PhrasesWhy is it important to understand what kind

of phrase I am using? Inexperienced writers sometimes confuse readers by putting prepositional phrases in the wrong places in their sentences. If you

understand what the phrase is doing, modifying a noun or verb, then you know

where to place it. That is why we are learning about Adjective Phrases and

Adverb Phrases. Misplaced modifiers is a frustrating error for both writers and

readers.

Some misplaced modifiers and how they affect sentences

• Brockton Kennels sells retriever puppies to loving families with vaccinations. (Is it the families who are vaccinated?)

• Brockton Kennels sells retriever puppies with vaccinations. Adjective Phrase

• By placing prepositional phrases closer to what they modify, you can avoid confusing your reader.

• Golden retrievers are valued for their eagerness to work by hunters.

• Golden retrievers are valued by hunters for their eagerness. Adverb Phrase

• Now you try it! Pg. 68 Ex. 3 Practice and Apply B only. Orange Book

Adjective PhrasesWhy use them? They give the reader more information and the more details you can

give your writing the better!

• The book from the library is due.• Like an adjective, an adjective phrases

answers the questions, which one? What kind? Etc. about a noun or pronoun.

• The dog with short legs is a dachshund. Which one?• Please empty this bag of groceries. What kind?• The radio in the kitchen doesn’t work. Which one?• The captain of the debating team met the

principal.

Help Me!Let’s try and figure out where the noun or pronoun is and then the adjective phrase that modifies it. We can ink by going to the bottom left of the screen and clicking on

the inking options. Come up and use the pen to find the adj. phrases.

• A tablespoon of butter contains 100 calories.• The article about animals without a home was

sad.• The little boat with the two masts is a yawl.• The pot of soup on the stove should be removed.• The car in front of the school is illegally parked.• One of my brothers joined the team at the high

school.• I took a picture of my grandparents.• Some of these trees reach a height of 400 feet.

Adverb Phrases Why use them? They give the reader more information and the more details you can

give your writing the better! Now if you understand the difference between and adverb phrase and an adjective phrase, then you will be less likely to misplace them and put them in the wrong places. When they are misplaced, you get very awkward

sentences. Remember, an adverb phrase modifies a verb, adjective or other adverb. It answers the questions: where? When? How? To what extent? To what degree?

• The baseball whizzed by the batter.• Everyone came to my house. • June will drive to California. (where?)• We should meet during intermission. (when?)• John answered the questions with confidence.

(How?)

Help me! Let’s find the adverb phrases and the words they modify. We can ink by using the ink option on the

bottom left. Come up and use the pen to find the word modified and the phrase

• Hockey pucks are kept in a refrigerator. (where?)• Since Thursday, we have been rehearsing the play.• The band performed on the field during halftime.• A small boy fished for trout.• I am very happy about your promotion.• A bird sees everything in total focus.• During the marathon, we sat on the curbside.• Some lizards can run on their hind legs.• Within the week give your report to Robertson.• After English class I went to homeroom.• At certain times snow falls in the Sahara!• The Mexican hedgehog cactus can live five years without water.• Notes: Where does the comma go???If a short adverb phrase comes at the

beginning of a sentence, usually no comma is needed. You should, however, place a comma after an introductory adverb phrase of four or more words.

You try it!

• Now take a few minutes to work on the practice and apply. Pg. 68 ex. 3 Only A. (orange book)

• Final review for adjective and adverb phrases. (Grammar Folder in 9th Grade Grammar folder)

Appositives and Appositive PhrasesWhy it matters: Using appositives and appositive phrases offers a concise way of

explaining how a person or thing is special or unique.

• Comma Rules: You do NOT include commas if the appositive phrase is essential to the sentence. The information is essential if it identifies a person, place or thing. However, a comma is needed before and after an appositive or an appositive phrase if the information is not essential to the meaning of the sentence.

• Ex. Tuesday we watched the play Romeo and Juliet on T.V. (Essential Appositive)

• Romeo and Juliet, a play by Shakespeare, can be seen on T.V. Tuesday. (Commas are used because the appositive could be dropped from the sentence.)

