WHAT'S HAPPENING

June 21st—Summer officially begins as we celebrate the Summer Solstice.

 July 1st--Canada Day; this Canada Day celebration is not just a long weekend for many of us but the day we pause to think about all that Canada has to offer us.  Join the party and have fun. 

July 4^th, our neighbours to the south, the United States of America, celebrate Independence Day—there is a lot of history behind this celebration.

WHAT'S NEW?

* Here are some colour related idioms that you will find interesting.

*What’s the big deal about the passive voice?

* Here's how the pronouns you choose influence the point of view in your writing.

* If English is not your first language, check out these rules for article usage.

* English has some interesting negative words as they don't seem to have positive counterparts.

* There is a close connection between time adverbs and verb tenses:

       Time adverbs (clues) with the present tense.

       Other tenses and time adverbs:

*If you are having trouble remembering grammar rules, consider the result of this study and sleep on it!

PREVIOUS GRAMMAR QUESTION

The exotic imported sports dark red car has been driving to fast when it'd skid of the road and the passenger too young women is injured serious.

1. Adjective word order: There is a rule governing the order of adjective usage--opinion, dimension, age, shape, colour, origin, material. Given that order, the adjectives should be “exotic, imported, dark red, sports ”.

2. Missing subject: who is driving the car--the car doesn’t drive itself; someone has to drive it. It’s possible to add “someone”.

3. Passive voice: if we omit the subject from the first clause, then the verb should be in the passive--was being driven--then it is understood that someone was driving the car.

4. Verb tense: if we have a subject and want to use the active voice, then the verb becomes “was driving”.

5. Word confusion: ‘to” is a preposition; here the intensifier “too” is needed; it’s an adverb.

6. Word confusion: don’t confuse “of” and “off”.

7. Verb tense: “it’d skid” means “it had skid”--there is no such verb form. The simple past is “skidded”.

8. Verb tense: the injury happened in the past, so use the simple past tense--was injured.

9. Word form/order” “serious” is an adjective; the word describes the verb ‘injure” so the adverb “seriously” is needed. Also note that the adverb places between the two parts of this verb--was seriously injured.

10. Punctuation: Adjectives in a series are separated by commas--the comma before the last one is optional. Also note that “two young women” is an appositive, so set it off with commas.

Possible Answer: The exotic, imported, dark red, sports car was being driven too fast when it skidded off the road, and the passengers, two young women, were seriously injured.

ACROSTIC

In an acrostic, you start with a theme word and use each letter of that word to start another word or phrase that describes the theme word. The acrostic below is based on the theme word SNOW.

……………S Slippery

……………N Numbing

……………O Obliterating

……………W Wintery

Write an acrostic based on one of the following “Canada” themes:

CANADA DAY, or choose the name of any one province or territory in Canada.

CINQUAIN POEM

A cinquain poem is a five-line poem that is diamond-shaped. Start with a theme word (noun) and then use the pattern 1 noun, 2 adjectives, 3 gerunds, 1 full sentence, and finally a synonym for the first noun.
SNOW

.....................Snow.........................

..................Cold, white.....................

..........Falling, freezing, numbing..............

...........It chills fingers and toes.............

.....................Ice..........................

Write a cinquain poem based on one of the following “Canada” themes:

CANADA DAY, or choose the name of any one province or territory in Canada.

GRAMMAR QUESTION, June 20th, 2013

Correct the errors in the following sentence:

Pauls always been borrowing his red stylish sporty-looking newer car to his brother who’s lending it while his old battered rust-spotted white vehicle is in the garage for repairing.

Remember that there is more than one possible correct answer; each student should provide a different answer.

PUZZLE, June 20th, 2013

Congratulations to Carmelle for being the first to solved the previous puzzle.

Previous puzzle: Suggested answers

1. a. Barrier ............................  b. Everything.................................Wall/All
2. a. Full amount.....................  b. An opening................................Whole/Hole
3. a. Season.............................. b. Bury........................................... Winter/Inter
4. a. Roll around in mud.......... b. Permit ........................................Wallow/Allow
5. a. Females ........................... b. Prophetic sign.............................Women/Omen
6. a.Twist forcibly.....................b. Circular band..............................Wring/Ring
7. a.Being victorious.................b. Baseball game division...............Winning/Inning
8. a. One of the five W's............b. Head covering............................What/Hat

New Puzzle: When beheading a word, remove the first letter and still have a valid word. The clue for, longer of the two words is first (behead the first word).
Example: a. Begin  b. Sour, acidic               Answer: Start and Tart.
 1. a. Outer layer..........................b. Oxidized metal
2. a. Defraud; violate rules.........b. Thermal energy in transit
3. a. Sensation of cold................b. Local land elevation
4. a. Go upward ........................b. Jointed appendage; branch
5. a. Strong metal rope............. b. Having necessary skill
6. a. Confined; restrained..........b. Old; grew older
7. a. Stop; discontinue...............b. Freedom from hardship

8. a. Lacking dirt.......................b. Lacking fat

ALL CHANGE, June 20th, 2013

Change the words in the sentence below as indicated. You can only change the exact word in the sequence given; after someone else has posted the next change, then you can post another change. For instance, student 1 writes #1 Subject Noun, and changes the subject noun; Student 2 writes #2 Direct Object Noun, and changes that noun. Each student only makes one change at a time and keeps to the order indicated. If you complete all 7 changes, then start making more changes again from 1 to 7. Each student should build on the changes that the previous students make. Please number the change you make.

