The moment when you all groan because this is one of the dreaded topics. I understand, in fact I used to be there. Mostly because I grasped the concept quite easily while so many others were completely confused by it. I will help you however, as this is the point of the blog. There are two forms of words, besides the different forms they may take in different Point of Views. They are Singular and Plural.
Singular- Being the only one of its kind; dinstinctive; unique. Individual. Noting or pertaining to a member of the category of number found in many languages that indicates that word form has one referent or denotes on person, place, thing, or instance.
Plural- Consisting of, containing, or pertaining to more than one. Pertaining to or involving a plurality of persons or things. Noting or pertaining to a member of the category of number, found in many languages, indicating that a word has more than one referent.
In short, singular is the form you use when you only have one of the object in question. Plural is the form you use when you have multiple of the object in question.
Ex:
bottle-bottles
cup-cups
pencil-pencils
desk-desks
sticker-stickers
window-windows
child-children
woman-women
mouse-mice
goose-geese
Umbrella
Sunday, April 20, 2014
Verbs
Verbs are the hardest part of grammar to grasp, as they can vary drastically and it's easy to become confused as to what the verb is. Though, the only time anyone has ever really needed to know what a verb is is when the teacher throws a quiz at you and tells you to label the parts of the sentence. Personally, I think if you're writing you just need to know the dictionary front to back and you're good. For those pop quiz days however, which even writers hate, it's good to know which word is the verb.
These small annoying verbs are usually actions, but as English decides to be even more confusing, they can also be in sentence which has no action at all. It is either the state of being or the action word. There is even past, present, and future tenses of each verb.
Ex:
looked (Past), look (Present), will look (Future)
Some verbs however, don't have the simple trick of adding an -ed at the end.
Ex:
saw (Past), see (Present), will see (Future)
Then there are continuous verbs in which you say:
is looking, are looking, so on and so forth.
There are also different forms for the point of view you choose to write from, as well as knowing if you are writing it in the singular or plural form, the tense even has a few things to say on this subject.
Point of View:
1st (I)
2nd (you)
3rd (he, she, it)
1st (we)
2nd (you)
3rd (they)
Singular:
1st (I)- see, hear, come
2nd (you)- see, hear, come
3rd (he, she, it)- sees, hears, comes
Plural:
1st (we)- see, hear, come
2nd (you)- see, hear, come
3rd (they)- see, hear, come
Singular-Present:
1st (I)- am, have, do
2nd (you)- are, have, do
3rd (he, she, it)- is, has, does
Singular-Past:
1st (I)- was, had, did
2nd (you)- were, had, did
3rd (he, she, it)- was, had, did
Singular-Future:
All- will be
Plural-Present:
All- are, have, do
Plural-Past:
All- were, had, did
Plural-Future:
All- will be
These small annoying verbs are usually actions, but as English decides to be even more confusing, they can also be in sentence which has no action at all. It is either the state of being or the action word. There is even past, present, and future tenses of each verb.
Ex:
looked (Past), look (Present), will look (Future)
Some verbs however, don't have the simple trick of adding an -ed at the end.
Ex:
saw (Past), see (Present), will see (Future)
Then there are continuous verbs in which you say:
is looking, are looking, so on and so forth.
There are also different forms for the point of view you choose to write from, as well as knowing if you are writing it in the singular or plural form, the tense even has a few things to say on this subject.
Point of View:
1st (I)
2nd (you)
3rd (he, she, it)
1st (we)
2nd (you)
3rd (they)
Singular:
1st (I)- see, hear, come
2nd (you)- see, hear, come
3rd (he, she, it)- sees, hears, comes
Plural:
1st (we)- see, hear, come
2nd (you)- see, hear, come
3rd (they)- see, hear, come
Singular-Present:
1st (I)- am, have, do
2nd (you)- are, have, do
3rd (he, she, it)- is, has, does
Singular-Past:
1st (I)- was, had, did
2nd (you)- were, had, did
3rd (he, she, it)- was, had, did
Singular-Future:
All- will be
Plural-Present:
All- are, have, do
Plural-Past:
All- were, had, did
Plural-Future:
All- will be
Wednesday, March 26, 2014
Point of View
Point of View- more commonly known as POV. When you write, you choose the perspective you are going to write from. First and Third person are the most popular choices for writing a book. Second person, I'll just say this, it is very strange and I don't think anyone should ever write in second person. The choice is ultimately up to you however.
