place. So we can talk about the great green dragon of Inverness. Inverness is a place, it's in Scotland.

To, Two, and Too (6)

Oh, I made her cry. So in order to keep these three very similar sounding words straight, here's what you need to remember. To, T-O, is a preposition that means towards something. I am headed to Frank Cerisano's Pizzeria. T-W-O, the number two, is a number so you'd say I ordered two pizzas. Finally, T-O-O the adverb means either there's an over abundance, there's too much, or in addition, my sister wanted pizza too. So grammarians, I say unto you, remember the pizza.

History of the Possessive Apostrophe (7)

Okay, so we have this really ludicrously complicated system. Even this table is simplified, right? Like I've left out half of it, but, ultimately, what it boils down to is secyninges haet, secwene haet. And as we move through history, what happens is the French invade, and they say, "Uh, this system is very complicated. "Let us get rid of it," and they do, and it basically leaves us with, by the time we get to middle English, the following.

Grammatical and Person Pronouns (6)

One is a third person pronoun and the temptation sometimes might be, you know, you forget about it, sounds like you're saying a piece of advice, one ought not to place your hands on a hot stove. Well, I mean this is still not a good ideation put your hands on a hot stove, but you have to remember which, what you're trying to connect here.

Linking Function of the Colon (5)

One thing that the colon can introduce is a list. I could say: We needed to find three more items on the scavenger hunt: a four-leaf clover, a cauldron, and an abandoned ship. The second thing a colon can introduce is an item. If I'm talking about the other day when I had a weird legume craving, I could say: I only wanted one thing from the grocery store: peanuts.

Verb-Progressive Aspect (1)

Ongoing, it's progressing, it's going, it's happening. So if we're telling a story and we're are inside that moment, we can use the progressive aspect. The way the progressive works is that it takes the form of to be for whatever the subject of the sentence is, and it changes the verb into an ING verb. Its effect is to say that something is ongoing. Also, called the continuous aspect.

Bare/Bear, Allowed/Aloud, Advice/Advise, and Break/Brake (12)

Open up the cupboard, a fly comes out, something like that. So how do we keep these two words separate? Well, all you have to remember is this simple mnemonic: E before A, take it away. A before E, everyone can see that you are naked, or that your cupboard is empty. Those are just a couple of mnemonic devices, just memory aides that will, ideally, assist you in keeping these sets of words straight.

Adjective Order (3)

Or for short dosa scomp. Dosa scomp. Aw. Okay, that's actually kind of a thing. So a dosa is a South Indian flat bread, and a scomp, I'm gonna say is a word for eating. It's not a word, it's a made up word, but dosa scomp. Sounds like scarf to me. Or chomp. Both of those are verbs that denote eating, as well as scarf being a garment, so dosa scomp. I just want you to imagine sitting down to a delicious South Indian meal and scomping on some dosas. So dosa scomp.

Ellipses (12)

Or it shows that a portion of quoted material has been taken out. [Paige] Yeah. [David] Like, "Words are...our most inexhaustible source of magic." [Paige] That was a great Dumbledore impression. [Albus] Thank you, Paige.

Compound Prepositions (4)

Or making a decision between two concepts. Now, between often gets confused with the word among. And they do have distinct meanings. Because where between considers individuals, among is a preposition that considers collections. So among considers collectively. Among can also have a literal, physical meaning. Or a metaphorical meaning. We could say something like, "Ashley and Cyrus frolicked among the daisies."

Terminal Prepositions (11)

Or we could also switch it around: "Ponere carrum ante equum," right? It could in any order, as long as ante was before equum. Now, admittedly, in English, if you wanted to end this with a preposition, it would still sound pretty awkward, like, "The cart is the thing that the horse is before,@ but it's still grammatical.

Verb-Perfect Progressive Aspect (4)

Or you can use the perfect progressive to say how long something has been going on. So you can say, "I will have been eating cookies for 40 years come next Thursday and I have no regrets." You can say how long something has been going on using this aspect.

Linking Function of the Colon (7)

Or, I only wanted one thing from the grocery store. What did you want? Or, my friend Liz says it best. Well, what does she say? That's were the colon comes in, to introduce that missing information. So there's one final case of the linking function of the colon that I want to get into in this video. If you remember from the beginning of the video, I said that colons can introduce an independent clause to another independent clause sometimes.

History of the Apostrophe (4)

Or, on a lighter note perhaps, from H.M.S. Pinafore, there's a song, "Fair moon, to thee I sing, bright regent of the heavens." It's the moon. The moon can't talk back. It's the moon. And from this figure of speech, this is where we get the idea that an apostrophe represents something that is missing. That's how we come to get its main use, to represent that something, that it's standing in for absent letters, just like an apostrophe in rhetoric would be delivered to absent friends.

Irony (12)

Otherwise, it's kept folded up into the wall. So, let's say we're watching a sitcom that takes place in a small apartment that has a Murphy bed. Let's say that our main character has just come home from the airport with her visiting cousin. So, again, this is a sitcom. This is all happening on your television. So, this is all inside the frame.

Prepositions of Space (6)

Out is another direct word. Away from something. And off and on and in and out mean the opposite of each other. So away from, out means away from an enclosed area, and off means away from a surface. So if you can imagine, there's someone who's on the rock, and then they hoop off the rock. There's a goblin on the front steps, the goblin leaves the front steps he's off the front steps. There's a bunny in the box, if the bunny leaves the box it will go out of the box.

Singular They (11)

Over the years its function decreased as "you" took over, it took on a subject and object role as well as singular and plural functions but it was still reserved for the highborn, it was the polite form of address used for addressing social superiors. So even though there's only one king you would refer to that king as "you" because apparently he was better than you. He wasn't, but we'll get to that.

Commas and Introductory Elements (1)

Paige and I are here to teach you about introductory elements in sentences and how commas relate to them. Paige, how should we define what an introductory element is? [Paige] So, it's pretty much something that happens at the beginning of a sentence. It can be a dependent clause or an adverb. But as we will see soon, it is something that is separated off with, of course, a comma.

Possesive (2)

Right, so if I were talking about, there are a couple of ways to show that something belongs to someone or something in English, like I could say, the carrot that belonged to that rabbit was delicious. [Paige] Yeah, but that's pretty complicated, and can make sentences much longer than they need to be. [David] So what's a simpler way of saying the carrot that belonged to the rabbit was delicious.

Intensifiers and Adverbs of Degree (2)

Right, that's the comparative, we've already covered that. I would like to talk about something I think is a really interesting topic. "What's that," you say? A really interesting topic. Now, what's that really doing there in this phrase? A really interesting topic. Well, it's modifying interesting. We recognize that this is an adverb, right? Really is modifying interesting, which is an adjective. Interesting, in turn, is modifying topic.

Simple and Compound Sentences (7)

Right, you don't have, I visited the beach and I got a really bad sunburn. That whole thing, visited the beach and got a really bad sunburn, is you're right, it is a compound predicate. [David] But what you're saying is I couldn't divide this up into two sentences, unless I put in another subject. [Paige] Right, you can say, I visited the beach, and that could be a sentence on its own. But you can't say, and got a really bad sunburn, as it's own sentence.

Emphatic Pronouns (2)

Ronaldo and himself and I and myself. We use, these are called reflexive pronouns and we use them when the subject and the object of a sentence is the same thing, right, but there's another way to use these reflexive pronouns and it's called emphatic usage.

Subject and Object Pronouns (9)

Same thing with they and he. They showed him a guitar. They is the subject, and him is the object. Let's give it the old switcheroo. He showed them a guitar. Now, we do the switcheroo, him becomes he, so we go from the object form which is him to the subject form which is he, and then they, the subject form becomes them, the object form.

Relative Clauses (5)

Sells is the verb The new Willamette cold brew coffee ice cream is the object of sells, and everything in yellow here, all this yellow text, is our relative clause. It cannot stand on its own as a sentence. You could not just have that sells the new Willamette cold brew coffee ice cream. On its own, that doesn't work because the very presence of this relative pronoun requires more stuff to go on. Well, let's make things a little more complicated.

Singular and Plural Nouns

Singular noun- think single. A singular noun names one person, place, thing, or idea. Plural noun- think plus. Plural nouns name more than one person, place, thing, or idea. Regular plural- add an s. Irregular plural nouns: leaf to leaves, child to children, fungus to fungi, mouse to mice, and sheep to sheep.

Irony (15)

Situational irony, when they pull that Murphy bed down and expose the lion, they will see the difference between these expectations and this result. And that is situational irony. You thought one thing was true and now something very different has happened. That's the difference between expectation and result. Beds don't usually have lions in them. You expect them not to have lions in them. You pull down the bed. Boom, there's a lion in it. Situational irony.

Adjective Order (5)

Size, so the cool, big, old, square, black,. And origin usually can be where it's from. So let's say Texan. And then we have materials, let's say leather, cause leather can be black, and the purpose. This is where we would use what's called a participle or a gerundive to determine what the thing is for. So if we were talking about a lawnmower that you ride around on, that's called a riding mower.

Compliment/Complement and Desert/Dessert (4)

So I can see how this is confusing, so when two things go together well, visually or sonically or however, you say they complement one another. When two people work well as a team, you can say their skills complement one another, and if you point that out in a way that is praiseworthy, if you say, "Ah, Melvin, that is a dope ensemble "you are rocking today," that is a compliment with an I. So you are praising it.

Beginning Sentences with Conjunctions (12)

So I read this paper from like 1994, or so, that analyzed the frequency of the word "but" in newspapers, and found that 60% of the time it was used at the beginnings of sentences. Which is way more often than certainly I expected! But it makes sense for that medium. It's punchy, it's dramatic. But, it gets a little stale if you use it too often, I think.

Emphatic Pronouns (3)

So I want you to imagine me storming off in a huff or getting really excited as I say the following: Well, if you won't help me, I'll do it myself! Or, he's lying, I heard it myself. Or, the princess herself is running the charity marathon. And what this is is what we call emphatic or intensive because we use it to intensify a statement or to grant it emphasis, right?

Prepositional Phrases (11)

So I would say, generally, that the solution to a problem like this is to just put the named Smith part earlier in the sentence. I knew a man named Smith who had a wooden leg. Maybe lose the prepositional phrase. That solves the problem. What I'm trying to say is, prepositional phrases are very powerful, but you have to be careful about how you use them, because if you're not careful, you can create confusion or ambiguity.

Forming Comparative and Superlative Modifiers (3)

So I'll show you each of them in turn. So we've got this little table that I'm building here, and we've got the description, how it looks in the comparative, and how it looks in the superlative. So if you take a word like cute, words like cute have one syllable, one word sound. Cute. So a word like cute, that I'd one syllable and ends in an E. All we have to do to make it comparative is add an R. So, add R, and that gives us cuter.

There, Their, and They're (4)

So T-H-E-I-R, the possessive answers the question "Who does that belong to?" So rounding out our trio, the last member of the there, their, they're riders of the apocalypse is T-H-E-Y-'-R-E which is a contraction of "they are". So anywhere you would want to say "they are" you can smosh that together and say "they're". So, "Hey kid, are your parents home? "No, they're not home right now, can I take a message?"

Indefinite Pronouns (3)

So a cool thing about indefinite pronouns, actually there are a couple. Number one, they can be used as both subject or object in a sentence. So if you said to me, "David, do you want pizza?" I could respond, "Yes, I would love some," using it as an object, or equally plausibly I could say, "Yes, please! Some would be great," using it as a subject

Prepositional Phrases (1)

So a prepositional phrase, simply speaking, is anything that follows a preposition, frankly. So, if we look at the sentence: Danielle blew the horn with the strength of a giant. There's Danielle blowing the horn with the strength of a giant. So this part with the strength of a giant, is a prepositional phrase. Actually, it's two prepositional phrases, because there's with the strength, and then, of a giant.

Intensifiers and Adverbs of Degree (4)

So an intensifier, let me just step back a little bit, an intensifier is a type of adverb that modifies an adjective or another adverb in a way that doubles down on the modified thing's meaning. So it's not just an interesting topic, it's a really interesting topic, so it's like extra special, extra interesting. It makes, it intensifies, it really accentuated it makes clear the fact that you're trying to drive home the interesting-ness of this topic.

Apostrophe (2)

So another way to say something like "I did not eat the cookie." Is to say, "I didn't eat the cookie." So the apostrophe there represents the 'O' being taken out and everything being squished together in a new word 'didn't'. So "Did not" gets together, and then we attach this apostrophe to show that we've contracted, or shortened or shrunk, these two words.

Apostrophe (4)

So apostrophes can show contraction much like we're also doing in this part of the sentence as well with "That's" because this is the shorter version of "That is David's cursed skull." But we're condensing that or contracting that into "That's" but it's also being used for its second purpose here which is "David's", and this is what we call the possessive or the genitive case. Saying that, this cursed skull belongs to me.

Commas in Space and Time (5)

So commas are used in dates. So, I could say: on Tuesday, October fifth, 2010, I ate a cricket. So, as you can see, we've separated the day of the week from the day of the month, October fifth, from the year, 2010, and then separated all that from the rest of the sentence: I ate a cricket. [David] Because all of this is like a prepositional phrase that is modifying the word ate. [Paige] True.

Commas in Space and Time (2)

So first of all, one way in which you can use commas to separate space is by talking about addresses, people's physical addresses in space. So the fictitious private detective, Nero Wolfe, one of my very favorites, is supposed to live at 454 West 35th Street in New York. So if I wanted to write Mister Wolfe a letter, and I would write him a letter because he hates talking on the phone.

Relative Clauses (2)

So for example, Harry Potter is also known as. [Rosie] The boy who lived. [David] The boy who lived. [Rosie] Is that Dumbledore? [David] Yeah, that's my Dumbledore. [Rosie] I like it. [David] Thank you. You can see in this little snippet who is subbing in for the boy, right, so it is behaving like a pronoun, but a relative pronoun, and so we've got this thing here, who lived. The boy lived, on its own, could be a sentence, but who lived cannot be.

Relative Adverbs (4)

So if I ask Peggy you know, you're a dragon when did you learn to breathe fire? Because all dragons can breathe fire. She would say, I learned to breathe fire when I was 10 years old. So again we're using this word, when, to connect these two ideas. When did she learn to breathe fire? When she was 10 years old. And technically, when is an adverb that modifies was.

Linking Function of the Colon (2)

So if I want to tell someone what I think about two movies about animals, I could say: Both movies are great, but Sky Pal has one thing that makes it better: dogs that play sports. This is one sentence with two parts that are linked with this colon. So the first part says, both movies are great, but Sky Pal has one things that makes it better. And that could stand alone as a sentence, but it doesn't tell us what that one thing is.

Pronoun Number (7)

So if I'm talking about cantaloupe, and I write The cantaloupe was delicious. In the next sentence, I would say I ate it in one sitting. And it's not I ate them, it's I ate it because there's only one cantaloupe, you see?

Indefinite Pronouns (5)

So if someone asks me, "Do you like mangoes or cherries more?" I could say, "I like both equally," referring to the cherries and the mangoes at the same time.

Intensifiers and Adverbs of Degree (8)

So if you want to double down on the meaning of something you use an intensifier like very or extremely, and if you want to express a degree of something you could say, let's say we're talking about a cup of tea or something and you want to express how warm it is. You could say it's too hot. You could say it's slightly hot. You could say somewhat, or almost hot.

More Uses for Commas (5)

So if you're directly addressing a person, it doesn't have to be just Paige, it could also be me, it could also be Sal, whoever, you would say the name followed by a comma then the question, or whatever the sentence was going to be, like: "Paige, I'm going to the grocery store later. "Do you want some cheese?" [Paige] Right. I do definitely want some cheese. [David] So then in that response actually you could have the final thing we're going to talk about today, which is yes and no commas.

Semicolons and Complex Lists (1)

So if you've ever written a list of items or actions you know that we use commas to separate the elements of that list. Sometimes, though, our lists get a bit complicated and we have something called a complex list. And when that's the case instead of commas, we use semicolons. Let's look at an example. I've lived in quite a few places across the country, so if I want to list a few of them I can say "I've lived in New York, New York; San Francisco, California; and Knoxville, Tennessee."

Who Versus Whom (13)

So in this wild swamp of rule breaking there is one hard grammar rule to pay attention to. And it's just never use whom as a subject. The role of whom in our constellation of pronouns is decreasing, not expanding. Who is talking over whom. And since who is they subject whom is not moving into that space. Whom is the object pronoun, and you use it when you're feeling fancy.

History of the Apostrophe (2)

So it's a turning away. And in rhetoric, in classical rhetoric, when we talk about apostrophe, it's turning away from your actual audience to deliver a message to absent people or inanimate objects or just non-personified, you're trying to personify an inhuman concept. [Jake] So before it was a punctuation mark, it was a literary technique. [David] Yes, it was a turn, it was a figure of speech.

Pronoun Number (3)

So it's important to remember when you are writing or speaking, to keep singular and plural straight throughout the course of a sentence or a paragraph because you don't want to mislead people into thinking you're talking about something else.

Dashes (8)

So it's kind of this aside. If we really wanted to, we could take it right out of the sentence, kind of like an appositive, right, with commas. So we could say, "The bug had to be the size of a softball." Sentence still makes sense. [Paige] Right. [David] Use number three. A dash can be used where you would otherwise use a colon. [Paige] So, in this case, it's gonna be sort of introducing something, right?

Forming Comparative and Superlative Modifiers (1)

So last time we talked about Raul the penguin, and how he was happier than another penguin, Cesar. But I wanna talk today about how to form the comparative and the superlative. How to compare, how to say something is more than or most in an unfamiliar situation, if you're looking at a word for the first time or you've trying to figure out how to make a word comparative or superlative.

Parentheses (2)

So let's lay out the functions of parentheses. And I should say, the singular form of parentheses is parenthesis. That's just one of these. Two of 'em is parentheses, like so. So Paige, what is a parenthesis, and what does it do? [Paige] So a parenthesis is a piece of punctuation that has kind of a lot of different functions. It can indicate remarks by the writer of a text. [David] Okay.

Punctuating a List (3)

So let's put in those dividers. I need to get squid, pickles, and chocolate at the grocery store. [Paige] Exactly. [David] Okay, so we can punctuate a list by separating out nouns, and I see from the second sentence here, Paige could you give me a read for that? I'm going to go for a run, read a chapter of my book and go see the new Colonel Justice movie.

Forming Comparative and Superlative Modifiers (11)

So let's say that you're encountering a word you've never seen before. And in a sentence you have to compare, let's say the word is blarfy, I don't know what it means, probably something gross. So if we wanna compare two really gross meals, like a steaming pile of dog food covered in flies, or a plate of ancient cheese that is 3000 years old. You gotta eat it, gross. Which one is grosser?

Beginning Sentences with Conjunctions (2)

So let's start by looking at this two sentence paragraph. "Ginny looked at the painting suspiciously. But, as she turned away, she didn't see it look at her." Or, just starting something on its own, without connecting it to, you know, you can start a paragraph with it like, "But the question remains, what is art?" There's this, there's this superstition that says that you can't begin sentences with conjunctions, that it's ungrammatical or weak writing, and I don't think either of these things are true.

Parallel Structure (7)

So make sure to keep those separate in your lists. And then lists of individual terms versus longer phrases. So if you are describing something with a string of adjectives, be careful when you follow it up with a longer phrase. [Rosie] For example, sharks are large, damp, and dangerous. Those are all just short, individual modifiers, as opposed to sharks are large, damp, and not to be trifled with.

