# FI Grammar Article Part 1 \[AM\] **URL:** \ **Category:** Mini Projects\ **Created:** [October 7, 2024, 8:28am UTC](https://discuss.criticalfallibilism.com/t/fi-grammar-article-part-1-am/1964 "2024-10-07T08:28:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ActiveMind](https://discuss.criticalfallibilism.com/user_avatar/discuss.criticalfallibilism.com/activemind/32/5560_2.png) [@ActiveMind](https://discuss.criticalfallibilism.com/u/ActiveMind)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2024, 8:28am UTC](https://discuss.criticalfallibilism.com/t/fi-grammar-article-part-1-am/1964/1 "2024-10-07T08:28:20Z")
**Project Summary:** An exploration project as introduction to grammar. read part 1 of [Fallible Ideas – Grammar](https://fallibleideas.com/grammar) and do the exercises with tree diagrams as well. Intended as a sub-project as part of a regular project to do the whole article. **Goal:** Learn basic grammar. Practice more with tree diagrams. Start second project for the rest of the article. Figure out things like what resources I need for the project and what my expected error rate is. **Success criteria (& optional failure criteria):** - Have read part 1 - Attempted all exercises - Make tree diagrams for each exercise **Big picture goal, why you want to do this, or CF relevance:** Learning grammar as philosophy prerequisite. **Plan:** I’ll compare my answers to other answers on the forum to check for mistakes. If I find a mistake I’ll try to explain what the mistake is and explain the alternative solution. I would like to attempt new sentences that are similar to the ones that I failed at, however I’m not sure I can find create such sentences without already knowing the solution as I did with arithmetic expressions. Other people suggesting a sentence would be useful, but not expected, the success of the project is not dependent on it. I will time the exercises. **Context:** (optional – fill out or delete the context section) I’m not a native english speaker. I don’t remember much grammar taught in english classes in school. ---
**Author:** ![ActiveMind](https://discuss.criticalfallibilism.com/user_avatar/discuss.criticalfallibilism.com/activemind/32/5560_2.png) [@ActiveMind](https://discuss.criticalfallibilism.com/u/ActiveMind)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2024, 11:01am UTC](https://discuss.criticalfallibilism.com/t/fi-grammar-article-part-1-am/1964/2 "2024-10-07T11:01:55Z")
Bonus exercises: The article explains some sentences during the explanations of grammar. The article says what parts of speech the words are and what modifies what, so I thought I could make tree diagrams for them more easily than also figuring out those things myself. I also watched [Learn grammar trees (they’re better than sentence diagrams) - YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7MOFMORS1c&list=PLLclPWdf77QVRc0Pgn-ZvbJS2Fj2QyPj9&index=1) ![](https://discuss.criticalfallibilism.com/uploads/default/original/2X/7/7bb6e062c6557d4365e28d63f8ea625873e20184.png) ![](https://discuss.criticalfallibilism.com/uploads/default/original/2X/5/58c49162e6f8a3558bf4ef66f1ac0fcb87c0869d.png) ![](https://discuss.criticalfallibilism.com/uploads/default/original/2X/b/bfa5e1ca0bc15e4f6215e8cd8570d777783587e0.png) “learn” is noun to the preposition “to”, and it is also verb like. ---
**Author:** ![Elliot](https://discuss.criticalfallibilism.com/user_avatar/discuss.criticalfallibilism.com/elliot/32/14_2.png) [@Elliot](https://discuss.criticalfallibilism.com/u/Elliot)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2024, 3:07pm UTC](https://discuss.criticalfallibilism.com/t/fi-grammar-article-part-1-am/1964/3 "2024-10-07T15:07:27Z")
Looks like you got the general idea for the trees. “to learn” is an infinitive. ---
**Author:** ![ActiveMind](https://discuss.criticalfallibilism.com/user_avatar/discuss.criticalfallibilism.com/activemind/32/5560_2.png) [@ActiveMind](https://discuss.criticalfallibilism.com/u/ActiveMind)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2024, 5:08am UTC](https://discuss.criticalfallibilism.com/t/fi-grammar-article-part-1-am/1964/4 "2024-10-08T05:08:40Z")
I didn’t know about infinitives, I just treated “wanted to learn” like “want to eat” in the yt video. ---
