one of the basic elements that make up the structure of sentences is a noun there are different types of nouns but they all have the same general function today we're going to discuss different types of nouns as well as pronouns we'll also talk about what they do and how to use them [Music] properly nouns are words that name a person place or thing for example dad son jet fighter influenza chalk halsted street and puppy are all nouns this may seem broad but nouns can be broken down even further into different categories depending on what the noun is doing in the sentence common nouns like most of the words mentioned earlier are words that refer to general things these things do not have a specific name like john or eiffel tower those would be proper nouns we'll discuss those later here's an example of common nouns used in a sentence dinner was ready at 6 pm the common noun used in this example is dinner dinner in this case is a thing let's look at one more the eggs were scrambled in the hot pan this sentence has two common nouns eggs and pan because they are both things or objects in the sentence seems simple enough right proper nouns are people places or things that have specific names or titles for example dad is a common noun but your dad's name might be drew drew is a proper noun a chevy is the name for a brand of car so it's also a proper noun in addition proper nouns are always capitalized let's see proper nouns in a sentence aunt jackie is my favorite aunt on my mom's side aunt jackie is someone's formal name therefore it is a proper noun mom in this sentence is not someone's formal name therefore it is just a common noun let's look at one more example james proposed to jesse near the eiffel tower in france this example is full of proper nouns james and jesse are the given names of people while the eiffel tower is the proper name of an object and france is the official name of a country a place collective nouns are nouns that refer to a collective group or multiple number of something a class of students a flock of birds a team of players a crowd of fans nouns can also come in plural and singular forms just as it sounds some nouns describe a single object person or idea that stands alone or multiple objects people and ideas let's look at an example and see if we can identify the singular nouns in the sentence the dog fell asleep on the porch with its toy nearby here we see a few singular nouns there's only one dog one porch and one toy mentioned therefore we know these are the singular nouns in this sentence identifying plural nouns can be just as simple most nouns can be made plural by adding an s or e s at the end of the word here we'll look at an example using our previous example and see if we can spot the plural nouns the dogs fell asleep on the porch with their toys nearby in this sentence we made a few changes we see now an s was added to dog and toy by adding an s these once singular nouns are now plural now the sentence is describing multiple dogs and toys on one porch here's one more example the businesses had a huge increase in savings this year in this sentence we can see that businesses is the plural noun because it is describing more than one business we made the word plural by adding an e s on the end remember when making a singular noun plural if the noun ends in ch sh x z s or sometimes o we add e s to the end of it there are other rules to properly make singular nouns plural for example nouns that end in y must have the y taken out and replaced with ies there are always some exceptions to these rules but the way you make a singular noun plural depends on what letter the word ends with as you learn more words these rules and exceptions will become easier to remember possessive nouns are nouns that describe ownership of something we show ownership by adding apostrophe s to the end of a noun or an apostrophe to the end of a word that ends with s one way to determine which noun is the possessive noun is to identify the object and ask to whom or what does this belong to no worries if this rule seems confusing here are a few examples to practice liz scratched mom's car while driving in this sentence we see three nouns but only one of them is possessive moms would be the possessive noun because the aforementioned car belongs to her not liz nouns that don't refer to humans or animals can also be possessive here's another can you spot the possessive noun in this sentence the bus's doors were jammed and the students couldn't board in this example the possessive noun is buses because the doors mentioned belong to the bus did you notice the placement of the apostrophe here not only does buses end with an s but buses is also plural remember nouns that end with an s like bus or boss are made plural by adding an e s at the end when trying to make nouns that end with an s possessive you must first determine if the noun is singular or plural to know where to put the apostrophe to make a singular noun possessive we simply add apostrophe s to the end of it even if the noun already ends in s because we want to show that there is only one of this thing or person possessing something when dealing with plural nouns that end in es we make the noun possessive by adding the apostrophe at the end of the word pronouns are words that take the place of nouns to keep from sounding repetitive pronouns can describe a person place or thing without naming it multiple times in the same sentence or paragraph pronouns also come in many forms today we'll only talk about personal pronouns and a few others as well as nominative objective and possessive cases like other nouns pronouns can also be singular plural and possessive and represent a person or thing here's an example of a sentence with no pronouns jasmine loves movies jasmine goes to the theater often and has jasmine's own members pass these sentences sound strange most people don't repeat someone's name over and over like that that's why pronouns help eliminate the redundancy take another look at these sentences with pronouns used instead jasmine loves movies she goes to the theater often and has her own members pass this example looks and sounds a lot better here we replace jasmine with the pronouns she and her as mentioned earlier pronouns can also be possessive we see that in the previous example jasmine owns a member's pass so instead of saying jasmine's pass we use the possessive