Apostrophe (8)

So more importantly the first two things are the most important. Number one, contractions make stuff shorter like "I did not eat the cookie." to "I didn't eat the cookie." And possession, showing ownership. So instead of saying "That cursed skull belongs to David" you would say "That is David's cursed skull." And that's an overview of the three powers of the apostrophe.

Contractions (3)

So most model verbs, right, if you remember model auxiliaries from the verb section. We use those a lot in English. And so it's really easy to combine those with most words or pronouns into a contraction. So you could take the phrase "she would", which is a lot of letters to say. Takes a lot of letters to write. And we can turn that into, with the help of our friend the apostrophe, the word "she'd" means the same thing.

Run-Ons and Comma Splices (6)

So okay, so we've got independent clause number one, remember this thing could stand on its own as a sentence, I love the name of this movie. I love Li'l Tony 2: Pony Up 2 the Streets. That could be its own sentence on its own, end it with a period, period. It's my favorite movie in the Li'l Tony franchise, period. But we have these two independent clauses, right? We cannot join them with just a comma.

Salutations and Valedictions (4)

So okay, we can use them at the beginning like this. Dear Prudence, or we can use it at the end. The endings of letters. So this has a technical name. We were discussing this before we started recording so if you open a letter, that's called the salutation which is another way to say hi and the way you end a letter is called a valediction which is like saying hail, I think wale in latin means hail.

Oxford Comma (6)

So probably last, like I'd like to think. Mahatma Gandhi, my pet hamster and my parents. And there's no confusion no matter where you put the comma there. Or his favorite artists are Elvis, Frida Kahlo, and a tiny Norwegian harpist. [Paige] Yeah, that does a good job of avoiding that confusion. [David] A good craftsman never blames their tools. That's all I gotta say about that.

Relative Clauses (8)

So really what is this sentence actually saying, just on a base level? [Rosie] The woman came into the cafe. [David] Right, and so everything else, this every Sunday, or who always wore a red had, that is kinda extra, and so it's your job as a writer, reader and editor of text, as someone who is working with the English language, to puzzle it out and separate the sentence into its components.

Indefinite Pronouns (14)

So relative pronouns are usually singular, unless the context drags them into the realm of plural. So like their name implies, sometimes indefinite pronouns can be a little...indefinite.

Punctuating a List (4)

So right now it says that, but it could also just be "I'm going to go for a run read a chapter of my book, and go see..." you know there's like no --[Paige] It's a little confusing. [David] It's a little confusing, right? There could be such a thing as a run read. [Paige] There probably is. [David] You know, like where you go for a jog while holding a book.

Salutations and Valedictions (3)

So that's how you begin a letter or an email with a comma after the, you know, dear part or the hello Prudence comma part you know, whatever it is, but Paige, how do you use commas toward the end of correspondence of emails and stuff? Great, so at the end of a letter or an email you'll use a comma in a sort of similar way to how you use it at the beginning so you'll say something like With love, Bruce Ben-Bacharach.

Run-Ons and Comma Splices (4)

So that's what a run-on sentence is, and now I wanna talk about comma splicing. And the word splice, not a super-common term if you are neither a sailor or a film editor. But splicing is a word that originally meant to take two ropes, untangle them, and weave them back together. It's a sailor's term related to rope lines. In our case for grammar, a splice, a comma splice is an inappropriate joining of two independent clauses by using a comma. So Rosie, this is Li'l Tony, Crime Fighting Pony. [Beth] Right.

Linking Function of the Colon (3)

So the colon comes in and tells us, I'm about to tell you what that thing is, dogs that play sports. So in this case the colon just sort of serves as a connection between the purple part of the sentence and the yellow part of the sentence. Another example is something like: Going skydiving made me face one of my greatest fears: parachutes. Right, again this colon is sort of linking these two parts of the sentence where one answers an unanswered question from the first part.

Who Versus Whom (8)

So the next time you're puzzling over what to do in the event of the sentence who are you talking to, and whether or not this pronoun here should be who or whom, it's really an issue of tone rather than correctness.

Possessive Pronouns (4)

So the possessive pronoun that behaves like an adjective for me is my. The possessive pronoun that behaves like a noun for me is mine. Etc. Now I'd like to point out that nowhere in any of these words does there appear such a thing as an apostrophe. There are no apostrophes in possessive pronouns.

Recognizing Fragments (3)

So the whole story, for instance, would be a fragment. This is a fragment. It could be a sentence but it's missing something. Beth, what is it missing, what is the whole story missing? [Beth] Well we've got a subject but we don't have what we would call a predicate, in other words, so we're giving a subject, but we're not telling what happens to that subject.

Hear/Here and Accept/Except (3)

So the word, hear, H-E-A-R, is a verb, and it means, to listen, to sense something with your ears. The word H-E-R-E, here, is an adverb. And it signals that something is close by. So an example for the verb, hear, is to say, I hear, I don't know, birdsong. I hear birdsong, oh so lovely. There's our beautiful bird, there's it's beautiful song, and we're hearing it.

Reflexive Pronouns (5)

So then he question becomes, when do you use these? So the place for these object pronouns to go is in the back end of a sentence, what we call the predicate, where the object of the verb lives. So, for example, "She pokes me." She is the subject of the sentence and me is the object, is the object of the verb poked. It is the do-ee, it is the thing that something is done to not the do-er. So that's when you'd use object pronouns, generally.

Compound-Complex Sentences (4)

So then we add after the storm passed which is a dependent clause and that makes it compound-complex. We have at least two independent clauses and at least one dependent clause. So in this case exactly two and exactly one. Rosie, can you tell me about your friend Alberto in a compound-complex sentence, please.

Who Versus Whom (1)

So there's this basic idea that who is the subject form, and whom is the object form. Which means that if we're talking about someone who is the doer, then we say who. As in, the spy who loved me. As opposed to someone who is the doee, the object. As in, the spy whom I loved. You see, cause in this sentence, who is the subject. And in this sentence, I is the subject. Me is the object. And whom is the object.

Singular They (3)

So they is more commonly known as the plural third person pronoun in English so if we say, you know, Rolando and Phil go to the park we can switch out Rolando and Phil and say they go to the park, and that's one usage of they but you may have also seen sentences that look like this. Like, "When a journalist files a story they should always "make sure their sources check out," or

Prepositional Phrases (4)

So this is a noun, right, the word strength is a noun, but this of a giant thing is modifying it, so this part is actually behaving as an adjective. Kinda cool, right? Let's look at some more examples. To steal the queen's diamonds would be a terrible crime. This is actually something we'd call, in addition to being a prepositional phrase, this is something we'd call an infinitive.

Parallel Structure (4)

So this is not parallel, but this is. [Rosie] Some other things to look out for to make sure you're making a sentence parallel is if everything is active voice or passive voice, infinitive verbs versus other forms of verbs, like to eat versus eating, and a string of individual modifiers like adjectives versus larger phrases. [David] Let's put that into action. Okay, so active versus passive voice.

Forming Comparative and Superlative Modifiers (6)

So this word big ends in a G, so what I'm gonna do for the comparative, I'm gonna say big, and then I'm gonna double the G, and then add ER. Bigger. Likewise for the superlative, same thing. So you double the consonant at the end of the word, and then you add EST, so it becomes BIG and then I double this consonant sound, so biggest. For this one big, this should end in one consonant.

Appositives (1)

So today we're going to be talking about the appositive, which is just a monster of a word. I can tell you that from my limited study of Latin it comes from ad positio, which is "putting on", which doesn't really necessarily help. What is this thing? What is this device, how do we use it, and what does it have to do with commas? [Paige] That is a great question.

What is a Sentence? (1)

So today we're gonna tackle this idea of what is a sentence, as we go into this realm of language that is called syntax. And syntax is this concept of, basically grammatical order. What this word syntax literally means in Greek, is, you know, putting together and arranging, right, so it just means ordering of language. [Paige] So that's, like, what a sentence is. [David] That's what a sentence is, it's what a sentence is, it's what the components of a sentence are.

Contractions (1)

So today we're gonna talk about contractions which are another use for our friend, the apostrophe. So David, what is a contraction? [David] So something that apostrophes are really good at doing is showing when letters are missing from a word. Right, so let's say we have something like the two word phrase "I will". So in linguistics, I'm told there's this idea called the principle of least effort, but I'm not a linguist, Paige, you are. What is the principle of least effort?

Apostrophes and Plurals (1)

So today, we're gonna talk about apostrophes and plurals. We talked about this a little bit in our Introduction to the Apostrophe video. This is a very, very rare case, where we use an apostrophe to show that something is plural, and it almost never happens, but we will explain when it does. [David] Paige, when is the one time in this immense and wonderful galaxy of English when the stars align for it to be permissible to pluralize something with an apostrophe?

Parentheses (1)

So today, we're gonna talk about parentheses. So, before we get into what parentheses do, I would like to talk very briefly about the word origin of parentheses or parenthesis, - [Voiceover] Okay. because it comes from Greek, so para means besides, and thesis means placing, right? So it's placed beside, approximately, and how we use parentheses is we kinda put 'em to the side for little, what are called asides in writing, little interruptions.

Intro to Comparative and Superlative Adjectives (6)

So we can say Raul is a happy penguin, and we can say Raul is happier than Cesar. We can also say Cesar is less happy than Raul. So this is comparative but it's going the other way. Right. Cesar is less happy than Raul. So then we use the less than symbol. Gabriela is the happiest penguin, and so for this group of three, Cesar is the least happy.

Semicolons (4)

So we can use a semicolon in this instance to sort of tie the two sentences together into one. Now we can't go around tying every sentence to each other, we can't have everything just connected with a whole bunch of semicolons, it works in this case because these clauses are sharing such similar information. In this sentence, the two clauses that are directly connected are both independent clauses.

Modal Verbs (2)

So we can use these verbs to determine if something is likely to happen, or certain to have happened. Whether or not something is possible, or whether or not we have the ability to do something. Whether or not we have the permission to do something. And whether or not we have the obligation to or requirement or need to do something.

Prepositions of Space (1)

So we had said previously that prepositions express relationships between two ideas. And we can do that either in time or in space or in other ways. But today I wanna talk about prepositions in space. Because this is, again, one of the things that prepositions do, is they can set up relationships between objects and their locations. So I could say, the triangle is over the square, or on top of the square. I could say, the circle is inside the square. Over, inside.

Three Types of Sentences (1)

So we have three different sentence varieties that we're going to talk about today. [Paige] Okay [David] Here are their three flavors. Flavor #1, declarative sentences. Flavor #2, interrogative sentences. And flavor number three, imperative sentences. Those are all pretty long and wobbly words. [Paige] Seriously. [David] But we will address each one of them in turn. Paige, if you please, what is a declarative sentence?

Oxford Comma (1)

So we're gonna talk today about the Oxford comma, which is just another word for another name for the serial comma which is normally when you have a list of things, you punctuate them with a comma after each item. So for example, in this sentence: I'd like to thank my parents, Mahatma Gandhi and my pet hamster. Or in this example: His favorite artists are Elvis, a tiny Norwegian harpist, and Frida Kahlo.

Intensifiers and Adverbs of Degree (1)

So we've already talked about the idea of comparative modifiers, right, so you know the difference between saying something is cute and then saying that something is cuter than that thing, and then looking at, like, I don't know, let's say we're looking at a puppy or a mushroom, a little mushroom with a smiley face and you'd say, "Oh, that's the world's cutest mushroom."

Definite and Indefinite Articles (1)

So we've covered the basic idea that divides the usage of "the" from "a" and "an". "The" is the definite article, and "a" and "an" is the indefinite. So when you're being nonspecific in language, you would use the indefinite article as in, "May I have an orange?" Cause it doesn't matter which orange you're asking for, you don't care, it's an orange.

Phrases and Clauses (8)

So we've got a subject in here, my guitar, and a verb, weeps. So we know it's a clause, but it begins with this word while, which is, I think, a subordinating conjunction. [Rosie] Right. [David] So this would be actually a dependent clause, but it is a clause, so this thing could not be a sentence on it's own. [Rosie] That's right. [David] Now Rosie, what about the best ham sandwich in Oklahoma? Is that a phrase or a clause? [Rosie] That is a phrase.

Compliment/Complement and Desert/Dessert (5)

So we've got desert over here and dessert over here, so these words look a little similar, but they are pronounced differently, which is to our benefit. So these are both nouns, so desert with a zuh sound, zuh, is dry, sandy land. So for example, this is a depiction of the Sonoran Desert in Arizona and Mexico. Right, so this is a saguaro cactus. That there's a barrel cactus. That's a palo verde. There's a little kit fox.

Intro to Comparative and the Superlative (1)

So we've got these three penguins , grammarians, we've got Raul, who you may remember from his sweet Mohawk, we've got Cesar, and we've got Gabriela. Three Magellanic penguins from Argentina. And they are all different amounts of happy. Cesar is a medium amount of happy, Raul is more happy, and Gabriela is the most happy. And in English, we have a way to compare these.

Recognizing Fragments (8)

So we've got this sentence here, this independent clause, right. We stayed home from school. And that's a subject and a predicate. And if it were just stayed home from school, period, that wouldn't be a sentence. And if it were just we, period, that also wouldn't be a sentence. And if it were just because of the snowstorm, period, that wouldn't be a sentence. It doesn't have enough support to stand on its own.

Prepositional Phrases (3)

So we've got two different examples here. So Danielle blew the horn with the strength of a giant. How did she blow the horn? With the strength of a giant. And so she blew the horn with the strength of a giant. So, with the strength of a giant, this prepositional phrase is modifying the verb blew. So this whole thing together is being treated as an adverb, but if we look at the word strength, strength is being modified by of a giant.

Compliment/Complement and Desert/Dessert (7)

So what is a dessert? So a dessert is a noun, and it is a sweet food eaten after a meal. Certainly it doesn't have to be this banana split, this ice cream sundae. It could be anything sweet, so cookies, cake, chocolate, the sorts of things that you would not find in a desert. So keeping these two words straight, desert and dessert, is really one of abundance. When there's two Ss, it means, oh, times are good. We're doing so well. We can have ice cream.

Prepositions of Space (3)

So when we talk about at, at means a point. It's talking about a point. So we could say something like, we stood at the entrance to a cave. But you can also have this connotation of direction. As in, the creature launched itself at Amina. The word by when we're talking about space means near. As in, the house by the old mill is totally haunted.

Verb-Perfect Aspect (2)

So when we're talking about the present, we're talking about one point: now. But when we're using aspect, it enables us to talk about a period between then and now. You're speaking in the now referring to a point previous. So we can say, using the perfect, the way you form the perfect is you simply add have and then you use the past form of the verb.

Compliment/Complement and Desert/Dessert (6)

So when you see desert with one S as opposed to dessert with two Ss, what I want you to imagine is water, a long, flowing river made of Ss and that when you're in a desert, there just isn't as much. There isn't as much water. So one S means less water, means cacti and little kit foxes and gila monsters. Dessert with two Ss is like an ice cream sundae. We got some vanilla ice cream. We got some strawberry ice cream, and then this black ice cream is licorice ice cream, which is actually delicious, and I encourage you to try it, and then this, if you couldn't tell, is a banana.

More Uses for Commas (6)

So when you're answering a question, whether yes or no, you kind of use yes or no as sentence adverbs, kind of. It's an introductory element, so you would say: "Yes," comma, "I would love some cheese", or "No," comma, "I hate cheese" if it were like an alternate-universe version of you. [Paige] Yeah, no, I definitely love cheese. [David] But that's how it works.

Dependent and Independent Clauses (2)

So with all that out of the way. Let's start with independent clauses, because an independent clause is basically a sentence. We established previously that all a clause is is just a collection of phrases with a subject and a verb. So, for example, the sentence, I ate the pineapple, period, is an independent clause. So, it's a couple of phrases, we've got this noun phrase I, we've got this verb phrase ate the pineapple, and together that becomes a subject and verb or a predicate.

Prepositions of neither Space nor Time (6)

So yeah, so these prepositions can be used for all sorts of things. I understand this can be confusing. Prepositions are probably the most complicated part of English and the problem is you just need to memorize them. But the good thing is that there aren't many because, as I've said before, prepositions are a closed group, we don't mint new ones. So you don't have to be constantly trying to collect more ones, or pick them up, or figure them out. You have a limited set that you need to master and the way to do that is to trad, listen, and talk a lot.

The Colon as a Separator (2)

So you can have two separate parts of the title, or like a title and a subtitle for a book or a movie or a TV show. And there will be a colon in between them. We can have something like Bear Man: Adventures in Alaska. Another common use of the colon as a separator is in citations from a book or a poem, and pretty often the Bible. For example, we can use it to separate the number of a Bible chapter from the number of the verse.

Compound Prepositions (3)

So you can say something literal. Like, "The firefly zipped between the raindrops." Literally going in between each one. But you could also use it in an abstract, metaphorical way. "What do you want to watch?" "I can't decide between Humdinger! and Police-Cat." Right, which are made up TV shows. This describes not a physical relationship, but the relationship of ideas. You're choosing between two ideas.

There, Their, and They're (5)

So you can see in this sentence "They're not home right now, can I take a message?" they're, T-H-E-Y-'-R-E, is replacing "they are". Both of these things would work equally well in the sentence. They're both grammatical, one's just shorter. And as we know, English as with most languages likes to take the easy route. Finding the shortest possible or most efficient option if you prefer. So as a writer and speaker of English you're going to come across this situation a lot.

Intro to Comparative and Superlative Adjectives (7)

So you can use the comparative and the superlative forms of adjectives to compare relationships where one thing is more or most than another or others, or relationships where one thing is less or least than others. That's how the comparative and superlative work.

Verb-Perfect Progressive Aspect (3)

So you can use the perfect progressive aspect in a couple of different ways. You can say that something had been ongoing in the past and is now done, you can say that it's been ongoing in the past and is still happening now, you know, "I have been eating cookies all morning and I have no intent to stop."

That Versus Which (2)

So you can write it that way with this little comma-net, but you can also write it without, as in "The carrot which was orange was tasty." Now the distinction between these two sentences is the distinction between non-restrictive and restrictive relative clauses.

Singular They (1)

So you may have been hearing a lot of talk about this thing called singular they recently not knowing entirely what it is or whether or not it's okay to use in a sentence or in formal writing. Um, it's been in the news a lot lately, you know we're seeing publications like The Washington Post and The Economist putting it into their style guides. It was the American Dialect Society's Word of the Year in 2015 but like what is it, and is it okay to use?

Adjective Order (7)

So you might say the exciting, unparalleled green dragon. And you'll notice I put a comma there, because when you use two adjectives from the same category, so two opinions, exciting and unparalleled, you wanna separate them with a comma, but generally if you're just scooting down the dosa scomp, old white French house, you don't need to separate these non-coordinate adjectives from each other.

Pronoun-Antecedent Agreement (3)

So you want to make sure that these things match up. So for example, we know from living in this culture, that Jillian is a women's name, so it would probably be incorrect to refer to her has he. Jillian rode her bike to the grocery store, he bought some garlic and a spoon. This sounds like we're talking about someone else. So even within this initial sentence too, Jillian rode her bike to the grocery store. We're referring back to Jillian using this possessive pronoun to define the bicycle.

Singular They (19)

So you'd get sentences that began "Any judge worth his salt," or "Anyone that would say that is out of his mind," which presumably was supposed to refer to anyone. Now for centuries arguments raged over whether or not the generic "he" erased women from consideration and now with the benefit of hindsight we can say of course it did! (Get over it white knight)

History of the Possessive Apostrophe (19)

So, "Das Buch" might mean the book, in German, and if you want to say, "Of the book," or if you want to say, "The book's," you'd say "Des Buches" with that es ending tagged onto "Buch". [David] Oh, the same one as in old English. [Jake] Right, so since English is kind of a cousin language to German. [David] Uh-huh. [Jake] You can see which way the ball fell on these two languages. [David] Wow! That's super cool. Paige, any insights from Danish?

