Information collection & exchange

predicate: Sentences are composed of a subject (see 
consists of the ver
underlined: 
One night a thief entered the Hodja's house.
The Hodja's wife whispered that there was a thief in the next room
The Hodja told her to he quiet.
"Maybe he will find something worth taking. 
Then we can easily take it from him." 
preposition: a limited class of words like at, for, behind, etc. Prepositions often refer to locations. They are 
followed by nouns in prepositional phrases like to the store, of the story, and like an idiot. In the following 
sentences, the prepositions are underlined: 
The Hodja was once traveling in a sailboat during a fierce storm, which tossed the boat from side to side 
and tore the topsail. 
When the Hodja saw the sailors rush up the mast and start to tie down the sail, he shouted at them. 
"If you want to keep the boat still, you should tie it at the bottom, not at the top!" 
pronoun: a word that can be used instead of a noun or noun phrase. In the following sentences, the 
ro
p nouns are underlined: 
The village gossip, a notorious sponger, ran up to the Hodja. 
"I just saw a gigantic stuffed turkey carried by on a plate." 
"What is that to me?" asked the Hodja. 
"They carried it to your house," answered the gossip. 
"What is that to you?" asked the Hodja. 

---

se
up 
er definition is "a group of words that 
cludes a subject and a predicate," i.e., something that is being talked about, and what's happening to that 
er as to what a sentence is. In the 
llowing examples the first is not a sentence, whereas the second is: 
sin
nouns can be singular, and so can the verb be
ntence: traditionally defined as a group of words that expresses a complete thought. (No one ever came 
with a good definition of "a complete thought," however!) Anoth
in
something. In general, you can trust your intuition as a native speak
fo
The Hodja, a famous figure in Middle Eastern folk literature. 
The Hodja is a famous figure in Middle Eastern folk literature. 
gular: referring to only one thing. Nouns and pro
. Verbs in 
e present tense can also be singular. In the sentences below, the singular forms of nouns, pronouns, be, 
th
and present tense verbs are underlined: 
The Hodja was once asked what was the more useful, the sun or the moon. 
"The sun shines in the daytime when there is a lot of light already," he replied, "whereas the moon shines 
when it is dark. 
The moon is therefore much more useful." 
subject: the first part of a sentence, usually including a noun or pronoun. The subjects of the sentences 
be
Ten men
low are underlined: 
offered the Hodja ten pennies to take them across a river in a boat. 
Although not a skillful boatman, he started to row the ten men across. 
The boat lurched in midstream. 
One of the ten fell out and was carried away by the current. 
The lost man's friends began to shout at the Hodja. 
"All right," he said. "I'll accept just nine pennies!" 
ten
e action takes place. The traditional tenses in English 
are listed below, with an example for each. Note that the progressive tenses are sometimes called 
con