Appositives Help me! Come up and take the pen to find them.

• My sister plays the cornet, a wind instrument.• Voyager I photographed Jupiter, our largest planet, in 1979.• George would like to take up the popular sport wind surfing.• Juneau, the capital of Alaska, has a deep harbor.• Let’s meet at Kim’s, the new restaurant on Main Street.• Lynn and Ted danced to the song “Blue Velvet.”• The organist Franz Gruber wrote the music for “Silent Night.”• Eating a meal with chopsticks, two narrow wooden sticks, is an

oriental custom.• The herbs parsley and mint grow well indoors.• At Mardis Gras, a famous carnival in New Orleans, people wear

costumes.• According to Herodotus, a Greek historian, it took 400,000 men 20

years to build the Great Pyramid in Egypt.• The first man to drive a vehicle on the moon was David Scott, an

American.

Now you try

• Pg. 70 Orange book Ex. 3 A + B

Review for Adjective & Adverb Phrases and Appositives.Directions: Highlight the adverb & adjective phrases and appositives and appositive phrases. Identify what kind of phrase it is by writing

Adv. for adverb phrase, Adj. for adverb phrase and App. For any appositives or appositive phrases above the highlighted phrase.

• In a year you eat a total of two and a half tons of food.• • In parts of China, roast pig was a gourmet’s delight.• • Truffles, a subterranean fungus, are the most expensive food in the world.• • In the eastern part of Texas, a rich spinach-growing area, farmers have erected a

statue of Popeye. • • A 220-pound wheel of cheese can require gallons of milk.• • The apple, a healthy treat, has spread throughout Europe.• • Chocolate contains theobromine, a mild stimulate.• • Cid, a gray mare, cried during the night.• • Rennet, a common substance in cheese, is taken from the calf’s stomach lining. • • Consumption of green beans has decreased since the 1940’s.

More review• Diamonds in meteorites sometimes fall from the sky.• Mr. Leonard, our principal, sings in the church choir.• A grasshopper’s sense of hearing is centered in it front knees.• The Chinese New Year always begins between January 20 and

February 20.• Silk material from India is very soft.• The lead guitarist in that band it Rufo Ortiz, my next door neighbor.• I now work after school at the super market.• Some members of the dinosaur family were only the size of rabbits.• Daylight savings time was begun by Benjamin Franklin.• The average adult elephant is covered with one ton of skin.• Oysters on trees can be seen on many islands in the Caribbean Sea.• The Abyssinian, a beautiful short-haired feline, developed from the

African wildcat.• The ZIP in ZIP code stands for zone improvement plan.• My father, the man in the blue suit, will the speaker at the assembly.

Now it is time for the test.

• Adj., adv. App. Phrases• We will do work with misplaced modifiers at

the end of this unit. Now let’s move on to Verbals.

Verbals: Participial Phrases• A participle is a verb form that acts as an

adjective. It modifies a noun or a pronoun. A participial phrase consists of a participial plus its modifiers.

• Inhaling the sweet sharp apple air through his nostrils, he was afraid to open his mouth wide, wary of any movement that was not absolutely essential. He walked tentatively toward the sidelines, listening to the coach barking at the other guys. Using verbals makes your writing come alive and makes it more interesting. Plus, it varies your sentence structure!

Why it matters: Many writers have trouble placing participial phrases in sentences. Putting words in the wrong place can result in a misplaced or dangling phrases that will confuse the reader.

A misplaced participial phrase is closer to some other noun than it is to the one it modifies.

Draft: Beginning in the 1980s, Thanksgiving day was when top high school football teams from different regions paired off in major games.

(This sentence makes it sound as if the first Thanksgiving holiday occurred in the 1890s.)

Revised: Beginning in the 1890s, top high school football teams from different regions paired off in major games on Thanksgiving day.

(A participial phrase that begins a sentence should be followed immediately by what it modifies.)

Dangling participial phrase is one that does not logically modify any of

the words in the sentence in which it appears.

• Draft: Responding to changes in the rules of football, the forward pass was used more often in high school games in the 1920s.

(A forward pass cannot do anything except get caught or hit the ground!)

