8th Grade Grammar

Vocabulary and Notes

Instructions for Grammar Lessons

• Every time we have a grammar lesson you are expected to take notes.

• Since you will not be able to take the textbook home, your notes will help you with completing your homework and with studying for tests.

• You need to write down the vocabulary and any notes on the powerpoint.

• I may also write notes on the board which you will need to write down too.

Grammar Lesson 1

• Vocab:

• Direct democracy: the people govern themselves

• Indirect democracy: the citizens do not directly handle the affairs of the government

Four Types of Sentences/Simple Subjects and Simple Predicates

• A sentence: a group of words that expresses a complete thought

• Four types:

• Declarative: makes a statement and ends with a period

• Interrogative: asks a question and ends with a question mark

• Imperative: expresses a command or a request and ends with a period, or an !

• Exclamatory: shows excitement or strong feeling and ends with a !

Simple subject/simple predicate

• A sentence has two main parts, the subject and the predicate

• The subject: the part that tells who or what the sentence is about

• The predicate: the part that tells something about the subject

• The complete subject or predicate may consist of a single word or of many words.

• A subject or predicate consisting of many words always has an essential part that we call the simple subject or simple predicate

Simple Subject

• The main word or words in a sentence that tell who or what is doing or being something, or who or what the sentence is about

• In an imperative sentence, the subject “you” is understood

Simple Predicate

• The verb

• A verb expresses action or being

• Sometimes the simple predicate contains more than one word, this is called the verb phrase

• Sometimes the order of the subject and predicate is reversed

• In interrogative sentences, we usually find parts of the predicate split by the subject

Grammar Lesson 2

• Vocab:

• Advert: means to call attention to something

• Avert: means to turn away

Complete Sentences, Sentence Fragments, and Run-on Sentences

• Complete sentence: expresses a complete thought, has both a subject and predicate

• Sentence fragments: a piece of a sentence that lacks a subject or a verb or both

• Run-on sentences: two complete thoughts, written or spoken as one sentence without proper punctuation or connecting words

Grammar Lesson 3

• Vocab:

• The Latin word bell- means war

• Bellicose means warlike, aggressive, and quarrelsome

• Antebellum refers to times before a war, especially the American Civil War

Action Verbs/ Diagramming the Simple Subject and Simple Predicate

• Action verb: describes what the subject does, did, or will do

• A sentence can contain more than one action verb

• We can make our writing more vivid and accurate by using descriptive and precise action verbs

• Diagramming: see notes on board