Conventions of English: Spelling and Grammar

What's going on besties? Today we are going to be covering the ATIT's version 7 English portion and we're going to be starting with conventions of English. Let's get started! So we're going to start by delving into the nuances of spelling words that contain the combination letters of IE and EI. To kick things off, let's examine words such as achieve, believe, and peace. A common error is to invert these letters, spelling them with I before E. E, which phonetically might seem more logical. The confusion between IE and EI is a frequent source of spelling difficulties on the Ts. A mnemonic that makes it helpful to remember this spelling rule is I before E except after C. It's a useful guideline for navigating these tricky spellings. The word receives, for example, serves as an excellent illustration of the I before E except after C rule, with additional words like receipt, sealing, deceive, and preconceive being prime examples. However, this mnemonic, while helpful, has its limitations. Relying solely on it leads to spelling errors. And as we continue throughout this entire video, it's going to seem like the English language thrives on being the language of exceptions. More accurately, the I before E except after C guidelines primarily applies when the IE represents a long E sound. So words like receive, Receipt, sealing, deceive, and preconceive all follow this pattern. Are you prepared to explore the exceptions to this rule? Words such as ancient, efficient, science, sufficient, defy the I before E except after C principle. The rule falters with these examples because the IE does not produce a long E sound. So going back through phonetically we can see Ancient is ancient. Efficient is efficient. Science is science. Sufficient is sufficient. They don't produce that long e sound. Furthermore, the e-i sequence can appear after consonants other than c, including words like there, foreign, weird, leisure, height, neighbor, weight, vain, and feisty. It's astonishing how such a small pair of letters can cause such immense confusion. If you find yourself struggling with these spelling conventions, remember the rule I before E except after C guideline can be incredibly useful, yet it's important to note that it mainly applies only when the IE combination produces a long E sound. Let's dive into how drop the final E spelling rules operate, starting with the introduction of suffixes. So suffixes are a cluster of words that are attached to the end of a word altering its meaning. Consider the following suffixes. We have ing, ed, ful, and less. Notice that some suffixes begin with a vowel. We call these vowel suffixes. So which two suffixes in our examples end with a vowel? Well, you've got that right. We've got ing and we've got ed. They both begin with a vowel. Conversely, we also have suffixes that begin with a consonant, and we call those consonant suffixes. So which of our four examples are classified as consonant suffixes? You're absolutely correct. We have our F-U-L and our L-E-S-S. They both start with a consonant. So here's the guideline. When I have a word that ends with a silent E, we should remove the E before attaching a vowel suffix. Take for example the word hope and consider the suffix F-U-L added to the end of it, which begins with a consonant. If a word like hope concludes with a silent E, attaching a consonant suffix like F-U-L doesn't require any alteration to the original word. Observe how when we add hope and F-U-L, we keep the same integrity of that word, H-L-P-E-F-U-L. However, the scenario is going to change when we're adding vowel suffixes to a word that ends with a silent E. If we want to add the suffix ing, a vowel suffix, to hope, that e at the end must be removed before we can add it. If you're confused, you can think of it as preventing two vowels from touching each other. Once that e is dropped in hope, before we add our vowel suffix, it's going to give us h-o-p-i-n-g. We drop the e whenever we are adding a vowel suffix. Let's look at another example. Let's use the word care, adding the suffix less. Since less begins with a consonant, it's going to qualify as a consonant suffix. This allows us to merge the words very precisely without having to remove any of our vowels. However, if we wanted to add the vowel suffix ed, ed to cared, that combination of ed and ed to cared would be a good idea. So, let's go ahead and add the vowel suffix E and D represents a vowel suffix, meaning that we are going to have to drop the E in care before we add our suffix. Are you ready for the exceptions? Let's examine the word notice. When we're adding the suffix able, A-B-L-E, this is an instance when we don't remove the E, keeping it all together as noticeable. This decision is driven by the rule of the final E in maintaining a soft C sound. Removing the E would transform the word notice into notic, altering the pronunciation to noticable, which deviates from the intended noticeable. Therefore, we maintain that initial E that we had on the end of notice before we add the suffix. So the exception rule is that we keep the E if the word ends in CE or GE and the suffix starts with an A or an O. Let's consider the G sound as illustrated in the word change. When adding certain vowel suffixes, the E is retained to preserve that soft G sound, as we see in changeable. Without the E, the pronunciation could incorrectly shift to a hard G. However, in changing, the E is dropped because the I following the G ensures that that soft sound is still preserved. Finally, let's explore words like courage and outrage when we add the suffix O-U-S, resulting in courageous and and outrageous respectfully. In these instances, similar to the word noticeable, we do not remove the e before we add the vowel suffix ous. The reason behind keeping the e in courageous and outrageous aligns with the maintaining of the integrity of the original word, courage, and outrage, rather than adhering strictly to that soft c or g sound rule. The e in these cases doesn't serve to soften a preceding consonant, since the preceding letters do G and courage and G and outrage are not followed by an E to make a soft sound. Instead, that E is going to be retained to preserve the root words form and ensure correct pronunciation, as well as recognition of the derived adjective. Thus, when we add O-U-S to courage and outrage, forming courageous and outrageous, the presence of the E maintains the word's flow and aids in conveying the derived meaning efficiently. without altering the base word significantly. Our next rule is to double the final consonant. In certain cases, the final consonant of a word needs to be doubled before appending any kind of suffixes like ed, ing, and able. This occurs in words like run, where we add ing becomes running with the extra n. Tripped, with our trip and our ed, we add the extra p to tripped. Jog and ing becomes jogging with an extra g. And hug, and able, becomes huggable with the extra g. So how do we determine when the final consonant needs to be doubled? Well, this is where the 1-1-1 rule comes into play. The rule is simple. If a word has one syllable, concludes with a single vowel, followed by a single consonant, then the consonant is going to be doubled. Revisiting one of our previous examples, the word run fits this pattern perfectly. It's a single syllable word ending with one vowel, and one consonant, necessitating the need to double the N before adding the ING. Let's consider why the final consonant in certain words isn't doubled by looking at their base forms. So let's take a look at the example dream for instance. It has one syllable, but it has two vowels. It has E and A before its final consonant of M. So in this case, we would not double the final consonant, we would just add the ING to the end, making it dreaming. Similarly, let's take a look at the word rest. We have one syllable, we have one vowel, but look here, we actually have two consonants. We have S and T, so that does not fit inside our 1-1-1 rule. So when we're adding the suffix ing, we would not double the final consonant, leaving us with resting, R-E-S-T-I-N-G. And then we have our last example, open. So we want to add ed to the word open. Well, in this case, we have two syllables, O-PEN. So it doesn't follow our 1-1-1 rule. While it does have one vowel and one consonant at the end, because of the two syllables it's not going to fit inside of our rule. So when we're adding ed to the word open it would just be spelled open. O-P-E-N-E-D. So the rule is pretty clear. Only when we have one syllable words ending with a single vowel followed by a single consonant, we are going to double the final consonant. Now for the exceptions. there are letters that are going to shy away for the doubling spotlight. These are H, W, X, and Y. They prefer to stand alone so that You won't see them doubled whenever we are adding a suffix. So some prime examples of this that you'll see on the T's is a word like mixing, where it's M-I-X-I-N-G and not doubling that final consonant of M-I-X-X-I-N-G. Play plus able becomes playable and not playable with a double Y. Brew plus ing becomes brewing, not brewing with another W. And words ending usually in H don't typically follow the 1-1-1 rule. Changing the Y to an I is one of the most complex topics to discuss when it comes to spelling rules. I'm going to break each concept down to help you understand when we should follow this rule. First, we're going to start with one of our exceptions, final Y plus ING. This rule is pretty straightforward. When adding an ING to a word that ends in Y, we want to retain the Y. Take copy and enjoy, for example. Adding ING to these words doesn't involve altering that. Y, you're simply just adding ing. The rationale for keeping the Y intact is to avoid creating a double I sequence, which is not a recognizable vowel combination in the English language. The only exception to this rule might be skiing, but that's an outlier because it borrows from another language, making that double I acceptable to its unique instance. Diving deeper into the transformation of the final Y in words, it's worth noting that the Y typically turns into an I, when formatting any kind of suffix either beginning with a vowel or a consonant suffix. However, it's important to note that we are excluding ing from this discussion as it adheres to its own general guidelines like we discussed before. Another crucial aspect to this rule is to consider the presence of a consonant immediately before the final y in our base word. Taking a closer look at our two examples, baby and happy, demonstrate this principle. In baby the letter b precedes the final Y and then happy the letter P precedes the final Y. When we introduce the suffix S which is a vowel suffix to baby and Ness which is a consonant suffix to happy the preceding consonant follows the conversion Y to I upon the addition of these suffixes illustrating the rule in action. And