by Flo Selfman
An acting teacher friend years ago invited me to participate in a beginning class as a gift. As there were several instructors in his studio, I was surprised to see, besides advanced scene study, he himself taught this class. He said he always wanted to remember the basics. I agree, so I present basics here. This may seem oversimplified but stay with me and we’ll build on it.
Expect a follow-up article on punctuation.
TIP: It’s important to think of words in terms of their function in a sentence.
There are three kinds of nouns: common nouns, proper nouns, and collective nouns.
Common nouns are names of general persons, places or things: girl, city, car. They begin with lower case letters.
Proper nouns are names of specific persons, places or things: Sarah, Topeka, Maserati. They begin with capital letters.
Collective nouns denote a group of individuals or things expressed collectively by one word (crowd; a pride of lions).
In function, a noun may be the subject of the sentence and perform the action in the sentence.
It may also be the object of the sentence or the object of a preposition. (John drove home in the dark.)
TIP: Collective nouns in American English take a singular verb. (The band is playing tonight.)
TRAP: In British English, collective nouns take a plural verb. (The band are playing tonight.) Use the American rule unless you have a reason for doing otherwise.
There are subject pronouns and object pronouns.
As you might guess, subject pronouns are used as the subject of a sentence. They perform the action in the sentence. (I, you, he, she, we, they, who)
Object pronouns are the object of the sentence, object of the verb, or object of a preposition. (me, you, him, her, us, them, whom) Note that object pronouns are lower case.
TIP: You and it can be either a subject or an object pronoun.
The word the pronoun replaces is the antecedent. It should be the noun closest to the pronoun. A common mistake: Sam bought a new car from Alex. He paid him in cash. In this short sentence, the antecedents are clear, but often they are not. I’ve seen paragraphs where there are two nouns and a half dozen or more pronouns and it’s impossible to know who is doing the action and who is receiving it.
TIP: we were taught that “we” come after the other person in the sentence. John and I, not I and John.
TRAP: don’t mix subject and object pronouns in the same phrase. (he and I, not him and I; with her and me, not with she and him)
Correct: John and Sue went to the movies with Sam and Mary.
Correct: John and Sue met Sam and Mary at lunch and later went to the movies with him and her.
Incorrect: Me and Joe got sandwiches at lunch.
Incorrect: Joe and me got sandwiches at lunch.
Correct: Joe and I got sandwiches at lunch.
Trap: don’t use a subject pronoun as the object of a sentence or as the object of a prepositional phrase.
Incorrect: “I’m meeting he and his wife for dinner.”
Correct: “I’m meeting him and his wife for dinner.”
Incorrect: “I’m having dinner with he and his wife.”
Correct: “I’m having dinner with him and his wife.”
The dog jumped over the fence.
I feel sick today.
There are regular verbs and irregular verbs.
Regular verbs form their past and past participles in a predictable way (talk, talked, had talked).
Irregular verbs form their past and participles in various ways: (go, went, have gone; drink, drank, have drunk; buy, bought, have bought)
TIP: There are many good charts online for verb conjugation.
TIP: Subject and verb must agree in number: that is, a singular subject takes a singular verb, and a plural subject takes a plural verb. (NOTE: Singular means one; plural means more than one, whether two or two million.)
TRAP: Verbs must agree in number with the subject of the sentence, not with the object. It’s called subject-verb agreement. (See more under Prepositions.)
TIP: Adverbs often end in –ly.
TRAP: People frequently say “very unique.” While “very” is an adverb, it is incorrect to use it with “unique,” as by definition, “unique” is one of a kind; therefore, there are no degrees of uniqueness.
TIP: Flight attendant announcements often emphasize prepositions: “Please bring your seats to their full upright position and remain (where?) in your seats (when?) until the plane has come (where?) to a complete stop (where?) at the terminal.”
TRAP: Remember the comment above about subject-verb agreement? Here’s one thing that trips people up. The verb must agree in number with the subject of the sentence – but when a prepositional phrase comes between the subject and the object, people often match the verb to the object of the sentence, not the subject. (The thing I like best about this restaurant [is, are?] their desserts. The correct answer is is, to agree in number with the subject (thing; singular), not the object (desserts; plural).
The seven most common coordinating conjunctions are for, and, nor, but, or, yet, and so, which can be remembered with the acronym FANBOYS. Google for explanation of the acronym.
TIP: You usually do not need a comma after one of these when it begins a sentence.
It can also indicate a sudden change in tone or direction. (“I wanted to tell you — Oh, no, the building’s on fire!”)
TIP: Use exclamation points sparingly.
TRAP: Do not use more than one. The only exception is in very casual notes.
Next come the road signs: punctuation. Stay tuned.
Flo Selfman is a copy editor for award-winning books, both fiction and nonfiction, in several genres. She was president of the Independent Writers of Southern California (IWOSC.org) for a dozen years, stepping down in 2016. Winner of the Honorary Achievement Award from The BookFest (Spring 2023). Flo is working on a collection of stories and can often be found exploring SoCalif, camera in hand.
Flo Selfman
PR Consultant
Copy Editor-Proofreader
"the lady with the red pen"
WordsalaMode.com
Independent Writers of SoCalif., Past President
2003-2016 IWOSC.org (now merged with WPN Writers)
