Missing Words: for

When you want to explain English grammar to a new-Canadian or a new-American or a child or an adult who didn't get grammar, you may yourself be confused.  One reason is that we leave out those words that would make the relationships clear.

One word that is often missing is the preposition 'for'.  You may hear it in old songs.  My favourite is Springfield Mountain:
•••••On Springfield Mountain there did dwell
•••••A lovely youth; I knew him well.
            (Chorus omitted.)
•••••This lovely youth one day did go
•••••Down to the meadow for to mow.

Let's look at Jack and Jill:

I have written the word 'for' in grey to show that this word is being left out.  It is the preposition that takes 'to fetch', an infinitive, as its object.  'Pail' is object of the verbal 'to fetch' and 'of water' is modifying 'pail'.  You see all of those relationships in the French. too:

In the German version the word 'for' is there.  It's 'um'.  The infinitive 'to get' is given at the end of the prepositional phrase.  This is what Google Translate gave me.  It may be translating word-for-word rather than in idiomatic German.  I give it here to show you that in both French and German, the foundational languages for English, the preposition 'for' is stated, not left out. 

When you are trying to figure out English, it might help you to see how the sentence would be stated in another language.  We may leave 'for' out in very familiar constructions.   Perhaps we are trying to avoid repeating "prepositions" as in the combination "for to", as there is a desire to reduce redundancies.  However, the 'to' in an infinitive is not a preposition as such.  In Latin and French, the infinitive is only one word with a particular suffix: agere, amare, audere, obtenir, aller, chercher.   In German as you can see, the infinitive is usually formed with a preposition such as zu, om, von.  So, in English infinitives, I feel that the 'to' is now more like a title as in 'the go", "the sing", "the fetch" or as might be said in some dialects "t' go", "t' sing", "t' fetch".

Run-on Sentence

Your typical run-on sentence is an example of commas being used to join sentences.  This is how you can splice wires:

 A comma is a separating punctuation mark.  You cannot use it to splice sentences.  You may use it to set off the end of the first of two main clauses in a compound sentence.  This is how you join sentences.

1.  Coordinate conjunctions join main clauses in compound sentences: and, but, for, or, nor, yet, so.  In the past, and still today, you may see a semi-colon set off the first sentence.

 •••••Jane likes salad with her sandwich, and John prefers soup.  Jane would make a big salad, but John would not eat it.  She makes both salad and soup, for John is hard to please.  She can do this extra work, or she can risk his wrath.  She loves John, yet she is getting weary.  She makes soup and serves it with a smile, so John does not complain.

    In years past 'so' would be considered an adverb, and it would be preceded by a semicolon.   But many people are using it the way it is given above.  When in doubt, see if you should put 'that' in.  If you mean 'so that', you have a complex sentence.   Then, as it would be an adverb clause in the adverb position, it does not require a comma.  This reason is being subordinated to the main clause.
•••••She makes soup and serves it with a smile so that John does not complain.

2.  Semi-colons and colons join main clauses in compound sentences.  They make you slow down at the end of the first sentence, and then let you proceed to the next one.

 •••••Jane makes soup and serves it with a smile; thus, John does not complain.
••••• Jane makes soup and serves it with a smile; therefore, John thinks her well-trained.
••••• Jane makes soup and serves it with a smile; she is serving him arsenic, too. 

3.   An idea subordinated into an adverb clause or an adjective clause or a noun clause does not have to be set off by a comma unless it is out of its normal place.
 •••••Jane likes salad with her sandwich while John prefers soup.  Jane would make a big salad except that John would not eat it.  She makes both salad and soup as John is hard to please.  She must do this extra work unless she would risk his wrath.  She loves John although she is getting weary.  She makes soup and serves it with a smile since John does not have much time left to complain.

Please let me know what else you want to know.



 

Sentence fragments

What is smaller than a sentence?
•••••Run! Jump!  No, these are complete sentences with the subject 'you' unspoken.

•••••No!  Really? Disgusting! What a creep!  Yes, these are not sentences.  They are interjections and make sense only if you have a context such as an on-going conversation:

•••••"My sister is getting married," I revealed.  

•••••"No!" exclaimed my best friend.  "Really? To whom?"  

•••••"To my old boy-friend."

•••••"Get outta here.  Disgusting!  What a creep!"

•••••"I don't care.  I think they deserve one another."

