English Grammar Basics

Nouns

• A noun is a word that refers to a person, place, thing, or idea
• Types of nouns:
  • Proper nouns: names of specific people, places, or things (e.g. John, London, Amazon)
  • Common nouns: general terms for people, places, or things (e.g. dog, city, company)
  • Collective nouns: groups of people, animals, or things (e.g. family, flock, team)
  • Abstract nouns: ideas or concepts (e.g. happiness, freedom, love)

Verbs

• A verb is a word that expresses action, occurrence, or state of being
• Types of verbs:
  • Action verbs: express physical or mental action (e.g. run, think, read)
  • Linking verbs: connect the subject to additional information (e.g. be, seem, appear)
  • Helping verbs: used to help form the tense, mood, or voice of another verb (e.g. will, would, shall)

Adjectives

• An adjective is a word that modifies, or describes, a noun or pronoun
• Types of adjectives:
  • Quantitative adjectives: describe quantity or amount (e.g. five, tenth, many)
  • Qualitative adjectives: describe quality or characteristic (e.g. happy, blue, loud)
  • Demonstrative adjectives: point out which one (e.g. this, that, these)

Adverbs

• An adverb is a word that modifies, or describes, a verb, an adjective, or another adverb
• Types of adverbs:
  • Manner adverbs: describe how something is done (e.g. slowly, loudly, wisely)
  • Time adverbs: describe when something is done (e.g. yesterday, tomorrow, soon)
  • Place adverbs: describe where something is done (e.g. here, there, everywhere)

Pronouns

• A pronoun is a word that takes the place of a noun in a sentence
• Types of pronouns:
  • Personal pronouns: replace nouns that refer to people or things (e.g. I, you, he, she, it)
  • Possessive pronouns: show ownership or possession (e.g. mine, yours, hers)
  • Reflexive pronouns: refer back to the subject of the sentence (e.g. myself, yourself, himself)

Conjunctions

• A conjunction is a word that connects words, phrases, or clauses in a sentence
• Types of conjunctions:
  • Coordinating conjunctions: connect words, phrases, or clauses of equal importance (e.g. and, but, or)
  • Subordinating conjunctions: connect a dependent clause to an independent clause (e.g. because, since, although)

Interjections

• An interjection is a word that expresses emotion or feeling
• Types of interjections:
  • Expressing emotion (e.g. oh, ouch, wow)
  • Expressing excitement or surprise (e.g. ah, eh, ha)

Prepositions

• A preposition is a word that shows the relationship between a noun or pronoun and other words in a sentence
• Examples of prepositions:
  • Words of location (e.g. in, on, at)
  • Words of direction (e.g. to, from, up)
  • Words of time (e.g. at, by, until)