Comprehensive Journalism 2100 Grammar Exam

Words can be subjects, objects, verbs, modifiers, etc, but phrases can also fulfill these roles:

"*Playing the mandolin* is like *plucking a violin.*" (Two gerund phrases, first is the subject second is the object of a preposition.) "I *have been going* to college for two years." ('Have been going' is the complete verb.)

Like/As

'As' is a conjunction, and should be used to introduce a clause (implied or overt) with a noun or nominative-case pronoun ('he' not him): *Jackson did it the same way as Eddie (he) did it.* 'Like' is a preposition, and should be used to introduce a word, phrase, or objective-case pronoun (him.): *It was just like Jackson (him) to do it that way.*

That/Who

'That' is used for inanimate objects and animals without names, 'who' is used for people and named animals.

That/Which

'That' is used for restrictive clauses and these do not require commas, 'which' is used for parentheticals and does require commas. That: *"The birthday candles that were lit were melting slowly." Which: "The birthday candles, which were blue and made of wax, were melting slowly."*

When are you supposed to use 'what' instead of 'that' or 'which?'

'What' should be used in questions, or in place of the phrases 'that which' or 'those which.' "*What* book is most popular nowadays?" "Analysts say he has a good chance to get *what* he wants."

Who/Whom (Whoever/Whomever)

'Who/Whoever' are pronouns used as the *subjects* of clauses. 'Whom/Whomever' are pronouns used as the *objects* of clauses. ('He' corresponds with 'Who/Whoever,' 'Him' corresponds with 'Whom/Whomever.') Who/Whoever: *"Who* wrote 'A Farewell to Arms?'" Whom/Whomever: *"To whom* are you speaking?"/ "You are speaking to *whom?*"

A/An

*'A'* is used before a word that begins with a *consonant sound*, and *'an'* is used before a word that begins with a *vowel sound.* Remember that the article (a/an) is determined by the sound and not simply by the letter. "There is *an FBI inquiry* on the subject." *"A historical event* is a great thing to study."

What is the difference between adjectives and adverbs?

*Adjectives modify nouns or pronouns* and *adverbs modify verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs.* WRONG: "The vote was taken *quick* despite the angry shouts from the public." RIGHT: "The vote was taken *quickly* despite the angry shouts from the public."

Punctuation of quotations

*Periods/commas* go *inside* quotation marks, colons and semicolons go *outside*, while question marks and exclamation points go *inside* if they're part of the equation and *outside* if they are not. In front of a quotation, after a verb of attribution (such as 'said') use a *colon* to introduce a quote of *more than one sentence*, a *comma* for a quote that is *one sentence*, and *no punctuation* if the quote is a *partial sentence* or if it is paraphrased.

What are the three cases of pronouns and what are their meanings?

*Subjective/nominative:* Used when the pronoun is the subject of the sentence: *He* went to the store. *Possessive:* Used to show ownership: "The umbrella is *hers.*" *Objective:* Used when it is the object of the preposition, direct object or indirect object, etc: "I gave the umbrella to *her.*" *Reflexive:* Doesn't really count, but it's used when a pronoun has already been used in the sentence: "Now I lay *myself* to sleep."

What are the minimum requirements to constitute a sentence?

A *noun* that *does a verb* and *expresses a complete thought.*

What is a noun? (N)

A *person, place, thing, idea or state of being.* Nouns can also be used as adjectives (such as with "fire truck), so watch out for that.

Commas: Introductory words, phrases and clauses

A comma should be used after an introductory word/phrase/clause, but if there are multiple it should be used after the last one. WRONG: "In the summer of 2011 *(no comma)* he went backpacking through Europe."/ In the summer, *(extra comma)* of 2011, he went backpacking through Europe." RIGHT: "In the summer *of 2011,* he went backpacking through Europe."

Sentence Errors: What is a comma splice?

A common grammar mistake where two complete sentences are combined with a comma but no coordinating conjunction. WRONG: "The man wore a yellow hat with blue polka dots, *it was not cold outside."* RIGHT: "The man wore a yellow hat with blue polka dots, *but* it was not cold outside."

