Understanding Adverbs, Verbs, Tenses, and Punctuation for 13-Year-Old Students

1. Verbs

Verbs are action words in a sentence. They tell us what someone or something is doing.

• Example: She runs fast. (runs is the verb)

There are different types of verbs:

• Action verbs: Describe an action. (e.g., eat, jump, write)
• Linking verbs: Connect the subject to more information. (e.g., is, am, are)
• Helping verbs: Help the main verb to show tense or mood. (e.g., have, will, can)

2. Tenses

Tenses show the time when an action happens.

• Present tense: Action happening now (e.g., She runs.)
• Past tense: Action happened in the past (e.g., She ran.)
• Future tense: Action will happen later (e.g., She will run.)

Each tense helps the reader understand when something occurs.

3. Adverbs

Adverbs describe verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs. They tell us how, when, where, or how often something happens.

• Example: She runs quickly. (quickly tells how she runs)
• Adverbs often end in -ly, like slowly, happily, and carefully.

4. Punctuation

Punctuation marks help us understand sentences better by showing pauses, stops, or excitement.

• Period (.) - ends a sentence.
• Comma (,) - shows a short pause or separates items.
• Question mark (?) - ends a question.
• Exclamation mark (!) - shows strong feelings.
• Quotation marks ("") - show someone is speaking.

Example sentence using all: She quickly said, "I will run tomorrow!"

Summary

- Verb: action or state of being.
- Tense: when the action happens.
- Adverb: describes the action or other words.
- Punctuation: helps us understand the sentences clearly.