then lastly we're going to talk about when we don't change the Y to an I. We won't be converting the Y to an I before appending a suffix when the y is preceded by a vowel. This exception is particularly intriguing and I've chosen to discuss it less partly because it involves navigating vowel combinations more intricately. Let's take a look at our two examples, stay and valley. In both of these words, the vowel precedes the final y. There's an a in stay before the y and there's an e and valley before the y. Regardless if we're adding a vowel suffix like ed and stay. Or a consonant suffix like s in valley, the presence of a vowel before that final y means that we keep the y unchanged when we're introducing the suffix. And that's everything that you're going to need to know when we're talking about changing a y to an i, the final y plus ing, and when we would not change the y to an i. So next let's talk about rules for plural. So there's a lot of rules so hang tight with me. We're going to start with the general rule. So most nouns are made up of plurals by adding S to the end of a singular form. So here you see we have a singular form, car, bag, and table. We simply just add an S, making it cars, bags, and tables. Nouns ending in S, X, Z, C, H, S, H, and S, S, these nouns are made plural by adding E, S to the end of their singular forms. Like we see with bus becomes buses with the E, S. Bench becomes benches and box becomes boxes. Of course, there's always exceptions to this rule. Words that end in ch but make more of a k sound like we see in stomach, we just add an s. And words that have an irregular plural like fish would just be fish. Fish could be singular and it can also be plural. And ox would actually become oxen. These are common words you're going to see on the t's. So what about nouns that end in f or fe? Well, we change the f or the f to V-E-S whenever we're making it plural. So calf would become calves with a V-E-S, shelf would become shelves, and wolf would become wolves. And the exception to this rule is there are common words that you're going to see where we don't drop the F or the F-E. So these are a list of those words. We see roofs, chiefs, chefs, beliefs, oafs, reefs, giraffes, refs, safes, and serfs. So what about nouns ending in O? So nouns that end in O preceded by a vowel is going to be made plural by adding S. So like we see in radio becomes radios, stereo becomes stereos, and video becomes videos. Because all of these examples, the O is preceded by a vowel. However, if the noun ends in an O and it's preceded by a consonant instead of a vowel, we make it plural by adding ES. Like we see in potato becomes potatoes with ES. Hero becomes heroes. And domino becomes dominoes. And there are of course some exceptions to these rules. Like we see with piano, we would simply just add an S to make it plural. Photos, the same thing, we would add an S. And then halo, the same thing, we would add an S to halos to make it plural. And our last rule for plurals is nouns that end in Y. When we have a Y that follows a consonant, we change the Y to an I and we add an ES. Like we see in cities, we would remove that Y and it would become cities. C-I-T city. I-E-S. Same thing with candy would become candies and lady would become ladies. And just like we saw with O, whenever we have a Y followed by a vowel, the plural is going to be formed by retaining that Y and simply just adding S. Like we see with day becomes days because the Y is preceded by the vowel A. So we would simply just add S. Same thing with toy would become toys and donkey would become donkeys. Hononyms, homophones, and homographs explore the fascinating world of words with similar sounds but distinct meanings. Homophones specifically are words that sound alike but differ in meaning, like the word male and male. Some additional examples of homophones could be berry, which is the fruit, or berry when you bury a plant into soil. We have night, which is the night time when it's dark. We have night, which is a... person in shining armor that protects somebody. Same thing with the word bee and bee. One could be an animal, a little bee, and one is just the word bee. Each pair of these words share the same pronunciation, yet each word carries its own unique meaning. Homographs are words that share the same spelling but carry different meanings. A classic example of this could be bow, like an archer's bow, and bow, which is to bend forward at the waist and bow. Additional homographs could be wine, which is to turn, or wind, which is a breeze. Live is to exist, and live is occurring in real time. Wound could be like an injury, or wound could be the past tense of wind. As well as lead, which is to guide someone, or lead, which is a metal. Despite having identical spelling, each one of these words conveys a distinct meaning. So a helpful mnemonic for distinguishing between homophones and homographs lies with their Greek roots. Phone, which denotes sound. So whenever we're talking about homophones, the words are going to sound the same, but they're going to have different meaning. And graph, which means to write, suggesting that homographs are written identically, but they have different meanings. So what about words that share the same pronunciation as well as spelling, but they have different meanings? Let's consider the word ring, which means jewelry, that we could wear on our finger, or the sound that a bell or telephone makes when it rings. Ring in both contexts represents homonyms, words that are simultaneously homophones and homographs. Some additional words could be letter, which is a character that we see in the alphabet, or letter, which is a handwritten message. We again see bow, which is a bow you can wear in your hair, or bow, which could be an archer's bow. And then lastly, bat, which could be a baseball bat, or bat, which is a mammal that flies through the air at night. It's worth noting that the terms homonyms can sometimes be used more broadly to encompass any word that qualifies as either a homophone or a homograph. Next, let's talk about standard English punctuation. I'm going to cover 13 fundamental punctuation rules that you are going to need to know in order to pass the ATITs. Starting with rule number one, every declarative sentence should include a period also known as a full stop. For example, she loves chocolate, period. He is my best friend, period. My dad wants to go to a restaurant for dinner, period. We have a meeting in two hours, period. It's important to remember to punctuate every declarative sentence or statement with a period. Rule number two is to always capitalize the first letter of a sentence. For example, she loves chocolate. She is capitalized because it's the first letter of the sentence. We say the same thing in he is my best friend, my dad wants to go to the restaurant for dinner, and we have a meeting in two hours. That very first letter of the sentence is capitalized. first letter of that very first word and every sentence should be capitalized. Additionally, when every sentence concludes with a question mark, period, or exclamation mark, we want to ensure that we leave at least one space before starting our next sentence with that capital letter. For instance, she loves chocolate and he loves pizza. There should be a space in between those two independent clauses before we start our next sentence with a capital letter. Rule number three involves capitalizing proper nouns. But what exactly is a proper noun? Essentially, they are specific names given to common nouns. For instance, while boy is a common noun, David is a proper noun because it is a specific boy's name. We don't capitalize the word boy unless it starts a sentence, but David is always going to be capitalized no matter where it is located in the sentence. Let's consider the word day. Day is a common noun and remains lowercase. However, Friday is the name of a specific day. Thus, it is a proper noun and would be capitalized. The same rule applies to the rest of our examples. Month is a common noun. July is a specific month, making it a proper noun and we capitalize it. Country is a common noun. Canada would be a proper noun. City is a common noun. New York would be a proper noun. An ocean is a common noun. is a common noun while Atlantic Ocean would be a proper noun. So in the sentence he is a boy, his name is David, David is our proper noun and we would capitalize that. Boy would remain lower case. Just like we see with our example the best day of the week is Friday, day is a common noun so it's going to remain lower case and Friday because it is a specific day of the week is going to be capitalized and it's also a proper noun. Here are some additional examples of how we would convey this in sentences whenever we're capitalizing proper nouns. Rule number four is avoiding using apostrophes when we're creating plurals. A common mistake we tend to see mostly on the T's is whenever we're adding an apostrophe to pluralize a noun. For instance, it's incorrect to write they have two cars with an apostrophe or they have cats and dogs where we apostrophize the cats and we apostrophize the dogs. The correct approach is simply to just add F to the end of the noun. Like we see in they have two cars and I love cats and dogs without the apostrophe. Like we see with rule number five, apostrophes serve two main purposes, to form a contraction and to indicate possession. Take for example, I don't know, which is just another way of saying I do not know. Don't is a contraction for do not, where two words are combined with an apostrophe replacing the omitted O. Similarly, your is another contraction, which stands for you are. We simply add an apostrophe where we omit the a. Contractions streamline sentences by merging words and using apostrophes to signify omitted words, as seen in he's in a bad mood, where he stands for he is. In addition to contractions, apostrophes show possession, illustrating ownership. For instance, Jack's new car is beautiful utilizes an apostrophe and S to demonstrate that the new car belongs to Jack. My teacher's new wife is really nice uses an apostrophe to indicate that the wife is married to the speaker's teacher signifying a possessive relationship. Rule number six dictates all questions or interrogative sentences must conclude with a question mark. Therefore, whenever you pose a question, it's essential to punctuate it with a question mark at the end. For instance, do you like pizza? Are you tired? Should we go to the movies tonight? Each of these examples are questions and as such requires a question mark to signal its interrogative nature. Rule number seven emphasizes the use of an exclamation mark at the end of a sentence to convey excitement, strong emotion, or urgency. An exclamation mark transforms the tone of a sentence as seen as, wow, you are beautiful. Here, that exclamation mark amplifies the expression of excitement. compared to the more subdued tone we