2nd Grade Grammar Overview
Grammar Overview & Tentative Pacing Guide
Iris and Walter
- A sentence is a group of words that tells a complete idea.
- The words are in an order that makes sense.
- A sentence begins with a capital letter.
- All sentences must end with an end mark (punctuation).
Exploring Space with an Astronaut
- The subject of a sentence tells who or what does something.
Henry and Mudge
- The predicate tells what the subject of a sentence does or is.
A Walk in the Desert
- A statement is a sentence that tells something.
- A statement can also be called a declarative sentence.
- A statement ends with a period.
- A question is a sentence that asks something.
- A question can also be called an interrogative sentence.
- A question ends with a question mark.
The Strongest One
- A command is a sentence that tells someone to do something.
- A command can also be called an imperative sentence.
- A command ends in a period.
- An exclamation is a sentence that shows surprise or strong feelings.
- An exclamation can also be called an exclamatory sentence.
- An exclamation ends with an exclamation mark.
Tara and Tiree
- A noun names a person, place, animal, or thing.
Ronald Morgan Goes to Bat
- Proper nouns are special names of people, places, animals, or things.
- Proper nouns begin with a capital letter.
- Days of the week, months of the year, and holidays also begin with capital letters.
- Titles for people begin with capital letters.
- Many titles end with a period.
Turtle's Race with Beaver
- A singular noun names one person, place, animal, or thing.
- A plural noun names more than one person, place, animal, or thing.
- Add -s to most nouns to name more than one.
- Add -es to nouns that end in s, ss, sh, ch, or x to name more than one.
The Bremen Town Musicians
- A plural noun names more than one person, place, animal, or thing.
- Some nouns change the spelling to name more than one.
child -children man-men woman-women tooth-teeth foot-feet leaf-leaves wolf-wolves mouse-mice
goose-geese
A Turkey for Thanksgiving
- A noun that shows who or what owns something is a possessive noun.
- To show ownership, add an apostrophe (') and -s when the noun is singular.
- Add just the apostrophe (') when the noun is already plural.
Pearl and Wagner
- A word that shows action is a verb.
- A verb tells what the subject does or is.
Dear Juno
- Add –s to a verb to tell what one person, animal, or thing does.
- Do not add –s to a verb that tells what two or more people, animals, or things do.
Anansi Goes Fishing
- A present tense verb tells about now.
- If the subject is singular, the verb usually ends in -s.
- A past tense verb tells about the past.
- A past tense verb usually ends in –ed.
- A future tense verb tells about the future.
- A future tense verb begins with “will.”
Rosa and Blanca
(continue with verb tenses)
A Weed is a Flower
- The verbs am, is, are, was, and were do not show action.
- These verbs are forms of the verb “to be.”
- These verbs show what someone or something is or was.
- These verbs are called “linking verbs” or “being verbs.”
- The verbs am, is, and are tell about now (present tense).
- The verbs was and were tell about the past (past tense).
- Use am, is, and was to tell about one person, place, or thing.
- Use are and were to tell about more than one person, place, or thing.
The Quilt Story
- An adjective describes a person, place, animal, or thing.
- An adjective can tell how something looks, sounds, tastes, feels, or smells.
Life Cycle of a Pumpkin
- Words for number, size, and shape are adjectives.
- The words a, an, and the are also adjectives.
- Use a before a word that begins with a consonant sound.
- Use an before a word that begins with a vowel sound.
Frogs
- Add –er to an adjective to compare two people, places, or things.
- Add –est to an adjective to compare three or more people, places, or things.
I Like Where I Am
- Adverbs tell more about a verb.
- Some adverbs show when or where.
Helen Keller
- An adverb can tell how many.
- Adverbs that tell how usually end in –ly.
Fire Fighter!
- A pronoun is a word that takes the place of a noun or nouns.
- The words I, you, he, she, we, it, and they are pronouns.
One Dark Night
- He, she, and it are pronouns that name one.
- We and they are pronouns that name more than one.
he – one boy or man she – one girl or woman
it – one thing we – two or more (you are in the group)
they – two or more (you are not in the group)
Bad Dog, Dodger!
- The pronouns I and me take the place of your name.
- Use I in the subject part of a sentence.
- Use me after an action verb.
- Always capitalize the word I.
- When you talk about yourself and another person, name yourself last.
Horace and Morris
- The pronouns I, he, she, we, and they are used as subjects of a sentence.
- The pronouns me, him, her, us, and them are used after action verbs.
- The pronouns you and it can be used anywhere in a sentence.
The Signmaker’s Assistant
- A contraction is a short way to put two words together.
- An apostrophe (‘) takes the place of one or more letters.
- Contractions can be formed by putting together a pronoun and another word such as will, are, is, am, and have.
Just Like Josh Gibson
- Days of the week, months of the year, and holidays begin with capital letters.
- Titles for people begin with capital letters.
Red, White, and Blue
- Quotation marks (“ “) show the beginning and ending of the words someone says.
- The speaker’s name and words such as said or asked are not inside quotation marks.
A Birthday Basket for Tia
- Commas are used in addresses to separate the city and state.
- Commas are used in dates to separate the day from the year.
- Commas are used after the greeting and in the closing of a letter.
- Commas are used to separate three or more things in a sentence.
(I teach English, reading, and spelling.)
Cowboys
- Sometimes sentences have ideas that go together.
- These sentences can be combined using a comma and a connecting word, such as and or but.
- The combined sentence is called a compound sentence.
Jingle Dancer
- A paragraph is a group of sentences about the same idea.
- The sentences are in an order that makes sense.
- One sentence gives the main idea. It is usually the first or last sentence.
- The other sentences give details about the main idea.
- Always indent the first word of a paragraph.