pronoun her to describe her possession of the member's past other possessive pronouns include singular his her mine plural possessive pronouns include theirs ours and yours when talking about pronouns it's also important to mention nominative and objective case nominative case refers to a noun that is performing an action or verb in contrast objective case is a noun that is having an action or verb taken upon it here's an example mariah drank water here mariah is in the nominative case because she is performing an action on the water the verb drink let's look at an objective pronoun example mariah caught the ball here the ball is the objective pronoun because it was the object that had an action performed on it which was it being caught indefinite pronouns represent a person or thing that we don't have a specific number of for example anybody can learn another language in this case the indefinite pronoun is anybody because it refers to an immeasurable amount of people these pronouns are used to ask a question what is her name whose keys are those intensive pronouns are pronouns that emphasize the pronouns that immediately proceeded she herself made sure to set the alarm in this case herself is meant to emphasize she making herself the intensive pronoun i myself made time to work out before bed here myself refers to the pronoun i making myself the intensive pronoun reciprocal pronouns are words that express an action as happening to two or more people or things at the same time reciprocal pronouns include each other and one another the students switch tests with one another we exchanged vowels with each other demonstrative pronouns are pronouns that point to specific things examples of demonstrative pronouns are this that these and those nouns and pronouns are essential pieces needed to complete sentences before we end let's do a few practice examples to make sure we got the hang of all we went over today what kind of noun is tuesday a a common noun b possessive noun c proper noun or d none of the above the answer is c proper noun because it's the name of a specific day which of the following singular nouns was made plural incorrectly a singer to singers b dish to dishes c church to churches or d tax to texas d because nouns that end in x take an e s to make them plural the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog this silly sentence contains all of the letters of the alphabet and you might notice it also is stuffed full of adjectives in this video we'll talk about what adjectives are and how to use them in a sentence an adjective is a word that describes a noun it describes something's size color age origin material or shape adjectives can be used to make the subject simpler to understand and to shed light on what an author wants their ideas to truly convey the adjectives used in the sentence about the fox and the dog are quick and brown describing the fox and lazy which describes the dog here's another example she is the smartest student in the class student is the noun and smartest is describing what kind of student she is so smartest is the adjective shakespeare has been credited for adding hundreds of new words to the english language when he was writing and many of those were adjectives some examples of shakespearean adjectives are thou cold-blooded slave hast thou not spoke like thunder on my side been sworn my soldier bidding me depend upon thy stars thy fortune and thy strength and dost thou now fall over to my fours cold-blooded is an adjective that describes the slave it helps us to know what type of person the slave was cold-blooded is a word that had been used to describe snakes and reptiles but shakespeare used it for the first time to describe a person here's an example from the book little women she remembered her mother's promise in slipping her hand under her pillow drew out a little crimson covered book crimson covered describes the color of fabric that was covering the book as you can see using adjectives can make your sentences and ideas come to life instead of just saying that the firework display was beautiful you can make it much more exciting and easier to envision what the fireworks actually looked like by saying the fireworks this year were bursting brightly overhead as the bright dazzling sparkles lit up the sky bright and dazzling are just two of the many many adjectives that make writing so descriptive and fun to read describing situations in detail helps readers more vividly understand what is taking place when describing things in more detail adverbs are a helpful addition to make your sentences more colorful and portray the event clearly in this video we'll take a look at what adverbs do how to identify them and how to best use them in our writing the easiest way to find an adverb in a sentence is to ask these questions where was something done when was it done how was it done and to what extent was it done an adverb will always answer one of those questions for example the adverb here answers the question where and the adverb randomly answers the question how an easy identifier for adverbs is the suffix l-y not all adverbs use it but the majority of adverbs do let's identify some adverbs by using our four questions she went outside and walked the dog do any of those words in the sentence answer the question where when how or to what extent in this example we see that outside is the adverb because it tells us where she went let's look at another they briskly jogged through the park here we see that the word briskly answers the question how something was done making it the adverb in the sentence let's try one more example she almost tripped while jogging but regained her balance this one might be tricky in this example we see that almost describes the extent to which something happens which in this case was tripped she almost tripped making almost the adverb here adverbs not only modify verbs they are also used to describe comparisons of two things adverbs have three degrees of comparison positive comparative and superlative the best way to explain positive comparative and superlative adverbs is to think of them as well better and best when we want to describe the quality of something we can say the thing itself is done well that would be a positive adverb we may compare that thing to something else and say this thing is better than something else which is known as a comparative adverb