HESI Entrance Grammar Questions and Answers

HESI Entrance Grammar Questions and Answers Nouns A person, place, thing, or idea Common Nouns A general name of a person, place or thing (e.g., doctor, hospital, college), Proper Nouns The official, proper name, of a person, place or thing. Proper names are always capitalized (e.g., Dr. Brown, The Ohio State University Hospital, Hondros College of Nursing). Abstract Nouns The name of a quality or general idea (e.g., honesty, knowledge, bravery, compassion). Collective Nouns Represents a group of persons, animals, or things (e.g., swarm, herd, pack, group, class). Possessive Nouns A noun that shows ownership. Singular Possessive Nouns add an apostrophe with an "s" computer's keyboard deer's antlers Mary's book Plural Possessive Nouns add an "s" and then the apostrophe babies' shoes eggs' color lemons' acidity noun grammar Rule When a plural noun does not end in an "s," add an apostrophe and an "s" to make it possessive (cattle, geese, deer, women, children, people, feet, lice, mice, men, barra Pronouns A word or phrase that replaces a noun in a sentence. Pronouns can do everything that nouns can do. The group of words or word to which a pronoun refers is called the antecedent. (The nurses offered their assistance to their patients.) Personal Pronouns Personal pronouns are associated with a certain or specific person, place, thing or idea. They are either singular or plural. Personal pronouns can be used in the following ways: First person - represents the person speaking (I, my) Second person - represents a person or thing spoken to (you) Third person - standing for a person or thing spoken of (he, she, they, it) Possessive Pronouns Designate possession or ownership. Possessive pronouns will never contain an apostrophe. (mine, ours, yours, your, my) Adjectives A word, phrase or clause used to name the attribute of the noun or pronoun. An adjective describes or modifies the noun and specifies the noun as something that is distinct from something else. It answers the questions what kind, which one, how many, how much. Participle A word formed from a verb, pronoun or noun that acts as an adjective. Participles usually end with "ing" or "ed." These adjectives usually precede the noun or noun phrase that they modify. (jumping grasshoppers, singing canaries, worried parents, crying baby) adjective grammar rule When using the helping words more and most with a one syllable adjective, in almost all cases use -er or -est (e.g., big, bigger, biggest, small, smaller, smallest, thin, thinner, thinnest). When using a two-syllable adjective use the actual words "more" and "most" (bizarre, more bizarre, most bizarre, beautiful, more beautiful, most beautiful). verbs A word used to describe an action, state, or occurrence. Verbs always express activity. There are three tenses to a verb - present, past and future. Linking verbs A linking verb connects the subject with a word that gives information about the subject. Linking verbs do not show action, they simply link the subject with the rest of the sentence. Some linking verbs are formed from the word "to be": am, is, are, was were, being, been. Linking verbs can relate to the five senses: taste, smell, look, sound, feel. Linking verbs can reflect a state of being: remained, became, gets, turn, prove. Adverbs A word or phrase that modifies or qualifies an adjective, verb, or other adverb or a word group. It expresses place, time circumstance, manner, cause or degree. Adverbs answer the question when, where, how and to what extent. Prepositions Words or a group of words that relate the noun or pronoun to another word in the sentence. Examples of Prepositions: about, between, of, under, above Compound Prepositions Two or more words that are used as a single preposition. Examples of Compound Prepositions: according to, by reason o, in between, on behalf of Prepositional Phrases A group of words containing prepositions. A prepositional phrase will begin with a preposition and end with a noun, pronoun or clause and will not have a verb or a subject. Examples of Prepositional Phrases: on the bathroom floor, up the hill, into the woods, in the vegetable bin Conjunctions A word used to connect clauses or phrases together in a sentence. Examples of Conjunctions: and, if, where, until, like, that, when Correlative conjunction Words that work together in pairs and relate to one another to connect a sentence. Examples of Correlative Conjunctions either / or- I want either the chocolate cake or chocolate candy. neither / nor- Neither Mary, nor Sam can go to the store. Interjections Words that are inserted into a sentence to capture short bursts of emotion. Interjections express emotion or exclamation without any grammatical connection to the other words in the sentence. Common Interjections aha, eek, rats, oh, eek, amen, argh, yes Sentence A sentence is a set of words that contain a subject and a predicate. It conveys a complete thought and begins with a capital letter and ends with a full stop or full point. (The professor at the college is my neighbor.) Declarative sentence This sentence tells or declares something. (The dog is playful.) Interrogative Sentence This sentence asks a question and ends with a question mark. (Is the dog playful?) Exclamatory Sentence This sentence tells something out of the ordinary or makes an exclamation about something. (This is the most playful dog I have ever seen!) Imperative Sentence This sentence makes a command or request. (Give the dog a bone.) Subject The subject of a sentence is the person, place, thing or idea that is doing or being something. It names whom or what the sentence is about. (The professor at the college is my neighbor.) Phrase A phrase is a group of words that stand together as a single unit as part of a clause or sentence. It does not contain a subject or a verb and does not convey a complete thought. (The professor at the college, with the long black beard, is my neighbor.) Clause A clause is a group of words with a subject and a predicate. (Jordan bought a new computer, but he still has the old one.) Independent clause An independent clause (or main clause) makes sense by itself. It expresses a complete thought and can stand alone in the sentence. (, Jordan bought a new computer.) Dependent clause (subordinate clause) An dependent clause does not make sense on its own and does not express a complete thought. It has both a subject and a verb. (Although he still has the old one,) Direct object A direct object will follow a verb. They can be nouns, pronouns, phrases or clauses. If you can identify the subject and verb in a sentence, then finding the direct object is easy. Subject + Verb + what? or who? = Direct Object (The puppy watched the bunny hopping through the grass.)