would see if we ended it with a period. Exclamation marks are versatile, capable of expressing not only happiness and excitement as we see with I'm excited, but also frustration and anger in statements like that was a terrible choice. They are equally useful in conveying urgency, for instance, be careful, watch out. This punctuation mark is also common in commands or imperative sentences, potentially adding emphasis or authority to directives like sit down. Although a period could technically conclude these sentences, opting for the use of an exclamation mark is going to elevate the intensity of the emotion or command that is being communicated. Rule number eight involves using comma to delineate items in a list comprising of three or more elements. For instance, when mentioning only two items such as I bought coffee and tea, no comma is necessary because it's only two distinct items. However, when the list expands to three or more items, commas come into play here, such as we see with I bought coffee, tea, and milk. We need to make sure we have the comma behind each one of those examples, coffee and tea. The use of a comma just before the conjunction and or or in such a list is known as the Oxford comma. While some people do prefer to skip the Oxford comma, others advocate for its use, arguing that it enhances the clarity by distincting separately each item in a series. For the purposes of the ATITs, you will need to know and become accustomed to the Oxford comma in order to pass the English section of the T's. Rule number nine instructs the use of a comma to separate independent clauses when it is linked to a conjunction such as for and nor but or yet and so an easy mnemonic to remember these conjunctions is fanboys keeping fanboys in mind helps you recall the necessary conjunctions to look out for let's consider the example i want to go out tonight but i need to study the original sentence without the comma is incorrect in fact i want to go out tonight and i need to study are both independent clauses Each are capable of standing alone as a complete sentence. Therefore, when these clauses are connected by a conjunction, like we see with but, the comma is indeed necessary to precede the conjunction, making it, I want to go out tonight, comma, but I need to study. Another example could be, he is a doctor and she is a lawyer. This is again, incorrectly punctuated. Since he is a doctor and she is a lawyer are both independent clauses joined by the conjunction and, we need to make sure that we add the comma before our conjunction and in order to make this correctly punctuated. Turning the sentence into he is a doctor, comma, and she is a lawyer. Rule number 10 highlights the use of the semicolon to link closely related independent clauses, which are essentially complete sentences on their own. For instance, the sentence I love coffee, you love tea is elegantly combined by the semicolon. I love coffee, semicolon, you love tea. This alternative stands alongside the possibility of either separating them into two distinct sentences or linking them with a comma followed by a conjunction, like we saw with I love coffee, comma, and you love tea, or I love coffee, period, you love tea. Additional examples could be Calvin is a teacher, semicolon, Jennifer is a nurse, Michael doesn't like seafood, semicolon, he prefers pasta. These instances demonstrate how semicolons effectively connect to independent clauses that are closely related in context, offering a nuanced way of conveying related ideas within a single compound sentence. Rule number 11 focuses on colon to introduce a list of items. For instance, in the sentence, they serve many types of food, colon, Chinese, comma, Indian, comma, and American. The colon is employed to connect the independent clause, they serve many types of food with the subsequent list of Chinese, Indian, and American. Similarly, in the statement, there are three things every child needs, colon, education, food, and family, it employs that same knowledge. The colon links the independent clause preceding it with the list that follows. The use of the colon is an example that underscores its role in seamlessly transitioning from a complete thought. to a detailed enumeration of a list. Rule number 12 dictates the use of hyphen to merge two or more words functioning together as a single adjective preceding a noun. For instance, phrases like well-known author, kind-hearted woman, brand new television, chocolate-covered peanuts illustrate this principle. The hyphen effectively combines words that form a unified adjective that describes the following noun. In rule 13, we use a hyphen to compound numbers that should hyphenate compound numbers between 21 and 99. Examples of this could be 21, 42, 99. You wouldn't hyphenate the word 20 because it's a word all by itself. But if you want to hyphenate the word 23, you would hyphenate 20 and 3 to make it a compound number. So classic examples of this hyphenation could be, I have 99 problems, where we hyphenate the 99, or she is 42 years old, where we hyphenate 42. So let's take a look at some examples of how things are incorrectly punctuated. So first we have my birthday is in December. Well, we have a couple things wrong here. The M in my birthday is not capitalized. Anytime we start a sentence, we want to make sure that we start with a capital letter. And December is a proper noun. It's a specific month. So you also want to capitalize the D in December. In our next example, Julie loves cats, Michael loves dogs. Well, we could fix this one of two ways. We could add a semicolon after Julie loves cats. and Michael loves dogs to make sure that we are independently showing that these are two independent clauses or we could keep the comma and simply add a conjunction like and which it would become Julie loves cats comma and Michael loves dogs example three I went to the supermarket and bought cheese eggs and ham as we can see here we have a list of items three or more and we need to make sure that we employ the Oxford comma by adding a comma behind cheese and a comma behind eggs, making it correctly punctuated. Charles is 29 years old. 29 is a compound number. So in order to make this correct, we need to add a hyphen between the word 20 and nine to show that it's a compound number. I want to go to the beach, but I think it's going to rain soon. Again, we have our conjunction here, but, but we don't have the comma before it. So in order to make this correct, we need to add that comma before. for our coordinating conjunction, making it, I want to go to the beach, comma, but I think it's going to rain soon. Our next example is, are you angry? Well, it doesn't really sound like a declarative sentence. It sounds like an interrogative sentence. So in order to make this one correct, we want to add a question mark to the end of that sentence so that the reader knows we're asking a question. Are you angry? We bought two new cars. Again, we don't want to add an apostrophe after the word cars to make it a plural. So we simply just add the word cars without the apostrophe making that now correctly punctuated. And lastly we have you're a great guy. This does look correct however we're missing the apostrophe in our contraction for you are. So we need to add that apostrophe in between the you and the are to highlight that we have omitted the a. Another important concept is knowing when to use direct or indirect quotes. Direct quotes capture the exact words of the speaker, enclosed in quotation marks, to highlight the verbatim speech. In the example, if Stephanie expresses, I am learning a new topic, we use quotation marks to quote her precise words directly. In contrast, indirect quotes paraphrase the speaker's original message without using any exact wording or quotation marks. Instead, we convey what was said, typically introducing the statement with that. and often shifting the verb to its past tense form. This example adds the word that like we see with indirect quotes and it also changes the verb to the past tense which would be was. Parts of speech play a crucial role when it comes to forming grammatically correct sentences, each serving a unique function within a structure. Beginning with verb, these words depict actions or experiences. For example, verbs like run, walk, push, or eat illustrate this point. In the sentence, Lola ran to school because she was late, ran operates as the verb indicating the action that Lola took. Similarly, John loves to bake cookies. Bake is the verb describing what John enjoys doing. A noun identifies a person, place, object, or idea. Examples can include house, teacher, cup, and shop. In the sentence, my instructor is a very nice person. Instructor serves as the noun signifying a person. In the sentence, Tai is going to go on vacation to China, there are actually two nouns. We have Tai, which is a personal name, and China, which represents a graphical location. An adjective modifies a noun or pronoun by providing additional detail and description, such as when we use examples like short, beautiful, red, or old. In the sentence, Julie has a huge house with six bedrooms, huge acts as the adjective, offering a description of Julie's house. An adverb modifies a verb, an adjective, or another adverb by indicating how often, how, where, or when. Examples can include slowly, yesterday, and always. In the sentence, Lola is always late for school, always serves as the adverb indicating the frequency of Lola's tardiness. It's also worth mentioning that late can function as both an adverb and an adjective. In the phrase, last night I slept really well, last night acts as the adverbial phrase, specifying the time when... action occurred. A pronoun is a word that substitutes the name of a person, place, object, or concept within a sentence. Examples can include I, she, our, they, and it. For instance, in the sentence, Becky is my friend. She always helps me with my homework. She is used as a pronoun taking the place of Becky. In, you can visit the shopping center at one o'clock. You serves as the pronoun referring to the person being addressed. An interjection is a word or phrase that expresses strong emotion or surprise and is frequently accompanied by an exclamation point. Examples could be wow or oh. In the example, wow, the view is amazing. Wow functions as the interjection indicating a reaction of amazement. In, hey, I haven't seen you in a long time. Hey is the interjection used to greet or attract attention. A conjunction links words, phrases, or clauses within a sentence and uses words like and, but, although, and or. For instance, in I like to watch television and eat popcorn, and serves as the conjunction connecting the two activities. In my friend is very loud, whereas I am very quiet, whereas acts as the conjunction contrasting the two different characteristics. Prepositions indicate location, time, or direction and are placed before a noun or a pronoun. Examples include