Woe is me! I suck at grammar!

[Rosie_0801]

But I am learning! :D

Not very quickly though. :confused::confused: (Two smilies because dh and I are studying together.)

 

We were working through Analytical Grammar the other night and really need to know what role the "probably not" plays in the following sentence:

 

"This story is probably not an accurate version of how your nation's symbol was made."

 

If I could know everything before I started learning it, it would be so much easier :lol:

 

Rosie

[Carol in Cal.]

It describes the verb 'is' in that sentence.

 

Probably is also an adverb. It describes the adverb 'not'.

 

Adverbs can describe verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs. They can be anywhere in the sentence, which makes their identification more elusive and truly annoying.

 

HTH

[jld]

I think they're both adverbs. Does that help?

[Rosie_0801]

Ah. Well we haven't got to adverbs yet, and I was taught in school that adverbs only described verbs. They lied! :svengo:

 

Ok. We're good now. Thank you :)

 

Rosie

[Ibbygirl]

It describes the verb 'is' in that sentence.

 

Probably is also an adverb. It describes the adverb 'not'.

 

Adverbs can describe verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs. They can be anywhere in the sentence, which makes their identification more elusive and truly annoying.

 

HTH

 

Truer words were never spoken...er... I mean written. ;) :lol:

[Mejane]

Rosie, your title made me think of the book Woe is I. It's a humorous little grammar how-to for adults, and there's also a junior version.

[Ellie]

Ah. Well we haven't got to adverbs yet, and I was taught in school that adverbs only described verbs. They lied! :svengo:

 

I'll swoon with you!:svengo:And I'll raise you a glare. :glare:

 

Adverbs are just evil, I tell you. It's why Easy Grammar teaches them *last*.

[Rosie_0801]

So we can't even simplify adverbs by considering them anything left over from the other categories?

 

Rosie- totally raring to get to the chapter on adverbs ;)

[Kareni]

Rosie, your title made me think of the book Woe is I. It's a humorous little grammar how-to for adults, and there's also a junior version.

 

I had the same thought, Mejane!

 

Wishing you good fortune with your adverbial travails, Rosie.

 

Regards,

Kareni

[AngelBee]

:grouphug: Grammer is hard for me as well.

[Brindee]

I stink at grammar as well! :(

[PollyOR]

I'll join the crowd. I was doing Analytical Grammar with DD and she had to help me :001_huh::blushing:. Diagramming is helpful...most of the time.

[Ellie]

So we can't even simplify adverbs by considering them anything left over from the other categories?

 

Rosie- totally raring to get to the chapter on adverbs ;)

Um...what??

 

I think you can, if I understand your question correctly. Cross out/label/whatever the other words in the sentence and see what's left. That might *help*, but I don't know if it will be the final answer.

 

Adverbs are just evil.:glare:

[ekarl2]

Rosie,

 

Adverbs is the hardest unit of Season One ... then it's all downhill from there. Let me know if you need help; I'm here for you!

[Rosie_0801]

I will be delighted if I get to the adverb unit this side of Christmas ;) Thanks for the offer, though! Dh and I only get to study at night if the kids are both in bed, and we still have brain power left. We are amazed if this happens even once a week!

 

Rosie- getting on down with nouns, articles and adjectives :)

[min]

Rosie, don't worry too much about things that haven't been covered yet; all will be revealed! I'm also working through AG as a self-education exercise. I'm a few units ahead of you, but it it's all been shelved at present while I'm working on other assignments.

 

You're in Australia, aren't you? When you get to the punctuation bit you will probably notice that we handle end punctuations differently when using quotation marks. That's one difference I noticed on a quick flip through, but I'd love to hear if you notice any other US/Aus-etc-English differences. I feel like I'd notice any differences along the way, but you never know! Two minds are better than one!

 

(And, if I'm totally confused and you're not in Australia, please ignore me!)

 

Bye

Miranda

[Carol in Cal.]

Noun, verb, adjective, pronoun, adverb, conjunction, preposition, interjection.

 

(It's nice to bound them with a brief list that you can run through in your head. There are only so many things a word CAN be.)

 

Annoyingly enough, words that fall into those categories sometimes are used for other parts of speech in sentences. Even worse, entire phrases sometimes are used for other parts of speech in sentences. That's why most grammar programs gradually introduce the parts of speech via sentences of increasing complexity, so that you learn them in relation to each other.

 

I think that AG introduces tougher sentences earlier than most programs, although I am not certain of that. The sentence that you were figuring out is one that most books would not introduce until you already had covered adverbs and even some advanced phrases.

 

What I find helpful in sussing out a sentence is to have a specific sequence of questions to answer, that build on each other.

 

First, what is the verb or verb phrase of the main part of the sentence?

Then, who or what verbed? (Subject)

Is the verb an action verb or a state of being verb?

If it's an action verb, is there a direct object? (Found out by asking the question, Subject verbed whom or what?)

If there is a direct object, is there an indirect object? (Found out by asking the question, Subject verbed direct object to whom or what?)

If the verb is a state of being verb, is there a predicate nominative (a noun or pronoun in the predicate that renames the subject noun or pronoun)? Or is there a predicate adjective (an adjective in the predicate that describes the subject noun or pronoun).

Are there any prepositional phrases (model: preposition, possible adjectives, very occasional adverbs describing the adjectives, noun or pronoun object of the preposition)?

Are there any conjunctions? What do they connect? (subjects, verbs, other nouns, adjectives, adverbs, phrases, clauses)

Are there any other nouns, and if so, what are they doing?

Then, do any of the nouns have adjectives that modify them?

Do any of the verbs or adjectives have adverbs that modify them?

Do any of those adverbs have modifying adverbs?

 

Whew!

Now you're all finished except for infinitives, gerunds, and other clauses. Which are beyond the scope of this list. The list is for the easiest to medium level sentences. Once I got good at that list, it was much easier for me to discern when an entire clause was acting as, say, an appositive, because I was so good at finding appositives that I could recognize the pattern pretty easily.

 

You might want to pick up the Rod and Staff handbook as a cheap and easy reference. It has great diagramming examples, and clear and concise explanations of all of the grammar functions in English. It's much less wordy than AG and therefore easy to use as a fallback and later as a review text.

[Rosie_0801]

Carol, please! I'll be too intimidated to come back again! :svengo::lol:

 

Miranda: Yes, I am in Australia. I was wondering how I'd go with the punctuation section, and decided to worry about it later. Much, much later :D The only other Aussie/American difference I've noticed so far is cultural. ;)

 

Rosie

[Carol in Cal.]

Carol, please! I'll be too intimidated to come back again! :svengo::lol:

 

 

Oh dear...

 

I am sorry!

 

I guess I'm kind of a whole to parts person. I like to see the overall picture and get my arms around it, and then fill in the details. It makes the body of work look smaller to me overall, because I'm confident that I have the whole picture mapped out.

 

Really, it's not that bad! Those questions only take about 5 minutes to run through, usually less actually.