or we may simply say this thing is the best which is superlative as you can see with each comparison the degree of its descriptor is increased there are many ways of changing adverbs from positive to comparative and superlative let's go over each one with real examples and see how they differ what's important to note about positive adverbs is that the words used don't necessarily have to be positive or good words for example the word badly is a positive adverb because it is the first or basic degree you can use to describe something without comparing it to anything else many adverbs can be modified to show different degrees by simply adding er or est to the end of the word adding er to a word makes it comparative meaning it's not the most of something but it is more than something else adding est to the end of a word means that the word it is describing is the most of something and nothing can be compared as being better than it here's an example he ran through the field faster than his sister in this example the adverb faster responds to the question of how something was done we also know this is a comparative adverb because of the added er to the end of fast this lets us know that this person ran at a higher speed compared to his sister here's another example she was the quickest of everyone who ran the 5k here we see the adverb quickest answers the question of how something was done because there is an est at the end of quick we know that this adverb is superlative because no one else ran more quickly than this person some adverbs especially those that end in l y can't have their degrees increased to comparative or superlative forms by simply adding er or est to the end these adverbs must have more and most preceding the word to be modified let's look at a few examples the crowd cheered for her more joyfully than for the other performers here we can see that joyfully is the adverb because it answers the question of how the crowd cheered we can also see that joyfully is a comparative adverb because of the word more before it with this we know that the crowd cheered more but not the most joyfully he completed his task most efficiently of all the employees again in this example the adverb efficiently is easy to spot not only because it ends in ly but because it answers the question of how the task was performed we also find the word most proceeding efficiently which means this is a superlative adverb and no task was completed more efficiently than his some adverbs can't be made comparative and superlative with the use of e-r-e-s-t more or most for irregular adverbs changing their degree of comparison means changing the word and its spelling entirely there is no special trick to these irregular adverbs so they must be memorized over time to understand their implied degree of comparison the word badly is an example of an irregular adverb to make it comparative you wouldn't say more badly or badlier the comparative form of badly is worse and the superlative form is worst other examples of irregular adverbs include little which becomes less and least and good which becomes better and best now let's look at adverbial phrases adverbial phrases perform the same function as adverbs and describe when how to what extent and where something happens what makes them different from normal adverbs is they are phrases which means they are a group of two or more words and they don't always contain a typical ly adverb in the phrase here are some examples that answer the question when he goes camping every summer they are going to sleep earlier than usual here these highlighted phrases signify a time in which something occurs in this sentence he was driving halfhazardly and recklessly this adverbial phrase is made up of two adverbs and a conjunction to make a phrase that describes how something occurred an adverbial clause is similar to an adverbial phrase however adverbial clauses just like the name suggests are clauses which means they contain a subject verb and subordinating conjunction let's look at some examples sit at the table until your food is eaten in this example the adverbial clause until your food is eaten describes when something occurs we also know it is a clause because it has a subject food and verb eaten as well as a subordinating conjunction until my sister although she was hungry wouldn't eat until i arrived here the adverbial clause starts with a subordinating conjunction although has a subject she and a verb is together they describe the extent to which the sister wouldn't eat make sure you are polite to people wherever you go this example shows the subordinating conjunction wherever the subject you and verb go to show when something happened before we go let's do a little practice to refresh what we've learned number one which of the following are not adverbs a entirely be rather c them or d cautiously the answer is c them the word them is a pronoun number two the highlighted word is an example of what some people agree that serena williams is the greatest athlete of all time a adverbial phrase b subordinating conjunction c comparative adverb or d superlative adverb the answer is d superlative prepositions are words that specify how something is related to something else in time and space they work in a sentence to connect nouns or pronouns with other words and elements let's start with this example the dog swam in the lake there are two nouns in this sentence dog in lake we know from the verb swam what the dog is doing but we need the preposition in to tell us where the swimming is happening the dog is swimming in something and that something is the lake the second noun connected with the preposition in this case the word lake is called the object of the preposition and together with the preposition forms a prepositional phrase there is no subject in the phrase in the lake only a noun because of the preposition in we know it's a prepositional phrase this is an article not a noun so we know it can't be the object of the preposition lake the noun we are trying to connect with our first noun dog is the object of the preposition most of the time though not always the object of the preposition comes after the preposition in the prepositional phrase when we're trying to find the prepositional phrase in a sentence first try to spot the preposition prepositions show direction location or time many of the most common prepositions