under, above, in, or during. In the sentence, the cat jumped over the box, over functions as the preposition, specifying the direction the cat jumps relative to the box. In get into the car quickly before you're late to school, into is the preposition, describing the movement towards being inside the car. Next, let's talk about Subjects, Predicates, and Modifiers. The Subject and Predicate are two essential components of a complete sentence, which is divided into two main parts. The Subject, which is the naming part, and the Predicate, which is the telling part. To indicate how a Subject and Predicate work together to form a complete sentence, let's delve a little bit deeper. The Subject or the Naming part identifies who or what the sentence is focusing on. For example, in When Angel played football, the question, Who is this sentence about? points to Angel, who is the subject, highlighting that the sentence revolves around Angel. Similarly, in The Watermelon is Green, asking about the subject of the sentence reveals the watermelon is the subject, indicating that the sentence is concerning this watermelon. The predicate forms the second essential element of a sentence, detailing the actions or the state of the subject. In similar terms, it explains the activities or conditions associated with that subject. For example, consider the sentence, Mr. Smith lost his dog. The segment reveals Mr. Smith's action. What did he do? He lost his dog, which serves as the predicate. Similarly, in the sentence, a bee buzzed around me, buzzed around me functions as the predicate as it describes what the bee is doing. To construct a complete sentence, you must include both the subject and the predicate. Missing one means that the thought remains incomplete. For instance, with only the subject, the pig, the statement lacks clarity about the pig's actions or characteristics. Was the pig small and adorable, or did the pig leap into a mud puddle? Without further information, it's really impossible to tell. Likewise, like a lone predicate, deep and cold leaves us guessing what the subject is. Could it refer to the ocean's depth and chill, or perhaps it's talking about the wicked witch of the West's heart? Who knows? These examples show the necessity of combining both the subject and the predicate to form a coherent and complete sentence. A modifier is a word or phrase that provides additional details about another word or phrase. Take the simple example, I have a truck. By introducing a modifier, it becomes I have a gray truck. Here, gray serves as the modifier, enriching the noun truck with descriptive detail. Both adjectives like gray in this example and adverbs can act as modifiers. Next, let's talk about complement. There are two primary types of complement. We have subject complement and object complement. Subject complement can be broken down into three parts. A noun that renames the subject, an adjective that describes the subject, or it follows a linking verb that connects it to the subject. For example, in Melissa is a teacher. Teacher is a noun that serves to rename the subject Melissa, making it a subject compliment. And he is handsome. Handsome is an adjective describing he, thereby functioning as a subject compliment. And she is respected by her students. Respected is an adjective that describes she, indicating again that this is a subject complement. An object complement can be a noun, adjective, or phrase that provides additional details about the direct object and typically follows it in the sentence. For instance, in They Call Melissa Genius, genius is an adjective that describes the direct object, Melissa, making it an object complement. Similarly, they find him intelligent. features intelligent as an adjective describing him, thus making this an object complement. In any consider her admirable, the adjective admirable describes her, identifying it as an object complement. It's important to remember that a subject complement renames or describes the subject, and an object complement enhances the understanding of our direct object. We talked a lot about independent vs dependent clauses. Now let's see how we break them down so we can further that understanding. A clause is a group of words that has a subject and a verb. So starting with independent clauses, it's exactly what it sounds like. An independent clause is a complete thought. It leaves no room for interpretation. In our example, the cat is sleeping. Cat is our subject and sleeping is our verb. And it's also a complete thought. The cat is sleeping. Got it. Whereas with a dependent clause, we need more information. in order to complete it as a complete sentence. In our example, when the cat is sleeping, we know the cat is the subject, sleeping is our verb, but it's not a complete thought. When the cat is sleeping, what? What happens to the cat? Do they get a restful sleep? Does somebody wake them up? What happens to the cat when they're sleeping? A big tip when you're taking your T's is usually when we're looking at a dependent clause, we're going to see a subordinating conjunction plus an independent clause making it ultimately a dependent clause. So in our example, when the cat is sleeping, when is actually our subordinating conjunction. Some additional examples of these subordinating conjunctions that you might see on the T's is since, when, if, while, because, who, that, which, as, although, whether, until, unless, in case, and even though are most commonly seen. So if you're trying to figure out the difference between independent, independent clause. If you see this subordinated conjunction prior to your independent clause, you can automatically assume that it is a dependent clause. Next, let's talk about simple, compound, and complex sentences. So starting with simple sentences, it is one independent clause, which means we are only going to have one subject, one verb, and it is going to be a completed thought. In our example, grace opened the door, grace is our subject, and open is our verb. It's a completed thought. Grace opened the door. Fantastic? Got it. Next, we have a compound sentence. And what compound sentences do is they link two or more independent clauses together by joining them with a coordinating conjunction. We talked earlier about fanboys. That's an easy mnemonic for you to remember the most common kinds of coordinating conjunctions you'll see on the T's. F stands for for, A stands for and, N stands for nor, B stands for but, O stands for or, Y stands for yet. and s stands for so so in our example we have grace opened the door comma and she looked outside grace opened the door is our first independent clause just like we saw with our simple example we have the comma and the word and which is our conjunction and then another independent clause she looked outside so again a compound sentence is when we're linking them together we're going to have a comma in between those two independent clauses and we have to have a coordinating conjunction after that first complete thought, our independent sentence, in order for it to be considered a compound sentence. So lastly, we have complex sentences. This is a combination of one independent clause and one dependent clause. Remember, dependent clauses are not a complete thought. They cannot stand on their own. You have to have additional information in order to complete it. So in this example, you're going to see comma use, but no coordinating conjunction examples. So for example, when he won the award, everyone cheered. Everyone cheered is our independent clause. It's a complete thought. And when he won the award is actually our dependent clause. Remember, whenever we have any kind of subordinating conjunctions starting a sentence, we know that it's most likely going to be a dependent clause. So again, when he won the award, our subordinated conjunction when, plus he won the award is our independent clause. Everyone cheered. Everyone cheered is our independent clause because it is a complete thought. So let's take a look at some examples. Lola knew lots about elephants. This is a simple sentence. We have our subject Lola. We have the verb knew and it forms a complete thought. Lola knew lots about elephants. Next, we have although Calvin is running late, he seemed relaxed. This is actually a complex sentence. We have he seemed relaxed, which is a independent clause. And we have although Calvin was running late being our independent clause. It starts with a subordinating conjunction although and finishes off with Calvin was running late. So anytime we have a subordinating conjunction, and a thought, it's usually going to be a dependent clause. So yes, this is an example of a complex structure sentence. And then lastly, we have he was hungry, so he ate. Again, a compound sentence. We have the subject he, which is actually seen twice in the sentence, and we have our verbs was and ate, and we have our conjunction so. So he was hungry, comma, so, which is our conjunction he ate, making this a compound sentence. Lastly, we're going to talk about direct and indirect objects. Within sentences, objects can be categorized into two types. Direct objects, which directly receive the action, and indirect objects, which are recipients of the direct object or action that is being done. So a direct object is a noun, noun phrase, or pronoun that directly experiences the action of the verb. It answers the questions what, who, and whom regarding what is receiving the action. So, for example, in the sentence, Bobby threw pebbles at the pond, asking, what did Bobby throw, leads to the answer, pebbles, making pebbles the direct object. So, in a sentence featuring a direct object, the presence of an indirect object is optional. Take, for example, I received the parcel. When asking, what did I receive, the answer is parcel, indicating that parcel is the direct object. This sentence does not contain an indirect object. illustrating that it is a direct object that is present. An indirect object is a noun, noun phrase, or pronoun that is the recipient of the direct object or action that is done. It responds to questions like at whom, to whom, for whom, and from whom, and is often follows a preposition. Another important thing to note is that an indirect object cannot exist without a direct object in the sentence. For example, she passed the ball to Kathy. Asking to whom the ball was passed reveals Kathy as the indirect object, indicating that the action is intended for Kathy because it is positioned after the preposition to. I hope that this video was helpful in understanding everything you're going to need to know when it comes to conventions of English. If you have any additional questions, make sure that you leave them down below. I love answering your questions. Head over to nursejunkstore.com where there is a ton of additional resources that are available to you to help you pass those ATIT exams. And as always, I'm going to catch you in the next video. Bye.

