Word Detectives
Read this sentence: “The exhausted runner crossed the finish line quickly.” Identify the adjective and the adverb.
Exhausted is the adjective; quickly is the adverb.
Complete the sentence using the past tense of bring: “Yesterday, Mia ______ her lunch to school.”
Brought
Identify the simple subject and simple predicate: “The playful kitten chased the red ball.”
Simple subject: kitten. Simple predicate: chased.
In “The flowers smell wonderful,” is smell a linking verb or an action verb? Explain your answer.
Linking verb. It connects flowers to a description of how they smell.
Find the helping verb in this sentence: “The students have completed their projects.”
Have. It helps the main verb completed.
Rewrite this sentence by replacing the repeated name with pronouns: “Emma finished Emma’s homework before Emma went outside.”
Emma finished her homework before she went outside.
Rewrite this sentence in the future tense: “The class visits the library tomorrow.”
“The class will visit the library tomorrow.”
Identify the complete subject and complete predicate: “The three nervous students waited outside the classroom.”
Complete subject: The three nervous students
Complete predicate: waited outside the classroom
In “The chef smelled the soup to check whether it was fresh,” is smelled a linking verb or an action verb? Explain your answer.
Action verb. The chef is performing the action of smelling the soup.
In “The children are laughing loudly,” identify the helping verb and the main verb.
Helping verb: are. Main verb: laughing.
In “The students visited Boston during their vacation,” identify two common nouns, one proper noun, and one pronoun.
Common nouns: students and vacation. Proper noun: Boston. Pronoun: their.
A student writes, “Last night, we walk to the store.” Correct the verb so that the tense agrees with the time.
Walked. Correct sentence: “Last night, we walked to the store.”
Is this a complete sentence or a fragment? Explain why: “After the final bell rang.”
Fragment. It leaves the thought unfinished by telling when something happened without explaining what happened afterward.
In “The classroom became quiet,” identify the linking verb and the predicate adjective.
Linking verb: became. Predicate adjective: quiet.
In “We have three new books,” is have a helping verb? Explain your answer.
No. Have is the main verb expressing possession. It is not helping another verb.
A student writes, “Three mouse ran beneath the tables.” Identify the plural-noun error and correct the sentence.
Mouse should be mice. Correct sentence: “Three mice ran beneath the tables.”
Identify the tense of each verb: “Every day, Leo (writes) in his journal. Yesterday, he (wrote) two pages. Tomorrow, he will (write) again.”
Writes = present tense; wrote = past tense; will write = future tense.
Repair both fragments by adding whatever is needed to make each a complete sentence.
“The tall boy near the window.”
“Ran quickly toward the bus."
Answers will vary. Examples:
“The tall boy near the window raised his hand.”
“She ran quickly toward the bus.”
In “My brother is a talented musician,” identify the linking verb and the complete predicate nominative.
Linking verb: is. Predicate nominative: a talented musician.
Read the paragraph and identify all four helping verbs:
“Maya has finished her essay. She will check it again and might ask her teacher for advice. Her classmates are preparing their own essays.”
Has, will, might, are.
In “The careful student quietly carried her notebooks into Windham Academy,” identify one noun, one verb, one adjective, one adverb, one pronoun, and one proper noun.
Noun: student or notebooks
Verb: carried
Adjective: careful
Adverb: quietly
Pronoun: her
Proper noun: Windham Academy
Complete the paragraph using the correct simple past, present, or future form of each verb in parentheses:
“Every morning, Ava ______ (walk) to school. Yesterday, she ______ (take) the bus. Tomorrow, she ______ (ride) with her mother.”
Walks, took, will ride
Analyze this sentence: “The exhausted soccer players carried their equipment into the locker room.” Identify the simple subject, complete subject, simple predicate, and complete predicate.
Simple subject: players
Complete subject: The exhausted soccer players
Simple predicate: carried
Complete predicate: carried their equipment into the locker room
List all seven forms of the verb be from your study guide. Then provide an original sentence using one of these forms as a linking verb.
Am, is, are, was, were, being, been. Example: “The room was chilly.” The word was is the linking verb.
Classify the verbs as a linking verb or a helping verb in each sentence.
“The players (were) tired.”
“The players (were) practicing.”
“The answer (is) correct.”
“She (is) writing.”
Linking verb
Helping verb
Linking verb
Helping verb