This month we wanted to take another look at the difference between transitive and intransitive verbs. We also have an exciting announcement about some new features and an upcoming release.
To explain how transitive verbs work, Marie gives us a special memory trick that no one else that I know of has used. She points out that the word transit is hidden in the word transitive and that transitive verbs are in fact like transit systems.
Take a peek at our first free excerpt, from Lesson 11 of The Basic Cozy Grammar Course. Once you're done, I'll add a few examples of my own and share this month's news.
How Transitive Verbs Carry Us
One of the things I love about Marie's approach to grammar is that whenever she uses a potentially confusing grammatical term like transitive verb she always gives a simple and memorable way to remember what the term actually means.
I like her trick for transitive verbs so much that we decided to shoot a supplementary video about it on the top deck of a ferry. In other words, in the midst of an actual transit system!
Take a peek at our second free excerpt below, from the study notes for Lesson 11 of The Basic Cozy Grammar Course. In it I share some additional examples to make the topic of transitive verbs even clearer.
By the way, in the video I referred to another trick of Marie's for remembering the difference between transitive and intransitive verbs. We shared a video about that and some helpful examples in a recent newsletter.
Read and watch about this trick in the Recent Issues section of our website.
Carrying and Caring
Whenever I think about ferries, I think about one of my favorite poems from Edna St. Vincent Millay, "Recuerdo."
Recuerdo is a word from Spanish that can mean both "memory" and "I remember." Take a look at the second and third stanzas of the poem, which can also help us remember how transitive verbs work:
We were very tired, we were very merry—
We had gone back and forth all night on the ferry;
And you ate an apple, and I ate a pear,
From a dozen of each we had bought somewhere;
And the sky went wan, and the wind came cold,
And the sun rose dripping, a bucketful of gold.
We were very tired, we were very merry,
We had gone back and forth all night on the ferry.
We hailed, “Good morrow, mother!” to a shawl-covered head,
And bought a morning paper, which neither of us read;
And she wept, “God bless you!” for the apples and pears,
And we gave her all our money but our subway fares.
(You can read the entire poem on the Poetry Foundation website and also learn more about Edna St. Vincent Millay herself.)
Here's a little exercise that you can try.
See if you can find the transitive verbs that the poet uses in these two stanzas.
That will give you a memory to help you remember even more fully what makes a transitive verb a transitive verb.
We were very tired, we were very merry—
We had gone back and forth all night on the ferry;
And you ATE an apple, and I ATE a pear,
From a dozen of each we had bought somewhere;
And the sky went wan, and the wind came cold,
And the sun rose dripping, a bucketful of gold.
We were very tired, we were very merry,
We had gone back and forth all night on the ferry.
We hailed, “Good morrow, mother!” to a shawl-covered head,
And BOUGHT a morning paper, which neither of us read;
And she wept, “God bless you!” for the apples and pears,
And we GAVE her all our money but our subway fares.
See how in each case we can answer the question of what?
What did you eat? An apple! What did I eat? A pear!
What did we buy? A morning paper? What did we give? All our money but our subway fares.
That’s why all of these verbs are transitive verbs.
New Workbooks and the Renewed Essay Course
We're excited to announce that we've recently released a complete set of new PDFs for the revised online Study Notes and Exercises for The Basic Cozy Grammar Course. These allow you to print any sections of the online workbook for which you wish to have hard copies. Simply visit your "My Courses" page to download the sections you want or the entire workbook as a whole.
With all our newly added features, the course PDFs contain nearly 600 pages of material. They also include an answer key with comprehensive and detailed explanations for every question in the Exercises and Review Tests.
We plan to release a similar set of PDFs for The Basic Cozy Punctuation Course next month.
Perhaps even more exciting, we plan to release the newly revised and renewed version of our Basic Cozy Essay Course next month as well, which includes all-new supplementary videos filmed in London, England. Stay tuned for a special offer for our subscribers!
An Upcoming Opportunity
For our friends in the Pacific Northwest, we're delighted to be appearing at the Washington Homeschool Organization Conference in June. You can read more about the 2019 WHO Conference on their website.
If you're in the neighborhood, we'd be delighted to meet you!
Thank you for being present with us this month.
We'll look forward to seeing you again soon!
Warmly,
Thomas
Marie's Language Consultant
The Cozy Grammar Series of Courses