• Revised: Responding to changes in the rules of football, high school coaches began using the forward pass more often in the 1920s.

(The coaches were the ones who responded to the rule changes.)

Verbal: Participial Phrase A phrase that modifies a noun. A Participial phrase acts like an adjective. Let’s do

this together.• Preferring soccer or basketball, many students do not sign up for

football.• Concerned about football injuries, parents suggest other sports to

their kids.• Reacting to a lack of interest, school officials have cut football funds.• Remaining popular in many urban areas, however, high school football

won’t be dying out any time soon. • Many teenagers playing on high school football teams have had to quit

because they work.• Worried about their children’s grades, parents insist that their

teenagers concentrate on academics rather than sports.• Established by the NFL, football academies teach skills that many

professional players use. • Flying low, the plane circled the airport. • The elm growing in our yard is twenty years old.• The grand prize will go to the person giving the right answer.

Punctuating with Participial Phrases

• A participial phrase that comes at the beginning of a sentence is always followed by a comma.

• Participial phrases that come in the middle or at the end of the sentence may not need commas. If the information is ESSENTIAL, no commas are needed.

• My down vest, given to me as a present, keeps me warm. Not essential, so commas are used.

• The painting hanging near the door is Lee’s. Essential

• You Try!!!Do the review wkst participial phrases.

You Try It!

• Find a partner and together, write four sentences that begin with participial phrases. Have fun with them! File transfer the word document to me when you are done and we will try to find the participial phrases! Make both names are on the document. Save it as Participial Practice in your grammar folder.

Gerund Phrases• A gerund is a verb form that ends in ing and acts as a

noun. It is simply another kind of verbal.• He loves swimming. What THING does he love?

Swimming. Here swimming is the noun.• Now, lets put this into a gerund phrase:• He loves swimming in the ocean. • Like nouns, gerunds can act as subjects and this is

where your sentence variety comes in to practice.• Swimming competitively requires practice. What

requires practice? What THING or what NOUN? Swimming competitively. This is our gerund phrase.

Why it matters in writing:

• Gerunds can help make your writing more concise. Here is an example:

• A person who swims across the English canal makes an awesome accomplishment. Even the fastest swimmers spend more than seven hours to make the trip across the channel.

Let’s Try finding the Gerunds.

• Swimming is one of the best forms of exercise.• Please stop all that yelling!• An early method of food preservation was pickling.• The hungry boys gave eating their full attention.• Running across the yard tired out the puppy.• Whispering in class is disruptive.• Kim has always enjoyed cooking.• Dreaming is a common experience for people.• Answering the phone can be dreadful.• Painting still life portraits is Tom’s new hobby.• Graduating from college is important for future job security.• Arriving on time for a job interview creates a good impression. • Getting up at six is part of my routine.

Let’s try some more…• Competing in the Olympics has been his dream for

years.• Having only seven months to prepare made it difficult

for him to qualify.• Winning the gold medal in the 100-meter butterfly

was a dream come true.• Earning a law degree was not easy.• Working every day was dreadful for him.• Reading every day does not weaken the eyes.• Rowing all day on the river made our muscles weak.• Rushing the passer seemed like a good strategy for

the football team.

You Try It!

• Find a partner and write four sentences which begin with Gerund Phrases. Have fun with your sentences! When you finish, file transfer the document to me with both names on it and I will put all of them on the smart board so we can try finding the gerund phrases. Save it as Gerund Practice in your grammar folder.

Infinitive Phrases: Verbals

• An infinitive is a verb that usually begins with to. It is used as a noun at the beginning of the sentence and this is how we will use it for sentence variety. It looks different from a participial or a gerund because it usually begins with the word to.

• It can be found within the sentence acting as an adjective and adverb too.

• An infinitive is TO plus a VERB FORM• To Drive, To Walk. NOT To Texas, To my house• If the phrase begins with TO and ends with a

NOUN, it is a prepositional phrase.

Why it matters in writing:

• Using infinitive phrases, you can combine sentences in a way that eliminates unnecessary words and sharpens the relationship between ideas.

• Draft: Golfers use many different types of clubs during a tournament. Different clubs are needed to hit good shots.

