GRADE 7 GRAMMAR

NOUNS

A noun is a person, place or thing!

(man) (river) (telephone)

Common and Proper Nouns• A common noun does not name any particular person, place,

or thing (e.g., headphones).• Proper nouns are the name of a particular person, place, or

thing. For example:

John Smith Venice Sony telephone

PRONOUNS• Pronouns are words that replace noun phrases. Like

nouns, pronouns have singular and plural forms. A singular pronoun replaces a singular noun. A plural pronoun replaces a plural or compound nouns.

• Singular pronouns: I, me, you, he, him, she, her, it.• Plural pronouns: We, us, you, they, them.

Possessive and Reflexive Pronouns

• Pronouns that show ownership are possessive nouns. There are two kinds:– Used before nouns: my, your, his, hers, ours, theirs.– Used alone: mine, yours, his, hers, ours theirs. Ex: The explorer led his team to its destination. Is that tent his?

• Reflexive pronouns usually refer to the subject of the sentence.– Reflexive pronouns: myself, yourself, himself, itself,

ourselves, yourselves, themselves. Ex: I found myself getting stronger each day.

Regular & Irregular Verbs• Action verb: tells what action the subject performs.

Sometimes this takes place in someone’s mind.– Ex: play, run, jump, swim, think, memorize etc…

• Linking verb: links or joins the subject with a word or group of words in the predicate.– Ex: be, am, is, are, was, were, will be, feel, seem, become.

• Irregular verbs: do not add –ed to form the past tense or the past participle.– Ex: begin, break, choose, come, do, find, give, go , see, speak, take,

tell, throw, write.

Adjectives• Adjectives modify, or tell more about, nouns or

pronouns. • Adjectives tell us what kind, which one, how many,

or how much. • Adjectives that come before a noun are called

demonstrative adjectives (this, that, these, those).

These two tulips are red and orange.

These- tell us which ones.Two- tells us how many.Red & Orange- tells us what kind.

Predicate & Proper adjectives• Predicate adjectives – follow linking verbs and modify a

noun or pronoun in the subject.– Ex:

• Proper adjectives – an adjective formed from a proper noun is called a proper adjective.– Ex: Mexican village; North American people

December is freezing cold!

The beach is beautiful!

Adverbs• Adverbs – tell us how, where, or when something happens.

– Ex: The hockey season starts soon (when).– Later, I will take the class outside (where) for ice cream.

• Comparative form – compares two actions, add the ending –er or use the word more.– Ex: Professional artists draw better than the majority of people. – She teaches more quickly as the students learn faster.

• Superlative form – compares three or more actions, add the ending –est or use the word most.– Ex: Jill runs the fastest on the track team.– The vanilla ice cream has the most flavour.

• Most adverbs that end in –ly use more and most to make the comparative and superlative forms.– Ex: Recently more recently (comp.) most recently (super.)

Commas, Semi-colons, Colons, Hyphens…Commas – used to set a word or group of words apart from other words.We use commas:

– After a greeting & closing. Ex:• Dear Tom, / Sincerely,

– In dates after the day or month. Ex:• Tuesday, August 5 / June 25, 2011

– Between a city & country. Ex:• Calgary, Alberta / Calgary, Canada

– In a series of three or more words. Ex:• My school offers art, music, and dance classes.

– In direct address (addressing someone’s name or title). Ex:• Katie, do you understand how to use a comma?• Yes, Mr. Kassem, I completely understand!

Semicolons (;)are used to join two closely related short sentences. Ex:

– The Taj Mahal is a memorial; an emperor built it for his beloved wife.

Colon (:)– Used to separate hour from minutes (11:11).– Used in a greeting (Dear John:)– Used to introduce a list (Please buy the following:

bread, milk and eggs).– Speaker in a play (Kyle: Once upon a time).

Hyphen (-)– Join words that are thought as one (well-cooked meal)– To write numbers ( twenty-one, twenty-two).

Capitalization

The first letter of every sentence. The pronoun “I.” Proper nouns, proper adjectives and important

words in titles. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire Personal titles of people. Mr. Kassem In letters, capitalize the first word of a greeting: Dear

Sue In letters, capitalize the first word of the closing:

Your friends

Direct QuotationsDirect quotations – Are made up of the exact

words a speaker says, enclose it in quotation marks (“…”) and capitalize the first word. Begin a new paragraph each time the speaker changes.

Grammar, Spelling and Sentence Mechanics when writing your stories…

• REMEMBER! Start your sentences with a capital, and finish with a period.

• Be very careful with homonyms: – There – To address a place.– Their – It belongs to them.– They’re – They + are.

• Examples: To, too, two; your, you’re; aloud, allowed; piece, peace; its, it’s; rain, reign, rein; accept, except; sight, site, cite; dying, dyeing; past, passed; weather, whether, whose, who’s, soul, sole, Seoul.

• Be VERY careful with spelling.– A LOT or A LOT?– AT LEAST or ATLEAST?– WRITING and WRITTEN

• Do NOT use contractions (unless in dialogue).– Don’t = do not– Can’t = can not– Won’t = will not– Couldn’t = could not– AND… There is no such word as “Ain’t!”

• Do NOT use abbreviations or symbols (unless in dialogue, but MUST be introduced).– CSI = Crime Scene Investigation– NASA = National Aeronautics and Space Administration– GTL = gym, tan, laundry.– Sarah & Jane were @ the mall.

• Do NOT use “text talk”. - LOL, OMG!!, WUT, U, CUZ, SUP?, YA!, YEA, ROFL,

WHAAAAAA, JK!!…

• Do NOT use slang words:- Wikid, gangsta, da hood, wassap, hotty…

• Do NOT overemphasize punctuation or phrases: - “So Sarah was LIKE soooooooo happy that she was going to

the party!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! She went to the mall and like shopped and shopped and shopped and shopped!!!!!!! Can you believe she got an invite????????????????????????????????????? LIKE sooooooo JEALOUS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

• DO NOT USE THE WORD LIKE! (“Like, totally, don’t do it…”)

• Numbers between 0-99 MUST be spelled out.– 99 = ninety-nine.– 75 = seventy-five.– 155 = 155.