Beginning Sentences with Conjunctions (9)

So, I think because of that fear of just ending the sentence as "Because I told them to," of creating the sentence fragment, I think it's pretty easy to simplify all that down into just saying, oh, don't start sentences with conjunctions, just generally. So this is really less about how you start an utterance, and more about how you end it.

Subordinating Conjunctions (10)

So, Lady Penelope hated his pranks, that's a sentence. Although she loved Sir Reginald, that's not a sentence. This is a dependent clause so, this can be split. (mouth sound effects) This cannot be split, because although she loved Sir Reginald, doesn't stand on its own, it just grants additional context and detail to the fact that Lady Penelope hated Sir Reginald's pranks.

Using Quotation Marks in Titles (2)

So, Paige, if you remember, you can use underlines or italics to indicate the title of something big like a book of poetry or an album of songs or a movie or a television show. [Paige] Yep. [David] So, Paige, for instance, one of my favorite albums is Gentle Giant's 1975 album Free Hand. [Paige] Okay, but that's with italics or an underline. [David] It's with italics, or an underline in this case since I'm writing it by hand.

Possesive (1)

So, Paige, today, it is my understanding that we are gonna talk about the possessive. What even is the possessive in English? What does that mean when we say that? What does it mean to possess something [Paige] Right, so that means to own something or to have something. [David] Okay, so this relates to the apostrophe, in that we use the apostrophe in many cases, we use the apostrophe s in many cases to show possession.

Dependent and Independent Clauses (3)

So, Rosie, what is a dependent clause? [Rosie] So dependent clause is different from an independent clause in that it can't stand on its own as a sentence. So it includes a subject and a verb, but it can't be its own sentence. And sometimes it might look like a sentence, it could start with something like a subordinating conjunction, like the word because, for example, because it was delicious.

Irony (10)

So, again, let's take this case. Let's say my foot was crushed by an anvil You ask me how I'm doing. I would say, "I'm feeling a little flat today." No, not a great joke, sure. But what I'm trying to express is that I am both playing on the notion that I don't feel well, I feel a little flat, and that my foot has been squished by a heavy object, literally rendering it flat. That's what a pun is. And, again, I recognize that, by explaining the joke, I have made the joke unfunny. I apologize.

Verb-Perfect Progressive Aspect (2)

So, as with all of our aspects, the only part that changes is this "have" stuff. This is the only word that changes depending on which tense you situate it in. So in the past you would say, "I had." Example: "I had been eating cookies." In the present you would say, "I have been eating cookies." In the future you can say, "I will have been eating cookies."

History of the Possessive Apostrophe (8)

So, by the time we get to middle English, we have the kinges hatte, and we have the quenes hatte. And what's happened is this old English masculine and neuter genitive, this possessive form, has just become the norm for everything. Everything is now masculine-ized. For better or worse, that's like, everything has been simplified in that direction. That's part one. Okay, so hold that in your head.

Irony (14)

So, dramatic irony. We, the audience on the other side of the screen, are aware that this entire that this entire time there's a lion hiding in the Murphy bed. We know this. Anna and Bella do not. Bella asks if the bed is comfortable. Anna assures her that it is. We know, as the audience, it is not. There is a dangerous savanna predator in the bed. That's dramatic irony.

Subject-Verb Agreement (6)

So, first find the subject, and then ask yourself is it singular or plural. It s S or P, is it salt or is it pepper? And, then if you can remember that, then just remember that singular S usually results in another S. So, if it's the dog, and that's singular, then you're gonna want to put that S over here (after bark, so barks). So, if the subject isn't noun but a pronoun, same question. Is it singular or plural?

Adjective Order (1)

So, grammarians, if you're a native English speaker, the phrase French old white house might seem a little weird to you, if you're not a native English speaker it might not, and this is something that I didn't really know about before I started preparing to teach this course, is that there is a specific order that adjectives go in in English.

Subject and Object Pronouns (6)

So, if we wanted to rewrite this sentence, speaking of Reina, we would say, she wrote an e-mail. Not, her wrote an e-mail, you see. Because her is the object pronoun, and therefore is the thing that, the object pronoun has stuff done to it, as opposed to the doer of things. She is the subject form, it's the doer. For e-mail it's easy, this just becomes it in all cases. The subject form, and the object form are the same.

The Scale of Formality (5)

So, in addition to being like a large, four-dollar word, philanthropist is a word that just means, like, someone who literally loves people, and this refers to generosity of this person. And so we can tell by the respect that we are according this person by the use of the word esteemed, that renowned philanthropist probably an appropriate set of words to use to describe this man. But what we just showed you was an example of being insufficiently formal.

Commas in Dialogue (4)

So, in the event that this were a question, however, you would use a question mark or if it were an exclamation, you would use an exclamation point, but if it were going to just be a period, you wouldn't do this. You wouldn't say, "They're probably pirates," period, "Roxane said." You would say, "They're probably pirates," comma, "Roxane said." I know that's kinda confusing. But that is the style that we abide by in English.

Subject, Direct Object, and Indirect Object (2)

So, in the sentence, Chris ate cereal, Chris is the subject, because Chris is the noun or pronoun that is performing the verb, ate. Rosie, what is a direct object? [Paige] So, a direct object is the main thing in the sentence that is being acted upon, so in this sentence, Chris ate cereal, cereal would be the direct object, because it's the thing being acted upon, it's being eaten. [David] So, every sentence has to have a subject, so subject is critical, but direct objects and indirect objects less so.

Using Quotation Marks in Titles (5)

So, it's not just songs and poems, right? But it's also magazine and newspaper articles, TV episodes. Really, it's anything that is smaller than a larger work. [Paige] Right, it's something inside of a larger thing like a collection or-- [David] Right. [Paige] Yeah, an album. [David] So, if you were writing for a magazine or a newspaper, that newspaper's title, the Khan Academy Times, would be either italicized or underlined.

Irony (9)

So, let's say an anvil, very heavy metal object, falls on my foot, breaks my foot. I am in extraordinary pain. If you asked me how I was doing and I wanted to use sarcasm, I would say something like, "Oh, I'm just great." And I'm signaling, with my tone and also context, to indicate that the opposite is true. To say, "I'm actually terrible. My foot is broken." That's sarcasm. Now, related to sarcasm is the pun, which is usually a joke that plays on multiple meanings.

Grammatical and Person Pronouns (5)

So, let's say you were giving someone advice in a kind of sideways way, Luke, one ought not to place one's hands on a hot stove. Alright, the temptation might be, in some cases, you might forget what pronoun you started out with.

Subordinating Conjunctions (4)

So, let's take a look at the sentence here. Herbert performed his irresponsible experiments because he was curious. And this sentence is composed of two clauses. In red, we've got this independent clause, Herbert performed his irresponsible experiments. And in green, we have this dependent clause, because he was curious.

Possesive (6)

So, rabbit and Alexander Hamilton are both nouns, but there are pronouns like it, or he, or she, where you don't use an apostrophe to show possessive. [David] So if I wanted to say, that surfboard is his, there's no apostrophe in there, right? Or, we could just as easily say his surfboard, and I think that's the same as saying that surfboard is Alexander Hamilton's. And you can see that there's this real, it makes sense to want to put a possessive apostrophe s in there, right, but that's not what you do.

Commas and Adjectives (10)

So, that's step one. Step two, try the reversal method. [Paige] Right, and that's like changing it from mushy, sticky to sticky, mushy. [David] And step three is stick an "and" in there. [Paige] Mm-hmm. If you can reverse the order of the adjectives and you can put "and" in between the two of them, then they're coordinate adjectives. [David] And if they're coordinate adjectives, you need to separate them with a comma. [Paige] Exactly.

Irony (11)

So, to review, let's put all of these together into one giant ironic situation. So, let's say you're watching a sitcom on television. And this sitcom takes place in someone's apartment and that apartment has a thing called a Murphy bed. Now, what a Murphy bed is is a bed that folds up into the wall to save space in a small apartment. It's got this little handle up here. You grab it, you pull it down, it becomes just a regular bed.

Subject, Direct Object, and Indirect Object (10)

So, to review, the subject is the noun or pronoun that performs a verb in a sentence. [Paige] The direct object is the thing that's acted upon. [David] And the indirect object is the recipient of that direct object, it's the thing that gets the direct object. In the case of Althea threw me a frisbee, the pronoun me is the indirect object. In the case of Wanda gave Louie a gift card, Louie is the indirect object. He gets the gift card, I get the frisbee. [Paige] Right. [David] But, as subjects, direct object, and indirect objects.

Using Quotation Marks in Titles (1)

So, today we're gonna be talking about quotation marks. What are they and what do they do? [Paige] We use quotation marks to indicate when someone is speaking, right? So, if we're writing dialogue, we can say, "I like strawberry jam," said Lady Boffington. [David] So, that's one use of quotation marks, which is to quote direct dialogue or to quote from a broader work. We can also use quotation marks for the titles of things.

Hyphens vs. Dashes (1)

So, today we're gonna learn about hyphens. And what a hyphen is, it's a little stick, like this, as opposed to a dash, which is about twice as long. And people confuse them a lot, but they have very different functions. So what a hyphen is used to do is it's used to join two words into one. [Paige] All right.

Its and It's (1)

So, today we're gonna talk about the difference between it's and its. [David] Oh, oh, that sounds real tricky. [Paige] Yeah, but we'll be okay. [David] Okay. So, it's, with an apos--So, we have these two forms in English and they mean very different things. So, let's go though them really quick. So, it's with an apostrophe is a contraction, right? What is it a contraction of? [Paige] It is or it has.

Run-Ons and Comma Splices (9)

So, we bought nails we bought a hammer. There's not really a place to know where the division between clauses is in that, and so the thing to do is either to add some kind of, is to add a comma and a conjunction, or to combine them using a semicolon. The same deal with a comma splice, it's just that a comma splice is a run-on that hasn't been fixed all the way.

Commas and Introductory Elements (4)

So, we need to differentiate it from the rest of the sentence by putting the comma there. So, this is a dependent clause. And this is an independent clause. So, if you start a sentence with a dependent clause, you're gonna need to put the comma in the middle before you proceed to the independent clause, which is the part that makes it an actual functioning sentence.

Subject-Verb Agreement (3)

So, we say the dog barks and not the dog bark, right? This is not standard American English. This is the plural form. You can say the dogs bark, right, because there's more than one dog here and this is their plural form. I know it's kind of strange that the third person, singular form of a verb ends in S.

Commas in Dialogue (1)

So, we're gonna talk about using commas in dialogue. So I've got these two sentences here that I have removed all the punctuation from because I recognize that figuring out where to put commas when you are reporting someone else's speech, you know, for a newspaper article or a piece of fiction or whatever it is, can be quite confusing. And so here's basically what you need to know is that commas in dialogue essentially function as runways. I dog

Grammatical Person and Pronouns (3)

So, whenever I talk about third person singular, or first person plural, all I'm really doing is going back to these categories, am I involved, are you involved, or is everybody else involved?

Its and It's (3)

So, you would say something like, I like rib-eye steak because of its rich flavor. [David] That's a pretty grody-looking steak. [Paige] (laughs) I know, pink and green is not how you want your steak to look. [David] So, we frankly just used its where we would use his or her or their or our. You would use its. [Paige] Right, it's just that it's not a person, so. [David] So, if I were asking you, can I borrow your book? That's kinda the same thing as I like rib-eye steak because of its flavor. [Paige] Right, it's showing that the flavor belongs to the steak just like the book belongs to me.

Irony (6)

Specifically, that there's an audience. So, this is the sort of thing that really only comes into play in fiction or in dramatic work. So, we're talking about a play or a movie or whatever. So, let's say we've got a play. Here's our stage. Here's our audience down here. We have one character here, character A, who really doesn't like bears and is talking about if he ever meets a bear, he's probably gonna punch that bear right in the face.

Present Tense Verb

Talking about things happening now. Example: I eat a donut. (Think of adding right now to sentence.) Presence of is and ing verb usually indicates present tense verb.

Verb Aspect (2)

Tenses for tenses. Aspect allows you to situate, more exactly, your verbs in time. So if you're telling a story and you want to indicate when something happened in that story, then you would use verb tense to indicate when it happened, and the next layer of complexity after in terms of being specific about when stuff happens in time is aspect.

Apostrophe (6)

That case is when you're trying to make the plural of lower case letter. [David] Like, "I'm really bad at drawing 's's." [Paige] Right. If you didn't have that apostrophe there, it might kinda just look like (hisses) [David] So I could say, for example, "I like to draw j's" and "Remember to dot your j's and i's" Like that, to denote that their plural, to indicate there's some kind of separation between this lowercase letter and this lowercase letter.

Forming Comparative and Superlative (5)

That doesn't go because they're inconvenient to say, we like to have vowels in between some of those consonant sounds, between the b and the g and the st, so what you do, if it's one syllable and if it's got one vowel in the middle like I, like that, one vowel, and it ends in a consonant like a G, then what you do is add ER.

Semicolons and Complex Lists (5)

That sentence is way longer than it needs to be. We can condense it down to this much shorter sentence here by using semicolons in the place of the regular list commas. Because the semicolon is playing a special role in the case of the complex list, sometimes it's referred to as a super-comma. It's essentially acting as a comma, but removing some of the confusion that might occur if we had so many commas in one sentence.

History of the Possessive Apostrophe (18)

That's just how they do it. Conversely, Dutch does not put an apostrophe for possession. So, if you wanted to say, Jan's book, you would just say J-a-n-s. [David] Oh, so it kind of retains this genitive. It retains this possessive form. [Jake] Right. Same thing with German. [David] So how do we say, "Jan's book?" Jans book, like that? [Jake] Uh-hum. - [David] Okay. [Jake] Same thing with German. German is a little bit more conservative, and that it retains the es.

Linking Function of the Colon (8)

That's pretty rare. Usually that's the job of a comma and a conjunction, or maybe a semicolon. But, as always, it's still important for you to know even the things that don't happen all that often. Something like, remember to take off your sunglasses when you drive through a tunnel: you can't see when it's that dark. The colon in this example shows that, you can't see when it's that dark is an explanation of why you need to take off your sunglasses.

Semicolons and Complex Lists (6)

That's semicolons in complex lists. When we have a list inside of another list, or elements in a list that already have commas in them, we use semicolons to separate all the elements to make sure the sentence is extra clear.

Adjective Order (9)

That's the order that adjectives go in in English. Why is this? I have no idea. You know sometimes language can be really, the word I tend to use is arbitrary. You can call it random, if you like. This is just the way that we arrived at this order, it's just basically through random chance of convention. And what seems to sound right. And what sounds right for English isn't always what sounds right for other languages.

Parentheses (7)

That's the second use of the parenthesis. So let's say you're taking down a transcript of a speech. You're typing up someone's speech, and they start coughing, and it interrupts the way they're giving a speech. Let's say I was trying to render the sentence, "Furthermore, (coughs) I must firmly state that." [Paige] Right, so you can include the coughing in the sentence when you're writing it down or transcribing it.

Comma (5)

That's totally fine usage for a comma. If it's in the middle of a sentence but not at the end of a sentence. Commas only go in the middle. So comma separates stuff which therefore means it has to be in-between something. There has to be something to the left and something to the right. That's a comma.

Pronoun Number (8)

That's what I mean about grammatical number and grammatical number agreement. You just want to make sure that this thing (cantaloupe), which we call the antecedent, links up with a pronoun (it). So the thing you say before you use the pronoun has to match up in terms of whether it's singular or plural.

Semicolons (6)

That's why it's important to note that you certain have a semicolon, followed by an introductory adverb, or a transitional phrase. It doesn't just have to be independent clause, semicolon, independent clause, period. You can have other clauses and phrases and words in there. As long as the things that you're linking together can stand on their own as individual sentences.

History of the Apostrophe (7)

The French invaded in the 11th century. We're talking about the Norman Conquest of 1066. And since then, French culture has had a very profound impact on the island of Great Britain. You know, so everyone in a position of power speaks French or understands and reads French. So the nobility speaks and reads French. Anyone that's literate speaks and reads French. And so you're gonna be, you know, this intelligentsia is going to be coming into contact with a lot of French, see the apostrophe being used this way and say, "Oh, that's awfully convenient."

History of the Possessive Apostrophe (5)

The Norman Invasion lopped all those off along with a bunch English heads, and now we have a much more simplified language for better or worse. If we're talking about the king, here, we can refer to this guy's hat as secyninges haet which might not be the most accurate, but, you know, Beowulf isn't around to correct me. So, if we're looking at this cyning, here, right, the possessive ending is this es.

Coordinating Conjunctions (5)

The conjunction and is a very elemental, very important conjunction which combines one thing with another as in..."The kangaroo robbed the bank and torched the saloon." A rather criminal kangaroo. And you can see we're using and to combine these two ideas. We're saying, this thing happened, this thing also happened, they happened together.

Adjectives (4)

The enormous pie is not for sale. Enormous, which means very big, is modifying or changing the word pie. And I thought a little bit of word origins might be kind of useful here if we go back to the Latin. You don't need to speak Latin in order to make sense of English, but I thought it would be cool to look at what adjective literally means.

Singular They (20)

The generic "he" isn't generic. When referring to a person whose gender is unknown or undefined by he or she, it is elegant to call such a person "they," as opposed to the ungainly "he or she" or she, like s/he, which on their own look alright but in context and especially when they're repeated tend to get a little clunky and distracting.

Semicolons and Complex Lists (2)

The items in this list are New York, New York; San Francisco, California; and Knoxville, Tennessee. You can see that they're separated with these semicolons. What makes this list complex is the fact that all of the items in it have commas in them. Cities and states need to be separated with commas, so if our list had commas in it as well, that would get kind of confusing. It would end up looking like "New York, New York, San Francisco, California, and Knoxville comma Tennessee."

Dependent and Independent Clauses (7)

The part that makes it dependent is this subordinating conjunction. You put that onto the front of it and all of a sudden it needs an independent clause to lean up against. I know this is confusing, so let's take a look at a couple more examples of independent and dependent clauses. So, the following are independent clauses, Rosie. [Rosie] The bear roared. Maureen pointed out the monster. That's not our pet rabbit.

Relative Pronouns (3)

The relative pronouns of English are who, whom, whose, that and which, and we use them all for different thing. So we can use who, whom, whose and that to refer to people, and we can use whose, that and which to refer to things.

That Versus Which (9)

The which witch doesn't like people. So the way that this shakes out is that which doesn't refer to people, and that can refer to anything. This is also really strange and it portrays a prejudice, in English, towards human beings.

Relative Clauses (6)

The woman who always wore a red hat came into the cafe every Sunday. So this sentence contains a relative clause right there in the middle of it, who always wore a red hat. All right, so we've got who substituting in for the woman and that's the subject of the verb phrase wore a red hat, but again, this could not be a sentence on its own.

Intensifiers and Adverbs of Degree (9)

There are a lot of different adverbs of degree. But that's basically the distinction. An intensifier is powerful but it has a very range of usage. And adverbs of degree, you can use for a wide range of uses to express a variety of different meanings. That's intensifiers and adverbs of degree.