are small words you use every day at buy for from in of on to and with are all prepositions think about this sentence and try to pick out the prepositional phrase after work joe drove to the store in his car there are three prepositional phrases in this sentence let's start with a simple one joe the proper noun is connected to the noun store by the preposition to it answers a directional question where did joe go he went to the store the word store is the object of the prepositional phrase to the store let's look for another preposition in this sentence you might have noticed our preposition in appeared again in this sentence in isn't a directional preposition like two but it tells us where joe was during his drive he was in his car car is the object of the preposition in and in his car is the prepositional phrase now let's look back to the first word in the sentence after this is also a preposition remember prepositions show direction location or time after dinner is a prepositional phrase that tells us when joe went to the store dinner is the object of the preposition not all prepositional phrases are quite so simple think of it like a sandwich you have to have bread and filling to make a sandwich right a sandwich can be as simple as cheese between two slices of bread but it can also have meat veggies and spreads we can jazz up prepositional phrases the same way with adjectives and adverbs as long as you still have the bread and the feeling preposition and object of the preposition you'll still have a prepositional phrase take this sentence for example the swallows flew over the trees near the lake over the trees in near the lake are the two prepositional phrases in this sentence over is a preposition that tells us the direction the swallows flew and near is a preposition that tells us where the trees were located these prepositional phrases are fairly simple but look what happens if we make the sandwich more interesting the swallows flew over the dark trees near the town's renowned lake we still have the same two prepositions and prepositional phrases but the words dark towns in renowned are all adjectives dark is modifying or adding meaning to the object trees of the first prepositional phrase but it is otherwise not changing the preposition in any way the same is true of towns in renowned they are modifying the object of the preposition lake in the second phrase near is still the preposition and lake is still the object of the preposition so let's recap a preposition is a word that answers the question when or where something happened in a sentence it connects nouns or pronouns to other nouns in the sentence about to with up down under inside after before and four are a few examples of common prepositions the object of the preposition is the noun that the preposition is talking about and together with the preposition those objects make prepositional phrases hey guys welcome to this video on sentence structure in this video we'll learn about the different types of sentences so you can make sure your writing is interesting and engaging to the reader listen to this paragraph daniel went to the grocery store he wasn't sure if it had any more fresh apples the store did not have any apples daniel was very sad apples are daniel's favorite food how did this paragraph sound to you monotonous boring and uninteresting right how about this version daniel went to the grocery store but he wasn't sure if it had any more fresh apples much to his dismay the store did not have any apples and daniel was distraught after all apples are daniel's favorite food sounds a lot better right while there are many differences between these two paragraphs the main difference is that the first used the same simple type of sentence throughout while the second used many different types of sentences in order to enhance the content the first type of sentence we're going to look at is a simple sentence which consists of both a subject and predicate and can stand independently as its own sentence a simple sentence is essentially the same thing as an independent clause let's look at an example the old car survived the drive across the country despite the weather conditions there's only one independent clause with the subject the old car and the predicate survived the drive across the country despite the weather conditions let's move on to the second type of sentence compound sentences a compound sentence consists of two independent clauses joined together by a conjunction here's an example max drove to the store and ben picked up the girls note that there are two independent clauses here that could stand alone as sentences you could just as easily write max drove to the store ben picked up the girls but we've joined these two independent clauses together by using the conjunction and another example would be with all the heavy traffic josh was able to get home in time for dinner but ariana was stuck on the busy freeway the first independent clause is josh was able to get home in time for dinner and the second is ariana was stuck on the busy freeway the two clauses are joined by the conjunction but the beginning of the sentence with all the heavy traffic is a prepositional phrase and does not have any bearing on this type of sentence the third type of sentence is a complex sentence which consists of one independent clause with the addition of one or more dependent clauses let's look at an example after she took the time to clean her room sarah could finally play with her new dollhouse the first part of the sentence after she took the time to clean her room is a dependent clause more information is needed for it to serve as its own independent sentence the second part of the sentence sarah could finally play with her new dollhouse is an independent clause because it has a subject and predicate and can stand alone as a sentence the last type of sentence is a compound complex sentence this type of sentence contains two independent clauses as well as a dependent clause an example would look something like this before the treehouse is used for the first time all the beams need to be checked and the ladder must be connected the two independent clauses are all the beams need to be checked and the ladder must be connected they are combined using the conjunction and the start of the sentence before the treehouse is used for the first time is a dependent clause since it has