Let's review some basics.
There are words. They come in eight parts of speech: verbs, nouns, pronouns, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions, and interjections.
There are phrases. They are groups of words that work together to do a single job: verb phrases, participial phrases, noun phrases, prepositional phrases.
There are clauses. Clauses have both a subject (with a noun or pronoun) and a predicate (with a verb). Clauses that can stand by themselves as sentences are called independent clauses. Clauses that cannot stand by themselves as sentences are dependent clauses.
There are different ways to join two independent clauses. Here are two independent clauses:
There were 58 students from Poulsbo Middle School at Regional History Day.
The girls led them all in school cheers before the awards ceremony began.
The most basic way to join two independent clauses is to use a comma and conjunction:
There were 58 students from Poulsbo Middle School at Regional History Day, and the girls led them all in school cheers before the awards ceremony began.
Another common way to join two independent clauses is to use a subordinating conjunction to make one sentence into a dependent clause and then attach it to the other sentence:
Since there were 58 students from Poulsbo Middle School at Regional History Day, the girls led them all in school cheers before the awards ceremony began.
A less common way to join two closely related independent clauses is to use a semicolon:
There were 58 students from Poulsbo Middle School at Regional History Day; the girls led them all in school cheers before the awards ceremony began.
An unusual and classy way to join two closely related independent clauses is to use a nominative absolute. Change the verb in the second sentence into an -ing participle and use a comma where the period was. See how it works:
There were 58 students from Poulsbo Middle School at Regional History Day, the girls leading them all in school cheers before the awards ceremony began.
Cool, huh?
You will be using nominative absolutes in your vocab sentences during December. That's just two weeks--Dec. 7 and Dec. 14.
There are words. They come in eight parts of speech: verbs, nouns, pronouns, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions, and interjections.
There are phrases. They are groups of words that work together to do a single job: verb phrases, participial phrases, noun phrases, prepositional phrases.
There are clauses. Clauses have both a subject (with a noun or pronoun) and a predicate (with a verb). Clauses that can stand by themselves as sentences are called independent clauses. Clauses that cannot stand by themselves as sentences are dependent clauses.
There are different ways to join two independent clauses. Here are two independent clauses:
There were 58 students from Poulsbo Middle School at Regional History Day.
The girls led them all in school cheers before the awards ceremony began.
The most basic way to join two independent clauses is to use a comma and conjunction:
There were 58 students from Poulsbo Middle School at Regional History Day, and the girls led them all in school cheers before the awards ceremony began.
Another common way to join two independent clauses is to use a subordinating conjunction to make one sentence into a dependent clause and then attach it to the other sentence:
Since there were 58 students from Poulsbo Middle School at Regional History Day, the girls led them all in school cheers before the awards ceremony began.
A less common way to join two closely related independent clauses is to use a semicolon:
There were 58 students from Poulsbo Middle School at Regional History Day; the girls led them all in school cheers before the awards ceremony began.
An unusual and classy way to join two closely related independent clauses is to use a nominative absolute. Change the verb in the second sentence into an -ing participle and use a comma where the period was. See how it works:
There were 58 students from Poulsbo Middle School at Regional History Day, the girls leading them all in school cheers before the awards ceremony began.
Cool, huh?
You will be using nominative absolutes in your vocab sentences during December. That's just two weeks--Dec. 7 and Dec. 14.
