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Description:

Let's play a grammar game! We know, you've been wanting to hear that all day. It's like Christmas came early.

Language:
English Language

Transcript

00:02

Most likely, you already know a thing or two about nouns-- words used to represent people, [nouns defined]

00:07

places, things, and ideas--like, you know, golfer, golf course, or golf club, or golf

00:14

ball, or maybe even something that has nothing to do with golf whatsoever.

00:17

You can tell where our heads are at.

00:20

But once you through a few nouns into a single sentence, it turns out they're not all created [nouns fall into sentence]

00:24

equal.

00:26

Different nouns play different roles, especially the ones with top-notch agents. [noun talks to agents]

00:29

Say we have a sentence with two nouns and an action verb.

00:33

Something like, "The cat chased the dog." [example sentence given]

00:35

What?

00:36

It could happen.

00:37

The noun performing the action verb is the subject, in this case, "cat."

00:42

The noun that receives the action performed by the subject is the direct object, in this

00:47

case, "dog." [components of sentence illustrated]

00:48

In other words, the subject does the verb to the direct object.

00:53

One easy way to find the direct object in any sentence is to play a quick game of grammatical

00:57

Mad Libs. [Mad Libs game]

00:59

But unlike the game little kids tend to play, this one won't involve every noun being filled

01:03

in with the word "butt."

01:06

For the first word, fill in the subject of the sentence.

01:08

For the next word, fill in the sentence's action verb.

01:12

Then, finish it off with whom or what.

01:15

Fill in the blanks, and the answer to the question will be the direct object you're

01:18

looking for.

01:19

It might not make any small children laugh, but it serves our purposes quite nicely.

01:24

We can see it in action with our example sentence. [sentence used in Mad Lib game]

01:26

We know the subject is "the cat" and the action verb is "chased," so we end up with the question,

01:32

"The cat chased whom or what?"

01:35

As much as the dog might want the answer to be "a mouse" or "a bird," or "its dreams,"

01:41

it's really just chasing "the dog." [dog is out of luck]

01:43

Sorry there, Rover.

01:44

The only time this method fails is when the sentence has no direct object.

01:49

Take the sentence, "The car drove past."

01:51

Yup, we've got a subject, "the car." [new sentence given]

01:54

We've got an action verb, "drove."

01:57

But no second noun, and therefore no direct object.

02:00

If the lack of a direct object in that last sentence made you a bit sad, well, suck it

02:05

up and hold in those tears. [kid cries over sentence]

02:06

As they say, don't cry over spilled milk or missing direct objects.

02:11

Because even though a sentence can exist without a direct object, a sentence can also have

02:15

multiple direct objects.

02:17

All right, let's change our first sentence to, "The cat chased the dog and the mouse." [multiple direct objects demonstrated]

02:23

Now if we ask our Mad Lib question, "The cat chased whom or what?" we have two answers:

02:28

"the dog and the mouse."

02:30

So, we've got two direct objects.

02:32

If the dog and the mouse could find the courage, well, maybe they could do some chasing of

02:36

their own. [dog and mouse run from cat]

02:37

But until that day comes, they're going to get plenty of exercise.

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