a subject the treehouse and a predicate is used for the first time but cannot stand independently as its own sentence today we're going to be talking about the difference between present perfect past perfect and future perfect verb tenses remember the verbs are words that describe an action occurrence or state of being the tense of a verb refers to the time of the action or state of being the perfect form is the verb tense used to talk about a completed action or condition and always uses a form of have or had plus the past participle participles are words made out of verbs but used as adjectives in english participles are also sometimes used to form compound words like is going a past participle in the context we're using it today is the second part of a compound verb that's used to form perfect and passive tenses past participles usually ends in an e d verbs can appear in any one of three perfect tenses present perfect past perfect and future perfect let's start by talking about present perfect verbs the present perfect tense expresses an action that began in the past and is now completed in the present take a look at this equation present tense of have plus past participle equals present perfect tense we can put those elements into practice in the following sentence i have finished my homework already we know this sentence is written in the perfect tense for two reasons first we see that it is talking about a completed action i have finished my homework there's our ed past participle and it's telling us the job is completed the second hint we have that it's the perfect tense is the word have remember the perfect form is a verb tense that uses a form of have or had plus a past participle in this sentence have finished tells us that the finishing action began in the past but is now completed in the present we can see that the sentence used have instead of had so we know it's present perfect tense not past perfect the past perfect tense expresses an action that began in the past and was completed in the past before something else occurred the past perfect equation looks like this past tense of had plus past participle equals past perfect tense here's a sentence with past perfect tense paul tried to hide the vase because he had broken it right away our eyes should be drawn to the past perfect phrase had broken there's our past tense had in our past participle you may notice that broken is not an ed verb but it's still a past participle it just conjugates differently than the ed verbs we've looked at so far this also happens with words like ate and shaken this sentence is describing something that began in the past and was completed before something else occurred paul broke the vase this action is complete therefore the tense is perfect and it happened in the past therefore the word had appears in our equation the future perfect tense expresses an action that will be completed at some specified point in the future this equation is a little more exciting will or shall plus have plus past participle equals future perfect tense here's a sentence with future perfect tense do you think the lunchroom will have cooked enough rice first we notice the two elements we've learned to expect from the perfect tense a version of have or had in a past participle in this case the ed verb cooked you might be tempted to think that this was present perfect tense based on our earlier equation but be careful to look first in front of the word have to make sure it's not future perfect sure enough the entirety of the phrase reads will have cooked this tells us that we're talking about an action that's not done yet but will be done in the future at a specific time take for example the following phrases by the end of the night mary will have danced for three hours and in two years i will have saved two thousand dollars in both of these examples the reader is standing in the present without evidence of a completed action but we can be sure that both of those things will be done in the future thus the past participles danced and saved it may sound complicated but if you remember these three grammar equations and acquaint yourself with common past participles you'll have a solid understanding of present perfect past perfect in future perfect tenses words are divided into different categories depending on their use and function these categories are what we like to call the parts of speech there are eight parts of speech in the english language nouns pronouns verbs adverbs adjectives conjunctions prepositions and interjections today we'll actually be talking about gerunds participles and infinitives now you're probably wondering how those are related to the parts of speech right well for the sake of understanding these concepts just think of those three as various ways in which the different parts of speech can be used in other words the main parts of speech are your tools and our three topics for today are the projects you need the tools for a gerund is a word that is created with a verb but functions as a noun always ending in ing being used as a noun a gerund can function as a subject a subject complement a direct object an indirect object or an object of a preposition it's important to note that though gerunds may look a lot like present participles they are not the same thing gerunds are specifically placed in the noun position of a sentence whereas present participles are placed with the verb phrase usually as modifiers here is an example of a gerund in the subject position brushing your hair prevents it from tangling in this sentence the word brushing is the gerund functioning as the subject of the sentence if a gerund were to be the complement of a subject in a sentence it would look like this her number one priority is working working is functioning as a complement to the subject priority here's an example where the gerund is the object of a preposition there is no use in standing in the line for three hours grandma said in this sentence standing follows the preposition in making it the object of the preposition gerunds can also function as the object of a sentence very similar to gerunds are participles participles are words created from verbs that are then used as adjectives to modify nouns in a sentence they can also be used as introductions to adverbial phrases there are present and past participles present participles always end in ing and correlate