Okay .. so the word "shortly" is relative. Here is the "-ing" word explanation that I promised back in (ahem) February. Some of you may have seen this already over on Verla Kay’s blue boards.

A QUICK -ING WORD TUTORIAL

VERB TENSE

Past progressive: I was going to the store when Hortencia smacked me upside the head with her Coach bag.
Past perfect progressive: I had been wanting to buy a Coach bag for a long time.

Present progressive: I am going to buy a Coach bag as soon as I sell my 20 acres of rutabagas.
Present perfect progressive: I have been growing rutabagas for as long as I can remember.

PARTICIPLE

A participle is a verb that is used as an ADJECTIVE. It usually ends in -ing or -ed.

The barking dog kept me awake all night.

Frightened, I pressed my back against the wall.

*** You need to be sure you place your participle or participle phrase NEXT to the word it modifies. Otherwise, you’ll have a dangling participle or misplaced modifier, and people will laugh at you. ****

GERUND — a verb ending in -ing that is used as a noun. I’ve already given examples above.

GERUNDS and PARTICIPLES are examples of VERBALS. A verbal is a verb that moonlights as some other part of speech. The other well known VERBAL is an INFINITIVE. An infinitive consists of the word "to" and a verb. INFINITIVES may be used as a noun, adjective or adverb. You shouldn’t split infinitives — that means to jam some other word between the to and the verb.

For more information go here:  OWL Purdue Online Writing Lab

The Loopy Grammarian has returned with a silly verse prompted by a discussion on a popular kidlit message board. She’ll be back to ‘splane this one shortly.

Ode to Ing Words (or what would happen if we eradicated all the lil’ boogers)

You would not have the singing nun,
swimming trunks, or smoking guns.
You’d have to give up all debunking,
herding llamas, and spelunking.
Multi-tasking would be over.
You could not dance while picking clover.

Poem prompted by discussion of gerunds on popular kidlit message board.

I would like to introduce my alter ego, the Loopy Grammarian, to you. She’ll be showing up now and again with a mini grammar lesson. Sorry, we do not have vlogging capability at this time. You get what you get, and you don’t throw a fit.

Scary, huh? Fear not. I’ll reduce her to an avatar.

Today she’d like to bring you a message about

Exactly what possession of the kitten are you planning to give away? Her favorite catnip mouse? What she coughed up after breakfast? Contents of the litter box?

It’s a very common mistake to form a plural with an apostrophe plus an “s” instead of just “s.” One common form of this error is in the plural use of a family name.

For example —

The Plutas are having a neighborhood barbecue on Saturday. CORRECT

The Pluta’s are having a neighborhood barbecue on Saturday. INCORRECT

This is your mini grammar lesson of the day. Our kittens are not for free or for sale. We’re not giving away any of their possessions either, and we most definitely are NOT having a barbecue on Saturday.

Over the centuries, people have commented that I have a knack for explaining grammar. Now, I do not profess to be a grammar expert by any means, but I will begin a regular grammar feature on this blog. I will mostly be using explanations I used with my junior high students eons ago and the lessons I use to teach my two homeschooled sons.

Today I bring you Freight Train Sentences , otherwise known as How to properly punctuate a compound sentence.

A compound sentence is two simple sentences joined together. At this point, my eleven year old would say, “Wouldn’t it be easier to just keep them separate!” Well yeah, but then all our sentences would be about the same length which would hamper the flow and readability of our writing. And it would be boring. Very, very boring.

Following are two complete simple sentences. They each have a subject and a predicate along with various modifiers. Each of these sentences is like a train. If you are going to hook them together, you need something strong enough to hold them. Otherwise, they’ll run together. Kabam!

Hortencia loved to dine at dimly lit Chinese restaurants.
Alvin preferred the salmon patties at Joe’s grill.

If the two sentences are combined this way – Hortencia loved to dine at dimly lit Chinese restaurants Alvin preferred the salmon patties at Joe’s grill. – you would have a run-on sentence.

A comma (,) is not enough to keep these two trains apart. Hortencia loved to dine at dimly lit Chinese restaurants, Alvin preferred the salmon patties at Joe’s grill. This construction is known as a comma splice. Sure, there’s “some” punctuation, but a comma isn’t strong enough to hold these two sentences apart.

Also, a conjunction alone is not enough to keep the two sentences apart. Hortencia loved to dine at dimly lit Chinese restaurants but Alvin preferred the salmon patties at Joe’s grill. This example is also incorrect.

In order to properly combine these two sentences you need a comma AND a conjunction.
Hortencia loved to dine at dimly lit Chinese restaurants, but Alvin preferred the salmon patties at Joe’s grill. The most common conjunctions are “and,” “but,” and “or.”

OR

You can also combine two compound sentences with a semi-colon (;).

Hortencia loved to dine at dimly lit Chinese restaurants; Alvin preferred the salmon patties at Joe’s grill.

Summary: Think of complete simple sentences as freight trains. If you are going to hook them together, you need something strong enough to hold. Choose either a comma/conjunction combo or a semi-colon.

Coming Next: I’ll explain the difference between a compound sentence and a compound subject/predicate.