Pronoun Number (6)

There are two exceptions to this. And they are you and they. And either one can be singular or plural. So there can be a singular you or a plural you. There can be a singular they or a plural they. The important thing is to be consistent overall. So if you establish that something is singular, you need to maintain that singularity throughout the rest of talking about that thing.

Possession for Words Ending in S (2)

There had been some debate over this for some time, but now, let me tell you, the answer is yes, Jess's hat. [Paige] Right, it seems like a lot of Esses in a row, but it's important for understanding what someone's trying to say. [David] Mm-hm, the same thing happens regardless, it can be for words ending in S, like bus. So if we said, "The air conditioning on this bus is broken," We could say instead to make it a little bit shorter, "The bus's air conditioning is broken."

Singular They (16)

There is a class of grammarians who thought it would be a great idea to make English adhere to Latin grammar rules, which is where we get silly language superstitions like the prohibition on ending sentences with prepositions, making it ungrammatical to say a sentence like, "He's a guy you can rely on," or spreading the spurious rumor that you couldn't split an English infinitive, as in, you know, to boldly go.

History of the Apostrophe (10)

There's no standardization of usage for apostrophes. People are using it every which way, but loose, you know. So they're using it like this. They're using it for contractions. They're using it for multiples of stuff, like stuff that we would consider incorrect today. Like "book's," like that. Wah, that looks terrible to me. And crucially, they're using it for the possessive. So like, "Jake's." And the history of that usage is another story entirely. But this, for now, is the history of the introduction of the apostrophe into English.

Compliment/Complement and Desert/Dessert (2)

There's our guy Melvin. There's his very fine hat in the same color as his suit, so it matches or pairs or works well with something 'cause these are the same colors. They look nice together, maybe a little matchy matchy. Give him some gold epaulets. Shake it up a bit, Melvin. There you go.

Compound-Complex Sentences (6)

There's two independent clauses, Alberto bravely walked through the walnut grove is one, and then the second one is but he made sure to wear long sleeves. But then, again, we add a dependent clause at the beginning, though he has a crippling walnut allergy. That is what makes it compound-complex, it has elements of compound, the two independent clauses and it has an element of complex, the dependent clause, but Rosie, these are both the minimum number.

History of the Possessive Apostrophe (3)

These are all, what are called, the strong case endings. They were strong and weak case endings for each gender, and, in English, we have masculine, feminine, and neuter. But the important thing to remember, is that the singular form of the neuter and the masculine was es, and that just sounds like gobbledyook right now, I get it. So, let's take our king, which in old English would have been cyning, right, and so if we're gonna look this crown.

Linking Function of the Colon (10)

These are two independent clauses that could be their own sentences, but they're closely related enough that it makes sense to have them connected as one. So the colon links them together. And the second part is emphasized, right? That's the focus of the sentence. I'm never going to fall asleep! So in these two sentences we can see that the colon can connect two parts that can stand alone as their own sentences, right?

Compound-Complex Sentences (7)

These sentences both have the minimum number of each independent and dependent clauses. So, can we see something maybe that has like more clauses? [Rosie] Yeah, sure. Well, let's take a look at this first sentence we have, I think we can add a dependent clause to that. Let's give it a try. After the storm passed, I went outside and I picked flowers because they were beautiful.

Relative Pronouns (1)

They link clauses together, specifically, independent and dependent clauses, and if you don't know what independent and dependent clauses, that's okay, just suffice it to say, that these pronouns allow you to staple phrases together.

Emphatic Pronouns (5)

They're not essential to the understanding of the sentence, you're just using these words in order to hammer home a point. You know, if someone else isn't helping you, you say "I'll do it", but if you wanna really hammer home the fact that you're going to be doing it alone, you say "I'll do it myself." And if you wanna emphasize that you were there and you heard something happen you would say "I heard it myself."

Complex Sentences (8)

They're sort of just something that you need to remember, but essentially their job is to connect clauses and sentences, but also make things into dependent clauses. [Rosie] One other thing, we were showing you two sentences where the dependent clause is coming before the independent clause, but that's not necessarily always gonna be the case. Like for example, we could've said, the sound of hyenas in the distance frightened us even though our tent was zipped up.

Modal Verbs (4)

Things modals can do: *They agree with everything: So you can take one of these modals and you can use any subject in the world and it's not gonna change Any subject in any sentence is going to take the modal the same way. Example: Talk. I talk, Diane talks. Do. I can do it, you can do it, she can do it, they can do it, we can do it.

Modal Verbs (5)

Things they can do or can't: *Don't have a to-form (infinitive): So there's no such thing as to may, or to could. Modals don't have infinitives. You can't say I want to should. That is an illegal operation in English. It's ungrammatical.

Grammatical and Person Pronouns (7)

This is a third person pronoun (one) and this is a second person pronoun (your), and the two of them do not match up, they do not, as we say in grammar, agree. So, what you need to take care to do is to make sure that if you're, if you start off talking about one, even if your being kind of silly and pompous, you've got to stick with one. If you start out talking about you, you got to stick with you.

Dependent and Independent Clauses (10)

This is kind of like background information. And it's in fact not necessary for comprehending the first sentence or the first clause, the independent clause, the bear roared. And if we did combine these, you would realize that the salmon flopped is just background information. [Rosie] Right. [David] Right. But we need to know what else is going on for there to be a while. [Rosie] So the bear roared is a perfectly sensical sentence on its own.

Linking Function of the Colon (9)

This is one of the two types of sentences where it makes sense to have a colon between two parts of the sentence that could stand on their own as individual sentences. So we can say, one, the second part explains the first part. The other case is when the second part of the sentence is emphasized. So this would be something like, I drank way too much soda: I'm never going to fall asleep!

Terminal Prepositions (4)

This is ultimately a question not of grammar but of style because there's nothing about "It's a crazy world we live in," that doesn't make sense. That doesn't function as a sentence. Indeed, there's nothing grammatically incorrect with, "This is behavior with which up I will not put," it's just needlessly verbose and twisting back on itself for the sake of avoiding something that doesn't need to be avoided.

Singular They (9)

This is where you comes in, all right, and so we, it's funny because we think of thee and thou as being more fancy and formal but really it was the opposite way, this was the informal (thee and thou) and ye and you was the formal.

Semicolons (5)

This makes sense, because the semicolons job is to connect things that certain stand on their own as sentences, but, a sentence isn't always just an independent clause by itself. One example of this would be, I wanna get a pet turtle, semicolon, however, I think it might scare my baby brother. This is an independent clause, and so is this, but the however in between the two of them can make things a little bit confusing.

That Versus Which (10)

To prove this, let me throw some sentence fragments at you. "The dog that I saw, the snow that fell, the woman that boarded the plane," all of these are fine. Let's try them again with which. "The dog which I saw, the snow which fell, the woman which boarded the plane," now, this (the woman), as a native speaker of English, doesn't sound right. It should either be who or that.

Correlative Conjunctions (1)

Today we're going to be talking about correlative conjunctions, let's break it down. This co part comes from the Latin, cum, meaning with or, together...And relative that just means relative or, related. So, correlative conjunctions, there we see it, definitionally or, etymologically, are related together in some way. They're matched pairs; they're a matching set. And this just means that, when you see one, it's probably time to use the other.

Subject-Verb Agreement (1)

Today we're going to talk about subject-verb agreement. What this is, is the idea that you want your subject and your verb to get along in a sentence. What agreement is, in grammar, is the art of making sure that the sentence parts connect with one another in the right way. It's making sure that a square peg goes in a square hole. Right, not a square peg in a round one, or a square peg in a triangle hole.

Relative Adverbs (1)

Today we're going to talk about three of the relative adverbs in English. Which is where, when, and why. And this over here is Peggy the dragon. And we're gonna use the story of Peggy the dragon in order to figure out how to use these relative adverbs. You may be looking at these words and thinking that they look awful a lot like question words. And you're right they are. These are questions words.

Dashes (1)

Today we're gonna talk about dashes which is a piece of punctuation, looks kind of like this, shoop. It's just kind of a straight line. Later we're gonna talk about hyphens, which look like this, shoop. And there is a difference between the two of them, it's kind of confusing, but first we're just gonna talk about dashes, what they are, what they do. [Paige] Okay, sounds good to me.

Verb Aspect (1)

Tool that really allows us to expand all the possible ways of expressing something in time. Verb Tense: Past-I walked, Present-I walk, and Future-I will walk. Verb Aspect- Present- I walk could also be I am walking, I'm walking, I have walked, or I have been walking.

Complex Sentences (5)

We can't just say when we buy his birthday cake as a sentence, that doesn't really stand on its own, it doesn't convey the information that a sentence needs to convey. So we could have an independent clause or a sentence that's just we buy his birthday cake. It's kind of a weird construction, I don't know that I would say that, you could maybe say, we are buying his birthday cake. But we buy his birthday cake still works as a sentence.

Phrases and Clauses (11)

We don't know because, we don't know what it's modifying. And this one is a noun phrase, the best ham sandwich in Oklahoma. It's behaving like a noun. And clauses are groups of phrases that have a subject and a verb. So, while my guitar gently weeps. There's a guitar, what is it doing? It's weeping, so we know it's a clause.

Relative Clauses (4)

We have our subject, we. We have our verb, need, and then the object of need is to find a store that sells the new Willamette cold brew coffee ice cream. But, we're focusing on this yellow part here, so that is substituting in for a store, that's what that relative pronoun is representing. And then we have that sells the new, so we've got store that sells, right? So that is our subject here.

Coordinating Conjunctions (7)

We use or as a conjunction to choose between options...As in, would you rather have a pet bear or a pet giraffe?

History of the Possessive Apostrophe (4)

Well, in old English, they would have just used the Latin, corona, so we're just gonna refer to this as a hat. So, if we want to talk about the king's hat, in old English, we would use the special possessive ending, the masculine possessive ending, right, because English had a million of these endings. There was one where if you were the subject of a sentence, you would use that ending. If you were the object of a sentence, you would use that ending.

Semicolons (2)

Well, let's look at an example, and I'll show you what I mean. I'm a big fan of roller coasters, but if I weren't I could say something like, I don't wanna ride the Mega Sky Coaster; I'm afraid of heights, and that ride sounds terrifying. Now you notice, we have a semicolon here in between these parts, but let's take a step back, and just put a period here for a second. So now we have, I don't wanna ride the Mega Sky Coaster. Period.

Bare/Bear, Allowed/Aloud, Advice/Advise, and Break/Brake (10)

Well, the 'e' is trying to slow Paolo down. We're trying to halt that momentum by putting that spring-looking 'e' at the end of the word. This one's one of my favorites. It's the difference between bear, B-E-A-R, and bare, B-A-R-E. Now the word bear, E-A-R, can be either a verb or a noun. When it's a noun it's this critter, but when it's a verb it means to carry. And B-A-R-E is an adjective meaning naked or empty.

Subject-Verb Agreement (8)

Well, the word anyone is third person singular, and all though do is an irregular verb, we still kind of hold to the idea of the third person singular verb ends in an S. So, it's a z sound, written as an S, so we would say does. Does anyone know as opposed to if it were in the plural. Do we know, right? So, does is singular, do is plural.

Intro to Adverbs (3)

What I imagine when I think of adverbs, is I kind of see a sticker. Here's the sticker we've got we can say "slowly." So we can take this thing and turn it into a sticker. Move it around, do what we like. So, we can write a sentence like Greyson ran...slowly. And slowly here, refers back to ran. It's how he ran. It's not really describing Greyson. It's modifying or describing the action of running.

Beginning Sentences with Conjunctions (4)

What I like about sentence initial "But" here is that it kind of, you think the sentence is over, and it is, but then this other thing happens, and putting it after a piece of terminal punctuation like a period really serves to bring into sharp relief whatever it is you're trying to say after the "But." I think this an awfully useful technique, and I'm not alone.

Prepositions of Space (2)

What I would like to do is review some of the major ones, and talk about what their uses are. So when we use the word at in a sentence, and here I'm talking about, something we should note, is that some of these preposition can be used in multiple ways. So at has a space connotation, but it also can have a time connotation. But I don't want you to really worry about that right now, I think it makes the most sense to just think of their uses as separate, and just think of them separately.

Articles (2)

What articles do is they tell you whether or not something is specific. Are you thinking about any old elephant, when you talk about an elephant, or are you talking about one elephant in particular? The elephant. And this is the difference. When we're talking about the elephant we're talking about a specific elephant. We have a particular one in mind. This is called the definite. Because it defines what we're talking about.

Prepositional Phrases (2)

What is a prepositional phrase? It is a word chunk that begins with a preposition. So, with is a preposition, of is a preposition, and this entire thing, with the strength of a giant, is one prepositional phrase, altogether, composed of two smaller ones. And what's cool, is you can use prepositional phrases in a couple of different ways. You can use them as nouns. You can use them as adverbs. And you can use them as adjectives.

Bare/Bear, Allowed/Aloud, Advice/Advise, and Break/Brake (11)

When I say bear as a verb, I mean that in the sense of bearing a burden, if you've heard that expression. Or if you've ever heard somebody say, I can't bear it! That literally means I can't carry it, but metaphorically means I can't withstand it. Bare is something more like, the cupboards were bare, meaning empty.

Correlative Conjunctions (5)

Whether and or, is similar to either and or, except it has a, kind of, whiff of possibility about it. Whether you like shrimp or chocolate, there's certain to be something for you at the Veracruz food fair. Right, because whether is, kind of, setting up this possibility between these two options and it doesn't really matter which one you choose. It's just offering up possibilities.

Linking Function of the Colon (11)

Whether it's two independent clauses, like in the second sentence, or an independent clause that's technically connected to a dependent clause but can stand alone. Now okay, this usage is really uncommon. I really want to stress that. Usually when we're uniting two independent clauses, or at least two parts of a sentence that can stand on their own as individual sentences, we're gonna use a comma and a conjunction or a semicolon.

Commas and Adjectives (3)

Whether or not there should be a comma between mushy and green or mushy and sticky, 'cause these feel different to me. [Paige] Right, right. Yeah, so there's actually a couple tests that you can do on these sentences to see if you need a comma between the adjectives or not. [David] So, Paige, what distinguishes a pair like mushy and sticky from mushy and green?

Coordinating Conjunctions (8)

Yet is kind of like but, except that we use it to express unexpected things. "I want to leave, yet I cannot." So it sets up this kind of push and pull dynamic in a sentence, is what yet does. We set the expectation, I want to leave, and yet here's the unexpected, what I'd say an ironic part, yet I cannot. I want to leave...But unfortunately, or but unexpectedly. When you would say but unexpectedly, just use yet.

Compound Prepositions (6)

You can also use among metaphorically. And say, "Among the ideas you've had, I like this one best." So considering the entire collection of ideas that you might've had, like say for a television show like something called Humdinger! and something called Police-Cat. Among those ideas, among like a multitude of ideas I like this one. But the difference is, in this in this prepositional phrase, that we're just sort of considering all of those ideas as a collective group.

Salutations and Valedictions (2)

You can see we have this little comma here because what commas do, right, is that they separate elements of the sentence from one another. So what we're doing here with this comma is we're putting it after the greeting to separate it from the body text.

More Uses for Commas (8)

You can use it in direct address, like: "Paige," comma, "how are you?", and in yes-or-no responses, like "No," comma, "I hate cheese", or "Yes," comma, "I would love some cheese." Commas are so powerful.

Commas and Adjectives (8)

You could say, "Sticky, mushy apple." [David] Well, let's try that. [Paige] Yeah. [David] Looks good to me. Sticky, mushy, mushy, sticky. [Paige] Same thing. [David] Okay, so if we're trying to determine whether or not we have coordinate adjectives, I guess the first thing we would do is consult DOSASCOMP, right? So that's step one.

Dependent and Independent Clauses (6)

You gotta learn your scales before you can improvise. [Rosie] Right. [David] Dig? [Rosie] Dig. [David] So because it was delicious, not a sentence. This is a dependent clause, because it begins with this subordinating conjunction because. You could also work in something like although, or while, and any of these would make it a dependent clause. Now, if it was just on its own, it was delicious, yeah, of course, that is a sentence.

Oxford Comma (8)

You have to find a style guide and stick with it. And sometimes that depends on if you're writing for a newspaper that uses a particular style guide, or if your English teacher has a particular style guide that they want you to abide by, that's what you should follow. [Paige] Exactly. Different people will tell you different things. [David] The key is to be consistent. That's the Oxford comma. That's the debate over it. And it's really all about a false sense of these being appositives. So keep a wary eye out. That's the Oxford comma.

History of the Possessive Apostrophe (12)

You know, like we have no idea. So, what starts to happen is this thing, the king his hat, becomes more and more common to the point where people just sort of understand it as a given, and it starts to get collapsed to save space. So, the king his hat becomes the king's hat, like so. And just this one weird, fad usage, which you could even argue is like a folk entomology, or something made up. It doesn't matter. It happened.

History of the Apostrophe (3)

You know, so if you think about examples from literature, this can be, the two things that my mind immediately leaps to, being me, are "O, happy dagger," the speech from the end of Romeo and Juliet in act five. Boom, sorry, y'all didn't see. I plunged the stylus into my breast. (giggles) "O, happy dagger, this is thy sheath." "There rust and let me die." Boom. So, like in that, like, you know, we're addressing the dagger. The dagger is not alive. It is a knife. It cannot respond.

Articles (3)

You know, this elephant could be the queen of the elephants. Sometimes, when we make sentences we want to aim for that kind of precision. We want to be precise. We want to know exactly what we're talking about and who we're talking about and why. That's a case where you would use the word "the".

Prepositional Phrases (10)

You may remember this terrible joke from Mary Poppins. One man says, "I knew a man with a wooden leg named Smith." Other guy says, "But what was the name of his other leg?" It's silly, but it's a good way to indicate where confusion can arise with prepositional phrases.

Ellipses (10)

You might want to just be able to write that sentence as, I like cheese, ellipsis, period, right? [Paige] Yeah. [David] So we're still including the terminal punctuation in this sentence. [Paige] Yes. [David] To show that it ends after the ellipsis. [Paige] Right, yeah. That ellipsis there is showing that stuff has been removed, right, from this quote, and then that final period is showing that it's the end of a sentence, just like it normally does.

To, Two, and Too (2)

You say that word, tu. You say that word, tu. You say that word, tu. If you were looking this up in a dictionary, that's how you would render this spelling phonetically. That's the sound of those words. They all sound exactly the same. So what we need to do is come up with a way to keep them all separate. And the way I'm going to do that is with the prince of foods, the pizza. Let's just call that a pizza.

Intro to Adverbs (6)

You take the word nice, you add ly, you get the adverb novel. If you take the adjective cheerful, add ly, you get the adverb cheerfully. So adverbs modify everything that isn't a noun. And that means that they modify verbs, and adjectives. The way you make an adverb most of the time, is by taking an adjective and tacking on ly to the end of it. It's like a sticker, that you put on top of a verb or an adjective. That's what adverbs are, and that's what they do.

Bare/Bear, Allowed/Aloud, Advice/Advise, and Break/Brake (3)

You want to clamp something while it's being glued together. You've got two pieces of wood, let's say this little piece of red wood and this little piece of blue wood. You want to glue them together, hold them still with a vice. If you remember that a vice is noun, you can remember that advice is a noun. And when you advise someone, yes, you are giving them advice, but this is the verb form.

Subject-Verb Agreement (2)

You want to make sure that the way you render your subject fits with the way you've rendered your verb. What do I mean by that? Let's take this sentence, the dog barks. We have this subject, the dog, and it is singular, there's one of it. The way this verb is, the word is conjugated, the way this verb is conjugated, the way we've assembled, or figured out how the verb is going to be is also a singular conjugation.