to events taking place in the current tense the past participle can be either regular or irregular and refers to events that have already happened differentiating between participles and gerunds can be a little tricky sometimes because participles can actually function as gerunds for our purposes today we're going to take a look at some rather straightforward examples when using a participle as an adjective you might come across a sentence like this the browning fruit should be put outside for composting browning is a present participle noted by the ing ending that is modifying the noun fruit i spent the whole day studying math in this sentence studying is a present participle that is working as the beginning of an adverbial phrase in the sentence the phrase studying math is modifying the verb spent how did i spend the whole day studying math both of those examples were present participles meaning the words ended in ing to denote something happening in the current time as mentioned there are such thing as past participles past participles can have varied word endings depending on the word being used most commonly you will see d or e d added to the end of a word let's look at a couple of examples the windows were cracked when the rainstorm came through here the word cracked is the past participle working as an adjective to modify the noun windows he continued forward cautioned by the desolate streets cautioned is the past participle in this sentence functioning as the beginning of an adverbial phrase describing the word continued additionally participles can also appear as multi-part verbs the multi comes from attaching an auxiliary verb or helping verb to the main verb being used in the sentence joanne was baking fresh cookies for her grandkids in this sentence only one helping verb is used was it is paired with the participle baking to create a multi-part verb joanne has been baking all morning the helping verb in the sentence has been participle baking joanne would have been reading all morning if her grandkids hadn't said they were coming over helping verb would have been participle reading knowing how to form different endings of the participles allows for a variety of meanings to be conveyed unlike gerunds and participles infinitives do not change their endings they are always in the simple singular form infinitives are singular verbs usually preceded by the word to they do not have any specific suffixes they're just simple in nature in other words the verbs are unconjugated infinitives can be used as a noun an adjective or an adverb most likely when you're dealing with infinitives you'll be dealing with the present infinitive that's what we'll be looking at today the two is used with the infinitive to show the purpose of something or maybe to express someone's opinion let's take a look at some examples of infinitives noun josh wants to study as soon as he gets home from school adjective today she wants to show josh a new game to play adverb josh played the new game with his sister instead of studying to make her happy we've discussed quite a bit today remember gerunds are words that are formed from verbs and used as nouns always ending in ing participles are words created from verbs that can be used as adjectives or an adverbial phrase also ending in ing unless expressing past tense and infinitives are verbs that take the simple tense and follow the preposition to let's talk about semicolons punctuation is used to separate sentences phrases or words to further clarify a piece of writing a semicolon which looks like a period stacked on top of a comma is used most commonly to join two independent clauses without using a coordinating conjunction independent clauses are clauses that can stand alone in a sentence as a complete thought an independent clause always has a subject a verb and a complete thought an example of an independent clause would be the following sentence bob went to the store the sentence needs no more explanation it doesn't leave us hanging dependent clauses have subjects and verbs too but they don't have complete thoughts for example look at the sentence because bob went to the store this is a dependent clause it feels like it should have an ellipsis after it instead of a period because the sentence isn't finished because bob went to the store what we don't know and that's what makes it a dependent clause when you join independent clauses together you normally have to use coordinating conjunctions these are words that link other words phrases or clauses together words like and but and yet now that we understand what an independent clause is and what a conjunction is let's look back at our definition of a semicolon a semicolon is punctuation used most commonly to join two independent clauses together without using a conjunction let's take a look at a semicolon in action say you had the following two sentences rena came home she ate chicken for dinner a period is joining the two sentences but if we used only periods as punctuation we would have only short choppy sentences let's join those two independent clauses up with a conjunction rina came home and she ate chicken for dinner to join two independent clauses together with a coordinating conjunction like and or but you also have to use a comma before the conjunction a comma is not sufficient by itself and neither is the conjunction by itself but here enters our heroic semicolon it acts like both the comma and the conjunction working together while it is not grammatically correct to write rina came home she ate chicken for dinner or rina came home and she ate chicken for dinner it is correct to write rina came home she ate chicken for dinner a semicolon in this sense function as a comma and in this sentence semicolons are stronger than a common but not as divisive as a period here are some other helpful rules to remember when using semicolons delete the conjunction when using a semicolon it's never correct to have a semicolon with a conjunction following if you choose to use a semicolon instead of a comma to connect two independent clauses you have to get rid of the coordinating conjunction following the comma a semicolon stands on its own use semicolons to help with complicated lists sometimes you have to list things that have within themselves further clarifications semicolons can help with this look at the following sentence for example i need the weather