What's going on besties? Today we are going to be covering the ATIT's version 7 English portion and we're going to be starting with conventions of English. Let's get started!

So we're going to start by delving into the nuances of spelling words that contain the combination letters of IE and EI. To kick things off, let's examine words such as achieve, believe, and peace. A common error is to invert these letters, spelling them with I before E. E, which phonetically might seem more logical. The confusion between IE and EI is a frequent source of spelling difficulties on the Ts.

A mnemonic that makes it helpful to remember this spelling rule is I before E except after C. It's a useful guideline for navigating these tricky spellings. The word receives, for example, serves as an excellent illustration of the I before E except after C rule, with additional words like receipt, sealing, deceive, and preconceive being prime examples.

However, this mnemonic, while helpful, has its limitations. Relying solely on it leads to spelling errors. And as we continue throughout this entire video, it's going to seem like the English language thrives on being the language of exceptions.

More accurately, the I before E except after C guidelines primarily applies when the IE represents a long E sound. So words like receive, Receipt, sealing, deceive, and preconceive all follow this pattern. Are you prepared to explore the exceptions to this rule? Words such as ancient, efficient, science, sufficient, defy the I before E except after C principle.

The rule falters with these examples because the IE does not produce a long E sound. So going back through phonetically we can see Ancient is ancient. Efficient is efficient.

Science is science. Sufficient is sufficient. They don't produce that long e sound. Furthermore, the e-i sequence can appear after consonants other than c, including words like there, foreign, weird, leisure, height, neighbor, weight, vain, and feisty.

It's astonishing how such a small pair of letters can cause such immense confusion. If you find yourself struggling with these spelling conventions, remember the rule I before E except after C guideline can be incredibly useful, yet it's important to note that it mainly applies only when the IE combination produces a long E sound. Let's dive into how drop the final E spelling rules operate, starting with the introduction of suffixes.

So suffixes are a cluster of words that are attached to the end of a word altering its meaning. Consider the following suffixes. We have ing, ed, ful, and less. Notice that some suffixes begin with a vowel. We call these vowel suffixes.

So which two suffixes in our examples end with a vowel? Well, you've got that right. We've got ing and we've got ed.

They both begin with a vowel. Conversely, we also have suffixes that begin with a consonant, and we call those consonant suffixes. So which of our four examples are classified as consonant suffixes? You're absolutely correct.

We have our F-U-L and our L-E-S-S. They both start with a consonant. So here's the guideline.

When I have a word that ends with a silent E, we should remove the E before attaching a vowel suffix. Take for example the word hope and consider the suffix F-U-L added to the end of it, which begins with a consonant. If a word like hope concludes with a silent E, attaching a consonant suffix like F-U-L doesn't require any alteration to the original word. Observe how when we add hope and F-U-L, we keep the same integrity of that word, H-L-P-E-F-U-L.

However, the scenario is going to change when we're adding vowel suffixes to a word that ends with a silent E. If we want to add the suffix ing, a vowel suffix, to hope, that e at the end must be removed before we can add it. If you're confused, you can think of it as preventing two vowels from touching each other.

Once that e is dropped in hope, before we add our vowel suffix, it's going to give us h-o-p-i-n-g. We drop the e whenever we are adding a vowel suffix. Let's look at another example.

Let's use the word care, adding the suffix less. Since less begins with a consonant, it's going to qualify as a consonant suffix. This allows us to merge the words very precisely without having to remove any of our vowels.

However, if we wanted to add the vowel suffix ed, ed to cared, that combination of ed and ed to cared would be a good idea. So, let's go ahead and add the vowel suffix E and D represents a vowel suffix, meaning that we are going to have to drop the E in care before we add our suffix. Are you ready for the exceptions?

Let's examine the word notice. When we're adding the suffix able, A-B-L-E, this is an instance when we don't remove the E, keeping it all together as noticeable. This decision is driven by the rule of the final E in maintaining a soft C sound.

Removing the E would transform the word notice into notic, altering the pronunciation to noticable, which deviates from the intended noticeable. Therefore, we maintain that initial E that we had on the end of notice before we add the suffix. So the exception rule is that we keep the E if the word ends in CE or GE and the suffix starts with an A or an O.

Let's consider the G sound as illustrated in the word change. When adding certain vowel suffixes, the E is retained to preserve that soft G sound, as we see in changeable. Without the E, the pronunciation could incorrectly shift to a hard G. However, in changing, the E is dropped because the I following the G ensures that that soft sound is still preserved. Finally, let's explore words like courage and outrage when we add the suffix O-U-S, resulting in courageous and and outrageous respectfully.

In these instances, similar to the word noticeable, we do not remove the e before we add the vowel suffix ous. The reason behind keeping the e in courageous and outrageous aligns with the maintaining of the integrity of the original word, courage, and outrage, rather than adhering strictly to that soft c or g sound rule. The e in these cases doesn't serve to soften a preceding consonant, since the preceding letters do G and courage and G and outrage are not followed by an E to make a soft sound.

Instead, that E is going to be retained to preserve the root words form and ensure correct pronunciation, as well as recognition of the derived adjective. Thus, when we add O-U-S to courage and outrage, forming courageous and outrageous, the presence of the E maintains the word's flow and aids in conveying the derived meaning efficiently. without altering the base word significantly. Our next rule is to double the final consonant.

In certain cases, the final consonant of a word needs to be doubled before appending any kind of suffixes like ed, ing, and able. This occurs in words like run, where we add ing becomes running with the extra n. Tripped, with our trip and our ed, we add the extra p to tripped.

Jog and ing becomes jogging with an extra g. And hug, and able, becomes huggable with the extra g. So how do we determine when the final consonant needs to be doubled? Well, this is where the 1-1-1 rule comes into play.

The rule is simple. If a word has one syllable, concludes with a single vowel, followed by a single consonant, then the consonant is going to be doubled. Revisiting one of our previous examples, the word run fits this pattern perfectly.

It's a single syllable word ending with one vowel, and one consonant, necessitating the need to double the N before adding the ING. Let's consider why the final consonant in certain words isn't doubled by looking at their base forms. So let's take a look at the example dream for instance. It has one syllable, but it has two vowels.

It has E and A before its final consonant of M. So in this case, we would not double the final consonant, we would just add the ING to the end, making it dreaming. Similarly, let's take a look at the word rest. We have one syllable, we have one vowel, but look here, we actually have two consonants. We have S and T, so that does not fit inside our 1-1-1 rule.

So when we're adding the suffix ing, we would not double the final consonant, leaving us with resting, R-E-S-T-I-N-G. And then we have our last example, open. So we want to add ed to the word open. Well, in this case, we have two syllables, O-PEN.

So it doesn't follow our 1-1-1 rule. While it does have one vowel and one consonant at the end, because of the two syllables it's not going to fit inside of our rule. So when we're adding ed to the word open it would just be spelled open.

O-P-E-N-E-D. So the rule is pretty clear. Only when we have one syllable words ending with a single vowel followed by a single consonant, we are going to double the final consonant. Now for the exceptions.

there are letters that are going to shy away for the doubling spotlight. These are H, W, X, and Y. They prefer to stand alone so that You won't see them doubled whenever we are adding a suffix.

So some prime examples of this that you'll see on the T's is a word like mixing, where it's M-I-X-I-N-G and not doubling that final consonant of M-I-X-X-I-N-G. Play plus able becomes playable and not playable with a double Y. Brew plus ing becomes brewing, not brewing with another W. And words ending usually in H don't typically follow the 1-1-1 rule. Changing the Y to an I is one of the most complex topics to discuss when it comes to spelling rules.

I'm going to break each concept down to help you understand when we should follow this rule. First, we're going to start with one of our exceptions, final Y plus ING. This rule is pretty straightforward. When adding an ING to a word that ends in Y, we want to retain the Y. Take copy and enjoy, for example.

Adding ING to these words doesn't involve altering that. Y, you're simply just adding ing. The rationale for keeping the Y intact is to avoid creating a double I sequence, which is not a recognizable vowel combination in the English language. The only exception to this rule might be skiing, but that's an outlier because it borrows from another language, making that double I acceptable to its unique instance. Diving deeper into the transformation of the final Y in words, it's worth noting that the Y typically turns into an I, when formatting any kind of suffix either beginning with a vowel or a consonant suffix.

However, it's important to note that we are excluding ing from this discussion as it adheres to its own general guidelines like we discussed before. Another crucial aspect to this rule is to consider the presence of a consonant immediately before the final y in our base word. Taking a closer look at our two examples, baby and happy, demonstrate this principle. In baby the letter b precedes the final Y and then happy the letter P precedes the final Y. When we introduce the suffix S which is a vowel suffix to baby and Ness which is a consonant suffix to happy the preceding consonant follows the conversion Y to I upon the addition of these suffixes illustrating the rule in action.

