English Notes

English Notes

1. The Sentence:

   • Types: statements, questions, exclamations, commands
     • Simple Sentence: 1 finite verb, 1 idea. Anna READS a book
     • Complex Sentence: One main clause, another subordinate clause which provide additional information, joined by subordinating conjunctions. Candy received her results while she was recuperating in hospital after she had broken her leg.
     • Compound Sentence: 2 or more finite verbs, 2 simple sentences joined by fanboy conjunction. Dan plays soccer at school and works on his computer.
       • Subject: who/what we talking about. Predicate: rest of the sentence
         • Phrase: sentence without verb. The girl entered the room, HAPPILY AND CONFIDENTLY.
         • Main clause: main idea, can stand alone. The van came to a halt, after it had run out of petrol. Subordinate clause: contains a verb, cannot stand alone. (While the engine was running), the man jumped out the car.

2. Punctuation

   • Commas: list, additional information, beginning one phrase, end of another. Comma splice: A census was taken, the government needed statistics. WRONG.
   • Semi Colons ; long pause that balances 2 important ideas, indicates opposite ideas, joins sentences when there is no conjunction.
   • Colons : a list is following, introduces a quote, dialogue
   • Quotation marks "" Direct speech, quotations, titles of books/movies.
     • Italics: titles & foreign words
       • Ellipsis... indicate sentence is incomplete, something is following
   • Parenthesis: additional information, also can use commas/dashes instead
   • Hyphen - Links prefixes to works, linked to words that cannot be completed on 1 line, differenciate meanings.
   • Dash -- pauses, parenthesis, additional information, climax.