**Author:** ![ActiveMind](https://discuss.criticalfallibilism.com/user_avatar/discuss.criticalfallibilism.com/activemind/32/5560_2.png) [@ActiveMind](https://discuss.criticalfallibilism.com/u/ActiveMind)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2024, 6:39am UTC](https://discuss.criticalfallibilism.com/t/fi-grammar-article-part-1-am/1964/5 "2024-10-08T06:39:13Z")
Additional context: I have watched videos on grammar trees and read some forum topics of people learning grammar. I hadn’t done any exercises and I didn’t remember any solutions. ---
**Author:** ![ActiveMind](https://discuss.criticalfallibilism.com/user_avatar/discuss.criticalfallibilism.com/activemind/32/5560_2.png) [@ActiveMind](https://discuss.criticalfallibilism.com/u/ActiveMind)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2024, 6:44am UTC](https://discuss.criticalfallibilism.com/t/fi-grammar-article-part-1-am/1964/6 "2024-10-08T06:44:50Z")
1. John is wise. linking verb: is subject: John complement: wise ![](https://discuss.criticalfallibilism.com/uploads/default/original/2X/b/b1092b23d3e2a1baa8a1015820bdfa3d98493b20.png) 1 min 2. John quickly drank milk. action verb: drank subject: John object: milk adverb: quickly (modifies “drank”) ![](https://discuss.criticalfallibilism.com/uploads/default/original/2X/9/93ffbb2cbe6182155d3280a60fdc516cd4819255.png) 1 min 30 sec 3. John likes big, fast cars. action verb: like subject: John object: cars adjectives: big, fast (both modifies “cars”) I think theres an implied “and” ![](https://discuss.criticalfallibilism.com/uploads/default/original/2X/b/b111f08f89063f2d66a0be71bfa645f0b7e7c81a.png) 3 min EDIT: At this point I stopped specifying what modified what, since I thought the trees showed this well enough. 1. John went to the new store. action verb: went subject: John prepositional phrase: to the new store preposition: to noun: store determiner: the adjective: new ![](https://discuss.criticalfallibilism.com/uploads/default/original/2X/a/ab1a9ac05a6068610b84007518d9dd409f9c6733.png) 2 min 30 sec 2. The ferocious dog chased three cats over the chair. action verb: chased subject: dog adjective: ferocious object: cats determiner: three prepositional phrase: over the chair preposition: over noun: chair determiner: the ![](https://discuss.criticalfallibilism.com/uploads/default/original/2X/b/b9f152484b1192c35ac6c21e40588f47a2b4a77b.png) 4 min 15 sec I thought it made sense that numbers could be determiners, but I searched it up before i decided on it for the exercise. 1. Clever John carefully ate the very juicy steak. action verb: ate subject: John adjective: clever adverb: carefully object: steak determiner: the adjective: juicy adverb: very 2 min 15 sec 2. John thought hard about chemistry action verb: thought subject: John adverb: hard prepositional phrase: about chemistry preposition: about noun: chemistry ![](https://discuss.criticalfallibilism.com/uploads/default/original/2X/5/5fca84efe0974b43ee0233e95d90f0de06c3aaa8.png) 1 min 45 sec 3. John put the toy soldier in the compartment in the box on the shelf in his room. action verb: put subject: John object: soldier determiner: the adjective: toy prepositional pharse: in the compartment in the box on the shelf in his room preposition: in noun: compartment determiner: the prepositional phrase: in the box on the shelf in his room preposition: in noun: box determiner: the prepositional phrase: on the shelf in his room preposition: on noun: shelf determiner: the prepositional phrase: in his room preposition: in noun: room determiner: his 8 min 45 sec 1. The delicious cake with berries unfortunately fell onto the dirty floor from the floor. action verb: fell subject: cake determiner: the adjective: delicious prepositional phrase: with berries preposition: with noun: berries adverb: unfortunately prepositional phrase: onto the dirty floor preposition: onto noun: floor determiner: the adjective: dirty prepositional phrase: from the table preposition: from noun: table determiner: the ![](https://discuss.criticalfallibilism.com/uploads/default/original/2X/9/9be5819cd0f0ce8e3815b505b5820537654975b2.png) 8 min 30 sec I spent some time deciding whether “from the table” should modify “floor” or “fell”. The floor doesn’t come from the table, but the cake fell from the table. So it made more sense to me that it should modify “fell” instead. The whole session from starting exercises to finishing them took 40 min. This doesn’t include reading the article and doing the trees I did beforehand, which I didn’t time accurately enough. ---
