Elements of Language, 3rd Course

In this Grade 6 grammar lesson from Elements of Language, 3rd Course, students learn how adjectives modify nouns and pronouns by answering the questions what kind, which one, and how many. The lesson covers articles, demonstrative adjectives, and proper adjectives, while also teaching students to distinguish between words used as adjectives versus pronouns or nouns. Practice exercises reinforce identifying and diagramming adjectives within sentences.

In this Grade 6 grammar lesson from Elements of Language, 3rd Course, students learn to identify and distinguish between action verbs, linking verbs, transitive verbs, and intransitive verbs. The lesson covers how action verbs express physical or mental action, how linking verbs connect a subject to a subject complement, and how the same verb can function as transitive or intransitive depending on whether its action is directed toward an object. Students practice these concepts through exercises identifying and classifying verbs in sentences.

In this Grade 6 grammar lesson from Elements of Language, 3rd Course, students learn how adverbs modify verbs, adjectives, and other adverbs to indicate where, when, how, or to what extent. The lesson covers adverb placement within sentences, including before and after verbs and within verb phrases, and distinguishes adverbs from nouns that share the same form. Practice exercises guide students in identifying adverbs and tracing the words they modify across all three categories.

In this Grade 6 grammar lesson from Elements of Language, 3rd Course, students learn how prepositions show relationships between words, how to identify the object of a preposition, and how to recognize prepositional phrases including those with compound prepositions and compound objects. The lesson also introduces conjunctions, including coordinating conjunctions, and interjections as parts of speech. Practice exercises guide students in identifying and analyzing these elements within sentences.

In this Grade 6 grammar lesson from Elements of Language, 3rd Course, students learn to identify and distinguish between complete subjects, simple subjects, and compound subjects within a sentence. The lesson also introduces the simple predicate, explaining how it tells something about the subject, including one-word verbs and verb phrases. Aligned with Chapter 2 on the parts of a sentence, the lesson guides students through recognizing prepositional phrases that can obscure the simple subject and using conjunctions such as and, or, and neither...nor to form compound subjects.

In this Grade 6 grammar lesson from Elements of Language, 3rd Course, students learn to identify predicate nominatives and predicate adjectives as two types of subject complements that follow linking verbs. Students practice recognizing how predicate nominatives rename or identify the subject and how predicate adjectives describe the subject, including compound predicate nominatives formed with multiple nouns or pronouns. The lesson includes guided exercises using statements and questions to help students locate and underline these complements in context.

In this Grade 6 grammar lesson from Elements of Language, 3rd Course, students learn how to identify direct objects and indirect objects as types of complements that complete the meaning of action verbs. They practice recognizing direct objects by asking "Whom?" or "What?" after a verb, work with compound direct objects, and learn to distinguish indirect objects from objects of prepositions. The lesson includes guided exercises using everyday sentences to reinforce each concept.

In this Grade 6 grammar lesson from Elements of Language, 3rd Course, students learn to classify sentences by purpose into four types: declarative, imperative, interrogative, and exclamatory. The lesson covers the defining features of each sentence type, including appropriate end punctuation and the concept of the understood subject "you" in imperative sentences. Students practice identifying and punctuating all four sentence types through two exercises using examples drawn from poetry and everyday contexts.

In this Grade 6 grammar lesson from Elements of Language, 3rd Course, students learn to identify and use prepositional phrases, including the preposition, its object, and any modifiers. The lesson covers three key types: basic prepositional phrases with compound objects, adjective phrases that modify nouns and pronouns, and adverb phrases that modify verbs, adjectives, or adverbs. Practice exercises guide students in recognizing how each type answers specific grammatical questions such as which one, how, when, and where.

In this Grade 6 grammar lesson from Elements of Language, 3rd Course, students learn how participles function as adjectives and how to identify participial phrases. The lesson covers present participles ending in –ing and past participles ending in –ed, –en, or –t, distinguishing them from participles used in verb phrases. Students practice recognizing participial phrases made up of a participle plus its complements or modifiers, and identifying the nouns or pronouns each phrase modifies.

