Grammar Rodeo

GRAMMAR RODEO

A Real Conversation with Twin J

J ordinarily says very little. Then recently at the dinner table, he volunteered what he learned at school.

"Can you tell me what the three adverbs are in this sentence?", he asked.

The sentence was:

Yesterday I planted my plants very carefully into their pots.

This was the most terrifying question I've ever been asked by any of my children.

I don't even think they taught grammar in my school years, at least not formally. I know some of the rules, and apply them correctly some of the time. But it's all by osmosis, or dumb luck.

Luckily, J set me straight. He told me the adverbs. Then he also told me the nouns and adjectives in the sentence. Then the conjunction.

I still don't know what a conjunction is...

As I later said to my wife: "I know verbs are doing words, adjectives are describing words, and pronouns have capital letters. That's it."

"Proper nouns have capital letters," she corrected. "Do you even know what a pronoun is?"

The answer to that question was obvious. "No I don't. I honestly thought I had a few years left before I could no longer help them with their school work," I moaned.

The next day, I was trying to recall the exact sentence used in the grammar pop quiz. I texted to my wife: what was the sentence J said with the three adjectives?

I had to get reminded again they were adverbs, not adjectives. But then we both were unsure whether yesterday was one of the adverbs, and needed to look it up.

"We will be ready to graduate Kindy someday...", I concluded.