English Grammar Basics

Grammar

Parts of Speech

• Nouns: Words that refer to people, places, things, and ideas
  • Proper nouns: Names of specific people, places, and organizations (e.g. John, London, Google)
  • Common nouns: General categories (e.g. dog, city, company)
• Verbs: Words that express action or a state of being
  • Action verbs (e.g. run, jump, read)
  • Linking verbs (e.g. be, seem, appear)
• Adjectives: Words that describe or modify nouns or pronouns
  • Quantitative adjectives (e.g. three, five)
  • Qualitative adjectives (e.g. happy, tall)
• Adverbs: Words that describe or modify verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs
  • Manner (e.g. quickly, loudly)
  • Time (e.g. yesterday, soon)
  • Place (e.g. here, there)
• Pronouns: Words that replace nouns in a sentence
  • Personal pronouns (e.g. I, you, he)
  • Possessive pronouns (e.g. mine, yours)
• Prepositions: Words that show relationships between words
  • Words of location (e.g. in, on, at)
  • Words of direction (e.g. to, from, up)
• Conjunctions: Words that connect words, phrases, or clauses
  • Coordinating conjunctions (e.g. and, but, or)
  • Subordinating conjunctions (e.g. because, although, if)
• Interjections: Words that express emotion or feeling
  • Expressing strong emotions (e.g. oh, wow, ouch)

Sentence Structure

• Simple sentences: One independent clause
• Compound sentences: Two or more independent clauses joined by a conjunction
• Complex sentences: One independent clause and one or more dependent clauses
• Compound-complex sentences: Two or more independent clauses and one or more dependent clauses

Clauses

• Independent clauses: Contain a subject and a predicate
• Dependent clauses: Contain a subject and a predicate, but cannot stand alone
  • Introduced by a subordinating conjunction

Verb Tenses

• Present tense: Action happening now
• Past tense: Action completed in the past
• Future tense: Action will happen in the future
• Present perfect tense: Action started in the past and continues up to the present
• Past perfect tense: Action occurred before another action in the past
• Future perfect tense: Action will be completed at a point in the future