In this Grade 6 grammar lesson from Elements of Language, 3rd Course, students learn to identify gerunds as verb forms ending in –ing that function as nouns, distinguishing them from present participles and verbs. The lesson then extends to gerund phrases, showing how a gerund combines with its modifiers and complements to act as a single noun unit in roles such as subject, direct object, or object of a preposition. Practice exercises guide students through recognizing and underlining gerunds and gerund phrases within sentences.

In this Grade 6 grammar lesson from Elements of Language, 3rd Course, students learn to identify and use infinitives and infinitive phrases, understanding how these verb forms function as nouns, adjectives, or adverbs in sentences. The lesson also distinguishes infinitive phrases from prepositional phrases that begin with "to." Practice exercises guide students through locating infinitives and analyzing their grammatical roles within sentences.

In this Grade 6 grammar lesson from Elements of Language, 3rd Course, students learn to identify and use adjective clauses and adverb clauses as types of subordinate clauses. The lesson covers how adjective clauses modify nouns or pronouns using relative pronouns such as who, whom, whose, which, and that, and how adverb clauses modify verbs, adjectives, or adverbs to express conditions, time, place, and degree. Students practice locating these clauses in sentences and distinguishing them from independent clauses.

In this Grade 6 grammar lesson from Elements of Language, 3rd Course, students learn how to classify sentences by structure as simple, compound, complex, or compound-complex based on the number and types of clauses they contain. The lesson covers how simple sentences have one independent clause with no subordinate clauses, compound sentences join two or more independent clauses using coordinating conjunctions or semicolons, and complex sentences combine one independent clause with at least one subordinate clause. Students practice identifying and labeling independent and subordinate clauses within sentences from written exercises.

In this Grade 6 grammar lesson from Elements of Language, 3rd Course, students learn how to make subjects and verbs agree in number, covering singular and plural subjects, verb phrases, and compound subjects joined by and, or, or nor. The lesson also introduces indefinite pronouns as subjects and explains the nearest-subject rule for or/nor constructions. Practice exercises guide students in identifying correct verb forms in context.

In this Grade 6 grammar lesson from Elements of Language, 3rd Course, students learn how to match pronouns to their antecedents in number and gender, including masculine, feminine, and neuter pronouns. The lesson also covers how antecedents joined by "and" require a plural pronoun while those joined by "or" or "nor" require a singular pronoun. Practice exercises reinforce correct pronoun-antecedent agreement across a variety of sentence contexts.

In this Grade 6 grammar lesson from Elements of Language, 3rd Course, students learn the four principal parts of a verb: the base form, present participle, past, and past participle. The lesson covers how regular verbs form their past and past participle by adding -d or -ed, including spelling rules for silent -e endings and consonant doubling, then introduces irregular verbs that form their past parts in other ways. Practice exercises guide students in correctly producing all four principal parts for a variety of common verbs.

In this Grade 6 grammar lesson from Elements of Language, 3rd Course, students learn to distinguish between active voice and passive voice, understanding that active voice shows an action performed by the subject while passive voice shows an action performed on the subject. Students practice identifying each voice in sentences and rewriting passive constructions in the active voice. The lesson also explains when passive voice is appropriate, such as when the performer of the action is unknown or when the receiver of the action needs emphasis.

In this Grade 6 grammar lesson from Elements of Language, 3rd Course, students learn to correctly use three commonly confused verb pairs: lie/lay, sit/set, and rise/raise. The lesson focuses on distinguishing each verb's meaning, whether it takes a direct object, and its principal parts, including past and past participle forms. Practice exercises reinforce proper verb choice in context across all three pairs.

In this Grade 6 grammar lesson from Elements of Language, 3rd Course, students learn how to identify and use the three cases of pronouns — nominative, objective, and possessive — with a focus on applying nominative case pronouns correctly as subjects and predicate nominatives. The lesson covers specific pronouns such as I, he, she, we, and they, and guides students through choosing the right pronoun form in compound subjects and after linking verbs. Practice exercises reinforce when to use nominative versus objective case in a variety of sentence structures.

