More examples of how to make nominative absolutes:
The boy felt envious. His older brothers got to go to the movie without him.
The boy felt envious, his older brothers getting to go to the movie without him.
Jessica looked wistfully in the pet store window. The puppy in the display wagged his tail at her.
Jessica looked wistfully in the pet store window, the puppy in the display wagging his tail at her.
Bob reluctantly left the game arcade. The lights and sounds enticed him to return.
Bob reluctantly left the game arcade, the lights and sounds enticing him to return.
The baby squirmed to escape from his car seat. His mother’s car keys tantalized him.
The baby squirmed to escape from his car seat, his mother’s car keys tantalizing him.
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:
The San Francisco Giants won their first World Series since 1954.
The players ran out on the field to celebrate.
The most basic way to join two independent clauses is to use a comma and conjunction:
The San Francisco Giants won their first World Series since 1954, and the players ran out on the field to celebrate.
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:
After the San Francisco Giants won their first World Series since 1954, the players ran out on the field to celebrate.
A less common way to join two closely related independent clauses is to use a semicolon:
The San Francisco Giants won their first World Series since 1954; the players ran out on the field to celebrate.
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:
The San Francisco Giants won their first World Series since 1954, the players running out on the field to celebrate.
Cool, huh?
You will be using nominative absolutes in your vocab sentences during November. That's just two weeks--Nov. 3 and Nov. 17.
On Nov. 10 and 24 there will be no sentences due. Instead we will correct the 3rd and 4th Skill Features out of the vocab book on Nov. 9 and the 5th and 6th Skill Features on Nov. 23.
The boy felt envious. His older brothers got to go to the movie without him.
The boy felt envious, his older brothers getting to go to the movie without him.
Jessica looked wistfully in the pet store window. The puppy in the display wagged his tail at her.
Jessica looked wistfully in the pet store window, the puppy in the display wagging his tail at her.
Bob reluctantly left the game arcade. The lights and sounds enticed him to return.
Bob reluctantly left the game arcade, the lights and sounds enticing him to return.
The baby squirmed to escape from his car seat. His mother’s car keys tantalized him.
The baby squirmed to escape from his car seat, his mother’s car keys tantalizing him.
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:
The San Francisco Giants won their first World Series since 1954.
The players ran out on the field to celebrate.
The most basic way to join two independent clauses is to use a comma and conjunction:
The San Francisco Giants won their first World Series since 1954, and the players ran out on the field to celebrate.
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:
After the San Francisco Giants won their first World Series since 1954, the players ran out on the field to celebrate.
A less common way to join two closely related independent clauses is to use a semicolon:
The San Francisco Giants won their first World Series since 1954; the players ran out on the field to celebrate.
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:
The San Francisco Giants won their first World Series since 1954, the players running out on the field to celebrate.
Cool, huh?
You will be using nominative absolutes in your vocab sentences during November. That's just two weeks--Nov. 3 and Nov. 17.
On Nov. 10 and 24 there will be no sentences due. Instead we will correct the 3rd and 4th Skill Features out of the vocab book on Nov. 9 and the 5th and 6th Skill Features on Nov. 23.