Pronoun-Antecedent Agreement (4)

[Beth] Because it's a longer sentence. [David] We're using it to demonstrate the relationship between Jillian and the bicycle. [Beth] Gotcha. [David] You also wanna to make sure that pronouns and their antecedent agree in number, so if you said, what's a fun animal? [Beth] Monkeys. [David] Monkeys. So the monkeys threw snowballs, but they had crummy aim. So we're using they to refer back to the monkeys, so this thing is a plural noun, right?

Recognizing Fragments (2)

[Beth] Great. A sentence fragment is when a student writes a sentence and they think it's a sentence, but it's one that tells maybe what happens, but doesn't include who, or it might include who but doesn't tell what happens. [David] So sentence fragments don't tell the whole story. The way I would put it, is that a fragment is a piece of a sentence that cannot stand on its own, but nevertheless, incorrectly ends with a period.

Pronoun-Antecedent Agreement (7)

[Beth] Oh right. [David] So the monkeys threw snowballs, but they had crummy aim. Although these monkeys seem to be doing pretty good at hitting each others in the heads, the tails, with their snowballs. So that's pronoun-antecedent agreement. So remember to make sure to line things up when relevant by gender. Jillian wrote her bike, she bought some garlic and a spoon. And by number, so the monkeys threw snowballs, but they had crummy aim. There's more than one monkey, so you'd wanna use the plural third person pronoun.

Under- and Overstatement (6)

[David] "My life is over. "I got a D on the midterm. "I am dead; I am literally a skeleton." [Rosie] Hooo, wow. (laughs) So this is a great, a great example of overstatement. [David] So we know this isn't true, right? Made a D on your midterm, not great. But is it truly and actually the end of someone's life? No, and this author, this writer knows that, knows what they are saying, because skeletons can't write.

Italics and Underlining (3)

[David] Actually, technically, we'd call this the italic script, because it's based on an earlier kind of hand from calligraphy, but all the same, today we have this thing in text called italics. So, okay, so we've got our typeface here. And it comes in two flavors. We've got Roman, which is kind of standing right up, and italic, which is slanted to the right. Paige, how do we use italics in English?

Parentheses (4)

[David] All right, so let's take these one at a time. So here we've got something like, the cookie, which was still warm, was delicious. Now we could, conceivably, take that out of the sentence, right? 'Cause the sentence is basically, the cookie was delicious. But if we wanted to add an additional remark by a writer, which is whoever ate the cookie, namely me, we would put in this parenthetical remark. [Paige] Right, it's some extra information.

Exclamations! (2)

[David] An exclamation is a type of sentence, so previously we covered three other kinds of sentence. [Paige] Mm-hmm. [David] We covered declarative sentences, which are just sort of statements, right. We covered interrogative sentences, which are questions. And we covered imperative sentences, which are orders. [Paige] Mm-hmm. [David] But, but I forgot to include the exclamation! I didn't actually forget, I just wanted to save space. [Paige] Oh okay.

Three Types of Sentences (4)

[David] An interrogative sentence is a question. So it asks a question. [Paige] It's just a fancy word for a question. [David] Right. So an example of an interrogative sentence would be where did you go last night? Or how is he still singing that note? [Paige] I have no idea. [David] So that's what and interrogative question is.

Appositives (3)

[David] And an antecedent is just something that comes before, so what we're doing here with Griselda is, we are redefining or clarifying who my older sister is, so in order to do that, we're putting it between these commas like so, and we're just saying it again. My older sister, Griselda, is going to college in the fall. But it doesn't always have to be in the middle like this, right.

Dependent and Independent Clauses (8)

[David] And let's do some dependent clauses, and then you can see that we'll be able to combine them into sentences. [Rosie] While the salmon flopped. That she saw last night. Unless I'm mistaken. [David] So you can see that these are all clauses, right, we've established that, you know, each one has a subject and a verb. The bear roared, the salmon flopped.

Parallel Structure (8)

[David] And look, again, we're not saying this is not a grammatical sentence. It is. And sometimes you may want to break parallel structure in order to have some sort of particular effect. If you are trying to draw attention to this last element, then, yeah, you might want to break parallel structure, but we want to make you aware that there is just a sort of general tendency towards making your sentences harmonious in this way.

Advanced (Plural) Possession (8)

[David] And so Burnses, without the apostrophe, is how I would refer to that family unit in total also. Right, like it's Mr Burns and the Burnses? Or Dr Jones and the Joneses? [Paige] Exactly. [David] Okay. [Paige] So then when you wanna make that possessive, as in, the Burnses' house, you make it plural by adding that ES, and then put the apostrophe after that. [David] Cool, so plural things that end in S don't have a second S after the apostrophe? [Paige] Yeah. [David] But irregular plurals, like men, women, mice, do? [Paige] Yeah.

History of the Apostrophe (1)

[David] And we're gonna talk about the history of the apostrophe. The apostrophe isn't just a punctuation mark. In fact, the word apostrophe comes to us from Greek, from two different compounds. "Apo," meaning "away," and "stroph," meaning "to turn." So it's a turning of strophe. We need to turn away.

Parentheses (5)

[David] And when I say parenthetical, I'm talking about this little aside here. That's what I mean by a parenthetical. So this is what's called a parenthetical aside. So the second way in which you use parentheses is to specify a definition or reference. So let's say I wanted to quote Paige's as yet unwritten autobiography. [Paige] Okay.

Its and It's (2)

[David] As in, it's a lovely day outside. Or, for it has, like it's been, it has been one week since you looked at cheese. [Paige] (laughing) Sad, it's been a sad week. [David] It's been a sad week. As opposed to its. Can you walk me through its. [Paige] So, its is a possessive pronoun. And it's a little confusing 'cause possessive usually uses an apostrophe, too. But possessive pronouns don't use apostrophes.

Commas and Introductory Elements (2)

[David] Because that's what commas do. They are separators. So, let's talk about dependent clauses first. And let me just write out a sentence that begins with a dependent clause. "When you come in, please take off your shoes." And I've made the difference between the dependent clause and the independent clause pretty clear. So, this the dependent clause is purple, the independent clause is green.

Exclamations! (6)

[David] But I could also walk that statement back also as an exclamation and say, I was wrong about the ogre, he's nice! [Paige] Oh, he was just coming to say hi. [David] He's just coming to say hi. [Paige] Right. [David] Give you a big ol' thumbs up. So we're expressing something. We're expressing strong emotion. We could just be very excited about something. [Paige] Right.

Exclamations! (3)

[David] But Paige, what is an exclamation? [Paige] So it's a sentence or maybe a word that's like an expression of a really strong emotion. That's why we were screaming a lot and stuff. Those were all exclamations. [David] So it doesn't even necessarily have to be a sentence, you said, so it could just be something like, ow! [Paige] Right. [David] Like an interjection like that.

The Sound of Language: Alliteration, Assonance, and Onomatopoeia (4)

[David] But my favorite of all is onomatopoeia, which comes from Greek, and it basically means, like, onom, onomat, means a name resulting from doing. So really, this is, this word just means sounds like what it does. So any, really anything that you would conceive of as a sound effect, like a word that comes from a sound effect. So, the bees buzzed, for example. Like, what is buzzed? Well, it's the sound that a bee makes. It's what it does.

The Scale of Formality (14)

[David] Formal language generally means a more respectful form of address, so if I were to say, like, on the informal side, yo buddy! It's extremely informal, as opposed to, excuse me, sir. That's quite formal. So yeah, I guess the big take away here, Rosie, right, is just consider your context. [Rosie] Exactly. You're taking a look at the situation that you're in, and considering what kind of language is going to be appropriate in that situation.

Run-Ons and Comma Splices (1)

[David] Good, today we are going to talk about run-ons and comma splices. So a run-on sentence is what happens when two independent clauses are put together in one sentence without any punctuation or coordinating conjunctions like and, but, or. So Rosie what is a good example of a run-on sentence? [Beth] We bought nails we bought a hammer.

Subjects and Predicates (4)

[David] Gotcha. What is a predicate? [Paige] A predicate is all of the rest of the sentence that isn't the subject. What it really is is the verb and all of the parts that are related to the verb. Yeah, verb and its pals, that's good. [David] Let's apply that approach to goblin hat sentence. [Paige] Mm-hmm. [David] Okay, so I'm looking for a noun or pronoun that performs a verb in the sentence. Well, I found the verb and the verb is bought. Who's doing the buying? I am. [Paige] Right.

Less Versus Fewer (1)

[David] Hello Grammarians. Hello Rosie. [Rosie] Hi David. [David] So you've called me into the recording booth today. [Rosie] Yes. [David] Because you have a bone to pick with me. [Rosie] Just a little bit, yeah. [David] So I have always in my usage, I've always drawn a distinction between 'less' and 'fewer'. I wouldn't say I'm one of those sticklers that goes around correcting signs at the grocery store checkout. You know if it says like 15 items or Less. I'm not gonna take out a black Sharpie and say,"No, fewer."

Recognizing Fragments (1)

[David] Hello grammarians, David here along with my cousin Beth who also happens to be a teacher. Say hello to the people Beth. [Beth] Hi people. [David] So today we are going to talk about sentence fragments, and Beth you cover these in classes that you teach. Could you tell me please, what is a sentence fragment?

Bare/Bear, Allowed/Aloud, Advice/Advise, and Break/Brake (1)

[David] Hello grammarians, hello Eman. [Eman] Hello. [David] Today we're going to be talking about four sets of frequently confused words. The one that I want to begin with is advice and advise. How do we keep these two words straight? Well, first of all, advice with a 'c' is a noun and advise with an 's' is a verb. These are really easy to screw up because they look very similar and you'd think that they have approximately the same sound, but the 'c' is advice actually ends up having a sss sound, an 's', and the 's' in advise ends up having a zzz sound, a 'z' sound.

The Sound of Language: Alliteration, Assonance, and Onomatopoeia (1)

[David] Hello grammarians, hello Rosie! [Rosie] Hi David! [David] So, You've caught me mid-scribble in the greatest challenge of my career. Will I be able to write the word ono-mato-poeia? [Rosie] You can do it. [David] Did I get it? [Rosie] You did it. [David] Yes! This is one of my least favorite words to spell but one of my favorite things to talk about. Because what we're talking about today is alliteration, assonance, and onomatopoeia.

The Scale of Formality (1)

[David] Hello grammarians, hello Rosie! [Rosie] Hi, David. [David] We're gonna be talking about what we call the spectrum of formality today, in the context of language style. Balancing your style between formal and informal language, when it's appropriate, is just a general life skill, but it's also something that's tested on the SAT. [Rosie] And you can check out KhanAcademy.org/SAT to find out more about that.

Irony (1)

[David] Hello, grammarians. Today I wanna talk about the concept of irony, which is a very difficult concept to nail down because it means so many things. But let's begin with the best definition I can muster, which is that irony is the difference between expectation and result. Now, this contains a lot within it. So, that means that irony is not only the engine of surprise, but also jokes.

The Sound of Language: Alliteration, Assonance, and Onomatopoeia (9)

[David] How can a robot be a baby? [Rosie] I think it's just the size, right? [David] Okay, sure. [Rosie] Not the age. [David] Okay, sure, yeah that's legitimate. So okay, I guess the question is now you know what these things are, but Rosie, why would a person want to use these techniques in language, whether written or spoken? [Rosie] That's a great question. Writers can use some of these techniques to basically use the sound.

Simple and Compound Sentences (1)

[David] I say hello to you and I say hello to the grammarians. [Paige] That was an interesting thing to say. [David] Yeah, it's cause there's a compound sentence. [Paige] I see. [David] So there's this distinction made in grammar, between simple and compound sentences. And today Paige, you and I are going to cover those differences. [Paige] Let's do it.

Under- and Overstatement (8)

[David] I think the emotional impact of this is much more effective than it would be if I just said, "I am very upset, because I got a D on my midterm." Like, I think this is more expressive. And certainly it's not true, but I think there's an interesting way to play with over and understatement in order to get feelings across.

Exclamations! (1)

[David] I think we left something out of the last video. [Paige] Oh no. [David] I left exclamations out of the last video! [Paige] That's not good. [David] Okay, we can fix this. [Paige] Okay [David] We just need to make a video. [Paige] Yes. [David] So, I want to talk today about the exclamation! [Paige] Whoa

Advanced (Plural) Possession (3)

[David] I'm not disappointed, I'm just surprised. Not actually surprised, that's just a stage trick. [Paige] So, if we're talking about five dogs, and their bones, we say five dogs, apostrophe, bones, and there's no S after the apostrophe. [David] So it goes S, apostrophe? So we have the S for the plural, and then an apostrophe for possession, but not a second S for possession? [Paige] Right, we don't want like, the dogs's bones.

History of the Possessive Apostrophe (15)

[David] If you remember from an earlier video when Paige and I were discussing the principle of least effort, that's what Jake is getting at. Is, "the tongue is lazy." Don't feel bad, but "the tongue is lazy." Yeah, so what happened was, you know, this thing became...And pretty soon, everything became this way. So, because of this one strange little fad, what we call the Saxon possessive, this thing, the kinges, the cwenes, eventually just became king's and queen's, like so.

Punctuating a List (1)

[David] Is this right? Okay, so I'm about to go to the grocery store, and it looks like it says, "I need to get squid pickles and chocolate at the grocery store."[Paige] Yeah. [David] Did you want squid pickles?[Paige] No, I wanted squid and pickles. [David] I must have written it down wrong, okay. So I think what we need to do in order to fix this list and avoid confusion like this in the future is using commas to punctuate a list.

Under- and Overstatement (12)

[David] It's very difficult to learn to interpret those cues. There are plenty of native speakers who have trouble with it. [Rosie] It's true. And it's just something that you can keep an eye out for when you're reading and also when you're talking to people. It may start to, you may start to spot them more, as you listen. [David] And I suspect that, if you listen and you study, I have this sneaking minute suspicion that you can learn anything.

Contractions (6)

[David] It's weird, it's like the Bermuda Triangle of punctuation marks. They all just kind of got sucked up into that apostrophe. [Paige] Yeah. [David] Never to be seen again. [Paige] Who knows where they went. [David] But there aren't a ton of those. There's "won't", there's "don't", but not to take away from our original point. This is what the apostrophe does when it's working to contract.

Hyphens vs. Dashes (3)

[David] Kind of a wacky word. So, instead of doing that, you might just wanna say yellow-green, and connect yellow and green with a hyphen. So yeah, so a hyphen is joining these two things. But let's say we had a sentence like, "Her hair was yellow -- green were her eyes." You know, and so we're still separating the words yellow and green with a stick, but a dash is longer, and instead of uniting yellow-green, it's separating them the way that you know, a semicolon might.

Appositives (7)

[David] Let's change that back into a comma. So this is just another illustration of the separating power of the comma, cuz we're using it to set off this explanatory, clarifying element in the middle or at the end of these sentences. [Paige] Yeah, exactly, that's what the comma does. Man, it seems like commas can do anything. [David] Yeah, it's pretty incredible. You know what else can do anything? [Paigr] What? [David] The viewer, you the viewer, you can learn anything. That's the appositive and how it relates to commas.

The Scale of Formality (7)

[David] Like how fancy is the first birthday party of a little boy going to be? Rosie, have you been to a child's first birthday party as an adult? [Rosie] I have, I have. It was not this fancy. [David] No. [Rosie] But it wasn't, you know, the prince of a country or something. [David] Right, like, okay, I'll give you a pass if, like, little Philip is the prince of your nation. [Rosie] Yes.

Parentheses (8)

[David] Like, if we think this is important enough to note, we can just sort of say, voop, voop, yup, coughing happened here. [Paige] I see. So those are the uses of the parenthesis. You can indicate remarks by the writer, as in our first example, or specify a definition or a reference, which we did here with the reference to my book, or you can show an interruption in speech. That's it! [David] Sweet! So what happened with that tiger? [Paige] That's a long story. [David] All right, we'll talk about that later.

The Scale of Formality (9)

[David] Maybe throw in an exclamation point because we're excited. This just seems, this language seems a little stuffy, even the word describing a party, it seems very emotionally removed from partiness. [Rosie] Oh, that's much better. [David] Thank you. So, please join us for lil Philip's first birthday party. It's going to be fun: we'll have cake and games. Let us know if you can make it.

Italics and Underlining (5)

[David] Mm-hmm. Okay, and use case number two for titling. And you know what? To make it easier on ourselves, let's pull up a text box. [Paige] Yeah, it's kind of hard to write italics. [David] Yeah, which is actually gonna lead us into another part of this video. You'll see, but right now, okay, I got my italic type selected. So how do titles work? [Paige] So if you got a title of something, like book or a movie.

Dashes (9)

[David] Mm-hmm. So the colon has this linking power, right, it can introduce ideas, it can start a list, you can do the same thing with a dash. So, for example, if you wanted to introduce an idea, we could say. [Paige] I have only ever wanted one thing--snacks. [David] Me, too, Paige. [Paige] So many snacks. [David] Me, too. So, right. So we're using this to introduce this idea the same way that we would had it then a colon.

Ellipses (4)

[David] Mm-hmm. [Paige] Right. So I can say, "Words are, ellipsis, our most inexhaustible source of magic." [David] So, okay, so Paige, I have a question. [Paige] Yeah. [David] Why do we even need this? Why can't you just say, "Words are our most inexhaustible source of magic"? [Paige] That's a great question. So, if I quote someone and I just sort of willy-nilly take words out without indicating that I've taken some information out of the quote, I can make it seem like someone said something totally different to what they actually said, right?

Exclamations! (5)

[David] Mm-hmmm, I would say that there's probably overlap with declarative sentences too. [Paige]?That's true, that's very true. [David] So you could be like, ah, that ogre is about to attack the village! [Paige] Right, that is just a statement, but you're clearly pretty scared about it. So there's an exclamation point.

Under- and Overstatement (10)

[David] Now Rosie is using understatement that I think, and I feel that the, the statement that uses understatement actually conveys more anger, because it's more socially acceptable in the United States to somewhat publicly repress your emotions. [Rosie] Yeah, exactly. I mean, you could hear somebody say, "Yeah, I think I'm pretty upset about that." And they're kinda laughing, but they're upset.

Simple and Compound Sentences (3)

[David] Now all of this together is what we call an independent clause. I don't wanna hit that too hard right now. But you know, when you have this set of subject and a predicate together, and it can be a sentence, that's called an independent clause. I'm not even gonna write that down. [Paige] Yeah. [David] But a compound sentence is basically two or more simple sentences joined together. So that would be two subjects plus two predicates. Or more, two, three, a bajillion.

Italics and Underlining (7)

[David] Now, as you pointed out, Paige, like the difference between spicy and really here, not the easiest to discern. So if I were going to be writing out the title of something just by hand, it's pretty hard to do italics. So what we do when we're writing things by hand is we use the underline. [Paige] Yeah. So the underline means the same thing as italics. You use it for titles, for full works, but it's a lot easier to hand write and underline than it is to hand write italics.

Commas and Adjectives (5)

[David] Oh, okay. So, mushy and sticky are both opinion adjectives. [Paige] Yeah. [David] So, these are kinda in the same class, whereas mushy and green, that's an opinion and a color. [Paige] Yeah, they're in two different classes. [David] Right, so DOSASCOMP helps determine adjective order, right?

Simple and Compound Sentences (6)

[David] Okay so Paige, I'm looking at this and I see I twice. What if I wanted to condense this sentence further? [Paige] Okay. [David] What does that give us? Is this a simple sentence or a compound sentence? Because this looks like what you would call a compound predicate. [Paige] Right, since there's only one subject in this sentence, there's only I and it's only said once.