In this Grade 6 grammar lesson from Elements of Language, 3rd Course, students learn how to identify and correct ambiguous pronoun reference, the problem that occurs when a pronoun could logically refer to more than one antecedent. Students practice distinguishing clear from ambiguous pronoun references and rewrite unclear sentences by either restructuring them or replacing the pronoun with a specific noun.

Grade 6 students using Elements of Language, 3rd Course learn how modifiers change form across three degrees of comparison — positive, comparative, and superlative — in Chapter 8, Lesson 1. The lesson covers when to use -er/more for comparing two things and -est/most for comparing three or more, as well as decreasing comparisons using less and least. Practice exercises reinforce choosing the correct comparative or superlative form based on the number of items being compared.

Grade 6 students in Elements of Language, 3rd Course learn how to identify and correct dangling modifiers and misplaced modifiers in Chapter 8, Lesson 2. The lesson explains that a dangling modifier fails to logically attach to any word in the sentence, while a misplaced modifier appears too far from the word it is meant to describe. Students practice recognizing both errors and revising sentences to place modifying words, phrases, and clauses correctly.

In this Grade 6 grammar lesson from Elements of Language, 3rd Course, students practice correct usage of commonly confused terms including a vs. an, accept vs. except, between vs. among, and a lot as two words. The lesson explains how sound rather than spelling determines article choice, and how context distinguishes verbs from prepositions. Students also learn to avoid nonstandard forms like ain't and the incorrect use of at after where in formal writing.

In this Grade 6 grammar lesson from Elements of Language, 3rd Course, students practice correct usage of commonly confused terms including a lot (as two words), at after where, and among versus between. The lesson presents formal, standard English rules with sentence-level exercises drawn from Chapter 9's Glossary of Usage.

In this Grade 6 grammar lesson from Chapter 9 of Elements of Language, 3rd Course, students learn to correctly use commonly confused words and expressions including a/an, accept/except, ain't, a lot, at after where, and among/between. The lesson explains how to distinguish these terms based on sound, meaning, and grammatical role, reinforcing standard English conventions for formal writing and speaking.

In this Grade 6 grammar lesson from Elements of Language, 3rd Course, students learn the foundational rules of capitalization, including capitalizing the first word of every sentence, the first word of a directly quoted sentence, and the pronoun I. The lesson also covers capitalizing the first word in letter salutations and closings, as well as distinguishing proper nouns from common nouns. Practice exercises reinforce each rule through sentence-level identification tasks.

In this Grade 6 grammar lesson from Elements of Language, 3rd Course, students learn the capitalization rules for proper nouns including special events, holidays, calendar items, historical periods, nationalities, races, peoples, business names, brand names, and vehicles such as ships, aircraft, and spacecraft. Students also study the specific rule that seasons are only capitalized when personified or used in the name of a special event. Practice exercises guide students in identifying and correcting capitalization errors across all these categories.

In this Grade 6 grammar lesson from Elements of Language, 3rd Course, students learn how to use the four types of end marks — periods, question marks, and exclamation points — with declarative, interrogative, exclamatory, and imperative sentences. The lesson also covers the correct use of periods with common abbreviations, including personal initials, academic degrees, titles, and geographical names. Practice exercises give students hands-on experience identifying sentence types and applying proper punctuation.

In this Grade 6 grammar lesson from Elements of Language, 3rd Course, students learn how to use commas correctly in several key situations: separating items in a series (including words, phrases, and independent clauses), punctuating two or more adjectives preceding a noun, and joining independent clauses with coordinating conjunctions such as and, but, or, and nor. The lesson also covers exceptions, such as omitting commas when all series items are already joined by and, or, or nor, and avoiding a comma before the final adjective when it forms part of a compound noun. Practice exercises reinforce each rule through sentence-level identification and correction tasks.

In this Grade 6 grammar lesson from Elements of Language, 3rd Course, students learn the rules for using semicolons and colons, including placing semicolons between closely related independent clauses, before conjunctive adverbs and transitional expressions, and between items in a series that already contain commas. Students practice identifying and correcting punctuation errors through exercises that cover both semicolon and colon usage in a variety of sentence structures. The lesson builds students' ability to use these punctuation marks accurately to clarify meaning and avoid confusion in their writing.

