---
layout: page
title: Notes | Tutorial 02
parent: Tutorial Notes
date: 2020-06-24
lesson: 2
---

# Part 2: Complex Sentence Grammar

Breaking down sentences involves splitting at conjunctions and analysing the clauses recursively.

## phrases

* Clause -> simple sentence
* Phrase -> incomplete simple sentence
  * verb phrase - e.g. *very quickly ate* - (ate::verb (quickly::adverb quickly::modifier))
  * noun phrase - e.g. *the unusually cute cats" - (cats::noun the::modifier "unusually cute"::modifier)
  * adjective phrase - e.g. *unusually cute*

* Prepositional phrase -> preposition + noun phrase
* functions like adjective or adverb
* e.g., *during the day* -- (during::preposition (day::noun the::mod))

> *Warning:* Standard terminology uses the term “verb phrase” to mean “predicate”: the verb plus its object or complement, plus modifiers. It’d be reasonable to use “simple verb phrase” to mean a verb plus the adverbs modifying it.

## clauses

## conjunctions

* coordinating conj: each clause is equal, e.g. and, but, for, or, yet, nor, so. FANBOYS; can join some phrases
* subordinating conj: disparity in importance or order, etc: e.g. after, before, although, while, if; can only join clauses

## communicating

*paragraph level*

* main points should use verb, subject, object and complement. Modifiers for helper points (less important than what they modify)
* main points -> main clauses; helper points -> subordinate clauses (which must be deliberate; main clauses by default)
* > Detail: Relative pronouns can also make subordinate clauses. I won’t cover them, but I’ll give one example. In “John, who is a mechanic, loves restoring cars.”, “who” is a relative pronoun. It creates a subordinate clause that functions as an adjective that modifies “John”.
* use italics etc to give hints
* you can say "my main point is:"

## subordinating conj

writing without subordinating conjunctions sucks. elephants and zoo example.

## Practice

See [exercises](../ex/02-ex.md)

# Part 3: Verbals, References and Implied Words

## Verbals

based on a verb, but not a verb. like "fooling", "to eat", "broken". they share features of verbs like having an object or complement (no subject)

* **gerund**: *noun* based on verb; ends in `-ing`. "fooling"
* **participle**: *adj* based on verb; can be suffixed `-ing` too, but also `-ed` and maybe others.
* **infinitive**: verbs with 'to' in front: 'to sit', 'to be'. *I want to sit* -> 'to sit' -> noun infinitive (want is the verb, 'to sit' the object). verbs don't end in -ing or have `to` in front

## References:

* pronouns: always nouns
* reference adjectives: 'my', 'your'
* abbreviations
* explanatory refs: e.g. *the thing you said yesterday about cats* -- often unclear. more info better than less

## implied words

happens often, somewhat ambiguous

"that" is often omitted; full form of "I think Ayn Rand was wise" is "I think that Ayn Rand was wise". 

* *indirect object*: shortcut to involving an implied word. they're nouns that come after verbs. *I threw her the ball* -> *I threw to her the ball*; 'her' is an indirect object, 'to her' is prepositional phrase moding 'threw'
* common with conjs -> avoids repetition
* confused? -> look for implied words
* formal writing often doesn't leave them -> less ambiguous