SENTENCE GRAMMAR TUTORIAL SENTENCE GRAMMAR TUTORIAL by: R.E. Sternglantz sternglr@adelphi.edu note: no part of this may be reproduced or linked without the permission of the author Part I The aim of this tutorial is to teach you the rules you need to know in order to proofread your writing for errors in sentence grammar. It is intended as a practical guide. I hope that you find this useful. I apologize if some of this seems patronizing, or if at times I'm telling you things that you already know. My aim here is to start at ground level and to build up from that. 
First, forget everything you've ever learned about what a sentence is. In particular, forget that old rule about how 'a sentence is a group of words expressing a complete thought.' That is a very nice idea, but it only works in an esoteric corner of linguistic theory called Transformational Syntax; when it comes to proofreading, it is totally impractical as a guide. In case you don't believe me, look at these two cases: a) It is. b) Because it was raining on Tuesday. Case "a" is a sentence. Case "b" is not. If you want to convince me that "a" expresses a complete thought while "b" doesn't, go right ahead. But I won't buy it. So obviously, we need a better way of judging "sentenceness" than this "complete thought" thing. Fortunately, there is a better way. The first step to every element of sentence grammar is being able to identify verbs and their subjects. Again, I'm going to ask you to forget the definitions you were taught in 7th grade, because while philosophically interesting, they don't help us proofread. For our purposes, a VERB is a word that has been conjugated. That is, it can be taken out of context and used to fill one of the spaces in the following grid: I _______ you _______ he/she/it _______ we _______ you (pl) _______ they _______ If the word cannot fill one of those spaces ON ITS OWN, then for proofreading purposes IT IS NOT A VERB. Look at the following cases: a) I am going shopping. b) running downhill c) I was walking the dog last Thursday. In case "a" am is the verb, because it can fill the grid space I ______. Although going looks like a verb (and is indeed related to a verb), it does not function as a verb here. Case "b" has no verb, because running (which looks like a verb) cannot fill a grid space. In case "c" was is the verb; again walking looks like a verb, but it isn't one. 
Okay, now you've gotten verbs down. The other half of the equation is the SUBJECT of the verb. When we talk about "subjects and verbs" (or, as I prefer to think of them, verbs and their subjects) we mean grammatical subjects. That is, the word "subject" is being used in a special way, not in the way we usually use this word (in much the same way as genre appropriates words like "tragedy" and "romance" and gives them special meanings). I am making a big fuss about this because we've all been drilled on identifying "the subject of a sentence"; I want to force you to relate grammatical subjects to verbs, not to sentences. Again, if you don't believe me, consider the following: It is raining outside. Now, if I were to ask you, "What is this sentence about?" any normal person would respond, "It's about rain," or, "It's about the weather." That's the subject of the sentence. But we're not concerned with the subject of the sentence. We're concerned with GRAMMATICAL SUBJECT, and the grammatical subject is linked to the verb. Just for the record, the grammatical subject of the above sentence is It. Remember the verb grid? Well, the grammatical subject of a verb is the word which replaces the pronoun. Take this case: Jody likes ice cream. The verb is likes, because it is the word that has been conjugated. In our verb grid, it fits the line he likes. To determine the subject of the verb, we look for the word that replaces he. In this case, it's Jody. I know that this sounds idiotic. I know that you are wondering why I am teaching you these obvious, baby rules. Many of you know these rules intuitively. Most of you have no trouble with five word sentences. But when sentences get more complex, you lose track of the words. And in order to proofread for sentence grammar errors, you must be able to pinpoint verbs and their subjects. Everything hinges on this skill. While we are on this subject, let me toss in a side rule: subject/verb agreement. This rule states that a verb and its subject must "match"--that is, a singular verb needs a singular subject. A first-person verb needs a first-person subject. The following examples are cases of errors in s/v agr: Tom and Jerry was good friends. There is many examples of this type of problem. 
This is the end of the first installment of the tutorial. Digest this. If you have any questions, please ask them. If you find this mystifying--that is, if after reading this and looking back at your own work you still cannot pick out verbs and subjects, YOU NEED HELP. Next time, we'll talk about phrases, clauses, and sentences. |