In this Grade 6 grammar lesson from Elements of Language, 3rd Course, students learn when to use italics (underlining) for titles of books, films, and musical works, names of ships and spacecraft, and words or symbols referred to as such. The lesson also introduces quotation marks for direct quotations, covering rules for capitalization and punctuation placement. Practice exercises throughout the chapter reinforce correct application of both conventions in real sentence contexts.

In this Grade 6 grammar lesson from Elements of Language, 3rd Course, students learn how to use apostrophes to form the possessive case of singular nouns, plural nouns, indefinite pronouns, and possessive personal pronouns. The lesson also covers using apostrophes in contractions to show omitted letters or numerals, and forming the plurals of lowercase letters, symbols, and numerals. Practice exercises guide students through applying proofreading symbols and choosing correct possessive forms in context.

In this Grade 6 lesson from Elements of Language, 3rd Course, students learn the rules for using hyphens, ellipsis points, parentheses, dashes, and brackets in writing. The lesson covers specific hyphen uses such as dividing words at line breaks, forming compound numbers from twenty-one to ninety-nine, attaching prefixes like ex-, self-, and all-, and creating compound adjectives, as well as how to use ellipsis points to indicate omissions from quoted material. Practice exercises guide students in applying proofreading symbols and correctly punctuating sentences using each of these marks.

In this Grade 6 lesson from Elements of Language, 3rd Course, students learn key spelling rules for ie and ei combinations, including when to write ie for the long e sound, when to use ei after c or for the long a sound, and how adding prefixes leaves the original word's spelling unchanged. Practice exercises guide students in applying rules to correctly spell words like receive, freight, ceiling, and brief in sentence context. The lesson also introduces suffix rules, building a foundation for confident, accurate spelling throughout the school year.

In this Grade 6 spelling lesson from Elements of Language, 3rd Course, students practice the ie and ei spelling rules, learning when to write ie for the long e sound and ei when the sound is not long e, especially the long a sound. Students also study how prefixes and suffixes are added to base words, including the rule that the original word's spelling stays the same when a prefix is added and that a silent final e is dropped before a vowel suffix. Practice exercises guide students in applying these rules to correctly spell words such as freight, ceiling, achieve, and receive.

In this Grade 6 grammar lesson from Elements of Language, 3rd Course, students learn to distinguish between commonly confused words such as affect/effect, all ready/already, all together/altogether, brake/break, choose/chose, coarse/course, desert/dessert, and hear/here. The lesson explains how some of these pairs are homonyms with identical pronunciations but different meanings and spellings, while others share similar spellings but distinct definitions. Students practice selecting the correct word in context through two sets of exercises reinforcing proper usage.

In this Grade 6 grammar lesson from Elements of Language, 3rd Course, students learn to distinguish commonly confused words including homonyms and words with similar spellings but different meanings, such as coarse/course, desert/dessert, and hear/here. The lesson explains each word's part of speech, definition, and pronunciation where relevant, then provides guided exercises to practice choosing the correct word in context. It is the second installment in a two-part series on words often confused within Chapter 16's focus on improving spelling.

In this Grade 6 grammar lesson from Elements of Language, 3rd Course, students practice distinguishing commonly confused words such as affect/effect, all ready/already, brake/break, choose/chose, and desert/dessert. Students learn the precise definitions, parts of speech, and spellings of each word pair, including homonyms that sound alike but carry different meanings. Exercises guide students to select the correct word in context by identifying the intended meaning of each sentence.

In this Grade 6 grammar lesson from Elements of Language, 3rd Course, students review and correct common usage errors including subject-verb agreement, verb tense, pronoun reference, modifier placement, and troublesome word choices. Using a set of guided proofreading questions, students apply editing skills to sentences with real errors drawn from everyday writing contexts. The lesson reinforces the habit of careful proofreading and helps students recognize how one correction can affect other parts of a sentence.