ENG032 Developmental English - McGraw-Hill Learning Solutions

ENG 32 GRAMMAR NOTES
J.Covington, Instructor
I. The subject of a sentence is always a noun or a pronoun. The subject tells who or what a
sentence is about.
a) The children played outside for hours.
b) Those boxes need to be unpacked.
II. The verb in a sentence tells what the subject is doing. Some verbs show action (hop, skip,
dance run, play).
Some verbs show a state of being. The being verbs are am, is are, was, were, been, be.
a) My friend ran the marathon.
b) Scrabble is a fun game.
III. A fragment is an incomplete thought and cannot stand alone and make sense. A fragment
may begin with a subordinator or dependent word. (See page 98, textbook). A fragment
may result from (a) lack of a subject – Rolled down the hill, (b) lack of a verb – The truck
down the hill.
***The most common way to correct a fragment is to attach the fragment to the sentence
before or after the fragment.
a) Because Mom likes fruits. She eats them daily.
Because Mom likes fruits, she eats them daily.
b) Sally took a nap. In the middle of the afternoon.
Sally took a nap in the middle of the afternoon.
IV. A run-on sentence is two or more sentences written as one sentence with no punctuation
between the sentences.
** My neighbor is a great musician he performs often.
A comma splice sentence is two or more sentences written as one sentence with a comma
between the sentences.
** My neighbor is a great musician, he performs often.
A comma alone cannot join complete thoughts.
A comma splice is a form of a run-on sentence.
WAYS TO CORRECT TURN-ONS/COMMA SPLICES
1) Make two separate sentences.
My neighbor is a great musician. He performs often.
2) Use a comma and a coordinating conjunction (for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so).
My neighbor is a great musician, and he performs often.
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