• Revision: Golfers use many different types of clubs to hit good shots during a tournament.

Let’s try to find the infinitive phrases.

• I would like to speak.• That stereo is too expensive to buy.• To buy the stereo would be a mistake.• I need some time to rest.• To rest for a while would be fantastic!• What did you want to say?• To say you are angry would be a lie.• To give something back to society is important.• To overcome fear is a major task.• To turn your dreams into reality takes hard word.

Find the infinitive phrases

• We hope to finish early.• To finish early would be impossible.• Europeans were the first to use wallpaper.• To prevent snow blindness, Eskimos have been

wearing sunglasses for 2,000 years.• In Baltimore it is a crime to mistreat an oyster.• Henry Ford was the first employer in America to

guarantee a minimum wage of five dollars.• Helen Madison was the first woman to swim 100 yards

in one minutes.• To swim one hundred yards in one minute is a major

accomplishment.

Now you try

• Find a partner and write four sentences which begin with infinitive Phrases. Have fun with your sentences! When you finish, file transfer the document to me with both names on it and I will put all of them on the smart board so we can try finding the gerund phrases. Save it as Infinitive Practice in your grammar folder.

Placement of Phrases• A common mistake that writers make is putting phrases in

the wrong positions in sentences. This mistake usually involves phrases used as adjectives or adverbs.

• A Misplaced Phrases is a phrase that is placed so far away from the word it modifies that the meaning of the sentence is unclear or incorrect.

• DRAFT: The U.S. team in men’s indoor volleyball won the most gold medals during the 1980s.

• This sentence says that the U.S. men’s indoor volleyball team won more gold medals than any other team in the sport and this is not true.

• REVISION: The U.S. team won the most medals in men’s indoor volleyball during the 1980s.

• When the words that a phrase should modify are missing from the sentence, the phrase is called a dangling phrase.

• DRAFT: Failing to win a gold medal in the 1900s, the Olympic women’s indoor volleyball competition has been disappointing.

• The sentence above says that a competition was what didn’t win a gold medal.

• Failing to win a gold medal in the 1900s, the U.S. women’s indoor volleyball team was disappointing at the Olympics.

Dangling Phrases

Why it matters• Sentences with phrases that are NOT placed

properly can sound confusing to readers. Such sentences can end up sounding downright silly.

• To keep their grades up, homework assignments need to take a priority over students’ athletic activities.

• (When did homework assignments develop a mind of their own? Are we in the twilight zone?)

Let’s try• Jack noticed two robins bicycling to school. • (Are the robins bicycling to school or is Jack?) • I came upon an accident turning the corner.• (Is the accident turning the corner?)• Weighed down by our packs, the trail seemed endless.• (Is the trail weighed down by packs?)• Driving to Miami, our road maps were a big help.• (Were the road maps traveling to Miami?)

• Jogging along the street, my ankle twisted.• (Was your ankle jogging down the street?)• We saw a deer riding along in our car.• Turning the pages, my eye noticed the record

sale at Rick’s Records.• (Was your eye turning the pages?)• That gift was given by Eric wrapped in silver

paper.• After glancing at the clock, the book was closed

by Linda.• Growing in the garden, I picked some tomatoes.

• We admired the Autumn leaves gliding along in our canoe.

• Having waited up for the election results, weariness overcame us.

• Leaping out of the water, the trainer threw a fish to the dolphin.

• We noticed a stranger at the front door looking out the upstairs window.

• To avoid any last-minute problems, reservations should be made in advance.

• (Are the reservations avoiding last minute problems?)

You try it.

• Do pg. 79 orange book. 1-10

Writing Review• Now choose three of your journal prompts.

Between the 3 paragraphs, you need to include ALL of the phrases we reviewed. It might be easiest to write per paragraph.

• 1 Appositive• 1 Adjective Phrase (begin sentence)• 1 Adverb Phrase (begin sentence)• 1 Gerund (begin sentence)• 1 Infinitive (begin sentence)• 1 Participial phrase (begin sentence)

Test Time!!!

• I will put this pp with our corrections on my website for you to download. Use it to study for the test.