Simple and Compound Sentences (8)

[David] Okay, so both of these things are simple. So even though this is a compound predicate, it's technically one predicate. [Paige] Right, it's -- [David] And even if I'd written, Paige and I visited the beach and I got a really bad sunburn, that would still be a compound subject, but it wouldn't be two sentences squished together, it would be one kind of long sentence.

Less Versus Fewer (15)

[David] Okay, so this is the more formal option. They're both correct but this is more formal? [Rosie] Right. I would say so. [David] Okay. Well cool. Thank you Rosie. [Rosie] Oh, you're welcome. [David] I feel like I learned something today. Thank you for disabusing me of this superstition. [Rosie] Of course.

Subject, Direct Object, and Indirect Object (8)

[David] Okay, that's the object that she gave. [Paige] Yeah, that's something she's giving. She has a direct relationship with that, but she...The gift card has a recipient, and that's Louie, and he's the indirect object. [David] I think another way to identify whether or not a word is the indirect object in a sentence is to see if you can pull it out and stick it on the end of the sentence, as it currently stands, with a preposition, and see if it still makes sense.

Phrases and Clauses (9)

[David] Okay, why is that? [Rosie] We don't have a verb. This is all a subject, and we've got the best, so we've kind of got this superlative thrown in there. [David] But it's all modifying ham sandwich. [Rosie] Right. [David] It's actually all modifying sandwich, 'cause it's the best ham sandwich. And then we've got this other prepositional phrase that also modifies sandwich. [Rosie] Right. [David] So that's a phrase. How about under the ocean blue? [Rosie] That is a phrase.

Dependent and Independent Clauses (4)

[David] Okay. And let's be clear here, you know, obviously, this is an utterance that people say. You know, if you ask me why did you eat the pizza, I would respond by saying, because it was delicious. Why do we climb the mountain? Because it is there, you know. I'm not saying that this is not, not an utterance that is made by native speaking English speakers. It is, of course it is. But you have to be aware that it is a dependent clause and therefore a sentence fragment.

Advanced (Plural) Possession (4)

[David] Okay. Okay, but the apostrophe at the end isn't about there being multiple bones, right? It's about there being multiple dogs? [Paige] Yeah, so even if it's multiple dogs, and they're possessing a singular thing, [David] So if five dogs all had the same favorite dog park. [Paige] Right, because it's the best dog park in the world. [David] Okay.

Phrases and Clauses (10)

[David] Okay. What makes you say that? [Rosie] Well, again, we don't have a verb, so we've got a subject, the ocean, and we have under, that's a preposition, so we have kind of a direction and a subject, we have a direction and a place, but we don't have an action. [David] And that would make it a phrase and not a clause. So, phrases are groups of words that act like parts of speech, so this one, for example, is an adjectival or adverbial phrase.

Advanced (Plural) Possession (7)

[David] Okay. [Paige] And I am going to visit the Harpers' house. [David] Okay. [Paige] Right, so that's the house that belongs to all of the Harpers, the Harper family. [David] Okay, so that seems pretty straight forward, but what if we're talking about a name that ends in S? Like Burns? [Paige] Okay, yeah. That can make things a little bit complicated. The way that names that end in S become plural is by adding ES to the end of them. So Burns becomes Burnses.

Exclamations! (7)

[David] Or you can use exclamation points when you're trying to convey that someone is speaking at high volume. [Paige] Okay, right. [David] So I could be yelling across, you know, the field, to you, my pal. [Paige] Mm-hmm. [David] To be like, don't worry about the ogre! He's just bringing snacks. [Paige] Okay, so there's not even necessarily strong emotion there, you just want me to hear you. [David] Mm-hmm.

The Scale of Formality (8)

[David] Otherwise, like, this first sentence is fine, please join us for little Philip's first birthday celebration. This festive occasion will include an abundance of delightful diversions in which you can partake, maybe a little much. So if we were going to rewrite this, I would probably tone down the language a little bit, and just ratchet it back. I might even go so far as to say, lil Philip. [Rosie] I like it.

More Uses for Commas (1)

[David] Paige, I have a question for you. [Paige] What's up? [David] You like cheese, don't you? [Paige] Why, yes, I do. [David] So, Paige, what I've just asked you is an example of what's called a tag question. So I'm making an assertion and then I'm actually looking for confirmation; so I'm making a statement and then, consumed by doubt, I have to turn, comma, and ask you for confirmation. So I say: "You like cheese", comma, "don't you?"

Italics and Underlining (8)

[David] Paige, what's your favorite book? [Paige] Let's say The Giver. That's a great book. [David] That is a great book. All right, so I'm writing The Giver. I want to indicate that it's a full title. Voop, put that underline underneath it. The Give is Paige's favorite book. So, the way we're underlining The Giver is the same functionally as the way we've italicized The Hobbit, The Thief and the Cobbler, or Hounds of Love. [Paige] That's right. [David] So, that's where the italic typeface comes from is this guy Aldus Manutius. This is how we use it today.

Hyphens vs. Dashes (8)

[David] Right, I think it's also important to hyphenate for clarity. Let me explain what I mean by that. [Paige] Yeah. [David] So, first of all, when I say hyphenate, that's just a word that means to put a hyphen in something. [Paige] Yes. [David] To hyphenify. So if a compound word could be misconstrued or misunderstood, you just throw in a hyphen or check a dictionary or a style guide. So, okay, so, Paige. [Paige] Yes. [David] I would like to raise some chickens.

What is a Sentence? (3)

[David] Right, and that's what we call the subject. And then we have the verb part, which is the predicate. [Paige] So a sentence has, it has to have like, a thing, or a noun or pronoun. [David] Sure, that's the subject. [Paige] Yeah, and something that it's doing. [David] Sure, that's the predicate. [Paige] Yeah. [David] Okay. So let's say that we've got this sentence, the great big dog licked my face. Here is our sentence, what is the subject?

Oxford Comma (4)

[David] Right, and the second one is a sort of sentence that could be used to make the argument against the Oxford comma. So his favorite artists are Elvis, a tiny Norwegian harpist, and Frida Kahlo, and it could be argued that you're saying that Elvis, the rock-n-roll progenitor, hip-swivel guy was a tiny Norwegian harpist, which is not true.

Relative Clauses (10)

[David] Right, so use your best sense because yes, it is possible that the red hat could be the thing that comes into the cafe every Sunday, but it's more likely that that hat is attached to the woman that was referenced earlier. [Rosie] Right. [David] So, that is a relative clause.

Its and It's (4)

[David] Right. So, flavor belongs to it, book belongs to you. So, this is the core distinction, is if you're talking about anything that would be about possession you use its. I-T-S, no apostrophe. If you're trying to contract something, it is or it has, like it's a lovely day outside or it's been one week since you looked at cheese. Then you would use I-T apostrophe S 'cause it's a contraction, you're trying to cram more information into this one little phrase. [Paige] Precisely. [David] Sweet. That's how you choose between I-T apostrophe S and I-T no apostrophe S.

Dependent and Independent Clauses (11)

[David] Right. [Rosie] And while the salmon flopped is providing us with this extra information. The bear is roaring while the salmon flopped. But if we were just to see the sentence while the salmon flopped on its own, like say, we didn't have the bear roared, it would make less sense. [David] Right, because the presence of this word while indicates that something else is also going on, that's what makes it dependent. So we need to have the bear roared.

Less Versus Fewer (5)

[David] Sand. Like, let's say for some reason you and I were having a sand counting contest. Plucking individual grains of sand from the beach with tweezers putting them in a bucket. I could say, "I have fewer grains of sand than you do." [Rosie] Right. But I couldn't say, "I have fewer sand." Is that what you're saying?

Run-Ons and Comma Splices (5)

[David] So for example, in this sentence, I love Li'l Tony 2: Pony Up 2 the Streets, it's my favorite movie in the Li'l Tony franchise, a very fine series of non-existent films. The problem with this sentence is that right now it's got this comma in the middle of it, and this comma inappropriately joins these two independent clauses. Oh, and this whole time I forgot to say two independent clauses inappropriately joined by a comma.

Less Versus Fewer (10)

[David] So he's talking about the word 'less'. [Rosie] He's talking about the word 'less'. [David] The word 'less' is most commonly used in speaking of a number. And he just thinks, "Ah, I feel like fewer would do better" so he's going on this gut impulse. Which is for the record, fine. [Rosie] It is fine. [David] Right? Like there's nothing would you think there's anything ungrammatical about saying, "There is fewer, I get fewer sun."

What is a Sentence? (5)

[David] So if you said, if you asked a question like, Are you named David? [Paige] Okay, [David] If you asked that of me, [Paige] Mmm-hmm, [David] Which, go ahead. [Paige] Are you named David? [David] I am. Is this a sentence, it's really short. [Paige] It is very short. But, see, "I" is a pronoun, - [David] Okay, [Paige] So that can be the subject. [David] That's our subject. [Paige] And, "am" is a verb. So it has a subject and a predicate.

Recognizing Fragments (5)

[David] So in order to be a sentence, you need to have both a subject and a predicate. So you need to have a thing, like a noun, or a pronoun, and then you have to have something happen to that noun or pronoun, or something performed by that noun our pronoun. Right so, like the pancakes, period, is not a sentence. But the pancakes were delicious, is.

Phrases and Clauses (5)

[David] So it's not, it can't be a phrase because a phrase is just one part of speech, but a clause always has a noun or pronoun component and a verb component. [Rosie] That's right. [David] Okay. [Rosie] So, a clause could be a dependent clause which can't stand on its own. For example, the wizard who cast spell. Right, that can't be its own sentence, but it's got a lot going on. [David] So that's not a sentence, but it can also be independent.

Simple and Compound Sentences (10)

[David] So let me change what I wrote here, to just say, instead of two subjects and two predicates. Cause I think that's confusing in light of this information, let's just say it is two simple sentences. [Paige] Right, or two independent clauses. You know, that terminology. [David] Or two, yeah. And if you don't, never fear, we'll cover it.

Less Versus Fewer (4)

[David] So okay, so Rosie what are count nouns and mass nouns? [Rosie] Good question. So, count nouns are essentially nouns that you can count individually as in individual entity. So an example between these two count noun would be 'grains of sand' [David] Okay. So I can count, not that I'd want to grains of sand individually but I guess what you're saying is I couldn't count [Rosie] Sand.

Subjects and Predicates (5)

[David] So our subject is I. [Paige] Yeah. [David] Then predicate is basically everything else, right? It's bought, what did I buy? A crate of goblin hats. [Paige] Right. You can see that a crate of goblin hats is also a noun, right? But it's not doing anything in the sentence. I am buying. [David] Just because there's a noun, just because there's another noun in the sentence, like crate or goblin hats, doesn't necessarily mean that it's the subject.

Possesive (4)

[David] So this doesn't just apply to common nouns, like rabbits, this can also apply to proper nouns, like people, or countries, or businesses, or whatever. [Paige] Totally. [David] Or movies. [Paige] Yeah, anything, I think. [David] Okay, so to pull a completely random figure from American history, let's say Alexander Hamilton had a surfboard. So, we could say, using the apostrophe s construction, we could refer to Alexander Hamilton's surfboard, right?

Phrases and Clauses (4)

[David] So this is a noun phrase, an adjective phrase and an adverbial phrase. So none of these things can be sentences, but they all, like you said, act like parts of speech. Okay, meanwhile a clause is a group of words that can be a sentence? [Rosie] It's not always a sentence, but the big difference between phrases and clauses is that clauses do have both a subject and a verb.

Contractions (5)

[David] So this is pretty straightforward, but there are some kind of strange uses of contractions. Some strange uses of the apostrophe that don't seem as immediately evident on their face. So for example if you contract the phrase "will not" into a single contraction, it doesn't turn into "willn't", it turns into "won't". [Paige] So in this case the apostrophe stands in the place of this "o", but all these letters disappear, and they're kind of unaccounted for.

What is a Sentence? (6)

[David] So this is the noun or pronoun part. And this is the action that it is performing. Although "am" or "being" isn't really an action, it's more of a linking verb. [Paige] Sure. [David] But it's still a verb. [Paige] Okay. [David] Okay, so this is, this is the predicate then, for sure. [Paige] Yeah. [David] Okay, so Paige. Let's say I dropped a muffin. [Paige] Right, [David] And you told me, pick up that muffin. [Paige] Uh-huh.

Recognizing Fragments (7)

[David] So this is what we call, not even a, I mean it's not even a dependent clause, right? It, this thing doesn't have, doesn't really have a subject or a verb. It's really just a prepositional phrase. So because of the snowstorm something could happen, but we don't know what that is, so, because of the snowstorm, we stayed home from school.

Pronoun-Antecedent Agreement (1)

[David] So today we're gonna be talking about pronoun-antecedent agreement. [Beth] And what is that? [David] An antecedent is a thing that goes before. So ante, means before, and cedent, is like a going-ee thing. What I mean by that is that if we're talking about, if we setup something in a sentence. So okay, we've got a sentence like Jillian rose her bike to the grocery store. Fine, straight up sentence, pretty ordinary.

Relative Clauses (1)

[David] So today we're gonna talk about a special kind of dependent clause, which again, is a kind of clause that can't be a sentence on its own called a relative clause. So a relative clause is a dependent clause that starts with a relative pronoun So okay, so a relative pronoun is a word like who or that or which or whose or where that like any pronoun, substitutes in for another part of the sentence.

Commas in Space and Time (6)

[David] So we wanna make sure that all of it is separated out from the rest of the sentence; and we separate it out using our friend, the comma. [Voiceover] Of course. [David] So if you want to express a kind of complicated relationship in time or in space, you wanna make sure a letter gets to a very specific place, you wanna talk about a very specific city in a very specific country, you use commas. You wanna talk about a very specific time, you use commas. That's commas in space and time, my grammarians.

Appositives (6)

[David] So you can use them as in the first sentence, my older sister comma Griselda comma is going to college in the fall, or you can use it as in the second sentence, they stopped selling my favorite snack comma the Cookie Cat period. [Paige] Right. At the end.

Italics and Underlining (1)

[David] So, Paige, have you ever heard of this man Aldus Manutius? [Paige] I don't think I have. That's a pretty cool name, though. [David] His given name was actually Aldo Manuzio. He was a Venetian printer around 1500. And this guy invented the italic typeface. [Paige] What? [David] Yeah. So, italic is this word that really just comes from Italy, right, so he's from Venice, which is in modern day Italy.

More Uses for Commas (4)

[David] So, Paige, how are you? [Voiceover] Why are you asking me this? [Paige] Because it's an example of direct address. So if I start off an utterance by directly addressing you, it follows a pause, I would say: "Paige," comma, "how are you?" But also I'm interested in your well-being. [Paige] Oh, well thank you! I'm good. [David] Good.

Simple and Compound Sentences (2)

[David] So, a simple sentence is really just what it says on the 10. A simple sentence consists of one subject and one predicate, and that's it. [Paige] Right. [David] So in the sentence, I bought my friends some candy, alright we got our one subject, I. And then we have our one predicate, bought my friends some candy. [Paige] Mhmm.

Dashes (2)

[David] So, dashes have approximately four uses. Use number one is that they can mark interruptions in the structure of a sentence, as in, "I ran to the bus stop--but the bus "had already driven away." So we're using this dash to interrupt the structure of this sentence. [Paige] Okay, but couldn't you just put a comma there? [David] You know, you're totally could, you absolutely could use a comma instead of a dash. But the dash has this feeling.

Hyphens vs. Dashes (2)

[David] So, for example, we have the word yellow. That's a word with meaning. We have the word green. That's a word with meaning. [Paige] Yes. [David] And we may have a word that does fit right in between those two or two at once, like chartreuse or whatever. [Paige] Okay. [David] You know, but not everybody wants to use the word chartreuse. [Paige] No, it's kinda crazy.

Under- and Overstatement (5)

[David] So, ironically, while the writer is using minimizing language, saying, "I am vaguely unhappy," or, "like vaguely unhappy," which serves to further qualify that statement, the fact that they're saying that after such a litany of sins, like, the cookie even, that's just ugh! Really serve to drive home the opposite effect. So this is a textbook example of understatement. [Rosie] All right, so we've seen an example of understatement. Let's take a look at what an overstatement might look like.

Italics and Underlining (6)

[David] So, okay, so we got a book, The Hobbit, we got a movie, and we have a full-length musical work or like a symphony or an album like Kate Bush's Hounds of Love. All of those things can be rendered in italic type. So, okay, so for full works, then, so for books, movies, and full-length musical works like an album or a symphony. [Paige] Okay, so like a song or a chapter of a book is not considered a full work. [David] Correct. [Paige] Okay.

Phrases and Clauses (1)

[David] So, okay, you know the Schoolhouse Rock song Conjunction Junction? [Rosie] Right. [David] Classic. [Rosie] Classic. [David] So in that song, you know, the chorus asks, like, ♫ Conjunction junction, what's your function ♫ And then the engineer played by Jack Sheldon goes, ♫ Hooking up words and phrases and clauses ♫ And so that's what we're gonna be talking about today is the difference between a phrase and a clause, because both of them are groups of words, right?

Subject, Direct Object, and Indirect Object (1)

[David] So, today we're gonna be talking about subject, direct object, and indirect object, and identifying those within a sentence, but first, I suppose we should figure out what those things are. So, we've talked about what subjects are before, but let's review it again really quickly. So, a subject is a noun or a pronoun that performs the verb in a sentence.

Parentheses (6)

[David] So, what I'm doing here is I'm using this parenthetical aside to cite where in her book she said, "Oh no, a tiger!" So let's say this is, what I'm doing here, this sentence is like an excerpt from some essay that I'm writing about Paige's life and times, which I've italicized here because it is a book. [Paige] Right. [David] So what I'm doin' here is I have the quote, and then, in order to say where that reference comes from, I give the author's last name, the name of the book, and then p. 38, and all of that is inside parentheses, like so.

Commas and Introductory Elements (9)

[David] So, what is initially doing in this sentence here, in this expression? [Paige] Basically, it's modifying the whole rest of the sentence. It's modifying the "I was afraid." [David] So, we're gonna put a comma here to separate it from the rest of that expression. That's why we call it a sentence adverb, 'cause it's not, this is not the same as saying, "I was initially afraid." This is kind of, like you said, modifying the entire expression.

The Scale of Formality (2)

[David] So, when we talk about formal versus informal language, what we're really talking about is this thing called register. What is appropriate for the, whether it's like a social occasion, or a style of writing that you're attempting to do, you know, what register should you speak in? So let me give you an example. Gary Evans, the esteemed chairman of the board, is blank. Right, we have this sentence we want to fill in this blank with something.

Three Types of Sentences (8)

[David] So, yeah, those are our three sentence types. [Paige] Yeah. Declarative is a statement. Interrogative is a

Three Types of Sentences (8)

[David] So, yeah, those are our three sentence types. [Paige] Yeah. Declarative is a statement. Interrogative is a question, and imperative is a command. [David] So, Paige, I think we can recast our slogan in each of these three types of sentence. [Paige] Okay. [David] So, okay, so declarative, right? That's what it usually is, declarative form is you can learn anything. [Paige] Okay.

Under- and Overstatement (3)

[David] Sure. "So you kidnapped my dog, drove to New Orleans without telling anyone, and ate the last cookie that I was saving? "Yeah, I'm like, vaguely unhappy." (Rosie laughs softly) [Rosie] This is a horrible thing that just happened. So when you said, "Yeah, I'm like vaguely unhappy," after this huge list of horrible things that this supposed friend has done, you know, it's clear that, that you're more than just a little, vaguely unhappy.