And then lastly we're going to talk about when we don't change the Y to an I. We won't be converting the Y to an I before appending a suffix when the y is preceded by a vowel. This exception is particularly intriguing and I've chosen to discuss it less partly because it involves navigating vowel combinations more intricately. Let's take a look at our two examples, stay and valley. In both of these words, the vowel precedes the final y.

There's an a in stay before the y and there's an e and valley before the y. Regardless if we're adding a vowel suffix like ed and stay. Or a consonant suffix like s in valley, the presence of a vowel before that final y means that we keep the y unchanged when we're introducing the suffix.

And that's everything that you're going to need to know when we're talking about changing a y to an i, the final y plus ing, and when we would not change the y to an i. So next let's talk about rules for plural. So there's a lot of rules so hang tight with me.

We're going to start with the general rule. So most nouns are made up of plurals by adding S to the end of a singular form. So here you see we have a singular form, car, bag, and table. We simply just add an S, making it cars, bags, and tables.

Nouns ending in S, X, Z, C, H, S, H, and S, S, these nouns are made plural by adding E, S to the end of their singular forms. Like we see with bus becomes buses with the E, S. Bench becomes benches and box becomes boxes. Of course, there's always exceptions to this rule. Words that end in ch but make more of a k sound like we see in stomach, we just add an s. And words that have an irregular plural like fish would just be fish.

Fish could be singular and it can also be plural. And ox would actually become oxen. These are common words you're going to see on the t's. So what about nouns that end in f or fe?

Well, we change the f or the f to V-E-S whenever we're making it plural. So calf would become calves with a V-E-S, shelf would become shelves, and wolf would become wolves. And the exception to this rule is there are common words that you're going to see where we don't drop the F or the F-E.

So these are a list of those words. We see roofs, chiefs, chefs, beliefs, oafs, reefs, giraffes, refs, safes, and serfs. So what about nouns ending in O?

So nouns that end in O preceded by a vowel is going to be made plural by adding S. So like we see in radio becomes radios, stereo becomes stereos, and video becomes videos. Because all of these examples, the O is preceded by a vowel.

However, if the noun ends in an O and it's preceded by a consonant instead of a vowel, we make it plural by adding ES. Like we see in potato becomes potatoes with ES. Hero becomes heroes. And domino becomes dominoes. And there are of course some exceptions to these rules.

Like we see with piano, we would simply just add an S to make it plural. Photos, the same thing, we would add an S. And then halo, the same thing, we would add an S to halos to make it plural.

And our last rule for plurals is nouns that end in Y. When we have a Y that follows a consonant, we change the Y to an I and we add an ES. Like we see in cities, we would remove that Y and it would become cities. C-I-T city.

I-E-S. Same thing with candy would become candies and lady would become ladies. And just like we saw with O, whenever we have a Y followed by a vowel, the plural is going to be formed by retaining that Y and simply just adding S. Like we see with day becomes days because the Y is preceded by the vowel A.

So we would simply just add S. Same thing with toy would become toys and donkey would become donkeys. Hononyms, homophones, and homographs explore the fascinating world of words with similar sounds but distinct meanings.

Homophones specifically are words that sound alike but differ in meaning, like the word male and male. Some additional examples of homophones could be berry, which is the fruit, or berry when you bury a plant into soil. We have night, which is the night time when it's dark. We have night, which is a... person in shining armor that protects somebody.

Same thing with the word bee and bee. One could be an animal, a little bee, and one is just the word bee. Each pair of these words share the same pronunciation, yet each word carries its own unique meaning.

Homographs are words that share the same spelling but carry different meanings. A classic example of this could be bow, like an archer's bow, and bow, which is to bend forward at the waist and bow. Additional homographs could be wine, which is to turn, or wind, which is a breeze.

Live is to exist, and live is occurring in real time. Wound could be like an injury, or wound could be the past tense of wind. As well as lead, which is to guide someone, or lead, which is a metal.

Despite having identical spelling, each one of these words conveys a distinct meaning. So a helpful mnemonic for distinguishing between homophones and homographs lies with their Greek roots. Phone, which denotes sound. So whenever we're talking about homophones, the words are going to sound the same, but they're going to have different meaning.

And graph, which means to write, suggesting that homographs are written identically, but they have different meanings. So what about words that share the same pronunciation as well as spelling, but they have different meanings? Let's consider the word ring, which means jewelry, that we could wear on our finger, or the sound that a bell or telephone makes when it rings. Ring in both contexts represents homonyms, words that are simultaneously homophones and homographs. Some additional words could be letter, which is a character that we see in the alphabet, or letter, which is a handwritten message.

We again see bow, which is a bow you can wear in your hair, or bow, which could be an archer's bow. And then lastly, bat, which could be a baseball bat, or bat, which is a mammal that flies through the air at night. It's worth noting that the terms homonyms can sometimes be used more broadly to encompass any word that qualifies as either a homophone or a homograph. Next, let's talk about standard English punctuation.

I'm going to cover 13 fundamental punctuation rules that you are going to need to know in order to pass the ATITs. Starting with rule number one, every declarative sentence should include a period also known as a full stop. For example, she loves chocolate, period.

He is my best friend, period. My dad wants to go to a restaurant for dinner, period. We have a meeting in two hours, period.

It's important to remember to punctuate every declarative sentence or statement with a period. Rule number two is to always capitalize the first letter of a sentence. For example, she loves chocolate. She is capitalized because it's the first letter of the sentence.

We say the same thing in he is my best friend, my dad wants to go to the restaurant for dinner, and we have a meeting in two hours. That very first letter of the sentence is capitalized. first letter of that very first word and every sentence should be capitalized.

Additionally, when every sentence concludes with a question mark, period, or exclamation mark, we want to ensure that we leave at least one space before starting our next sentence with that capital letter. For instance, she loves chocolate and he loves pizza. There should be a space in between those two independent clauses before we start our next sentence with a capital letter. Rule number three involves capitalizing proper nouns.

But what exactly is a proper noun? Essentially, they are specific names given to common nouns. For instance, while boy is a common noun, David is a proper noun because it is a specific boy's name.

We don't capitalize the word boy unless it starts a sentence, but David is always going to be capitalized no matter where it is located in the sentence. Let's consider the word day. Day is a common noun and remains lowercase. However, Friday is the name of a specific day. Thus, it is a proper noun and would be capitalized.

The same rule applies to the rest of our examples. Month is a common noun. July is a specific month, making it a proper noun and we capitalize it.

Country is a common noun. Canada would be a proper noun. City is a common noun. New York would be a proper noun. An ocean is a common noun.

is a common noun while Atlantic Ocean would be a proper noun. So in the sentence he is a boy, his name is David, David is our proper noun and we would capitalize that. Boy would remain lower case.

Just like we see with our example the best day of the week is Friday, day is a common noun so it's going to remain lower case and Friday because it is a specific day of the week is going to be capitalized and it's also a proper noun. Here are some additional examples of how we would convey this in sentences whenever we're capitalizing proper nouns. Rule number four is avoiding using apostrophes when we're creating plurals. A common mistake we tend to see mostly on the T's is whenever we're adding an apostrophe to pluralize a noun.

For instance, it's incorrect to write they have two cars with an apostrophe or they have cats and dogs where we apostrophize the cats and we apostrophize the dogs. The correct approach is simply to just add F to the end of the noun. Like we see in they have two cars and I love cats and dogs without the apostrophe.

Like we see with rule number five, apostrophes serve two main purposes, to form a contraction and to indicate possession. Take for example, I don't know, which is just another way of saying I do not know. Don't is a contraction for do not, where two words are combined with an apostrophe replacing the omitted O. Similarly, your is another contraction, which stands for you are.

We simply add an apostrophe where we omit the a. Contractions streamline sentences by merging words and using apostrophes to signify omitted words, as seen in he's in a bad mood, where he stands for he is. In addition to contractions, apostrophes show possession, illustrating ownership. For instance, Jack's new car is beautiful utilizes an apostrophe and S to demonstrate that the new car belongs to Jack.

My teacher's new wife is really nice uses an apostrophe to indicate that the wife is married to the speaker's teacher signifying a possessive relationship. Rule number six dictates all questions or interrogative sentences must conclude with a question mark. Therefore, whenever you pose a question, it's essential to punctuate it with a question mark at the end. For instance, do you like pizza? Are you tired?

Should we go to the movies tonight? Each of these examples are questions and as such requires a question mark to signal its interrogative nature. Rule number seven emphasizes the use of an exclamation mark at the end of a sentence to convey excitement, strong emotion, or urgency.

