Basic Grammar for Call Center Agents

Simple Subject = a noun or pronoun which tells who or what performs the action in a
sentence.
Examples:
Colorful flowers sprout from the ground in the springtime.
The Grimm Brothers’ tales are classics of children’s literature.
Tiny fish swam around our feet in the lake.
The apple orchard’s harvest festival is next week.

Simple Predicate = a verb or verb phrase that tells what subject is or does.
It doesn’t give any more information about the verb or verb phrase, which is why the
predicate is considered “simple.”

Examples:

We are going to the art museum.

The baby is taking a nap.
The fundraiser had been a great success.
Mom did enjoy the game a lot.

Complete Subject = the simple subject, or the main word or words in a subject,
along with any of the modifiers that might describe the subject.

Examples:

Tyrell’s guitar lesson helps improve his playing.

Our dinner guests seemed to enjoy the meals.
My new black shoes were on sale at the store.
The community swimming pool feels good on a hot summer day.

Complete Predicate = a verb or verb phrase plus all the words that give more
information about it that tells what the subject is or does.

Examples:

Lee is having us over for dinner.

The dogs are running around in the yard.
We will dry ourselves off after swimming.
Shasha is scheduling a dentist appointment.
Root Word = a word that can be made into a new word by adding a prefix or a suffix.

Examples:

Modifiers = give description a description about a word or phrase such as how green
describes grass in the phrase green grass. Modifiers may be single word (adjectives,
adverbs, nouns, and verbs), phrases, or clauses.

Examples:

Looking toward the west, a funnel shaped cloud stirred up dust. (Funnel shaped
describes how cloud looks.)
When hiking in the mountain, hiking shoes must be worn. (Hiking tells the design of
the shoes.)
I contributed only ten dollars to the fund for orphan children. (Orphan describes the
children.)
Our trainer graduated from a vocational high school. (Vocational describes the type of
high school.)

Prepositional Phrase = includes a preposition, its object (noun or pronoun that

follows the preposition), and any modifiers of the object.
It functions as either adjective phrases or adverb phrases to modify other words in a
sentence.
It answers Which one? What kind? How? Where? When? To what extent?

Common prepositional phrases include about, after, at, before, behind, by, during, for,
from, in, of, over, past, to, under, up, and with.

Example:

It annoys me when people talk during movies.

Hannah look under the bed to see if she could find her necklace.
I’ll meet you after school.
The sun rose over the mountain.

Verb Phrase = consists of an auxiliary, or helping, verb and a main verb.

The helping verb always precedes the main verb. The helping verb includes forms of
be (such as am, is, are was were, being, been), forms of have, has and had, forms of
do, does, and did, forms of can (such as could, will, would, and shall), forms of should
(such as may, might, and must).

Examples:
Mom and Dad are going to France in the springtime.
Rescuers will help those in need.
Internet reception has been spotty lately.
I don’t think she will join us.

Participial Phrase = includes the participle (either a present participle or past

participle), plus any modifiers and compliments.

Examples:

Frightened by the loud fireworks, the dog heed under the couch.
Injured during the basketball match, Marco had to leave the court.
Infinitive Phrase = a verb form that typically begins with the word to.
It includes infinitive, plus any modifiers and compliments.

Infinitive and infinitive phrases can function as nouns, adjectives, or adverbs in a

sentence. As nouns, they can act either as subjects, direct objects, predicate
nominatives.

Examples:

To sleep, bats hang upside down.

To identify the locations of objects around them, dolphins use echolocation.
Thomas wants to take swimming lessons.
She knows when to fight for her rights.