What are complete subjects and predicates?

A complete subject is a *noun plus everything in front of it*, and a complete predicate is a *verb plus everything after it.* Ex: "The dedicated students studied diligently." The complete subject is *'the dedicated students,'* and the complete predicate is *'studied diligently.'*

What is a conjunction? (CONJ)

A connecting word that can connect words, phrases or clauses. (For, and, nor, but, or, yet, so, etc.)

What is a dependent clause?

A dependent clause has a subject and a verb, *but* it cannot stand alone as a sentence. Usually begins with with these conjunctions: although, until, if, because, whether. "Because the ice cream truck was late..." It's incomplete.

What is an infinitive?

A form of a verb starting with 'to.' These can take the place of a subject or object in a sentence. "The boy loves *to play* in the sandbox."

What is a predicate nominative?

A noun following a linking (to be) verb. "The instructor was a *graduate student.*" 'Was' is the predicate (a linking verb), and 'graduate student' is the noun that interacts with it.

Sentence Errors: What is a sentence fragment?

A sentence fragment is one where a group of words has a subject and a predicate but does not express a complete thought. WRONG: "When the ice they were standing on broke." *(Then what?)* RIGHT: "When the ice they were standing on broke, they fell in the water."

What are simple sentences?

A sentence with a single independent clause that may or may not have a compound subject or predicate. "Students often worry about college costs." "Students and their parents are often concerned about college costs and resist taking out loans."

What is "Headlinese?"

A technique used in writing headlines in which articles, the complete verb form and the past tense are not used. It is unacceptable in writing leads. Headline: "Woman shot standing outside the grocery store." Lead: "A woman was shot standing outside the grocery store."

What is a pronoun? (PRO)

A word that takes the place of a noun. He/she/it/who/they/etc.

Rules for possessive case of nouns:

Add "-'s" to a noun not ending in 's' (the boy's hat), add just an apostrophe to the end of a noun ending in 's' (the boys' hats). For singular common nouns that end in 's' or an 's' sound: normally, add "-'s" (the witness's testimony), but if the next word starts with an 's' or an 's' sound then add only an apostrophe (the witness' story).

When to use a comma regarding introductory dependent clauses:

All introductory dependent clauses should be set off with a comma. However, they are not set off with commas at the end of the sentence. Right: *"Because it was so important, Jack made sure to double check all of his answers."* Wrong: *"Jack made sure to double check all of his answers, because it was so important."*

What is a verb? (V)

An action word, or a word that links the subject to the rest of the sentence. Sometimes verbs are accompanied with helping verbs: they were swimming/they have been swimming.

Predicate adjective

An adjective following a linking (to be) verb. "The J2100 students *are prepared* for their big grammar test." 'Are' is the predicate, a linking verb, and 'prepared' is the adjective that interacts with it.

What are independent clauses?

An independent clause is one that has a subject and a verb, one that makes sense, and one that can stand alone as a complete sentence. "The boy ran."

Sentence errors: What are fused sentences?

An unacceptable combination of two or more independent clauses without punctuation between them. WRONG: *"The mayor left town the auditor did, too."* RIGHT: *"The mayor left town, and the auditor did too."*

What are articles?

Articles are *'the,' 'a' and 'an.'* They are a *kind of adjective* that defines a noun as *specific or nonspecific.*

Foreign language words with strange plural forms:

Bacterium/bacteria, criterion/criteria, datum/data, graffito/graffiti, medium/media, phenomenon/phenomena, stratum/strata. Alumnus (male singular)/alumni (male plural or both male and female plural. Alumna (female singular)/ alumnae (a group of female alumna)

When should you capitalize something after a colon?

Capitalize the first word following a colon if what follows constitutes a complete sentence: *In other situations, do not capitalize.*

Comma placement with dependent and independent clauses

Commas can only be placed after a dependent clause at the beginning of the sentence. Commas can be placed between two independent clauses only before a conjunction. WRONG: *"The party was quiet, until he came."* RIGHT: *"Until he came, the party was quiet."*

Commas: Parenthetical items

Commas should be *used for parenthetical afterthoughts*: those that are nonessential to the core meaning of the sentence. Commas should be *on either side* if in the middle of a sentence, while a comma should *only be at the beginning* if the dependent clause *ends the sentence.* WRONG: "The director of the film *Quentin Tarantino* is a strange man." RIGHT: "The director of the film*, Quentin Tarantino,* is a strange man."