Written from the main character's perspective, you cannot hear the thoughts of other characters. Everything they do is usually possessive, compared to the other characters. When you change POV's however, do not put: Lucy's POV. Honestly, if you're going to be switching between POV's every few paragraphs, I suggest writing with it not connected to any particular character. It opens up a lot of windows for writing when you want to hear the thoughts of several characters at once. If you want to switch POV's in a novel, or any story, then simply put a break and you can put their name simply (e.g. Lucy) or you can just let the reader figure it out. It's always easiest however, to break each POV into a different chapter. The same can be done with third person (e.g. Rick Riordan's series "Heroes of Olympus" is written this way).
First Person can be hard if you haven't trained yourself to write in it. I at one point wrote all my stories in First Person, but when I had to become more acquainted with Third, the skill slipped and I struggle to write in First.
Example of First Person writing:
I walked down the street, my heart pounding in my chest. What if I couldn't do this? I paused, my foot hovering into the next step. Was I wrong to think I would ever be able to tell her how I feel?
If you'll notice, the persons thoughts are in italics. This is the correct way of displaying what a person is thinking. It is not dialogue so do not put quotation marks. You can however attach dialogue tags to the thoughts, just make sure you keep in mind the character is not talking, but he/she still has emotion.
Seriously, this POV is strange and it would be weird to read a book written in it. I suggest steering clear of it all together. There is always exceptions when a person is speaking however, grammar never really seems to apply much in speech. Second Person is played out as though you are literally the main or supporting character. Which may sound cool, but after a small example, you might not be thinking so. We can feel the emotions of characters, connect to them, and feel as though we want on the adventure with them, but Second Person takes it to a completely different level.
Example of Second Person writing:
You lift your hand and strike him across the face. You can't believe he would ever be so naive to do something like this to you. Hot tears spill down your cheeks and when you speak your voice cracks.
It would be incredibly awkward to read a book written like this for 300 pages. It feels as though you are being forced into a certain situation rather than entering on a voluntary basis. You can choose to write in second person, but it's not advised.
By far the easiest to write in, in my opinion. Third person is where the story is told from a far away aspect, but close to the characters. It can be written to focus on one character alone (e.g. "Harry Potter" by J.K. Rowling) or it can be written to reflect several character POV's within a single section or chapter (e.g. "The Mortal Instruments" by Cassandra Clare). There is usually no possessiveness in context as it focus' on many people/characters.
Example of Third Person writing:
Ethan let the wooden stick fall from his hand. He couldn't believe he had just used his power to take another's life. He had known it was possible, but now he was there experiencing it-he wished he could die himself.
"What have I done?" He whispered, his knees sinking into the rocky dirt. A soft hand touched his shoulder and he could smell the soft scent of vanilla and apple. Wisps of silvery hair danced in his peripheral vision, he did not want to acknowledge her after what he had just done.
You connect to the character and can experience what he is feeling, you are not however forced into the situation. It was quite voluntary if you think about it, but it pulled at your emotions I am sure.
Be careful with what you write in the future and make sure you know which Point of View you are using to help establish your story and its characters to the fullest.
First Person
Written from the main character's perspective, you cannot hear the thoughts of other characters. Everything they do is usually possessive, compared to the other characters. When you change POV's however, do not put: Lucy's POV. Honestly, if you're going to be switching between POV's every few paragraphs, I suggest writing with it not connected to any particular character. It opens up a lot of windows for writing when you want to hear the thoughts of several characters at once. If you want to switch POV's in a novel, or any story, then simply put a break and you can put their name simply (e.g. Lucy) or you can just let the reader figure it out. It's always easiest however, to break each POV into a different chapter. The same can be done with third person (e.g. Rick Riordan's series "Heroes of Olympus" is written this way).
First Person can be hard if you haven't trained yourself to write in it. I at one point wrote all my stories in First Person, but when I had to become more acquainted with Third, the skill slipped and I struggle to write in First.
Example of First Person writing:
I walked down the street, my heart pounding in my chest. What if I couldn't do this? I paused, my foot hovering into the next step. Was I wrong to think I would ever be able to tell her how I feel?
If you'll notice, the persons thoughts are in italics. This is the correct way of displaying what a person is thinking. It is not dialogue so do not put quotation marks. You can however attach dialogue tags to the thoughts, just make sure you keep in mind the character is not talking, but he/she still has emotion.
Second Person
Seriously, this POV is strange and it would be weird to read a book written in it. I suggest steering clear of it all together. There is always exceptions when a person is speaking however, grammar never really seems to apply much in speech. Second Person is played out as though you are literally the main or supporting character. Which may sound cool, but after a small example, you might not be thinking so. We can feel the emotions of characters, connect to them, and feel as though we want on the adventure with them, but Second Person takes it to a completely different level.