An exclamation mark transforms the tone of a sentence as seen as, wow, you are beautiful. Here, that exclamation mark amplifies the expression of excitement. compared to the more subdued tone we would see if we ended it with a period. Exclamation marks are versatile, capable of expressing not only happiness and excitement as we see with I'm excited, but also frustration and anger in statements like that was a terrible choice. They are equally useful in conveying urgency, for instance, be careful, watch out.

This punctuation mark is also common in commands or imperative sentences, potentially adding emphasis or authority to directives like sit down. Although a period could technically conclude these sentences, opting for the use of an exclamation mark is going to elevate the intensity of the emotion or command that is being communicated. Rule number eight involves using comma to delineate items in a list comprising of three or more elements.

For instance, when mentioning only two items such as I bought coffee and tea, no comma is necessary because it's only two distinct items. However, when the list expands to three or more items, commas come into play here, such as we see with I bought coffee, tea, and milk. We need to make sure we have the comma behind each one of those examples, coffee and tea. The use of a comma just before the conjunction and or or in such a list is known as the Oxford comma. While some people do prefer to skip the Oxford comma, others advocate for its use, arguing that it enhances the clarity by distincting separately each item in a series.

For the purposes of the ATITs, you will need to know and become accustomed to the Oxford comma in order to pass the English section of the T's. Rule number nine instructs the use of a comma to separate independent clauses when it is linked to a conjunction such as for and nor but or yet and so an easy mnemonic to remember these conjunctions is fanboys keeping fanboys in mind helps you recall the necessary conjunctions to look out for let's consider the example i want to go out tonight but i need to study the original sentence without the comma is incorrect in fact i want to go out tonight and i need to study are both independent clauses Each are capable of standing alone as a complete sentence. Therefore, when these clauses are connected by a conjunction, like we see with but, the comma is indeed necessary to precede the conjunction, making it, I want to go out tonight, comma, but I need to study.

Another example could be, he is a doctor and she is a lawyer. This is again, incorrectly punctuated. Since he is a doctor and she is a lawyer are both independent clauses joined by the conjunction and, we need to make sure that we add the comma before our conjunction and in order to make this correctly punctuated.

Turning the sentence into he is a doctor, comma, and she is a lawyer. Rule number 10 highlights the use of the semicolon to link closely related independent clauses, which are essentially complete sentences on their own. For instance, the sentence I love coffee, you love tea is elegantly combined by the semicolon. I love coffee, semicolon, you love tea.

This alternative stands alongside the possibility of either separating them into two distinct sentences or linking them with a comma followed by a conjunction, like we saw with I love coffee, comma, and you love tea, or I love coffee, period, you love tea. Additional examples could be Calvin is a teacher, semicolon, Jennifer is a nurse, Michael doesn't like seafood, semicolon, he prefers pasta. These instances demonstrate how semicolons effectively connect to independent clauses that are closely related in context, offering a nuanced way of conveying related ideas within a single compound sentence.

Rule number 11 focuses on colon to introduce a list of items. For instance, in the sentence, they serve many types of food, colon, Chinese, comma, Indian, comma, and American. The colon is employed to connect the independent clause, they serve many types of food with the subsequent list of Chinese, Indian, and American. Similarly, in the statement, there are three things every child needs, colon, education, food, and family, it employs that same knowledge. The colon links the independent clause preceding it with the list that follows.

The use of the colon is an example that underscores its role in seamlessly transitioning from a complete thought. to a detailed enumeration of a list. Rule number 12 dictates the use of hyphen to merge two or more words functioning together as a single adjective preceding a noun. For instance, phrases like well-known author, kind-hearted woman, brand new television, chocolate-covered peanuts illustrate this principle. The hyphen effectively combines words that form a unified adjective that describes the following noun.

In rule 13, we use a hyphen to compound numbers that should hyphenate compound numbers between 21 and 99. Examples of this could be 21, 42, 99. You wouldn't hyphenate the word 20 because it's a word all by itself. But if you want to hyphenate the word 23, you would hyphenate 20 and 3 to make it a compound number. So classic examples of this hyphenation could be, I have 99 problems, where we hyphenate the 99, or she is 42 years old, where we hyphenate 42. So let's take a look at some examples of how things are incorrectly punctuated.

So first we have my birthday is in December. Well, we have a couple things wrong here. The M in my birthday is not capitalized. Anytime we start a sentence, we want to make sure that we start with a capital letter.

And December is a proper noun. It's a specific month. So you also want to capitalize the D in December. In our next example, Julie loves cats, Michael loves dogs. Well, we could fix this one of two ways.

We could add a semicolon after Julie loves cats. and Michael loves dogs to make sure that we are independently showing that these are two independent clauses or we could keep the comma and simply add a conjunction like and which it would become Julie loves cats comma and Michael loves dogs example three I went to the supermarket and bought cheese eggs and ham as we can see here we have a list of items three or more and we need to make sure that we employ the Oxford comma by adding a comma behind cheese and a comma behind eggs, making it correctly punctuated. Charles is 29 years old.

29 is a compound number. So in order to make this correct, we need to add a hyphen between the word 20 and nine to show that it's a compound number. I want to go to the beach, but I think it's going to rain soon.

Again, we have our conjunction here, but, but we don't have the comma before it. So in order to make this correct, we need to add that comma before. for our coordinating conjunction, making it, I want to go to the beach, comma, but I think it's going to rain soon. Our next example is, are you angry?

Well, it doesn't really sound like a declarative sentence. It sounds like an interrogative sentence. So in order to make this one correct, we want to add a question mark to the end of that sentence so that the reader knows we're asking a question.

Are you angry? We bought two new cars. Again, we don't want to add an apostrophe after the word cars to make it a plural. So we simply just add the word cars without the apostrophe making that now correctly punctuated. And lastly we have you're a great guy.

This does look correct however we're missing the apostrophe in our contraction for you are. So we need to add that apostrophe in between the you and the are to highlight that we have omitted the a. Another important concept is knowing when to use direct or indirect quotes.

Direct quotes capture the exact words of the speaker, enclosed in quotation marks, to highlight the verbatim speech. In the example, if Stephanie expresses, I am learning a new topic, we use quotation marks to quote her precise words directly. In contrast, indirect quotes paraphrase the speaker's original message without using any exact wording or quotation marks.

Instead, we convey what was said, typically introducing the statement with that. and often shifting the verb to its past tense form. This example adds the word that like we see with indirect quotes and it also changes the verb to the past tense which would be was. Parts of speech play a crucial role when it comes to forming grammatically correct sentences, each serving a unique function within a structure.

Beginning with verb, these words depict actions or experiences. For example, verbs like run, walk, push, or eat illustrate this point. In the sentence, Lola ran to school because she was late, ran operates as the verb indicating the action that Lola took. Similarly, John loves to bake cookies. Bake is the verb describing what John enjoys doing.

A noun identifies a person, place, object, or idea. Examples can include house, teacher, cup, and shop. In the sentence, my instructor is a very nice person. Instructor serves as the noun signifying a person. In the sentence, Tai is going to go on vacation to China, there are actually two nouns.

We have Tai, which is a personal name, and China, which represents a graphical location. An adjective modifies a noun or pronoun by providing additional detail and description, such as when we use examples like short, beautiful, red, or old. In the sentence, Julie has a huge house with six bedrooms, huge acts as the adjective, offering a description of Julie's house. An adverb modifies a verb, an adjective, or another adverb by indicating how often, how, where, or when.

Examples can include slowly, yesterday, and always. In the sentence, Lola is always late for school, always serves as the adverb indicating the frequency of Lola's tardiness. It's also worth mentioning that late can function as both an adverb and an adjective.

In the phrase, last night I slept really well, last night acts as the adverbial phrase, specifying the time when... action occurred. A pronoun is a word that substitutes the name of a person, place, object, or concept within a sentence.

Examples can include I, she, our, they, and it. For instance, in the sentence, Becky is my friend. She always helps me with my homework. She is used as a pronoun taking the place of Becky. In, you can visit the shopping center at one o'clock.

You serves as the pronoun referring to the person being addressed. An interjection is a word or phrase that expresses strong emotion or surprise and is frequently accompanied by an exclamation point. Examples could be wow or oh.

In the example, wow, the view is amazing. Wow functions as the interjection indicating a reaction of amazement. In, hey, I haven't seen you in a long time. Hey is the interjection used to greet or attract attention.

A conjunction links words, phrases, or clauses within a sentence and uses words like and, but, although, and or. For instance, in I like to watch television and eat popcorn, and serves as the conjunction connecting the two activities. In my friend is very loud, whereas I am very quiet, whereas acts as the conjunction contrasting the two different characteristics. Prepositions indicate location, time, or direction and are placed before a noun or a pronoun.