History of the Possessive Apostrophe (21)

[David] Tag mig med [Paige] So then, you can shorten that first word, in writing, by getting rid of the g and adding an apostrophe. [David] Okay. [Paige] This actually doesn't happen much. It kind of has limited use, but it's similar to how we use it for contractions in English. [David] Sure.

Using Quotation Marks in Titles (4)

[David] Thank you. Right, so underline it to indicate that that's the full title. So, this is the book. And then, this book is made up of individual poems, so let's say you wrote a poem in the book called "Rye Do You Love Me?" Sure, why not? So that's in quotes and that indicates that this is a single work or a single poem. [Paige] Okay. [David] Also, let me know when that book is coming out 'cause I'll buy your book of poetry. (Paige laughs)

What is a Sentence? (7)

[David] That sentence doesn't seem to have, just let me write that down. That sentence doesn't seem to have a subject. I see how all of this is predicate. [Paige] Right, pick up is a verb, and then, [David] And then the muffin is the thing that's being picked up, like that's all one thing. Where's, what goes in the blue box? [Paige] I see, so when we have a sentence like this, where I'm telling you to do something, [David] Mmm-hmm,

Parallel Structure (2)

[David] That's just, that's amazing. Parallel structure is less a consideration of grammar, it's really more about style, right. Parallel structure basically means that when you're making some kind of list in a sentence, if you're using a series of verbs or if you're using a series of nouns, any series of words, they should all roughly line up with one another. So let's say I was an outdoorsman and I said, "I love fishing, skiing and rock climbing."

Apostrophes and Plurals (5)

[David] That's the only exception, that's the only time you use apostrophes to form the plural, no other time. So if you're talking about, doesn't matter, if you're talking about CDs, or DVDs, or MP3s, or whatever you kids are listening to these days, it doesn't matter, there's no need for an apostrophe in any of these places. [Paige] Right, 'cause that's pretty clear.

Subject, Direct Object, and Indirect Object (7)

[David] That's very nice of her. [Paige] Yeah. [David] Okay, so, walk me through this, then. What is going on in this sentence? What are the relationships between the components of this sentence? [Paige] Okay. So, we have two people, and the first person listed is the subject of the sentence, because she's doing an action. [David] Right, she's doing the giving. [Paige] Right. Then we have the direct object, which is a gift card.

Less Versus Fewer (13)

[David] This isn't just the two of us making an arbitrary rule. Which, by the way Rosie I'm now on your side. I buy into this. You can use 'less' to refer to count nouns and mass nouns but 'fewer' only in refer to count nouns. I get that. Because this actually reflects the way that these words are used in what is called 'The corpus of English' like the body of language that bounces around everyday.

Under- and Overstatement (4)

[David] To be clear, grammarians, Rosie did not do any of these things. (Rosie laughs softly) [Rosie] Thank you, David. [David] This sentence is a work of fiction. [Rosie] Thank you for letting me off the hook there. [David] You're welcome. So what we're trying to express in this sentence is that this is something that should make the speaker or the writer quite unhappy. But what we're doing here is deliberately understating the case to further drive home the point that this is actually quite serious. [Rosie] Exactly.

Subjects and Predicates (1)

[David] Today we're going to talk about identifying subjects and predicates and in order to do that, we shall begin with a sentence. Paige, would you read me the sentence, please? [Paige] I bought a crate of goblin hats. [David] Thank you, Paige. So Paige, do you think that's hats for goblins, or hats that make you look like a goblin? [Paige] Well, I bought it, so I can say that it is both. [David] So we could go either way is what you're saying.

Parallel Structure (1)

[David] Today, all three of us are gonna be talking about parallel structure. And I've always had trouble spelling the word parallel, but Rosie pointed out something just before we started recording that is blowing my mind. Rosie, how do you spell parallel? [Rosie] Well, it's fun because the two ls that are together in the word are together in the middle of the word. [David] Look at that, they're parallel! That's all. [Rosie] It's fun.

Bare/Bear, Allowed/Aloud, Advice/Advise, and Break/Brake (6)

[David] Very allergic. [Eman] He's very allergic, yes. Similarly, you might be allowed to drive at 60 mph because it is legal to drive at that speed. [David] Sweet. Let's move on to our next set. Over here we have break and brake. These are both nouns and verbs, right? To break something is to crack it in half or to split or just to ruin or destroy something, but it also refers to the results of a crack or a split.

Run-Ons and Comma Splices (3)

[David] We bought nails, semicolon, we bought a hammer. [Beth] Right. Another way you could do that would be to just add a comma and then the conjunction and, so you're connecting those two clauses. [David] So this is a run-on sentence without this and, and this comma, and it's called that because it's sort of like a runaway train, you know, it doesn't have enough stoppage in it is how I would put it.

Three Types of Sentences (9)

[David] We can make it a question, so interrogative's can you learn anything? [Paige] Right [David] The answer is yea. [Paige] Yes [David] The answer is yes. [Paige] Yes. [David] And the imperative, we wanna make it a command, would be what, Paige? [Paige] Learn anything! [David] Yeah! So you can do any of those three.

Dependent and Independent Clauses (1)

[David] We're gonna talk about dependent and independent clauses. Full disclosure, this is a relatively advanced part of grammar, but it is important to understand, because mastering dependent and independent clauses and being able to say why a clause is dependent or independent will help you become a better writer, will help you become a stronger writer, and give your sentences vim and vigor and strength.

Subjects and Predicates (3)

[David] What does that mean to perform a verb? [Paige] Right, so a verb isn't always an action, right? That's why I wanted to clarify. [David] Mm-hmm. [Paige] Because you can say, "I am happy." Am is a verb, but that's not an action that I'm doing. [David] Right, you can't just actively am. [Paige] Right. (laughs) [David] But in the sentence, "I am happy," the subject I is performing the verb to be, or am. [Paige] Right.

The Sound of Language: Alliteration, Assonance, and Onomatopoeia (11)

[David] Yeah, so it's a way to express a pattern and to build on what you were saying, you can also, it's just a good attention grabber, and it's also useful for it's own sake, just as a technique for writing prose or poetry. Like, it's something, it's a useful property of language to be able to sometimes access.

Run-Ons and Comma Splices (2)

[David] Yeah, so we can see that this sentence contains two individual, independent clauses. So we've got number one, we bought nails, number two, we bought a hammer. Now there are a couple of different ways we could make this a legal sentence, but right now as it stands this is a run-on, right? [Beth] So there are a couple of ways we could fix this sentence. One way would be just to add a semicolon in there. So you've got two independent clauses.

The Sound of Language: Alliteration, Assonance, and Onomatopoeia (6)

[David] Yeah. [Rosie] Beep sounds like a beeping. (laughs) [David] Like that is literally, so if you, if you are trying to summon up the actual sound of a thing and transcribe it and use it as a noun or a verb, you're using onomatopoeia. I know it's a terrifying looking word, right? Like, no one word should have this many vowels in front of the other. I get it, I get it.

Under- and Overstatement (11)

[David] You can see the glorious subtlety of these language techniques. And I understand, this can make English a minefield for people trying to learn the language, because the subtext of what you're saying, with overstatement and understatement, is more important than the text itself. [Rosie] Exactly.

Dashes (15)

[David] You can use them like a colon to lead into lists or to link an idea. So, "I have only ever wanted one thing--snacks." [Paige] And they can indicate interruptions in speech, like, "Watch out for that--" [David] Wham. [Paige] That was good. [David] Thanks. And those are the functions of the dash.

Apostrophes and Plurals (6)

[David] You just use a lower case S, but if you're trying to talk about multiple lower case letters, then you use an apostrophe. [Paige] Yeah, so if you're trying to figure out how to make something plural, and you're like, "Do I use an apostrophe?" No, unless it's a lower case letter.

Hyphens vs. Dashes (6)

[David] you would refer to getting on line, right. And then, as it became more and more prominent, and more and more popular, this is what's called an open compound, then it became on-line, separated with a hyphen. This is what's called a hyphenated compound. [Paige] Makes sense. [David] And now, when we think about it, it's just an adjective, and it's online, and this is a closed compound.

Bare/Bear, Allowed/Aloud, Advice/Advise, and Break/Brake (4)

[Eman] Now we have two other words that sound the same, but are very different. We have aloud and allowed. Now, they are both adjectives, but they have different spellings and different meanings. Let's start with the first aloud, which is spelled A-L-O-U-D. Note that it has the word loud in it, which can help us remember that this word talks about something being spoken loudly.

History of the Possessive Apostrophe (14)

[Jake] And if you're wondering how there can be just this random change in sound in a language without anybody orchestrating it, think of a time where say something like, "I'm gonna go to the store." "I'm gonna..." What are you really saying there? It's a contraction of, I am going to. Nobody actually says, "I am going to go right now." They say, "I'm gonna go." So, words are always kind of mashing into each other.

History of the Possessive Apostrophe (17)

[Jake] And they can be used different ways in different languages. So, in Dutch, apostrophes are used to make plurals. [David] What?!?! [Jake] For words that end in a vowel. [Jake] So. - [David] Okay. [Jake] Photo in Dutch, is f-o-t-o, and if you want to have multiple photos, well, you have to throw in an apostrophe. You have to throw in an apostrophe before the s. No good reason why that's the case.

History of the Possessive Apostrophe (16)

[Jake] How elegant. [David] Thank you. Jake, Paige, does this square with how...I mean, this is how apostrophes are used in English, but Jake and Paige, you all were telling me about all the many ways that apostrophes are used in other languages around the world. [Jake] Right, well I think, you know, punctuation marks are tools just like any other tools that human beings use. [David] Uh-huh.

History of the Possessive Apostrophe (11)

[Jake] So, nobody knew how to spell because there was no way to spell. [David] Right, like, Samuel Johnson had not yet written the first dictionary, and that's like 1720. [Jake] Uh-huh. [David] I'm pretty sure. There were no standards, not because people were dumb or anything, certainly not. It's just that these standards didn't exist. Like, in the great scheme of history, there's stuff that we do now, you know, that 400 years from now people are gonna look back at us and be like, "Phh, you used words to communicate?"

Exclamations! (8)

[Paige] 'Cause I'm far away. [David] So Paige, I reckon that's, that's what an exclamation is. [Paige] I think so. [David] Expression of strong emotion or volume, so they can be, they're not always sentences, so they can be interjections like, ow! Or they can be full sentences like, look out! Or that ogre is about to attack the village! [Paige] Yeah, it can be a lot of things. [David] Be a lot of things.

Subjects and Predicates (2)

[Paige] (Laughs) Oh, yeah. [David] A sentence is kind of a like a car. It's got a lot of different parts, like an engine, or wheels, or a body, whatever. A sentence is very much the same way and you can divide up a sentence into parts. Today, we're going to be dividing up the sentence into subject and predicate. Paige, what is the subject of a sentence? [Paige] The subject is a noun or a pronoun that is doing the action in the sentence or performing the verb.

Ellipses (1)

[Paige] (chuckles) So in this video we're gonna talk about a piece of punctuation called the ellipsis or ellipses in the plural form as we have here. So, what is an ellipsis? [David] So an ellipsis is a punctuation mark that is actually made up of three periods with spaces in between them, boop, boop, boop. And it has two main uses. [Paige] Okay. [David] Use number one. It indicates a pause in speech. So like when you said, "Hello, David." And I said, "Hello...Paige."

Advanced (Plural) Possession (6)

[Paige] (laughs) Okay, that is an interesting department store. [David] Well it doesn't take up that much floor space for the mouse section. So, I get that if there's more than one dog, it's D-O-G-S, apostrophe. If it's a plural irregular noun that doesn't end in S, then it's still just apostrophe, S, like regular possession. What about family names? [Paige] Oh, okay, that's a good question. So, let's say there's a family with the last name, Harper.

Three Types of Sentences (2)

[Paige] A declarative sentence is a type of sentence that just states a fact or and opinion, I suppose, but it just makes a statement. So that would be something like it is a beautiful day. [David] It is a beautiful day, Paige. We can also use declarative sentences to get across any kind of information. This is what we call exposition in writing. [Paige] Right. Yeah.

History of the Possessive Apostrophe (22)

[Paige] And like, how this possessive was formed. It's interesting that the possessive, the modern possessive in English, is just a form of contraction. [David] Yeah. [Paige] It's bizarre. [David] Well, folks, thank you so much for joining me on this journey through the wacky history of the apostrophe, in English.

Advanced (Plural) Possession (2)

[Paige] Apostrophe, S, is a rule that applies when the possessive noun is singular. So for example, the dog's bone. Right, that's one dog's bone. [David] One singular dog possessing one bone. [Paige] Exactly. [David] What if I wanted to talk about like, five dogs' bones? Like they had a big old pile of bones? [Paige] Right, so that is a case where we will not use apostrophe, S. [David] What? [Paige] I'm sorry to disappoint.

Complex Sentences (11)

[Paige] But I guess, as many dependent clauses as you want? [Rosie] Yeah, you can go crazy. [Paige] Okay, cool. So I think that's complex sentences. It's an independent clause that can be a sentence by itself and one or more dependent clauses which can't be sentences by themself all put together in one big sentence. Does that sound right, Rosie? [Rosie] Sounds good to me, Paige. [Paige] Cool.

Hyphens vs. Dashes (9)

[Paige] Good idea. [David] So, in order to raise some chickens, I need a chicken coop, right. [Paige] That is, yeah, true. [David] And a coop, right, C-O-O-P, is a place where chickens live. It's like a little enclosure. [Paige] Yeah. [David] But let's say I wanna buy this coop from a community-run business, right, what's called a cooperative business, or a co-op.

Commas and Adjectives (2)

[Paige] Gross. - [David] Gross. [David] Unacceptable. - [Paige] Totally. [David] "So, I would like my $1.38 back." (Paige laughs) But in another draft of the letter, I wrote, "You sold me a mushy green apple!" [Paige] Okay, so mushy, sticky or mushy green. [David] Yeah, and I feel like, and I don't know how to put this into words yet, but we're gonna put it into words 'cause that's our job, (Paige laughs).

Italics and Underlining (4)

[Paige] Italics have two uses in English, one is to emphasize and the other is to indicate that something is a title. [David] So we use it for emphasis and titling. Let's dive into the first one. [Paige] Okay. [David] So if we're trying to use italics to emphasize something in text, we would just use it to set off one word. So, for example, That's a really spicy pepper. [Paige] Yeah, the word really is said very strongly in that sentence.

Compound-Complex Sentences (8)

[Paige] Okay, I see. Right, so this is a case where we see we can have more than one dependent clause if we want to, right. I know I keep saying this, but two independent clauses and one dependent clause are the minimum for a compound-complex sentence. It can have more, and it still qualifies as compound-complex. So that's compound-complex sentences. They are like compound in that they have more than one independent clause, and they're like complex in that they also have dependent clauses.

Compound-Complex Sentences (2)

[Paige] Okay, so it's like there's compound and there's complex and this is a combination of both of them. [Rosie] That's right. [Paige] Right, okay, so, compound-complex takes the more than one independent clause from a compound sentence and the dependent clause or more than one from a complex sentence and puts them together so you have at least two independent clauses and at least one dependent clause. I say at least 'cause you could have more than one or more than two of either of those. But, it has to be at least that.

Dashes (14)

[Paige] Okay, yeah, it's saying there would've been more words in this sentence and then terminal punctuation, but. [David] So that's what dashes can do. They are used to mark interruptions in the structure of a sentence, like, "I ran to the bus stop--but the bus had already driven away." [Paige] They can act like parentheses when they're used in pairs, so like, "The bug--which landed on my nose--had to be the size of a softball."

Hyphens vs. Dashes (12)

[Paige] Okay, you all worked together to make a yellow-green coop. That's pretty cool. [David] So we're connecting yellow and green with a hyphen. We're connecting co-op with a hyphen to differentiate it from this word coop. And that's basically what you use hyphens for.

Dashes (5)

[Paige] Okay. Also, it looks like you don't have a space before or after your dash, is that right? [David] Right. So, originally when I drawn it, it did look a lot closer. But, yes, according to the Chicago Manual of Style that Khan Academy uses, it would just go word, dash, word, then a space. But when you're using dashes, generally, you don't put spaces in between them, in between words. [Paige] Right.

Dashes (10)

[Paige] Okay. So the dash is like a little actor. [David] Yeah! Yeah, the dash is like an actor that can use like do the jobs of all these other punctuation marks. [Paige] Right. [David] So it can be parentheses, it can be a colon, it can be like a comma sometimes. [Paige] Wow! [David] That is a talented little guy. [Paige] Seriously, I'm very impressed. [David] And the fourth use of the dash is, again to indicate interruptions, but specifically to indicate interruptions in speech.

Ellipses (8)

[Paige] Okay. [David] You know, you could just be like, "Words are my opinion." [Paige] Mm-hmm. [David] And that's not, that's not exactly what Dumbledore said, right? [Paige] Right. No, that's not what he was saying at all. Those are some of the words he said, but that's not the idea he was trying to get across. [David] So you have this responsibility with ellipses to do the right thing, to really represent the way that somebody speaks accurately.

Parentheses (3)

[Paige] Or specify a definition or a reference. It can also show interruptions by an audience, but overall, the parenthesis separates a piece of technically unnecessary information, or what we called an aside, from the rest of the sentence. [David] So it separates inessential information. [Paige] Right, you can take out what's in the parentheses, and the sentence will still make sense.

Apostrophes and Plurals (3)

[Paige] Right, and you need to remember to always dot your is, doesn't make any sense. [David] Right. [Paige] This apostrophe can look like it's making the letter I possessive, but it's really just there to make it clear that this is a plural I and not is. [David] So this is the only case. If it were upper case letters, you wouldn't do this, right. If you were saying David's capital As look like trees.

Three Types of Sentences (7)

[Paige] Right, it's just implied. You know, if you're saying that to me, I know that I am the subject. [David] Right. So it's you follow that bunny. [Paige] Right. [David] But the you is just not spoken. Or, if you're not into bunny following, you know, something like remember to wash the dishes, you're still being commanded to remember. [Paige] Yeah.

Dangling Modifiers (6)

[Paige] Right, like in this example we had to pretty much completely rewrite this sentence. It still gets across the same idea, but we had to put the nouns in a different order so the modifier wasn't dangling any more. [Rosie] Running around on his little hamster wheel, Albert watched his pet exercise. (laughing) [Paige] This whole part, running around on his little hamster wheel, is the modifier in the sentence, but what comes right after it, is Albert, which I don't think he's the one running around on a little hamster wheel.

Hyphens vs. Dashes (7)

[Paige] Right, okay. It became closed, cause everyone knows what that means. [David] Right, so you would use hyphenated compounds when you're kind of in this intermediary stage of acceptedness. [Paige] So like, maybe one day, in the future, yellow-green will be a super common color. Right, it's everyone's favorite color, so it'll just be smushed together with no hyphen. [David] Today is not that day. [Paige] Today is not that day, so there's a hyphen there.

Dangling Modifiers (2)

[Paige] Right, okay. So it can be an adjective or like a, [Rosie] An adverb [Paige] A phrase, yeah an adverb too. So a modifier is always supposed to come right before the word or phrase that it's modifying. But when it doesn't do that, that's what's called a dangling modifier. [Rosie] So this can look something like, Flashing lightning and thunder, the little bunny struggled through the storm.