When to use a comma in a compound sentence:

Commas should be used in compound sentences preceding a coordinating conjunction, except in the case of a compound verb. *Only place a comma before the conjunction if there is a subject after the conjunction.* WRONG: "Her professor wanted her to have better grades, but didn't do a good job teaching her the material." RIGHT: "Her professor wanted her to have better grades but didn't do a good job teaching her the material."

Intransitive verbs: Complete verbs or linking verbs

Complete verbs: Complete verbs can be used with no direct object: *"His daughter screamed all night."* - 'all night' is a prepositional phrase, it can be simplified to *"His daughter screamed."* Linking verbs: these have complements - predicate nominative or adjective. They're often forms of 'to be' - but watch out for when they're just used as helping verbs: *"She is singing."* Here, 'is' is used as a helping verb.

What are complex sentences?

Complex sentences contain an *independent clause and at least one dependent clause*, linked together with the dependent clause having a *subordinate conjunction*. The dependent clause can be at the beginning, end, or middle of the sentence. "*Because* she wanted a pet, her father bought her a new puppy." / "Her father bought her a new puppy, *because* she wanted a pet."

Verb number in compound subjects:

Compound subjects with *'and,'* use the *plural* form: "He *and* I *are*..." Compound subjects with *'or,'* use *singular* form: "Either Tommy *or* Charlie *is* going to buy groceries." Parenthetical expressions offset by commas don't affect the verb number.

When are dashes used within a sentence?

Dashes are used to separate a parenthetical thought that itself contains commas. "One of the students *- Erica Michaels, a sophomore -* was eaten by the giant spider."

When not to use a comma regarding subjects and predicates:

Do not place a comma between the subject and the predicate. Wrong: *"Swimming laps each day, is a good way to lose weight."* Right: *"Swimming laps each day is a good way to lose weight."*

Can, may, shall or will in the past tense:

Do not use in any kind of past tense. Instead, *use their past tense forms* - could, might, should and would - which are the same as their conditional-mood forms.

Commas: Preceding the final conjunction in a list

Do not use unless the final 'and' could be read as confusingly linking the final two items of the list. *"... corn, squash and beans."* but *"corn, pork, and beans."*

What is an interjection? (INT)

Exclamations. (Gosh, darn, wow, etc.)

What are clauses?

Groups of related words that *have a subject and a verb.* Can be independent or dependent. "He wants it all." / "Because he wants it all..."

How to tell the difference between a descriptive phrase and something truly possessive:

If 'for' can be added between the words, it is descriptive and not possessive. WRONG: *"Teacher's college."* RIGHT: *"Teachers college."* WHY?: *"College for teachers."*

As/Than

If either of these words is followed by a pronoun at the end of a sentence, the pronoun should be in nominative-case. "He runs as fast as *he* [does.]" "He runs faster than *he* [does.]"

Noun or pronoun between a verb and 'to be':

If the noun/pronoun is between a verb and 'to be,' use the *objective case* after the infinitive. If not, use the nominative case. "The police took the sketch to be *her."* "The murderer was thought to be *she."*

What are the verb moods?

Indicative: States facts/asks questions: *"Mizzou is in the SEC."* Imperative: Used for commands, pleas and instructions, no subject, the implied subject is you: *"Take out the trash." "Please take out the trash."* Conditional: One thing depends on another: can/could, may/might, shall/should, will/would: *"I could visit."* Subjunctive: Usually formed with plural verbs, when conditions are wished for or are contrary to fact: *"If I were there..."*

What are simple subjects/predicates?

Just the noun, or just the verb. "The dedicated *students* *studied* diligently." 'Students' is the simple subject, and 'studied' is the simple predicate.

