English Grammar Fundamentals

Study Notes

Parts of Speech

Nouns: words that refer to people, places, things, and ideas
- Proper Nouns: names of specific people, places, or things (e.g. John, London)
- Common Nouns: general terms for people, places, or things (e.g. dog, city)
- Collective Nouns: groups of people, animals, or things (e.g. family, team)
- Abstract Nouns: concepts or feelings (e.g. happiness, freedom)
Verbs: words that express action or a state of being
- Action Verbs: express physical or mental action (e.g. run, think)
- Linking Verbs: connect the subject to additional information (e.g. be, seem)
- Helping Verbs: used to help form the tense, mood, or voice of another verb (e.g. will, would)
Adjectives: words that describe or modify nouns or pronouns
- Quantitative Adjectives: describe quantity (e.g. five, many)
- Qualitative Adjectives: describe qualities or characteristics (e.g. happy, blue)
Adverbs: words that describe or modify verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs
- Manner Adverbs: describe how something is done (e.g. quickly, loudly)
- Time Adverbs: describe when something is done (e.g. yesterday, soon)
- Place Adverbs: describe where something is done (e.g. here, there)
Pronouns: words that replace nouns in a sentence
- Personal Pronouns: replace nouns that refer to people or things (e.g. I, you, he)
- Possessive Pronouns: show ownership or possession (e.g. mine, yours)
- Reflexive Pronouns: refer back to the subject of the sentence (e.g. myself, yourself)

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: do not express a complete thought, often begin with a subordinating conjunction
- Subordinating Conjunctions: introduce dependent clauses (e.g. because, although)
- Relative Clauses: describe a noun or pronoun (e.g. which, who)

Verb Tenses

Present Tense: describes an action that is happening now
Past Tense: describes an action that happened in the past
Future Tense: describes an action that will happen in the future
Present Perfect Tense: describes an action that started in the past and continues up to the present
Past Perfect Tense: describes an action that happened before another action in the past
Future Perfect Tense: describes an action that will be completed at a specific point in the future

Description

Learn about the basics of English grammar, including parts of speech, sentence structure, clauses, and verb tenses. Test your understanding of nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, and pronouns, as well as complex sentence structures and verb conjugation.