The English Cafe

Parts of Speech is actually breaking up a sentence into its different parts.

For this introduction, I’ll like to share with you a simple theory when thinking about sentence construction : Big things start small and small things grow big. In life, you can see how that happens with chidren to adult, relationships, games etc.

For English, this “big picture” theory is important when creating a sentence or understanding how a sentence works, because a long sentence begins with 1 idea.

Exercise : Read the story below. What is the main idea behind the story?

Edwards didn’t answer when Denny rang his door bell. A quick search up the back stairs of the house and a peek through the rear windows indicated that no one was home in his apartment. The downstairs’ neighbor confirmed he hadn’t seen Traci in awhile.

Denny parked his rental car out in front of the house, switched the ignition to accessories, tuned the radio to the local news channel – and waited. Sitting the stakeout isn’t romantic, it’s cruddy. Every time a metro cop passed him by, they eyed him suspiciously. They knew who lived there and they knew Johnson was a reporter. He just looked like one. Denny was hot and hungry. There was no bathroom available, and he was running out of cigarettes. The bad characters in the neighborhood knew he was there in ten minutes. They figured he was a cop. Hours later, Traci still wasn’t home. He was obviously lying low somewhere else. But by that time, Denny was familiar with everybody in the neighborhood, hooking, selling drugs, or beating their wives. He noticed over time a middle-aged fellow carrying a bucket who seemed to be the janitor at the building across the street. Denny approached him with a $50 bill outstretched.

The man was standing in the courtyard of one of the larger red brick buildings on the block. He wore blue jeans and a dago-t that displayed an ample beer belly. He was nearly bald, what hair he did have was matted and dirty. He was sweating profusely. The janitor eyed the $50 closely and told Denny that he knew Traci from around the neighborhood. “Yeah,” said the man. “And I seen you sitting over there. I figured you was something like a reporter, or a FED maybe. I know most the local cops. Didn’t think you were a new guy – your hair’s too gray.”

From Denny Johnson, The One that Got Away