•••••on the wagon, over the moon, of all,  These are prepositional phrases.  A prepositional phrase starts with a preposition and ends with a noun.
•••••Paul is on the wagon now.  "Jumping on the water wagon" means not drinking alcohol.  It's from the early days of Prohibition when water wagon were used as speaking platforms.
•••••Annie is over the moon.  Annie is so happy that her spirits are as high as the moon or more.
•••••Their daughter, Jill, is happiest of all of them. 

•••••flicking their fans, caught on a bus  These are participial phrases.  A participial phrase starts with a participle and includes its object, complement or modifier.  A participle is a verbal that is actins as an adjective.
•••••Flicking their fans, the Spanish girls showed their interest or disinterest.
•••••Caught on a bush, the tufts of wool looked like cotton bolls. 

•••••flicking their fans, getting stuck These are gerundial phrases.  A gerundial phrase starts with a gerund and includes its object, complement or modifier.  A gerund is a verbal ending in 'ing' that is acting as a noun.
•••••Spanish girls showed their interest or disinterest by flicking their fans. 
•••••Getting stuck fast on a bush is one way to attract the shepherd's attention.
•••••Babies want to learn all the grown-up skills like blowing bubbles.

•••••to flick their fans, to blow bubbles These are infinitive phrases.  An infinitive phrase starts with a participle and includes its object, complement or modifier.  The infinitive is the name of the verb and it acts as a noun.

•••••Spanish girls use a practised wrist action to flick their fans.
•••••Carmen will show us how to flick a fan.
•••••Babies want to blow bubbles.

•••••what a fan flick means, when I grow up, because they are older These are subordinate clauses.   They are little sentences within a complex sentence.
•••••Spanish girls learn from their mothers and sisters what a fan flick means.
•••••When I grow up, I will blow BIG bubbles.

•••••Adults are more skilled because they have practised not because they are older.
•••••Because they are more practised, adults are more skilled not because they are older.

   The point of this exercise is to show you that phrases and clauses may be set off by commas, but they are not punctuated as sentences with capitals and end stops on their own.
   When your Grade 5 teacher said "Never start a sentence with 'because'.", it was because she wanted to avoid those non-sentence answers such as "because he was crazy" or "because I am smarter".  She wanted you to practise writing complete sentences so that you would make better stories and essays.
   


 


  

Noun Clauses act like nouns.

Ok.  I am still learning.  I got this onto my blog.

Selling My Lessons

I have posted my current lessons on the website www.teacherspayteachers.com

You don't have to be a teacher to sign up.  And you don't have pay for a membership unless you want to sell on the site.   Search for Seven Simple Sentences w Phrases and Clauses for Adults.   Just put the word Seven Simple Sentences in the search panel, and you'll get a lot of items about sentences.  Mine is different from the others because these particular lessons were designed for a group of adults who are returning to school to upgrade their reading and writing skills.  I invented my colour-code for a similar group of students.  It is $2.50.

The version for teachers has all the answers and parsing done for you: Seven Simple Sentences w Phrases and Clauses for Adults Teacher.  What you get is a pdf of 19 pages for $3.  You can download the sample ( only a few pages) for free.

I just cannot show all of the details in this blog.  The details just get lost.  For instance the I should be double-underlined in magenta, and the main verb is supposed to be double-underlined in sky blue.  The whole infinitive phrase from "to" to "Life" should have an additional double orange line under it.  The clause "what you mean" did show up correctly boxed, but the internal underlining isn't coloured.

       I see what you mean
       I like to go line dancing in Second Life at lunchtime.

I recommend double underlining the key pattern words.  If you find that you have made a mistake, you can highlight the correct word later.

This is the safest way I can think of to get them to you and maintain our mutual privacy.  Of course, I'm madly curious to know how you found my blog and why you are interested in grammar. 

Maybe I will feel braver later on.  I could put my email address on my profile.  You might pay me through PayPal by sending money to my email account.  If that would be acceptable to you, we could do that.  Please let me know what you think of this idea and of the lessons.

The reason that I am not giving these lesson away is that, as so many other people have experienced, I have no retirement plan apart from this.

The Seven Simple Sentences of English

As I told you in my last blog, I stumbled across this fact by accident while looking for textbook for the course I was taking.  I had always done well in English.  You would expect that being in the 95% percentile in vocabulary should have helped.  Without really trying, I had absorbed unconsciously the lessons that my teachers had taught.  But I did not know the Seven Patterns of English Sentences.  Do you?

1.  N-V  I am here.  You go, girl.  Help!  Did he win? 
You can teach Grade 2 students to recognise statements and questions using my handy colour-code.  Then you can teach them to scan for the information that they need to answer comprehension exercises.  You need to do that in order to teach them how to write complete sentences.