Multiple modifiers: commas, hyphens or nothing between:

Normally, if there are two modifiers in a row that *can be reversed* or the word *'and' placed between them,* then you should use a *comma to separate them*: "The *soft, brown* blanket was laid across his lap." If the first modifier then *modifies the second*, place a hyphen between them: "He was a *well-spoken man."* If neither is the case then put *no punctuation* between them: "The man walked into the *red brick building."*

What are the 8 parts of speech? (They are different than parts of a sentence.)

Nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions and interjections.

What is the only situation in which 'myself' can be used in a sentence?

Only if 'I' *has been used earlier in the same sentence.* WRONG: "Give the lottery winnings to my lawyer and *myself."* RIGHT: "I hurt *myself."*

What are passive/active voice, and what's the problem with it?

Passive: Shouldn't be used in leads unless the object is more important than the subject and the predicate. The subject is being implied to be acted upon by something; the object is earlier in the sentence. ALWAYS contains some form of 'to be.' *"The COMPLAINTS were read by the manager, and SOMEONE was fired."* Complaints/Someone are objects, appearing before the predicate means it is passive. Active (S-V-O): Should normally be used in leads. The subject is directly acting. *"The MANAGER READ the COMPLAINTS and he FIRED the EMPLOYEE responsible."* The manager (subject), read (verb), the complaints (object) and he (subject) fired (verb) the employee (object). Active.

What are the basic verb tenses? (6)

Past (I edited.), present (I edit.), future. (I will edit.) Past perfect (We had edited.), present perfect (We have edited), future perfect (We will have edited)

What is the definition of a phrase?

Phrases are groups of words that do not contain a subject or a verb but are parts of a sentence. "At their wedding..." or "After we go out to lunch..."

What is a preposition? (PREP)

Prepositions *connect nouns/pronouns with other words* to create prepositional phrases, of whose purpose is to *show relationships.* (about, at, by, down, for, from, in, of, on, to, up, with, etc)

What is the progressive tense and when would it be used?

Progressive: The "-ing," or present-participle form of a verb. Past-perfect progressive: *"I had been editing."* Present-perfect progressive: *"I have been editing."* Future-perfect progressive: *"I will have been editing."*

Commas: Coordinating conjunctions introducing a stand-alone clause

Put a comma before a conjunction introducing a stand-alone clause. WRONG: *"He would interview lots of subjects, and then would write the story."* ("Then he would write the story" does not stand alone." RIGHT: "He would interview lots of subjects *(no comma)* and then would write the story." / "He would interview lots of subjects, and then *he* would write the story."

What is the meaning of 'restrictive/nonrestrictive' clauses?

Restrictive: A word, phrase or clause that is essential to a sentence's meaning and is not offset by commas/dashes/parenthesis. Nonrestrictive: A word, phrase or clause that is not essential to a sentence's meaning and is offset by commas/dashes/parenthesis.

What are compound-complex sentences?

Sentences that have at least *two independent clauses, and at least one dependent clause.* Once again, the placing of the clauses doesn't necessarily matter. "Because it was raining so hard, my boots got soaked with water, and my jacket was ruined." / "My boots got soaked with water because it was raining so hard, and my jacket was ruined."

What are compound sentences?

Sentences with two or more independent clauses linked by a comma and a coordinating conjunction, or a semicolon. "I hate driving in the snow, but I am often forced to do it."

What are the sentence types?

Simple, compound, complex, compound-complex.

What are the three main distinctions of pronoun cases?

Singular/Plural (I/We), Possessive/Not (Your/We), Nominative/Objective (He/Him)

What are the two kinds of dependent clauses?

Subordinate clauses: Begin with a subordinating conjunction. "The City Council rejected the idea *because no one wanted it enough."* Relative clauses: Begin with a relative pronoun. *"Whoever made that rule* no longer works here."/ "He never did figure out *who had been at the door."*

What are the factors that change a verb's form?

Tense (time), mood (veracity of statement in speaker's eyes), voice (whether the subject is being active or passively acted upon)

What is an object of a preposition?

