ELA 8 · Sentences and conventions
How sentences hold together
Grade 8 grammar is about how ideas fit together: which clause in a sentence is the main one, which word a pronoun points back to, whether the time stays put, and which mark joins two ideas or sets one aside. Every rule here exists so a reader never has to reread a sentence to work out what you meant.
- 1. The words, first
- 2. Simple, compound and complex sentences
- 3. Pronoun agreement and verb tense
- 4. Semicolons, dashes, hyphens and parentheses
- 5. What costs marks
The words, first
The idea: Clause is the word the rest of the page is built on.
| Word | What it means |
|---|---|
| Clause | A group of words with its own subject and verb. |
| Independent / dependent clause | One that could stand alone as a sentence (the furnace stopped) / one that cannot, because it begins with a word like when, because, although or if (when the power went out). |
| Coordinating conjunction | A word that joins equal parts: and, but, or, so, yet, for, nor. |
| Simple sentence | One independent clause. |
| Compound sentence | Two or more independent clauses, joined by a comma and a coordinating conjunction, or by a semicolon. |
| Complex sentence | An independent clause with at least one dependent clause attached. |
| Pronoun / antecedent | A word that stands in for a noun / the noun it stands in for. In Maya lost her key, Maya is the antecedent of her. |
| Verb tense | The form of a verb that shows time: past (ran), present (runs), future (will run). |
| Semicolon, dash, hyphen, parentheses | The marks ; — - and ( ). Part 4 gives each one's job. |
Simple, compound and complex sentences
The idea: Find each subject-and-verb pair, then ask whether it could stand alone. The answer tells you the sentence type — and the type tells the reader how the ideas are related.
Although the forecast called for sun, the storm arrived at noon. We packed up the tent, but the wind tore the fly anyway. My sister and I grabbed the poles and ran for the car. Because she had packed a tarp, our sleeping bags stayed dry.
| Sentence | Its clauses | Type |
|---|---|---|
| Although the forecast… | Although… cannot stand alone; the storm arrived at noon can. | Complex |
| We packed up the tent… | Two that could each stand alone, joined by , but. | Compound |
| My sister and I… | One: a double subject sharing two verbs. | Simple |
| Because she had packed… | Because… cannot stand alone; our sleeping bags stayed dry can. | Complex |
The trap is the third sentence. It is long and has two ands, but my sister and I is one subject and grabbed … and ran are its two verbs. One clause, so it is simple. Clauses decide the type; length does not.
The comma. A dependent clause at the start takes a comma after it. At the end, it usually does not: Our sleeping bags stayed dry because she had packed a tarp.
Pronoun agreement and verb tense
The idea: A pronoun must match the word it stands for, and point to only one. Verb tense stays put unless the time really changes.
| Draft | The problem | Fixed |
|---|---|---|
| The two cabins at the end of the lake lost its roofs. | Cabins is plural; its is singular. | …lost their roofs. |
| Each of the bikes had their chain oiled. | Each is singular, and a bike is a thing, not a person. | Each of the bikes had its chain oiled. |
| When Maya handed Jess the trophy, she started to cry. | She could be either girl. | When Maya handed her the trophy, Jess started to cry. |
| When students join the band, you get a free T-shirt. | A shift in person: it is about students, then suddenly you. | …they get a free T-shirt. |
People and they. Singular they for a person — Everyone brought their own lunch — is accepted in most writing today. For things it is not: a bike has its chain.
We hiked up to the lookout on Saturday. The trail was steep, and halfway up my sister stops and says she can't go on. I gave her my water, and we sat on a rock until she was ready.
Verb tense. The story is in the past — hiked, was, gave — until stops and says slip into the present for no reason. Fixed: my sister stopped and said she couldn't go on. The time did not change, so the tense should not either.
When a change is right. “My grandmother grew up on a farm near Vegreville, and she still keeps chickens.” Grew up is past because it happened then; keeps is present because it is true now.
Semicolons, dashes, hyphens and parentheses
The idea: Each mark has one main job. The semicolon joins, the dash interrupts with emphasis, the hyphen welds words together, and parentheses set aside what the sentence could do without.
| Mark | Its job | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Semicolon ; | Joins two complete sentences that are closely related; both halves must be able to stand alone. Also separates list items that already contain commas. | The rink opened late; the ice was still soft. We stopped in Jasper, Alberta; Prince George, B.C.; and Terrace, B.C. |
| Dash — | Sets off an interruption or an added thought, louder than commas would. In mid-sentence, dashes come in pairs, like brackets. | The best part of the trip — by far — was the hot springs. |
| Hyphen - | Joins words into one describing word before a noun, and joins the numbers twenty-one to ninety-nine. | my thirteen-year-old brother; a well-known author, but the author is well known |
| Parentheses ( ) | Holds extra information. Read the sentence without it: it must still work. At the end of a sentence, the period goes after the closing bracket. | Our cabin (two hours north of Edmonton) has no Wi-Fi. |
Before: The Grade 8 bake sale raised $640 more than last year's two sales put together the money will buy new graphic novels for the library. Our best seller by a long way was Ms. Chen's lemon squares. Next year we will add a gluten free table.
After: The Grade 8 bake sale raised $640 (more than last year's two sales put together); the money will buy new graphic novels for the library. Our best seller — by a long way — was Ms. Chen's lemon squares. Next year we will add a gluten-free table.
The parentheses hold a comparison the sentence can do without. The semicolon joins two complete sentences that had run together. The dashes make by a long way louder. The hyphen makes gluten-free one word describing table; without it, a reader could picture a gluten table that happens to be free. And a dash is not a hyphen: a hyphen joins words, a dash separates parts of a sentence.
What costs marks
The idea: All of them can be caught by rereading one sentence at a time.
- Deciding a sentence's type by its length instead of counting its clauses.
- A dependent clause left on its own as if it were a sentence.
- A pronoun that could point to two people, or its and their that do not match their noun.
- Slipping between past and present in a story.
- A semicolon with a half-sentence on one side.
- A hyphen where a dash belongs.