Example of Second Person writing:
You lift your hand and strike him across the face. You can't believe he would ever be so naive to do something like this to you. Hot tears spill down your cheeks and when you speak your voice cracks.
It would be incredibly awkward to read a book written like this for 300 pages. It feels as though you are being forced into a certain situation rather than entering on a voluntary basis. You can choose to write in second person, but it's not advised.
Third Person
By far the easiest to write in, in my opinion. Third person is where the story is told from a far away aspect, but close to the characters. It can be written to focus on one character alone (e.g. "Harry Potter" by J.K. Rowling) or it can be written to reflect several character POV's within a single section or chapter (e.g. "The Mortal Instruments" by Cassandra Clare). There is usually no possessiveness in context as it focus' on many people/characters.
Example of Third Person writing:
Ethan let the wooden stick fall from his hand. He couldn't believe he had just used his power to take another's life. He had known it was possible, but now he was there experiencing it-he wished he could die himself.
"What have I done?" He whispered, his knees sinking into the rocky dirt. A soft hand touched his shoulder and he could smell the soft scent of vanilla and apple. Wisps of silvery hair danced in his peripheral vision, he did not want to acknowledge her after what he had just done.
You connect to the character and can experience what he is feeling, you are not however forced into the situation. It was quite voluntary if you think about it, but it pulled at your emotions I am sure.
Be careful with what you write in the future and make sure you know which Point of View you are using to help establish your story and its characters to the fullest.
Sunday, February 16, 2014
Tenses
Extremely tense I would believe. ;)
Before we can discuss any more topics we have to discuss the power of the tense you write in. Many writers are known either for their ability to write in the same tense, or for not even knowing whether it is past, present, and future. Though, I must say at this point, I don't understand how someone could manage to write well while writing in future tense. While conversations between characters may have varying tenses inside them, the main writing will not.
Past
When you are writing in the past, it means you are writing something which has already "happened". I put the word "happened" into quotations for reference to different genres*. In Fiction all events are fictitious and have not actually taken place, compared to a Historical fiction/non-fiction where the event will most likely have happened sometime in the past and is merely a report.
Ex:
"At half past eight, Mr. Dursley picked up his briefcase, pecked Mrs. Dursley on the cheek and tried to kiss Dudley goodbye but missed, because Dudley was now having a tantrum and throwing his cereal at the walls.
‘Little tyke,’ chortled Mr. Dursley as he left the house. He got into his car and backed out of number four’s drive." (J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, page 2, 1997)
Notice how action verbs end with an "ed" which is a perfect example of something which has already happen"ed".
Present
Quite a few books are written in present tense, but we tend to not notice as we read for quite sometime it is written as something which is going on as we read. There will be references to the past in the conversations between characters or in memories, but the main text will keep everything without the "ed" suffix. The present tense can be used to talk about things we know to be true or untrue, also ongoing situations or things which are happening right now, or even the laws of science. When speaking of "true" or "untrue" knowledge, there is a simple test. True statements are positive sentences, as where the untrue would be negative sentences.
Ex:
"'Hey, Catnip,' says Gale. My real name is Katniss, but when I first told him, I had barely whispered it. So he thought I’d said Catnip. Then when this crazy lynx started following me around the woods looking for handouts, it became his official nickname for me. I finally had to kill the lynx because he scared off game. I almost regretted it because he wasn’t bad company. But I got a decent price for his pelt." (Suzanne Collins, The Hunger Games, page 8, 2008)
Make note of how the present tense stays in tact, even while reflecting to the past. While there may be words with the "ed" suffix, the story format is still present tense because Katniss is recalling a memory.
Future
Suzy will walk down the street and enter the book store, she will proceed to buy a book and spend a few hours reading it.
It's not terribly intriguing, nor is it something we find easy to read. It doesn't seem to fit in literature, but all over within book and daily conversations future tense is present. If you've ever made a bet on the outcome of future events, then you've used future tense. If you've won every prediction you've made, I suggest becoming a seer.
Future Tense is used in our daily conversations by our own affirmations as to whether we will do something or not. Even our activities are part of future tense, saying we are going skating or will be spending the night doing homework is future tense.
Next time you talk to someone, pay attention and see how many of the three tenses you use.
*For those who might not know what a genre is: the type or category something is in. e.g.: Pop, Rock, Classical, Rap. e.g.: Fiction, Historical, Fantasy, Non-Fiction.
