he b. who which d. while

I was starving, so I ate a whole pizza. The dog needs to be fed daily, but the fish only needs to be fed every other day. He is from Australia; she is from New Zealand. P HRASES AND M ODIFIERS Sentences are often “filled out” by phrases and modifiers. Phrases are groups of words that do not have both a subject and predicate. Modifiers are words and phrases that qualify or describe people, places, things and actions. The most common phrases are prepositional phrases, which consist of a preposition and a noun or pronoun e.g., in the kitchen. Modifiers include adjectives e.g., dark, stormy and adverbs e.g., slowly, care- fully. In the examples below, the prepositional phrases are underlined and the modifiers are in bold: I gave Xiomara a beautiful, hand-made gift for her sixteenth birthday. Yesterday I ate a large pizza w ith mushrooms and anchovies. On Friday, it rained all day, so the baseball game was cancelled by the league. Practice 2 For the following sentences, please: A. Place brackets “[ ]” around any dependent clauses. B. Underline any prepositional phrases.

C. Circle any modifiers.

PREPOSITIONS are extremely important. They help us understand how objects relate to each other in space and time. But they can also be one of the most difficult aspects of a foreign language to learn. Here are the more com- mon prepositions. See page 83 for notes about the most common prepositional idioms. about beside inside through above besides into throughout across between like till after beyond near to against by of toward around down off under at during on until before except out up behind for outside upon below from over with beneath in since without Prepositions: A Short List – S T R U C T U R E : G R A M M A R A N D S T Y L E – 5 7 A word’s part of speech determines its function and form. The word quiet, for example, can be either a verb or an adjective; it changes to quietly when it is an adverb. Be sure you know the different parts of speech and the job each part of speech performs in a sentence. The following table offers a quick reference guide for the main parts of speech. PART OF SPEECH FUNCTION EXAMPLES noun names a person, place, thing, or concept girl, Eleanor, street, Walsh Avenue, calculator, happiness pronoun takes the place of a noun so that noun I, you, he, she, us, they, this, that, themselves, does not have to be repeated somebody, who, which verb describes an action, occurrence, or jump, becomes, is, seemed, clamoring state of being helping verb combines with other verbs main verbs forms of be, do and have; can, could, may, might, also called to create verb phrases that help indicate must, shall, should, will, would auxiliary verb tenses adjective describes nouns and pronouns; red, small, glorious, unexpected; that e.g., can also identify or quantify that car; several e.g., several dogs adverb describes verbs, adjectives, other adverbs, slowly, happily, always, very, yesterday or entire clauses preposition expresses the relationship in time or space in, on, around, above, between, underneath, between words in a sentence beside, with, upon see list on page 83. 1. Since interest rates have dropped considerably in the last month, it would be wise to refinance the mortgage on your new home. 2. I finally reached Tom in his office, and he said he would ship the redesigned brochures by express mail. 3. When I mailed the 200-page manuscript to my editor, I didn’t realize that the pages were completely out of order. 4. Whether you are ready or not, the chemistry test is tomorrow at 9:00 in Room 213. 5. The seven-foot-tall ostrich is the fastest two-legged animal on Earth. Parts of Speech – S T R U C T U R E : G R A M M A R A N D S T Y L E – 5 8