English Grammar Fundamentals

Study Notes

Parts of Speech

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, places, or things (e.g. family, team, flock)
- Abstract nouns: intangible concepts (e.g. happiness, freedom, love)
Verbs:
- Action verbs: express action or occurrence (e.g. run, eat, think)
- Linking verbs: connect 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:
- Describe nouns or pronouns (e.g. big, happy, blue)
- Quantitative adjectives: describe quantity (e.g. five, tenth, several)
- Demonstrative adjectives: point out specific nouns (e.g. this, that, these)
Adverbs:
- Modify verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs (e.g. quickly, very, well)
- Describe manner, time, place, frequency, or degree
Pronouns:
- Replace nouns in a sentence (e.g. he, she, it, they)
- Personal pronouns: refer to people or animals (e.g. I, you, he, she)
- Possessive pronouns: show ownership or possession (e.g. my, your, his, her)
Prepositions:
- Show relationships between words or phrases (e.g. in, on, at, with)
- Indicate location, direction, time, or manner
Conjunctions:
- Connect words, phrases, or clauses (e.g. and, but, or, so)
- Coordinating conjunctions: connect words or phrases of equal importance (e.g. and, but, or)
- Subordinating conjunctions: connect clauses of unequal importance (e.g. because, although, if)

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: multiple independent clauses and one or more dependent clauses

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 completed in the past before another action
Future perfect tense: action will be completed in the future before another action

Clauses and Phrases

Independent clause: has a subject and a predicate
Dependent clause: does not have a subject or a predicate, or relies on an independent clause
Phrase: a group of words that functions as a single part of speech
Relative clause: begins with a relative pronoun (e.g. who, which, that) and provides additional information about a noun

Modality

Modal verbs: express degrees of possibility, necessity, or obligation (e.g. can, could, may, might, shall, should, will, would)
Modal auxiliaries: used to express modality (e.g. can, must, shall, will)

Description

Test your knowledge of English grammar concepts, including parts of speech, sentence structure, verb tenses, clauses, and modality. Review the basics of nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, pronouns, prepositions, and conjunctions. Identify sentence types and understand verb tenses and modality.