**Author:** ![ActiveMind](https://discuss.criticalfallibilism.com/user_avatar/discuss.criticalfallibilism.com/activemind/32/5560_2.png) [@ActiveMind](https://discuss.criticalfallibilism.com/u/ActiveMind)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2024, 4:06am UTC](https://discuss.criticalfallibilism.com/t/fi-grammar-article-part-1-am/1964/7 "2024-10-09T04:06:47Z")
I had forgotten to add the image of the tree for this one. > [@ActiveMind](#): > > Clever John carefully ate the very juicy steak. > action verb: ate > subject: John > adjective: clever > adverb: carefully > object: steak > determiner: the > adjective: juicy > adverb: very > 2 min 15 sec ![Screenshot 2024-10-08 at 08.25.11](https://discuss.criticalfallibilism.com/uploads/default/original/2X/5/5fca84efe0974b43ee0233e95d90f0de06c3aaa8.png) ---
**Author:** ![ActiveMind](https://discuss.criticalfallibilism.com/user_avatar/discuss.criticalfallibilism.com/activemind/32/5560_2.png) [@ActiveMind](https://discuss.criticalfallibilism.com/u/ActiveMind)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2024, 4:09am UTC](https://discuss.criticalfallibilism.com/t/fi-grammar-article-part-1-am/1964/8 "2024-10-09T04:09:43Z")
Oh no I see, I put the tree here instead, and the tree to this exercise is the one I forgot. > [@ActiveMind](#): > > John thought hard about chemistry > action verb: thought > subject: John > adverb: hard > prepositional phrase: about chemistry > preposition: about > noun: chemistry > > ![](https://discuss.criticalfallibilism.com/uploads/default/original/2X/5/5fca84efe0974b43ee0233e95d90f0de06c3aaa8.png) > 1 min 45 sec Here’s the tree for ex.7 ![Screenshot 2024-10-08 at 08.25.16](https://discuss.criticalfallibilism.com/uploads/default/original/2X/2/24b5a8de2a2df8465a19e459f840a92660356e8b.png) ---
**Author:** ![ActiveMind](https://discuss.criticalfallibilism.com/user_avatar/discuss.criticalfallibilism.com/activemind/32/5560_2.png) [@ActiveMind](https://discuss.criticalfallibilism.com/u/ActiveMind)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2024, 4:45am UTC](https://discuss.criticalfallibilism.com/t/fi-grammar-article-part-1-am/1964/9 "2024-10-09T04:45:35Z")
> [@ActiveMind](#): > > The ferocious dog chased three cats over the chair. The only mistake I could find was that I forgot the first “the” in this sentence. It is a determiner which modifies “dog”. To avoid mistakes like this I should look over the sentence I analyzed and check whether every word, or tree element more generally, was included. > [@Arithmetic trees \[ActiveMind\]](https://discuss.criticalfallibilism.com/t/arithmetic-trees-activemind/1963/6): > > This one didn’t just have an arithmetic mistake, I also copied the wrong number from the equation. This mistake is similar. I think I did do checks for whether the nodes I put in the tree were correct for my arithmetic trees, perhaps I didn’t for this one. ---
**Author:** ![ActiveMind](https://discuss.criticalfallibilism.com/user_avatar/discuss.criticalfallibilism.com/activemind/32/5560_2.png) [@ActiveMind](https://discuss.criticalfallibilism.com/u/ActiveMind)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2024, 5:02am UTC](https://discuss.criticalfallibilism.com/t/fi-grammar-article-part-1-am/1964/10 "2024-10-09T05:02:59Z")
# Project conclusion I met the success criteria. It didn’t specify correctness, but it seems I only made two mistakes. The first mistake was in the trees before the exercises, where I didn’t know what to classify “to learn” as, I didn’t yet know about infinitives so I’ll learn about that later. The other mistake was forgetting a word. I can fix this by doing a check of the sentence and the tree to see if all the words are included. I found out more about what to expect wrt resources needed and expected error rate for the rest of the article. I’ll first look at the the rest of the article when I fill out the template for the project and compare difficulty to part 1. The main benefit is the grammar I learned. Also succeeding at another project. I thought this project was slightly harder than the last. I can’t start the project for the rest of article yet, I’m too busy right now. I can probably start in 2-5 days.