Once upon a time, in a land far, far away, there existed ten neighbours in a town. Anyone who visited would not be wrong in thinking that this was an unfriendly place. Families barely talked with one another since they could not make sense of what each were saying. Take that one time when Mrs. Noun tried to borrow sugar from her neighbour.
Mrs. Noun knocked on Adjective's door and asked, "Sugar?"
Mrs. Adjective crinkled her brow, "Sweet?"
Mrs. Noun said, "Not sweet."
Mrs. Adjective replied, "Sweet, yes?"
Mrs. Noun said, "No mind."
She tried again with Mrs. Verb across the road.
Mrs. Noun asked, "Sugar?"
Mrs. Verb responded, "Sweetly?"
Mrs. Noun replied, "No. Sugar."
Mrs. Verb asked, "Do what?"
Mrs. Noun replied, "Cookie recipe."
Mrs. Verb asked again, "Do what?"
Mrs. Noun gave up, "No mind."
Well that was the sad situation in this place. Nobody could really understand anybody since no one knew how to complete a sentence. The situation became so bad that even the mayor, Miss Preposition, had problems collecting fees. How were they supposed to build a new community hall?
Then one day Miss Preposition had an idea. She met up with Mr. Conjunction, since he was the only one that seemed to have any inkling of what she was talking about. The conversation went something like this.
Ms. Preposition started with, "In regard to", and pointed to the town.
Mr. Conjunction said, "and?"
Ms. Preposition clasped her fingers together and replied, "between"
Mr. Conjunction shook his head, "but"
Ms. Preposition held up her pet monkey and replied, "with"
Mr. Conjunction was skeptical, "only if"
Ms. Preposition pointed at him, then at herself, "between"
Mr. Conjunction thought for a while, the idea seems implausible but it may just work. They needed to find a way to bring the town together and if it takes a monkey to do it for them then a monkey it will be.
Two days later, Ms. Preposition carried her monkey to the centre of the town and rang a large bell. She stood under the roof of the bell house and patted the monkey as she waited for the town-folk to assemble. Then she decided to stand next to a tree, after all, monkeys prefer trees.
Ms. Preposition studied the faces of all the families that gathered. It was a sad sight really; everyone huddled together with their own kin while throwing unfriendly glances at their neighbors. Mr. Conjunction was glad that Prepie decided to do this, imagine what would happen if the situation was allowed to fester.
As everyone turned their attention to the town mayor, the pet monkey jumped from her arms, onto the tree and climbed. Then it jumped onto the roof of the bell house.
Interjection shouted, "Look!"
Articles called out, "A. A. The."
Nouns said, "Monkey. Tree. Roof."
Pronouns gushed, "It."
Adjectives said, "White."
Participle declared, "Clambering."
Verbs gasped, "Climbs. Jumps."
Adverbs, not to be outdone, said, "Quickly. Nimbly."
Prepositions cried, "Up. To."
Conjunctions called out, "And."
Everyone stared with surprised at each other. Aren't they all talking about the same thing? Ms. Preposition was taking down every word they said the whole time. Then both she and Mr. Conjunction pieced the words together and made up this sentence.
Look! A clambering monkey climbs up a tree and it jumps nimbly to the white roof.
Interjection - article - participle - noun - verb - preposition - article - noun - conjunction - pronoun - verb - adverb - preposition - article - adjective - noun.
Everyone was pleased with the result. They can now see that they each had an important role in describing the situation. Each role was classified according to the following.
1. Interjections should command attention or express strong feelings.
2. Articles show whether a noun is specific or general.
3. Nouns name persons, places, things, or ideas.
4. Pronouns take the place of nouns.
5. Adjectives describe or modify nouns or pronouns.
6. Adverbs modify verbs, adjectives or other adverbs.
7. Verbs show action or state of being.
8. Participles are formed out of verbs in ‘-ing’ or ‘-ed’ form.
- Verbs ending with ‘-ing’s that act as Nouns are called Gerunds: Eating is her hobby.
- Others are called modifiers and act like adjectives: Crying toddler, broken glass.
- Past participles also continue to act as verbs: Ate, Eating.
9. Prepositions show relationships between words in a sentence.
10. Conjunctions join words or groups of words together.
Well, life in that town had never been the same since.Sentences after sentences were created and everyone learnt to read from the same book. And they live happily ever after. Now as for us.....
Try some English Grammar drills.