Commas in Dialogue (5)

[Paige] Right, so as you said, comma with dialogue is pretty much acting as a runway. So with the first sentence, "Guillermo said," comma, and then-- [David] So just kinda like, take off-- [Paige] Right, you're getting like, ramped up into the dialogue, and then with the second one, it's like the plane is landing, and, "They're probably pirates," and then the dialogue ends.

Ellipses (2)

[Paige] Right, so that ellipsis in the middle shows that you're pausing when you're speaking. So like, there's a lot of reasons why you might pause in your speech, you might be hesitating or thinking or just whatever the case may be, you can use an ellipsis to show that you're pausing. [David] Right. Uh, and usage number two for the ellipsis is that it shows that a portion of quoted material has been taken out.

Complex Sentences (9)

[Paige] Right, that would still be a complex sentence, it would be an independent clause and a dependent clause, but just in a different order, they don't have to be in this order that we've done twice. Okay, so Rosie, what if I do something like this? Like, when we buy his birthday cake, we have to make sure it's lemon, because it's his favorite. I think because it's his favorite is a dependent clause, right?

Possesive (5)

[Paige] Right, the surfboard that belongs to Alexander Hamilton. [David] Alright, so that seems pretty straightforward. If we wanna show possession, we just add an apostrophe s. Is that true in all cases though? [Paige] Well, okay, not always. [David] Okay, so there's a wrinkle. [Paige] Of course, there's always a wrinkle. [David] Introduce for us this wrinkle, Paige. [Paige] So, there's an exception to this rule of using apostrophe s for possession when you're using a pronoun.

Three Types of Sentences (5)

[Paige] Right. It's like being interrogated. That's, like, a similar word to interrogative, is just having a lot of questions asked. [David] Like really aggressively. [Paige] Yeah, it's not a very positive thing. [David] Paige, what did you do with the cheese? [Paige] I don't know (laughs) [David] Paige, why are you still eating the cheese? [Paige] I'm not. [David] Paige, I know you stole the cheese.

Simple and Compound Sentences (9)

[Paige] Right. You can have a compound subject or a compound predicate, but that doesn't make it a compound sentence. What makes it a compound sentence, is you have two parts that can stand on their own as individual sentences, and they're sort of being put together.

Subjects and Predicates (6)

[Paige] Right. [David] So you have to look for the thing that is performing the verb. [Paige] Exactly. [David] Paige, I think that covers everything except exactly what a goblin hat is, but we can talk about that some other time. [Paige] Yeah. [David] That's identifying subjects and predicates.

Subject, Direct Object, and Indirect Object (3)

[Paige] Right. [David] So, you know, as a sentence, we could just have "Chris ate", right? [Paige] Right. [David] But if we want to bring in this direct object, we can say Chris ate cereal. So, who's doing the eating? Chris. What is the thing that was eaten? Cereal. So, this seems like it would cover most interactions between objects and people, but then we have this other thing, indirect object. What's that about?

Advanced (Plural) Possession (5)

[Paige] So in that case you would say something like, the dogs' favorite park. Right, park is still singular, but dogs' is plural. So that's why it's just apostrophe, and no S afterwards. [David] So this also only applies to plural nouns that end in S, right? So if I'm talking about one of our irregular plural nouns, like mice, or geese, or men, or women, I would still add apostrophe, S, right? Like, okay, so I'm imagining a department store, and there's a men's section, a women's section, and a mice's section.

Complex Sentences (1)

[Paige] So in this video we're gonna talk about complex sentences. We've talked in another video about simple and compound sentences, so, that is like one independent clause or two independent clauses. And with a complex sentence, we're gonna introduce something called a dependent clause. So a sentence needs at least one independent clause to function as a sentence.

Compound-Complex Sentences (1)

[Paige] So in this video we're gonna talk about compound-complex sentences. [Rosie] So we just covered complex sentences in the last video which is where you've got a simple sentence or one independent clause and then that's accompanied by at least one dependent clause. So, the compound-complex sentence is a little bit different. In this one you have a compound sentence which is more than one independent clause, and also at least one dependent clause.

Dangling Modifiers (1)

[Paige] So in this video we're gonna talk about something called a dangling modifier. So, before we get in to what a dangling modifier is, we can sort of talk about just what a modifier is. Rosie, do want to tell us what the definition of a modifier is? [Rosie] Sure, so, well one major modifier that you think of is an adjective. So a lot of times a modifier is describing something else in the sentence.

Contractions (2)

[Paige] So that's kind of a fancy way of saying people like to be lazy. Which is, you know, tends to be accurate across language, so you know, we can say something like "I will", but honestly that kind of takes a lot of effort to say, right? [David] I have to articulate the mouth in this particular way. It's just easier to just collapse all of that into one, you know, one syllable, one sound to say "I'll". And when we do that, we use an apostrophe to indicate the missing letters. That missing "w" sound. That's a contraction.

Simple and Compound Sentences (5)

[Paige] So the subject in both these cases is I right, but it's sort of separate. It's like, I'm doing two different actions. [David] Correct. [Paige] What's important is even if it's the same subject, if it's I both times. Well I don't know how to say this, but just, if it were, I visited the beach and got a really bad sunburn. [David] Then it would be a simple sentence. [Paige] Then it's simple.

Dangling Modifiers (3)

[Paige] So this sentence has a dangling modifier, and the modifier in question is, flashing lightning and thunder. So the phrase that this comes right before is, the little bunny. And flashing lightning and thunder is not describing the little bunny, right. I don't think I've ever seen a bunny with like, lightning coming out of it or anything. Rosie what is this modifier actually supposed to be modifying?

Advanced (Plural) Possession (1)

[Paige] So today we're gonna talk about Plural Possession. Meaning when more than one person, or thing, or animal, owns something else. And this, like most other types of possession, tends to involve apostrophes. [David] Makes sense, checks out. [Paige] Yeah, cool. [David] So it's just apostrophe, S, right? Like, I mean, why are we even making this video? [Paige] Well, no. [David] Oh.

Subject, Direct Object, and Indirect Object (4)

[Paige] So, an indirect object is often...It's kind of signifying a recipient of something, so it's like another thing in a sentence that might be acted upon. [David] So, let's see if we can come up with some examples for that, cause we have this direct object, which is this thing being acted upon, and then the indirect object is also being acted upon, but it's being acted upon in, like, a giving way? Let's see if we can figure this out.

Dangling Modifiers (5)

[Paige] So, this makes more sense. We got rid of the dangling modifier, it's not you know, hanging out, looking like it's modifying the wrong noun. [Rosie] So if you're doing editing, or you're looking at a sentence, when you take a look at a sentence, see if you can spot what it is that that modifier is supposed to be describing. And then just make sure that that noun or phrase comes right after the modifier.

Punctuating a List (5)

[Paige] Sounds difficult. [David] And so we can also use commas in lists to separate not just nouns like in this first one, but also verb phrases. So I'm going for a run, comma, read a chapter of my book, comma, and go see the new Colonel Justice movie.[Paige] Perfect. [David] Cool. So that's how you punctuate a list with commas.

What is a Sentence? (4)

[Paige] Subject is the great big dog. [David] Alright, and that means that everything that's not the subject is part of the predicate, right? [Paige] Mmm-hmm. [David] So, licked my face is the predicate. So this is the noun chunk that is performing the action of the sentence. [Paige] You got it, yeah. [David] Cool. So, all sentences have to have this, right? [Paige] Yeah, they have to have a subject and a predicate, these two separate parts.

Simple and Compound Sentences (4)

[Paige] Sure. [David] That would be a very long sentence to read, but you could do it, it would be a very very compound sentence. So I visited the beach and I got a really bad sunburn. When we're looking at this, this is really two sentences together, joined by the comma and this and. Alright, so we have our subject, I visited the beach, I got a really bad sunburn. And we have our two predicates, I visited the beach, got a really bad sunburn.

Apostrophes and Plurals (2)

[Paige] That one time is when you are pluralizing a lower case letter. If you're saying something like, "You need to remember" to always dot your i's," where you're talking about the letter I, and there are several of them, you're gonna put an apostrophe before the S. [David] OK, so that's to prevent it from looking like is, right, 'cause if we didn't have that apostrophe in there, it would just be the word is. There's no way to tell I's from the word is in that case.

Appositives (4)

[Paige] That's true, it can be say, at the end. So, they stopped selling my favorite snack, the Cookie Cat. [David] I am so sorry. [Paige] I know. It's so sad. [David] So we've got this apposition then at the end of the sentence, so my favorite snack is being redefined or clarified by Cookie Cat. Or rather, Cookie Cat is clarifying or redefining my favorite snack.

Apostrophe (5)

[Paige] The third use does not happen very often, but apostrophes can occasionally be used to make words plural. [David] Okay, because I was always taught never to use apostrophes to pluralize stuff. Like the plural of book is books, not "Book's". That's wrong. This is the plural, and this is something belonging to a book. [Paige] Right, the book's pages. So there's really only one case where you'd want to use an apostrophe to make something plural.

What is a Sentence? (8)

[Paige] There doesn't always have to be a subject said out loud. [David] Okay. [Paige] This is like an order, right? I'm telling you you have to pick up that muffin. [David] So this is kinda like an invisible, secret subject. [Paige] Right, the subject really is you. [David] Okay, [Paige] You pick up that muffin, but I don't have to say it out loud. [David] Because I know that you're talking to me. Because I can tell 'cause you're looking at me, and you're yelling at me about a muffin.

Commas and Adjectives (4)

[Paige] There's this sort of hierarchy or order that you put adjectives in when you have multiple of them in a sentence, and it is called DOSASCOMP. [David] DOSASCOMP? All together now, D [Both] Determiner! [David] O. - [Both] Opinion! [David] S. - [Both] Size! [David] A. - [Both] Age! [David] S again. - [Both] Shape! [David] C. - [Both] Color! [David] O. - [Both] Origin! [David] M. - [Both] Material! [David] And P. - [Both] Purpose!

Dashes (11)

[Paige] This is like its own little special thing. [David] Yeah. [Paige] It's not acting like anything else? [David] Nope. [Paige] Just indicating an interruption. Yes, it does. "Watch out for that--" [David] Wham. So we're using this dash to say that this sentence was interrupted by something, and then, you know, we deploy the sound effect.

Ellipses (6)

[Paige] Totally. [David] So it shows that you have messed with it somehow. [Paige] Yes, exactly. [David] But that you're calling out the fact that you've cut out pieces, so that people don't necessarily get the wrong idea. [Paige] Totally. [David] But I think there is kind of an art to using ellipsis, right? [Paige] Yeah, I agree. You know, you could use it in, you know, technically wherever you want when you're quoting someone if you wanna take something out.

Ellipses (3)

[Paige] Why would you take some of a quote out? [David] So we have here, Paige, you have chosen a quote from the renowned wizard and orator, Albus Dumbledore, and he says, "Words are, in my not so humble opinion, our most inexhaustible source of magic." If you wanted, you could kind of take out that aside, that, "in my not so humble opinion." [Paige] Yeah, I don't have a lot of space on this screen, so I don't want to write that whole thing.

Dangling Modifiers (9)

[Paige] Yeah so like, that is dangling modifiers, and how you get rid of them. They're words or phrases that describe another word or phrase, and when they're dangling they're like in the wrong place, they're in front of the wrong noun.

Ellipses (9)

[Paige] Yeah, definitely. [David] Let's talk about the end of someone's sentence and I want to indicate that at some point after I cut off the end of the sentence, the sentence ends. Where do I put that extra period or do I need an extra period? [Paige] Right. Okay. [David] So let's say our sentence is something like, "I like cheese, although I'm more partial to a Wensleydale than I am to a cheddar or a Stilton."

Dangling Modifiers (8)

[Paige] Yeah, exactly. [Rosie] Running around on his little hamster wheel, the critter exercised while Albert watched. [Paige] Right, so this is how we made our change. We still have running around on his little hamster wheel at the beginning, but then we sort of, switched around the order of Albert and his pet. So now we have the critter following the modifier that it's supposed to be modified by. [Rosie] Right.

Hyphens vs. Dashes (4)

[Paige] Yeah, it's not one thing, it's she has yellow hair and green eyes. [David] If she had yellow-green hair, that would be a different story. [Paige] Yes. [David] So what's neat about hyphens and what's kinda confusing about hyphens is that whether or not we use a hyphen indicates how common a compound phrase is. So, Brian Gardner in Gardner's Modern American Usage, and in the Chicago Manual of Style draws this distinction with compound words.

History of the Possessive Apostrophe (20)

[Paige] Yeah, so from my limited, you know, expertise in Danish, people who speak Danish tend to abbreviate like all their words. Like, everything gets shortened all the time. [David] Sure. [Paige] So, the apostrophe is sometimes used in a similar way to how it is here to sort of show what's being shortened. [David] Okay. [Paige] So in Danish, to say something like, "Take me with you." [David] Uh-huh. [Paige] You would say, "tag mig med"

Possession for Words Ending in S (4)

[Paige] Yeah, so it's exactly the same as any other singular word even though it ends in S, you still need another S. [David] So just add an apostrophe S, and if you didn't know, now you know. That's how you form the possessive for names or words ending in S.

Exclamations! (4)

[Paige] Yeah, that's a great example. If you hurt yourself, you might scream, ow! That's an exclamation. [David] Can an exclamation also be an imperative, like if I said, look out? [Paige] Yeah, I think so, that's an order. [David] Yeah. [Paige] And it's being exclaimed, it's being yelled. So I think that's an exclamation too. [David] Mm-hmm. [Paige] So there's some overlap with like imperative and exclamation sometimes.

Under- and Overstatement (7)

[Rosie] Exactly. You might have also heard of hyperbole, which is what this is. It's just like, way exaggeration. But it serves to drive home this person's point that they feel really bad that they got a D on this midterm, and this is a very effective way of conveying to us how upset they are, even though they're not literally a skeleton, and they don't think they're literally a skeleton.

Less Versus Fewer (8)

[Rosie] He wasn't some guy, I guess he was at the time he was sort of a front-runner in terms of talking about language and he wrote this book that was called "Reflections on the English Language" in 1770. And what Robert Baker said in the book and this is, I mean, people have looked at this and tried to trace the origins of this 'fewer/less' issue with count nouns and Robert Baker said "This word is most commonly used in speaking of a Number "where I should think 'fewer' would do better."

Complex Sentences (3)

[Rosie] It functions as an independent clause, as its own sentence. We have some information that might be missing from this sentence, because we don't necessarily know what it's is, but we do have all the components of an independent clause here. We've got a subject, we, and a verb, have, have to, and well we have multiple verbs. (laughs) [Paige] (laughs) Yeah, got a lot of have to make sure.

Dangling Modifiers (7)

[Rosie] Right so, this is something you want to look out for, and maybe rewrite your sentence so that doesn't happen. [Paige] Right and we have a clue that Albert is not the name of the hamster or the pet, because it says Albert watched his pet exercise. So we have a good clue that Albert is probably a human, and he's probably not running on a hamster wheel. (laughing) [Rosie] Right? So he shouldn't be coming right after that, that modifier.

The Sound of Language: Alliteration, Assonance, and Onomatopoeia (12)

[Rosie] Right, and a good example with onomatopoeia, ono-mato-poeia, is you're really capturing, you're really capturing the sound, so the reader is really able to be immersed in the experience even more fully. You can hear the sounds that are happening. The buzzing of the bees, or, yeah. It just puts you even more in the story that the writer's telling. [David] That's why you would want to learn how to use assonance, alliteration, and onomatopoeia.

Phrases and Clauses (6)

[Rosie] Right, so, if we said, "The wizard cast a spell," that's also a clause, and it's also its own sentence. [David] So let's test a couple of things and see if they are phrases or clauses. [Rosie] Okay. [David] The falcon soared majestically. So this is a group of words. And we've got the falcon here, that's a noun phrase, that's behaving like a part of speech. So I know that this definitely has a phrase in it, but is it just a phrase on its own?

The Scale of Formality (4)

[Rosie] Right, there's a level of respect that we're conveying with this esteemed chairman of the board. [David] So instead, well, I don't know, Rosie, what's another thing we could put in there? [Rosie] Let's say, Gary Evans, the esteemed chairman of the board, is a renowned philanthropist. [David] Oh! A renowned philanthropist.

Relative Clauses (9)

[Rosie] Right, this is a who always wore a red hat is a description of the woman. [David] Right. [Rosie] Then we move on to the verb, the action of the sentence, what is she doing, she came into the cafe, so that's not part of that relative clause. The relative clause is just, in this case, providing some description of the woman.

Dangling Modifiers (4)

[Rosie] So, the modifier is actually supposed to be modifying the storm. Because we've got lightning and thunder, flashing, all of those things describe the storm. [Paige] Right, okay, so, we're really not supposed to have a dangling modifier like this so we need to fix this sentence. [Rosie] Flashing lightning and thunder, the storm raged as the bunny struggled. [Paige] So this is all better, the modifier, flashing lightning and thunder, comes right before the storm, now. [Rosie] Right.

Dangling Modifiers (10)

[Rosie] So, when you have a modifier at the beginning of your sentence, and it's set off with a comma, like all of these are, that's when you have to pay attention, and make sure that the noun or phrase coming right after the modifier is matched up with the modifier, so that it's describing the right thing. [Paige] Right. You can get some crazy meanings out of your sentences otherwise. Like the bunny, with lightning. So that's dangling modifiers.

Compound-Complex Sentences (5)

[Rosie] Sure. My friend Alberto, well, you'll see. Though he has a crippling walnut allergy, Alberto bravely walked through the walnut grove, but he made sure to wear long sleeves. [Paige] That's a good call. [Rosie] Yeah, he's smart. [Paige] Yeah, smart kid. So, again, if we just say, Alberto bravely walked through the walnut grove, but he made sure to make long sleeves, that's a compound sentence.

Less Versus Fewer (6)

[Rosie] That is what I'm saying. Fewer just, it just doesn't in Standard English it just doesn't go with these mass nouns. You know, fewer sand. I'm getting fewer sun than I used to. You would say, "I'm getting less sun than I used to" for example if you're talking about being out in the sun. [David] Sure. Versus hours of sun exposure. [Rosie] Right. You could get fewer hours of sun exposure but my argument and this is where I think you and I differ is that I believe you could also say "I'm getting less hours of sun exposure." [David] Hmm!

Complex Sentences (10)

[Rosie] That's right. And this sentence still completely works as a complex sentence, because you still just have this one independent clause, we have to make sure it's lemon, but the thing about a complex sentence is you can add more than one dependent clause if you want and it's still considered a complex sentence. [Paige] Okay, so it has to have just one independent clause. [Rosie] Right.

Relative Clauses (3)

[Rosie] Well who lived is describing the boy. [David] So right now, all of this together is just a noun phrase, but who lived within this noun phrase is a relative clause. So, we need to find a store that sells the new Willamette cold brew coffee ice cream. [Rosie] I've heard it's really good. [David] So all of this together is a sentence. This is definitely a sentence We need to find a store that sells the new Willamette cold brew coffee ice cream. Like, indisputably, that is a sentence.

Under- and Overstatement (2)

[Rosie] Yeah, I mean, it's pretty cool, but that is, that does, that is a perfect example, David, of what overstatement is. So we're gonna look at a couple examples of what writers will do sometimes to, I would say, both understatement and overstatement really help to drive a point home. We're gonna start with understatement. So David, you wanna read this sentence?

FANBOYS Mnemonic Song (6)

[Voiceover] You too can harness the power of the Fanboys. Fanboys They're the Fanboys The boys who carry the fan That's their whole deal Fanboys We're all Fanboys Remember the boys with the fan