The young man enthusiastically celebrated  the Canada Day festivities in the park.

Changes:    1. subject noun       2. direct object noun                      3. indirect object noun                       4. adjective(s)               5. adverb(s)             6. verb name                7. verb tense

COMPLETE THE SENTENCE, June 20th, 2013

Use the type of clause, phrase, or grammar indicated to complete the following sentence; you can add the phrase or clause before or after (not both) to the clause below:

... summer should arrive in June...

Sentence 1. Add a phrase  

Sentence 2. Add a dependent clause           

Sentence 3. Add an independent clause

VOCABULARY, June 20th, 2013

Vocabulary building is important for both reading comprehension and writing. Use the following two words (note the part of speech) in one sentence that shows you understand the meaning of the words.

anachronism      (noun)   +      either   perverse      (adjective)      or      perversely      (adverb)

ACTIVE & PASSIVE, June 20th, 2013

Use the verb with the base form of deal in two different sentences. Sentence 1 should be in the active voice; sentence 2 should reword the sentence to the passive voice.

SENTENCE COMBINATION, June 20th, 2013

Learning to combine ideas into more complex sentences is an important skill in writing. There are many ways to do this--many possible bonus points! Try to combine the following three sentences.

Sentence 1: The Immigrant Access Fund provides loans for internationally trained immigrants.

Sentence 2: Many immigrant professionals find it hard to pursue their careers in Canada because of accreditation difficulties.

Sentence 3: The loans help pay the costs associated with accreditation, training, or upgrading.

PREVIOUS GRAMMAR QUESTION

Please ask her where is she going over the victoria day week-end and is her boyfriend going to but don't tell her that I ask for the informations.

1. Embedded question: when a question clause (one introduced by a question word) is within a longer clause, then use sentence word order unless you change to direct speech and use quotation marks. If the latter, then you also need to change “she is” to “you are”.

2. Word usage: “over” in this usage is slang; it’s better to use “for”.

3. Word form: “weekend” is one word—no hyphen.

4. Capitalization: Victoria Day is a proper noun; it needs capital letters.

5. Wrong word: Unless you are using direct speech, then change “is” to “if”.

6. Word confusion: “too” meaning “also” or “as well”, not “to” the preposition.

7. Verb tense: “I ask” is not appropriate: change it to the simple past (I asked), the present progressive (I am asking), or the present perfect (I have asked).

8. Word form: information is a non-count noun; there is no plural form.

9. Internal punctuation: There are several ways of doing this. The simplest is to use a comma after “too” to separate the two independent clauses. 

Possible Answer: Please ask her where she is going for the Victoria Day weekend  and if her boyfriend is going too, but don’t tell her that I asked for the information.

GRAMMAR QUESTION, June 4th, 2013

Correct the errors in the following sentence:

The exotic imported sports dark red car has been driving to fast when it'd skid of the road and the passenger too young women is injured serious.

Remember that there are many possible correct answers.

PUZZLE, June 4th, 2013

Previous puzzle: Suggested answers

1. a. Mark left after healing         b. Vehicle                                            scar/car
2. a. To have hit                           b. Vehicle                                            struck/truck
3. a. Intelligent                             b. Individual store                              smart/mart
4. a. Tiny                                      b. Large retail complex                      small/mall
5. a. Take illegally                        b. Bluish green                                   steal/teal
6. a. Clean the floor                      b. Cry                                                 sweep/weep
7. a. Expressed in words               b. Give assistance                              said/aid
8. a. Talk                                       b. Highest level; summit                    speak/peak

New Puzzle: When beheading a word, remove the first letter and still have a valid word. The clue for, longer of the two words is first (behead the first word).
Example: a. Begin  b. Sour, acidic               Answer: Start and Tart.

1. a. Barrier                                         b. Everything
2. a. Full amount                                 b. An opening
3. a. Season                                         b. Bury
4. a. Roll around in mud                     b. Permit
5. a. Females                                       b. Prophetic sign
6. a.Twist forcibly                               b. Circular band
7. a.Being victorious                           b. Baseball game division
8. a. One of the five W's                     b. Head covering

Note: Only the first correct answer receives a bonus point.

ALL CHANGE! June 4th, 2013

Change the words in the sentence below as indicated. You can only change the exact word in the sequence given; after someone else has posted the next change, then you can post another change. For instance, student 1 writes #1 Subject Noun, and changes the subject noun; Student 2 writes #2 Direct Object Noun, and changes that noun. Each student only makes one change at a time and keeps to the order indicated. If you complete all 7 changes, then start making more changes again from 1 to 7. Each student should build on the changes that the previous students make. Please number the change you make.

The avid shopper excitedly gave holiday souvenirs to her friends.

Changes:    1. subject noun        2. direct object noun            3. indirect object noun                      
4. adjective(s)      5. adverb(s)         6. verb name           7. verb tense