Examples include under, above, in, or during. In the sentence, the cat jumped over the box, over functions as the preposition, specifying the direction the cat jumps relative to the box. In get into the car quickly before you're late to school, into is the preposition, describing the movement towards being inside the car. Next, let's talk about Subjects, Predicates, and Modifiers. The Subject and Predicate are two essential components of a complete sentence, which is divided into two main parts.

The Subject, which is the naming part, and the Predicate, which is the telling part. To indicate how a Subject and Predicate work together to form a complete sentence, let's delve a little bit deeper. The Subject or the Naming part identifies who or what the sentence is focusing on.

For example, in When Angel played football, the question, Who is this sentence about? points to Angel, who is the subject, highlighting that the sentence revolves around Angel. Similarly, in The Watermelon is Green, asking about the subject of the sentence reveals the watermelon is the subject, indicating that the sentence is concerning this watermelon.

The predicate forms the second essential element of a sentence, detailing the actions or the state of the subject. In similar terms, it explains the activities or conditions associated with that subject. For example, consider the sentence, Mr. Smith lost his dog.

The segment reveals Mr. Smith's action. What did he do? He lost his dog, which serves as the predicate. Similarly, in the sentence, a bee buzzed around me, buzzed around me functions as the predicate as it describes what the bee is doing. To construct a complete sentence, you must include both the subject and the predicate.

Missing one means that the thought remains incomplete. For instance, with only the subject, the pig, the statement lacks clarity about the pig's actions or characteristics. Was the pig small and adorable, or did the pig leap into a mud puddle?

Without further information, it's really impossible to tell. Likewise, like a lone predicate, deep and cold leaves us guessing what the subject is. Could it refer to the ocean's depth and chill, or perhaps it's talking about the wicked witch of the West's heart?

Who knows? These examples show the necessity of combining both the subject and the predicate to form a coherent and complete sentence. A modifier is a word or phrase that provides additional details about another word or phrase. Take the simple example, I have a truck. By introducing a modifier, it becomes I have a gray truck.

Here, gray serves as the modifier, enriching the noun truck with descriptive detail. Both adjectives like gray in this example and adverbs can act as modifiers. Next, let's talk about complement.

There are two primary types of complement. We have subject complement and object complement. Subject complement can be broken down into three parts.

A noun that renames the subject, an adjective that describes the subject, or it follows a linking verb that connects it to the subject. For example, in Melissa is a teacher. Teacher is a noun that serves to rename the subject Melissa, making it a subject compliment.

And he is handsome. Handsome is an adjective describing he, thereby functioning as a subject compliment. And she is respected by her students.

Respected is an adjective that describes she, indicating again that this is a subject complement. An object complement can be a noun, adjective, or phrase that provides additional details about the direct object and typically follows it in the sentence. For instance, in They Call Melissa Genius, genius is an adjective that describes the direct object, Melissa, making it an object complement. Similarly, they find him intelligent. features intelligent as an adjective describing him, thus making this an object complement.

In any consider her admirable, the adjective admirable describes her, identifying it as an object complement. It's important to remember that a subject complement renames or describes the subject, and an object complement enhances the understanding of our direct object. We talked a lot about independent vs dependent clauses.

Now let's see how we break them down so we can further that understanding. A clause is a group of words that has a subject and a verb. So starting with independent clauses, it's exactly what it sounds like. An independent clause is a complete thought. It leaves no room for interpretation.

In our example, the cat is sleeping. Cat is our subject and sleeping is our verb. And it's also a complete thought. The cat is sleeping. Got it.

Whereas with a dependent clause, we need more information. in order to complete it as a complete sentence. In our example, when the cat is sleeping, we know the cat is the subject, sleeping is our verb, but it's not a complete thought.

When the cat is sleeping, what? What happens to the cat? Do they get a restful sleep? Does somebody wake them up? What happens to the cat when they're sleeping?

A big tip when you're taking your T's is usually when we're looking at a dependent clause, we're going to see a subordinating conjunction plus an independent clause making it ultimately a dependent clause. So in our example, when the cat is sleeping, when is actually our subordinating conjunction. Some additional examples of these subordinating conjunctions that you might see on the T's is since, when, if, while, because, who, that, which, as, although, whether, until, unless, in case, and even though are most commonly seen. So if you're trying to figure out the difference between independent, independent clause.

If you see this subordinated conjunction prior to your independent clause, you can automatically assume that it is a dependent clause. Next, let's talk about simple, compound, and complex sentences. So starting with simple sentences, it is one independent clause, which means we are only going to have one subject, one verb, and it is going to be a completed thought. In our example, grace opened the door, grace is our subject, and open is our verb. It's a completed thought.

Grace opened the door. Fantastic? Got it. Next, we have a compound sentence. And what compound sentences do is they link two or more independent clauses together by joining them with a coordinating conjunction.

We talked earlier about fanboys. That's an easy mnemonic for you to remember the most common kinds of coordinating conjunctions you'll see on the T's. F stands for for, A stands for and, N stands for nor, B stands for but, O stands for or, Y stands for yet.

and s stands for so so in our example we have grace opened the door comma and she looked outside grace opened the door is our first independent clause just like we saw with our simple example we have the comma and the word and which is our conjunction and then another independent clause she looked outside so again a compound sentence is when we're linking them together we're going to have a comma in between those two independent clauses and we have to have a coordinating conjunction after that first complete thought, our independent sentence, in order for it to be considered a compound sentence. So lastly, we have complex sentences. This is a combination of one independent clause and one dependent clause. Remember, dependent clauses are not a complete thought.

They cannot stand on their own. You have to have additional information in order to complete it. So in this example, you're going to see comma use, but no coordinating conjunction examples. So for example, when he won the award, everyone cheered. Everyone cheered is our independent clause.

It's a complete thought. And when he won the award is actually our dependent clause. Remember, whenever we have any kind of subordinating conjunctions starting a sentence, we know that it's most likely going to be a dependent clause. So again, when he won the award, our subordinated conjunction when, plus he won the award is our independent clause.

Everyone cheered. Everyone cheered is our independent clause because it is a complete thought. So let's take a look at some examples. Lola knew lots about elephants. This is a simple sentence.

We have our subject Lola. We have the verb knew and it forms a complete thought. Lola knew lots about elephants.

Next, we have although Calvin is running late, he seemed relaxed. This is actually a complex sentence. We have he seemed relaxed, which is a independent clause.

And we have although Calvin was running late being our independent clause. It starts with a subordinating conjunction although and finishes off with Calvin was running late. So anytime we have a subordinating conjunction, and a thought, it's usually going to be a dependent clause. So yes, this is an example of a complex structure sentence.

And then lastly, we have he was hungry, so he ate. Again, a compound sentence. We have the subject he, which is actually seen twice in the sentence, and we have our verbs was and ate, and we have our conjunction so. So he was hungry, comma, so, which is our conjunction he ate, making this a compound sentence. Lastly, we're going to talk about direct and indirect objects.

Within sentences, objects can be categorized into two types. Direct objects, which directly receive the action, and indirect objects, which are recipients of the direct object or action that is being done. So a direct object is a noun, noun phrase, or pronoun that directly experiences the action of the verb.

It answers the questions what, who, and whom regarding what is receiving the action. So, for example, in the sentence, Bobby threw pebbles at the pond, asking, what did Bobby throw, leads to the answer, pebbles, making pebbles the direct object. So, in a sentence featuring a direct object, the presence of an indirect object is optional.

Take, for example, I received the parcel. When asking, what did I receive, the answer is parcel, indicating that parcel is the direct object. This sentence does not contain an indirect object.

illustrating that it is a direct object that is present. An indirect object is a noun, noun phrase, or pronoun that is the recipient of the direct object or action that is done. It responds to questions like at whom, to whom, for whom, and from whom, and is often follows a preposition. Another important thing to note is that an indirect object cannot exist without a direct object in the sentence.

For example, she passed the ball to Kathy. Asking to whom the ball was passed reveals Kathy as the indirect object, indicating that the action is intended for Kathy because it is positioned after the preposition to. I hope that this video was helpful in understanding everything you're going to need to know when it comes to conventions of English. If you have any additional questions, make sure that you leave them down below.

I love answering your questions. Head over to nursejunkstore.com where there is a ton of additional resources that are available to you to help you pass those ATIT exams. And as always, I'm going to catch you in the next video. Bye.

Transcript for:Conventions of English: Spelling and Grammar

Transcript for:
Conventions of English: Spelling and Grammar