The noun or pronoun after a preposition that interacts with it. "The handouts are located *on* the *table.*" 'On' is the preposition, 'table' is the object of the preposition.

What are the three forms of adjectives/adverbs and what do they depend on?

The positive, the comparative, and the superlative. Positive is used when describing one thing, comparative is for two things, and superlative is when more than two things are being compared. WRONG: "He was older than Tim, Fred, Jack and Alex." RIGHT: "He was old." / "He was older than Tim." / "He was the oldest of Tim, Fred, Jack and Alex."

What is the rule regarding pronouns in front of a noun or gerund?

The pronoun should be possessive if it precedes a noun or gerund. WRONG: *"They appreciated US staying to help clean up after the party."* RIGHT: *"They appreciated OUR staying to help clean up after the party."*

What is an indirect object?

The thing for which the verb is done. Occurs only when there is already a direct object. Ex.: "I want to take *home* a puppy!" I is the subject, "take" is the verb, what is taken is the puppy so that's the direct object, while the puppy is taken home so that is the indirect object.

What is a subject?

The thing that does the action of a sentence. Ask yourself, Who or what is doing something? Sometimes, there's no real action and instead the predicate is a linking verb, then the subject is the topic. "During his biology class, *Tommy* danced on the table."

What is a direct object?

The thing that receives the action performed by the subject. (For complete verbs it may be missing: "The man ran.") The verb used with a direct object is a transitive verb. Ask yourself, To whom or what did the subject do the verb? "The truck passed *the SUV* on the freeway."

What does 'sequence of tenses' mean? What is the sequence of tenses?

The time order of the verb forms from furthest in the past to furthest in the future. past perfect, past, present perfect, present, future perfect, future.

What is the predicate?

The verb, the action or state of being of the sentence. Ex: "During his biology class, Tommy *danced* on the table."

Trademark terms vs. generic ones:

Trademark names are capitalized while generic ones are not. If unsure, refer to the AP guide, and the full list of common mistakes is also in WWW starting on page 41.

What are transitive verbs?

Transitive verbs are ones that always take a direct object: "Chris *slammed the tennis racket* on the ground."

Pronouns in situations of compound subjects/objects

Use the form of the pronoun that would be used if it were the only pronoun. WRONG: "Give the lottery winnings to my *lawyer and I."* RIGHT: "Give the lottery winnings to my *lawyer and me."*

What category do verbs that have to do with the five senses often fall in?

Verbs such as: appear, look, sound, feel, smell, taste, etc are usually linking verbs. Example: "The cake *tasted delicious."* A fact is being stated about the cake. Exception: "The little boy *tasted the birthday cake.*" (Here the subject is actually doing the tasting.)

Do not use 'would have' and 'could have' in the same sentence:

WRONG: "If he *would not have* had the operation the week before, he *could have* finished the race." RIGHT: "If he *had not had* the operation the week before, he *could have* finished the race."

Don't use helping verbs with 'ought':

WRONG: "The settlers *had ought* to leave."

Don't use a form of 'have' when it might imply volition when none is intended:

WRONG: *"He had his arm broken."* (unless that's what you want) RIGHT: *"He broke his arm."*

When should semicolons be used between items in a series?

When at least one of the items inside the series *has a comma of its own.* Ex: "There are three options: we could vote for Trump*, even though he is a racist, orange-skinned idiot;* we could vote for Hillary*, even though she seems dishonest;* or we could vote for a third party."

What is a 'split infinitive' and what should you do with them?

When you place an adverb between 'to' and the verb following it. You should avoid this, instead try to place the adverb next to what it modifies. WRONG: *"To boldly go* where no man has gone before." RIGHT: *"To go boldly* where no man has gone before."*

What is an adverb? (ADV)

Words that *modify verbs, adjectives or other adverbs.* They are *not* words that modify nouns. They are often used to answer *how or to what extent* something occurs (quickly/slowly).

What is a preposition?

Words that exist to link nouns, pronouns, and phrases to other words in a sentence. (On, beneath, against, beside, over, during, etc)

What are subordinate conjunctions?

