Prepositional Phrases, Take 2

Okay, we're going to work with prepositional phrases again this week, as the majority of you did not demonstrate an ability to master the concept.

Most of you got the idea of the subject-verb agreement, which means that your verb tense depends on what the subject of the sentence is. BUT, that's not all of what the assignment asked you to do.

What I want you to get from this is that when we write, we sometimes stick prepositional phrases between the subject and the verb of the sentence. When this happens, it's very easy to have the wrong verb tense because we match the verb to the last word of the prepositional phrase, not the subject of the sentence. Take a look at this:

The birds on the tree branch sings all morning long.

The subject is the birds, so the verb should be sing, as in "The birds sing..." But it's easy to make the mistake of matching the verb to the last word in the prepositional phrase (in this case it's branch) because the words are right next to each other.

Corrected, this sentence should read:

The birds on the tree branch sing all morning long.

Also, please make sure that phrase that separates your subject and verb is a prepositional phrase. To make sure, you'll want the phrase to begin with a preposition:

about
above
across
after
against
along
among
around
at
before
behind
below
beneath
beside
between
beyond
but
by
despite
down
during
except
for
from
in
inside
into
like
near
of
off
on
onto
out
outside
over
past
since
through
throughout
till
to
toward
under
underneath
until
up
upon
with
within
without

Your assignment: You will create six sets of sentences. Each set will feature a sentence with a prepositional phrase and a mismatched subject-verb, along with a sentence with a prepositoinal phrase and a proper subject-verb agreement.

Prepositional Phrases

Prepositions are words that show how a something exists in relation to the rest of the sentence - usually when or where.

Some examples of common prepositions are:

about
above
across
after
against
along
among
around
at
before
behind
below
beneath
beside
between
beyond
but
by
despite
down
during
except
for
from
in
inside
into
like
near
of
off
on
onto
out
outside
over
past
since
through
throughout
till
to
toward
under
underneath
until
up
upon
with
within
without

A prepositional phrase is the preposition and the rest of the description. In the following examples, the prepositional phrase is in bold.

The books on the table are missing pages.

In this example, the prepositional phrase separates the subject of the sentence (the books) and the predicate of the sentence (are). This is why it's important to be aware of prepositional phrases: When they separate the subject and the verb, it's easy to accidentally conjugate the verb based on the last word of the prepositional phrase, as opposed to conjugating the verb based on the subject, which is correct. For example, in this sentence, the verb is conjugated incorrectly:

The beings from outer space was green.

If you remove the prepositional phrase, you'll see that the simple subject-verb-object sentence for this example is: The beings were green. Therefore, when inserting the prepositional phrase, we still need to make sure that the verb conjugation matches the subject, not the last word of the prepositional phrase (in this case, space). So, the correct version of this example is:

The beings from outer space were green.

Your assignment: Create six pairs of sentences with prepositional phrases separating the subject and the verb. The first sentence in each pair will show the incorrect verb conjugation, and the second sentence in each pair will show the correct conjugation.

Examples of the sentence pairs:

Incorrect: The students of Riverhead Middle School is funny.
Correct: The students of Riverhead Middle School are funny.

Incorrect: The house with four windows look pretty.
Correct: The house with four windows looks pretty.

Incorrect: Literature regarding teenagers tend to be about individuality issues.
Correct: Literature regarding teenagers tends to be about individuality issues.

Compound Predicates

Predicate is the fancy word for the verb or the action of a sentence. For example:

Mary walked through the park.

The predicate in this sentence is walked.

Sometimes, a sentence has two verbs, so this is a sentence with a compound predicate. For example:

Mary walked then ran through the park.

In this example, walked and ran are the predicates.

Your assignment: Create six pairs of sentences with single predicates, then combime those sentences to create a sentence with a compound predicate. Each of your responses should look like this:

SP: Jane thinks about animals.
SP: Jane writes about animals.
CP: Jane thinks and writes about animals.

SP: Billy throws well.
SP: Billy catches well.
CP: Billy throws and catches well.

SP: Rachel swept the floor.
SP: Rachel mopped the floor.
CP: Rachel swept and mopped the floor.

Compound Subjects

The subject of a sentence is who or what the sentence is about, or who or what is doing the action.

For example: Mary went to the store.

In this sentence, Mary is the subject.

Some sentences have more than one subject, and these are called compound subjects.

For example: Mary and Louise went to the store.

In this sentence, the compound subject is Mary and Louise.

Your assignment: You are to create six pairs of sentences. Each pair will have a sentence with a single subject and a sentence with a compound subject.

For example:

SS: Math is my favorite subject.
CS: Math and science are my favorite subjects.

SS: Nemo belongs in the ocean.
CS: Nemo and his dad belong in the ocean.

SS: I went to the beach.
CS: Tracy and I went to the beach.