2.  N-V-N  The dog bit the man.  The man bit the dog.  (The meaning is different, but the pattern is the same.)

Here you learn/teach about subjective case and objective case. Now you can talk about transitive and intransitive verbs:  look at .../ see the ...; go to .../ help me; listen to .../hear the ...
3.  N-V-N-N He threw me a surprise party. She read us a story.  Did he give you an apple?
Now you can teach about shortening sentences and the fact that we shorten sentences (and phrases) when the pattern is familiar.  Of course, often we leave out some words that would help us understand the grammar if we had them in. 

4.  N-V-N  He is a kind man.  She is a thoughtful teacher.  Foxes are canines.  A = lw

We are back to N-V-N, but the relationships between the words are different.  Here we have an expository sentences of the sort called a Definition. 

 5. N-V-Adj  He is kind.  She is thoughtful.  Foxes are dog-like.  A = 5

This is another expository sentences, called a Description.  In these two expository patterns, the key words in the predicate complement the subject. 

Here is an example of a missing word: unto.  Like is an adjective.  It is modified by an adverb prepositional phrase.   We never use unto anymore, but you can find it used in the Bible. 

6. N-V-N-N   He named his dog Tray.  They elected him chairman.   He designated her cook.

Now we are back to the narrative story-telling sentence.  This time the extra noun complements the object of the verb.  

7. N-V-N-Adj  He thought his dog better than all the rest.  They voted her most beautiful.

Here the adjective complements the object. 

   These last two patterns, 6 and 7, as with Pattern 3, come from leaving out function words.  If we put them back in, we return to the earlier more basic pattern Pattern 2. 

You can use my colour code with little children and with adults.  It doesn't matter if the student hasn't learned the technical teminology of grammar, but by the end a week of lessons, you will be able to tell that he understands the principles of the patterns when he picks up the right coloured pencils.  Of course there is a little bit more to the parsing lessons than just colouring sentences.

Let me know if you want to know more. 

Why Teach Grammar?

In Grade 1, children start off writing one-word captions, such as dog, me, etc., for their pictures (either drawn by them or given).  By the end of the year, they are supposed to be able to write complete statements: I like dogs.
...In Grade 2, the children learn to write questions and abbreviation: Do you like Jake's dogs?
...In Grade 3, they learn to use the exclamation point: Don't hit dogs!
...In Grade 4, they learn to write quotation marks and commas: He said, "I like dogs."
...In Grade 5, they learn to write compound sentences: I like dogs, but she likes cats.
...In Grade 6, they practise these forms some more to consolidate what they have learned of the conventions of how we write.
...In Grade 7, they learn to write complex and compound-complex sentences: I like dogs that don't bite, and she likes cats that don't scratch.  Because we don't want to be hurt, we must choose pets that are safe.

However, in Grade 5 the students are expected to be able to recognize the difference between a complete sentence and a non-sentence and a run-on sentence.
...But in Grade 5, although they speak all of the patterns of sentences, they are not taught how to write them, and they sometimes write awkward sentences that they cannot tell are "wrong" by ear.  "That doesn't sound right," does not help the child who speaks a different language at home or one whose family does not speak standard English.  Furthermore, their teachers, according to the curriculum, are not supposed to teach them about the longer sentences that they can say and that they also read.

How can you tell the difference between a run-on sentence and a complex sentence?  This question was posed to me by an adult who was supposed to know the answer to this considering he had studied grammar and knew all of the jargon.  He had been to Grade 5 and Grade 7, too.  Let me tell you a story.
..In Grade 8, the teacher was teaching us grammar.  I learned all of the terms: I could locate nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs every time.  I remember that for about a month I found that the adverbs were jumping out at me from every page I read.  But I did not learn about the Seven Patterns of Simple English Sentences until I picked up, BY CHANCE, at the university bookstore a text that had been assigned for a course I was not taking.
...I was furious.  Why hadn't they taught us the Seven Simple Sentences in Grade 5 when I needed to know them?  How can students self-edit or edit the writings of their peers if they don't know how to recognize a simple sentence when they see one?
...To return to the question in question, you know that a complex sentence is not a run-on sentence when it is part of one of the Seven Patterns of Simple English Sentences.

High school teachers complain: They don't even know how to write a simple sentence!  Right.  That's because they don't even know how to write a Simple sentence.  Of course, the teachers are complaining that they can't write a simple essay!  And that's a topic for another blog.