statistics for london england london ontario paris france and paris ontario the semicolons are separating the major cities leaving room for the communists to serve as lesser dividers between each city and the country to which it belongs use semicolons with conjunctive adverbs don't get scared off by this new phrase conjunctive adverbs are exactly how they sound adverbs that sometimes act as conjunctions think about words like moreover also however etc if you're using some such word to connect two independent clauses it's much stronger to use a semicolon beforehand than a comma here's an example i needed a wok in some fresh air also i needed milk the semicolon separates the first independent clause from the conjunctive adverb which itself uses a comma to separate from the second independent clause now that you have a firm grasp on all the good things semicolons can do let's go over a few things that they can't do firstly a semicolon can't separate an independent clause from a dependent one although they tried they failed this sentence is incorrect although they tried is a dependent clause because it does not contain a full thought therefore it can only be connected to the following independent clause with a comma not a semicolon you should never capitalize words after a semicolon semicolons may be a stronger form of punctuation than a comma but they still aren't as significant of a pause as periods are clauses joined by semicolons are still within the same sentence lastly avoid the common misconception that semicolons and colons are interchangeable colons have two periods stacked on top of each other and are often used to introduce or define something they can be used to connect independent clauses with something as simple as a single noun while semicolons can only connect two fully independent clauses coordinating conjunctions are words that connect two words phrases or clauses that have equal importance together there are seven coordinating conjunctions in english and they are easy to identify with a simple mnemonic fanboys the first letter of each coordinating conjunction starts with a letter from fanboys for and nor but or yet and so hopefully remembering fanboys can make these conjunctions easier to remember let's look at a few examples liz and mariah played video games until the sun came up here we see the coordinating conjunction is and it links the two words liz and mariah together because they both stayed up playing games and are both important subjects in this sentence let's try another sentence liz was exhausted yet she still managed to go to work this morning here we see the conjunction yet connects two independent clauses liz was exhausted and she still managed to go to work this morning let's try another one she was still tired so she hit the snooze button here we have the coordinating conjunction so which is connecting she was tired and she hit the snooze button now let's look at correlative conjunctions correlative conjunctions are conjunctions that come in pairs when writing a sentence they connect two things of similar importance like coordinating conjunctions do but they add a layer of complexity to the sentence by making it more wordy a few examples of correlative conjunctions include but and neither nor and not only but also let's try a few examples to get the gist of it not only was liz late for work but she also left with mismatching shoes not only and but also are the coordinating conjunctions that connect two ideas together in this example we are describing two events that happen to liz that are of equal importance which were being late for work and left with mismatching shoes here's another example mariah wasn't sure whether to go to work or to stay home and sleep in in this example the correlative conjunctions are weather or they connect two separate ideas which in this example are the two decisions mariah had to make to go to work or to stay home and sleep in let's look at one more example there are as many pictures as there are videos correlative conjunctions can use language that is a bit more obscure than the conjunctions we named earlier that's why it is important to ask what two things are being related in this example we see the correlative conjunctions are as and as because they connect two things pictures and videos before we go let's test what we've learned which of the following is not a coordinating conjunction a yet b now c so or d or the correct answer is b now now is an adverb that tells you when something happened which of the following is not a correlative conjunction a such that b rather than c should be or d as as the correct answer is c should be should be is a verb hi and welcome to this video on thesis statements a thesis statement is a sentence or two usually found in the first paragraph of your paper that briefly explains the purpose of the text the argument you will be making and the evidence you'll use to support it thesis statements are important because they act as an outline for the paper so the reader knows at a glance what the content of the paper will be before you write your thesis a great deal of research on your potential topic must be done this will allow you to fine-tune your argument with counter arguments or evidence to make your thesis stronger let's look at some of the elements of a strong thesis statement if you are provided with a prompt or question to answer the thesis should clearly state your answer to that prompt a thesis will have an identifiable perspective on the subject you are writing about the reader will know your stance on the subject and how you will explain it in greater detail in the paper making your thesis a vague blanket statement will cause confusion for the reader what are you actually writing about be specific about what your subject is and make sure your content thereafter follows your thesis here are some examples of good and bad thesis statements smoking is proven to negatively impact your health this thesis is very broad the writer didn't mention what they would talk about in regard to smoking do they agree will they counter this argument what are the health risks why should the reader care about the subject these are all questions that could make this thesis stronger let's try it again because of the health risks associated with smoking and unethical methods for harvesting tobacco smokers should strive to quit the habit in this example