English Grammar Fundamentals

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