Grammar Diagnostic

 

Please answer the following questions. 

 

Let's do it twice.  The first time do it without any help from reference books.  This will give us an idea of what we "know" going into the course.

 

Then, do it again in blue using any references you'd like. (If you cannot make the text blue, type your second response in CAPS).

 

When you finish, send it to me in an email with your name and GD as the title: cornwellGD.

 

Metalanguage or Teacher talk

 

In a grammar context, tell us what the following words refer to, and if possible, give an example or two.  One sentence or phrase will be sufficient. If you don't know, just type "Don't know."

1. agreement

2. antecedents

3. articles

4. comparatives

5. content words

6. copula

7. determiners

8. function words

9. intensifiers

10. modals

11. past participles

12. quantifiers

13. relative pronouns

14. reported speech

15. voice

 Errors and error correction

 

Look at the following sentences and tell us 1) what is the problem and 2) what you might tell the student who made the error.  These examples are taken from The Grammar Book by Celce-Murcia and Larsen-Freeman

16. *Nora wills read the book.

17. *He has bought it last Saturday.

18. *I not understand that.

19. *The song was sang several times by the choir.

20. *What happens if I pushed this button.

21. *I enjoy to study English

22. *February is the most coldest month in my country.

 Note: Often in grammar references an asterisk (*) is used to indicate an error and a question mark (?) is used to indicate something that is awkward or incorrect in certain dialects. 

 

Parts of Speech

 

Label the parts of speech in the following sentence. There are twenty words.  If you'd like, you can write the parts of speech and then list the words after them.

Before the grammar class started, Steve hurriedly finished his overdue homework and turned it in to the young substitute teacher.