Friday, February 7, 2014
CALLING ALL TEACHERS
Hey teachers from all over the world,
Do you see the little page right up top which says "PowerPoints"? It is for you! Or anyone who wants to study a little more in depth into a certain aspect of English. I'm hoping you'll be able to improve the literary skills of your students with them, so feel free to look through and see if you can use them in your class rooms. They are built by a teen for other teens. Literary skills are waning all over and this is to help combat it! There is all sorts of topics, more are being uploaded every so often. If you just want a quick overview to introduce your students to English, there is a PowerPoint to show. If you want to do something lesson by lesson, focusing on something different everyday, then there's some for those days as well. Whatever your needs may be, hopefully you can find it all right there. Feel free to check it out at any time.
Sincerely,
A High School Senior
P.S. If you want anything in particular feel free to contact me. I just might be able to whip it up for you.
Do you see the little page right up top which says "PowerPoints"? It is for you! Or anyone who wants to study a little more in depth into a certain aspect of English. I'm hoping you'll be able to improve the literary skills of your students with them, so feel free to look through and see if you can use them in your class rooms. They are built by a teen for other teens. Literary skills are waning all over and this is to help combat it! There is all sorts of topics, more are being uploaded every so often. If you just want a quick overview to introduce your students to English, there is a PowerPoint to show. If you want to do something lesson by lesson, focusing on something different everyday, then there's some for those days as well. Whatever your needs may be, hopefully you can find it all right there. Feel free to check it out at any time.
Sincerely,
A High School Senior
P.S. If you want anything in particular feel free to contact me. I just might be able to whip it up for you.
Wednesday, December 18, 2013
Nouns
Today's topic: the fearsome NOUN. If you haven't yet noticed, I'm an extremely dramatic person, I like to rank things up a few notches and even the simplest things-such as nouns, are not eliminated. We learn when we're young, a noun is a person, place, or thing. Which is the simplest and fastest way to explain a noun, but it's time to go into more depth.
Don't really know how to break that down, seems quite clear with examples and everything. Here we can only move forward, which is where we split common nouns from proper nouns. Proper Nouns are usually considered the nouns which have a capital letter (person or place). Proper Noun Examples:
- McDonalds
- Samantha
- Devin
- Mexico
- Paris
Common Nouns are the words which don't begin with a capital letter:
- dog
- sheep
- box
- kid
- boy
- girl
- book
We then have to discuss the pluralization of nouns. There are several forms of plural nouns, the most common are the adding of -s, -es, or none at all, to the end of nouns. Not one cup but two cups, box to boxes, fish to fish. Other examples: child to children, goose to geese, person to people. After all, no one can be more than one person. ;)
Thursday, December 5, 2013
Regarding the Art of FanFiction
FanFiction is a great test of your knowledge. You have to create a world off of one already created, pull the same magic, keep the characters within their same realm and personality, all while coming up with your own original plot and manipulating it to your advantage. If this process doesn't sound exhausting or something like a challenge, you need a little wake up call. Sure some author's say they don't like FanFiction, or they don't personally endorse it, but I do.
Wanna know a secret? Cassandra Clare, one of the best known author's of today's age has stated she got her start in writing from FanFiction. Everyone has a passion, so let it be known! There are amazing FanFiction's out there, because people put their heart and soul into keeping the magic of a book, movie, TV show, and more alive. It's not a matter of copying someone else's hard work, it's showing their love, willing enough to let complete strangers read their work and judge it.
There are sometimes things out there in the FanFiction universe, which may seem strange or out there, but that's the joy in writing. Have you heard Not Literally's new song "I Ship It!"? It's a cover of a song they love, "I Love It" by Icona Pop and within three minutes they describe a whole universe of people who aspire to be writers and more. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCDgJiPBxfI
FanFiction is not a crime, it's a passion. Besides, anyone who has read and predicted what they think might happen has been writing FanFiction, even if it never made it to paper. Don't ever be afraid to let your feelings or thoughts be known, it just shows you are willing to write, no matter the subject.
Wanna know a secret? Cassandra Clare, one of the best known author's of today's age has stated she got her start in writing from FanFiction. Everyone has a passion, so let it be known! There are amazing FanFiction's out there, because people put their heart and soul into keeping the magic of a book, movie, TV show, and more alive. It's not a matter of copying someone else's hard work, it's showing their love, willing enough to let complete strangers read their work and judge it.
There are sometimes things out there in the FanFiction universe, which may seem strange or out there, but that's the joy in writing. Have you heard Not Literally's new song "I Ship It!"? It's a cover of a song they love, "I Love It" by Icona Pop and within three minutes they describe a whole universe of people who aspire to be writers and more. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCDgJiPBxfI
FanFiction is not a crime, it's a passion. Besides, anyone who has read and predicted what they think might happen has been writing FanFiction, even if it never made it to paper. Don't ever be afraid to let your feelings or thoughts be known, it just shows you are willing to write, no matter the subject.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)