Words that exist to tie together dependent clauses and independent clauses into complex sentences. After, although, as, as if, because, before, even if, even though, if, if only, rather than, since, that, though, unless, until, when, where, whereas, wherever, whether, which, and while.

What role do coordinating conjunctions play in sentences? What words are they? (FANBOYS)

Words that exist to tie together independent clauses into compound sentences. (For, and, nor, but, or, yet, so)

What is an adjective? (ADJ)

Words that modify nouns or pronouns. There are three basic levels of comparison: positive, comparative and superlative (big, bigger, best).

Sentence errors: What is a run-on sentence?

a sentence that might be grammatically correct, but it doesn't make sense because of too many unimportant details or extra clauses.

Irregular/Confusing Verbs (present, past, past participle, present participle): awake, be, bear, bid (offer), bid (command)

awake, awoke/awaked, awaked/awakened, awakening/awaking be, was, been, being bear, bore, borne, bearing bid (offer), bid, *bid,* bidding bid (command), bade, bidden, bidding

Irregular/Confusing Verbs (present, past, past participle, present participle): bring, broadcast, burst, cling, come

bring, brought, brought, bringing broadcast, *broadcast, broadcast,* broadcasting burst, burst, *burst,* bursting cling, clung, clung, clinging come, came, come, coming

Irregular/Confusing Verbs (present, past, past participle, present participle): dive, do, drink, drive, drown

dive, dived, *dived,* diving do, did, done, doing drink, drank, drunk, drinking drive, drove, driven, driving drown, drowned, drowned, drowning (Never say 'was drowned' unless they literally were held underwater.)

Irregular/Confusing Verbs (present, past, past participle, present participle): eat, fall, flow, fly (soar), fly (hit a baseball high)

eat, ate, eaten, eating fall, fell, fallen, falling flow, flowed, flowed, flowing fly (intransitive), flied, flied, flying fly (transitive), flied, flied, flying

Irregular/Confusing Verbs (present, past, past participle, present participle): forbid, forsake, get, go, have

forbid, forbade, forbidden, forbidding forsake, forsook, forsaken, forsaking get, got, got/gotten, getting go, went, gone, going have, had, had, having

Irregular/Confusing Verbs (present, past, past participle, present participle): hang (suspend), hang (execute), hide, keep, kneel

hang, hung, hung, hanging hang, hanged, hanged, hanging hide, hid, hidden, hiding keep, kept, kept, keeping kneel, knelt/kneeled, knelt/kneeled, kneeling

Irregular/Confusing Verbs (present, past, past participle, present participle): lay (transitive), lie (intransitive), lead, make, pay

lay (transitive), laid, laid, laying lie (intransitive), lay, lain, lying lead, led, led, leading make, made, made, making pay, paid, paid, paying

Irregular/Confusing Verbs (present, past, past participle, present participle): plead, prove, put, raise, ring

plead, pleaded, pleaded, pleading prove, proved, proved (proven is ADJ), proving put, put, put, putting raise, raised, raised, raising ring, rang, rung, ringing

Irregular/Confusing Verbs (present, past, past participle, present participle): rise, see, set (transitive), sit (intransitive), shake

rise, rose, risen, rising see, saw, seen, seeing set, set, set, setting sit, sat, sat, sitting shake, shook, shaken, shaking

Irregular/Confusing Verbs (present, past, past participle, present participle): shine, show, shrink, slay, sleep

shine, shone, shone, shining show, showed, showed/shown, showing shrink, shrank, shrunk, shrinking slay, slew, slain, slaying sleep, slept, slept, sleeping

Irregular/Confusing Verbs (present, past, past participle, present participle): spring, steal, strive, swear, swim

spring, sprang, sprung, springing steal, stole, stolen, stealing strive, strove, striven, striving swear, swore, sworn, swearing swim, swam, swum, swimming

Irregular/Confusing Verbs (present, past, past participle, present participle): swing, tread, wake, weave, wring

swing, swung, swung, swinging tread, trod, trodden/trod, treading wake, woke, waked, waking weave, wove, woven, weaving wring, wrung, wrung, wringing