thesis the writer is much more specific they not only give their stance that smokers should quit smoking but give two reasons why they should quit let's look at another example standardized tests are not useful for students the sentence gives a stance but it doesn't state what else the writer will say about standardized tests nor does it mention evidence to support their statement that these tests are not useful this could be a decent temporary thesis you can use until you do more research but it needs more detail let's see what a strong example looks like standardized tests should not be the sole factor to determine a student's ability because these tests have a history of bias and using these scores alone can hinder students from potential educational opportunities this thesis is very thorough it not only gives the stance and tells what the paper will be about but it also gives reasons to support their stance that they will talk about in detail later in the paper thesis statements are the solid foundation writers need to compose clear and detailed academic papers doing research and having your argument and supporting evidence planned out can help you fine-tune your thesis into a specific topic your readers can easily follow welcome to this video about textual evidence textual evidence deals with facts in writing and the strategies used to figure out whether or not the information is factual textual evidence comes into play when an author presents a position or thesis and uses evidence to support the claims that evidence can come in a number of different forms we'll explain textual evidence and the best way to analyze it so let's start here what is textual evidence textual evidence uses information from an originating source or other text to support an argument think of textual evidence as the driving force behind debates debates take a position and then use facts as supporting evidence you can take any debate position you want but without facts to back up your argument you can't prove your point here's an important issue evidence is not the same thing as a claim evidence is a single fact or set of facts barack obama was the 44th president of the united states is a fact a claim is a statement that can be in dispute and requires further evidence aliens are buried at area 51 in nevada is a claim that can't be verified textual evidence only uses facts to make its point so what should you look for when evaluating textual evidence think pdf no not the file format used in presentations you want to make sure the information is precise descriptive and factual that's easy to remember here are some clues to look for when analyzing textual evidence look for data that also includes the source information data are the strongest available pieces of evidence because statistics use analysis to reach strong accurate conclusions here's an example of statistics which one of the examples is factual one americans with a college degree earn more money than americans who have only earned a high school diploma according to the bureau labor statistics two about 327 million people live in the united states according to the u.s census bureau three nearly half of american households own dogs according to a national survey the answer those are all factual statements you can go to the source and examine the data yourself that's why statistics are such a powerful tool in textual evidence the next form of evidence isn't as powerful as statistics but it's often used to examine textual evidence experts give testimony in a number of areas testimony doesn't just mean in the legal sense like when someone takes a stand in a court case testimony also means providing a set of facts based on expertise an experienced and trained car mechanic can provide testimony on the workings of a car engine a doctor with years of specialized training can testify about treatment options for patients a pilot with thousands of hours of flight time can testify about the control panel on a jumbo jet they all have expertise backed by verifiable factual information authors use testimonial information to make their argument in an attempt to sway their audience statistics and expert testimony are the most reliable ways to analyze textual evidence but there are two other methods as well anecdotal evidence can be tricky since anecdotes are personal observations that may or may not be factual you can embellish anecdotes for literary effect for example you can tell an anecdote about the end of your day and it goes like this after a long day i'd come home with a headache my body hurt i was so tired that i didn't want to eat i don't know if this makes any sense but i was so tired i couldn't sleep maybe that's because i had so much on my mind from there the author might ask have you ever been unhappy at work the author would list the medical symptoms that correlate with unhappiness at work and then provide statistics on the number of americans unhappy at their job the anecdote on its own isn't really sufficient to persuade the audience but anecdotes can serve a valuable literary purpose by keeping the audience engaged and leading them to the facts an analogy compares two different things my house is as hot as the sun is an example of an analogy but in textual evidence analogies prove useful when there's little available research on a specific topic cutting edge topics have little data because researchers are in the beginning stages of gathering information here are two examples of analogical evidence based on how the audience uses mobile phones we believe this is the right screen size for tablet computers i saw a boring film that has a similar plot to this movie so therefore the movie must be boring in analogical evidence the author tries to show a parallel but you can see the problems especially in the movie analogy just because one film is boring doesn't mean a similar movie will also be that's why analogical evidence is the weakest form of evidence so that's our look at textual evidence the process of finding facts to support an argument we reviewed statistics and testimony the two most reliable ways of analyzing textual evidence we reviewed anecdotal and analogical evidence two useful but weaker methods of providing facts i hope that this video lesson was helpful if you enjoyed it then be sure to give us a thumbs up and subscribe to our channel for future videos see you guys next time [Music]