English grammar is the foundation for all writing and speaking in English. Understanding the basics can help you break bad habits and improve your fluency in the language.
Grammar includes the parts of speech and determiners that give words meaning. These include nouns, verbs, adjectives, and prepositions.
I-Nouns
Understanding nouns is a vital part of English grammar. Nouns are words that name people, animals, places, objects and ideas.
Nouns can be countable or uncountable, and they can take different forms like singular and plural. They also can be proper, common, animate or inanimate.
Proper nouns are names that refer to a specific person, place or thing and usually begin with capital letters. In written English, proper nouns are always capitalized and must be followed by a full stop or exclamation point.
Collective nouns are names that refer to groups of people or things, such as team or band. They are often used as proper nouns, but they can also be common nouns.
In a sentence, nouns perform several roles: subjects, direct objects, indirect objects, complements and appositives. They can also modify other nouns and be the object of a prepositional phrase.
They can be subject complements, which rename or redefine the subject of the sentence. They can also be object complements, which follow the noun they modify.
Some nouns are possessive and show ownership: a tree is owned by Lucy, Mike’s shirt is owned by Mike, London’s roads are owned by the city. A possessive noun must have an apostrophe at the end and usually ends with s.
Some nouns are abstract and represent things that cannot be perceived with your senses, such as love, integrity, democracy, friendship, beauty, knowledge. Abstract nouns can sometimes be hard to use effectively in creative writing because they can convey little information.
II-Adjectives
Adjectives are words that modify or describe nouns. They help make your writing and speaking much more specific, and a lot more interesting!
Generally, adjectives come before the noun or pronoun that they modify. However, there are a few exceptions to this rule.
First, some adjectives act as predicative adjectives: these words complement linking verbs or the verb to be (e.g., it is a good day to be here).
Second, some adjectives act as postpositive adjectives: they come after the nouns they modify. This is rare in English, but it occurs sometimes when the writer wants to sound poetic.
Third, some adjectives act as determiners: these words are used as possessives, demonstratives, interrogatives, and quantifiers, depending on the style guide you’re using.
Some adjectives can also be made into comparative or superlative forms. These forms express the quality of one thing relative to another or a group of things.
III-Adverbs
Adverbs modify verbs or other adverbs, and they can also change the meaning of adjectives. They can also modify prepositions and prepositional phrases.
Most adverbs are formed by adding the suffix “-ly” to an adjective. The most common are again, also, never, often, soon, today, too, and well.
Some adverbs do not end in “-ly.” They are called interrogative adverbs. They tell you when, where, and how something happened.
Another type of adverb is a conditional adverb. These adverbs change the meaning of a verb depending on the situation.
When it comes to modifying a verb, the most common place for an adverb is at the end of the sentence, between the subject and the verb (S + V). Sometimes, you can put an adverb in the middle of a sentence, after the subject and the verb, but before the verb that it is modifying.
Always is a common adverb that is not moved as much in the spoken language as other adverbs. It generally appears after “BE” verbs and auxiliary verbs, but before the main verb it is modifying.
IV-Prepositions
In English grammar, prepositions are words that show the relationship between a noun or pronoun and another word or element in the sentence. They can be used to indicate time, direction or location, and introduce something.
Many people find it difficult to understand prepositions, and they can often be confusing for beginners. This is why it’s a good idea to take the time to learn them well before you start learning English.
One of the best ways to practice is by reading stories. These can be very entertaining and can help your child develop a better understanding of how to use the correct preposition.
Other ways to learn about prepositions is by listening to podcasts or audiobooks. These can be very helpful as they allow you to listen at your own pace while hearing speakers who typically have a strong command of the language.
You can also try to learn prepositions by using the dictionary and by reading a lot in English (literature). This is especially helpful if you’re studying for an exam like an English proficiency test or an English diploma.
A preposition can be made up of one word or two words and can be a simple preposition, a compound preposition or a complex preposition. The simple prepositions are the short and common words such as as, at, by, for, of and in. The compound and complex prepositions can be a bit more complicated, but they still have the same grammatical function as the simple ones.
V-Clauses
Clauses are a key part of English grammar. They are one of the most basic subjects covered at the secondary school level, before students move on to learning the complexities of conjunctions, parts of speech and punctuations.
Clauses can be divided into two types: independent clauses and dependent clauses. An independent clause is a group of words that can stand alone and make complete sense as a whole.
An independent clause contains a subject and a verb and expresses a complete thought. A subordinate clause, on the other hand, does not express a complete thought and cannot be a sentence by itself.
The most common way to form an independent clause is with a subordinating conjunction followed by the subject and the verb. But it can also be started with such words as although, since, if, when or because.
A dependent clause, on the other hand, is a group of words that is linked to an independent clause by a subordinating conjunction. It can function as a noun, an adjective, or an adverb.
Adjective clauses typically begin with a relative pronoun, such as who, whom, whose, which or that. They function as an adjective by modifying the subject or another noun or pronoun in the sentence.
VI-Tenses
Tenses are a critical part of English grammar. They tell us about the time when an action occurred, whether it was completed, and how it is still going on.
There are many different tenses in English, each one indicating a particular time relationship with another. For example, a simple present tense indicates that something is happening right now, while a perfect tense shows the connection between two events that are close in time.
In contrast to some languages, like Japanese, English tenses are more important in indicating the chronological order of events and actions. They also help to anchor the listener in the story and can create many different meanings from the same verbs.
In addition, the tenses are conjugated in specific patterns, making them easier to learn and use. However, it can take time to master all these tenses. It is a good idea to practice and go through them keenly so that you can get better at using them in your speaking and writing.
