Friday, July 4, 2008

English 101 quiz

So, studying a new language made me realize that I didn't really know a lot of the terminology for English rules. I am going to quiz you all. You must answer these in a reasonable amount of time (no googling allowed!).

1- What is a direct object? What is an indirect object?
2- What is a gerund?
3- What is a past participle?
4- What is the conditional tense?
5- What is a possessive pronoun?
6- Why would I put such a dorky quiz on my blog?

If you know them then you passed! If you don't you are still awesome!

3 comments:

Jeff said...

Megann, Hey! I am super impressed that you actually know the answers to those questions. And in 2 languages. It puts me to shame. I remember learning about that in Jr. High and High School, but....I don't know anymore. That is so cool you get to do a lot of traveling. I looked at your travel blog. Awesome!

Ben, KoriAnn, Brighton & Bristol said...

Heading to Lagoon tomorrow, will be thinking about you while riding Wicked. I hope that you guys are having fun. What is new with you guys??

Erin said...

No real answers yet?! I'll play along ... but I also had to learn Spanish, so maybe I'm cheating?

1 - A direct object is the primary noun of a sentence. An indirect object is a noun preceded by a prepositional phrase, and is not the primary noun in the sentence (there will always be another noun somewhere). Example: I put the book on the table. The DO is book, the IO is the table. Leave out either the DO or the IO an the sentence feels incomplete.

2 - A gerund is an action in progress. In English, gerunds are preceded by a form of the verb to be and end in the letters "-ing." I am sleeping; he was running; they will be shopping.

3 - A past participle generally is used to indicate a completed action. They are preceded by the appropriate form to the word have. I have slept; he had run; they will have shopped.

4 - Conditional tense can be used to answer the question "What would you do if ...?" The question sets conditions, and the answer therefore is conditional to those conditions. Conditional tense is a verb preceded by the word "would." Here's an easy example - What would you do with a million dollars? I would visit Mitch and Megann in Spain.

5 - Possessive pronouns indicate who an object (direct or indirect) belongs to. Here's an example involving question 1. I'm posting this comment on your blog. The direct object is "comment" the indirect object is "blog." I'm not just posting it on anyone's blog I'm posting in on "your" blog as stated by the possessive pronoun. Other possessive pronouns include, mine, his, her, our, their.

6 - WHY? I don't have an answer for that one. I still don't know why I just answered those questions. Yay grammar nerds!