English Grammar: Parts of speech

• Grammar is the set of structural rules governing the composition of clauses, phrases, and words in any given natural language
• It encompasses morphology, syntax, phonology, and semantics
• Descriptive grammar describes how language is actually used, without judgment
• Prescriptive grammar dictates how language should be used according to a standard

Parts of Speech

• Nouns: Words that represent people, places, things, or ideas (e.g., "dog," "house," "freedom")
  • Common nouns: General names (e.g., city, river)
  • Proper nouns: Specific names, always capitalized (e.g., London, Amazon)
  • Concrete nouns: Tangible things (e.g., table, book)
  • Abstract nouns: Intangible ideas or concepts (e.g., love, justice)
  • Countable nouns: Can be counted (e.g., apples, cars)
  • Uncountable nouns: Cannot be counted (e.g., water, sand)
  • Collective nouns: Represent a group (e.g., team, family)
• Pronouns: Words that replace nouns (e.g., "he," "she," "it," "they")
  • Personal pronouns: Refer to specific people or things (e.g., I, you, he, she, it, we, they)
  • Possessive pronouns: Show ownership (e.g., mine, yours, his, hers, its, ours, theirs)
  • Reflexive pronouns: Refer back to the subject of the sentence (e.g., myself, yourself, himself, herself, itself, ourselves, yourselves, themselves)
  • Intensive pronouns: Emphasize a noun or pronoun (e.g., I myself will do it.)
  • Demonstrative pronouns: Point out specific nouns (e.g., this, that, these, those)
  • Interrogative pronouns: Used to ask questions (e.g., who, whom, which, what, whose)
  • Relative pronouns: Introduce relative clauses (e.g., who, whom, which, that, whose)
  • Indefinite pronouns: Refer to nonspecific people or things (e.g., someone, anyone, everyone, no one, some, any, all, none)
• Verbs: Words that express actions or states of being (e.g., "run," "is," "become")
  • Action verbs: Express physical or mental actions (e.g., run, think)
  • Linking verbs: Connect the subject to a noun or adjective that describes or renames the subject (e.g., is, are, was, were, seem, become)
  • Auxiliary verbs: Help the main verb (e.g., be, do, have)
• Adjectives: Words that describe nouns (e.g., "red," "big," "interesting")
  • Descriptive adjectives: Describe qualities or characteristics (e.g., happy, tall)
  • Limiting adjectives: Specify quantity or number (e.g., one, several, many)
  • Proper adjectives: Derived from proper nouns (e.g., French, American)
• Adverbs: Words that modify verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs (e.g., "quickly," "very," "loudly")
  • Adverbs of manner: Describe how an action is performed (e.g., quickly, slowly)
  • Adverbs of time: Indicate when an action occurs (e.g., yesterday, today, soon)
  • Adverbs of place: Indicate where an action occurs (e.g., here, there, everywhere)
  • Adverbs of degree: Indicate the intensity of an action or quality (e.g., very, quite, extremely)
• Prepositions: Words that show the relationship between a noun or pronoun and other words in the sentence (e.g., "on," "in," "at," "to," "from")
  • Common prepositions: Examples include "in," "on," "at," "to," "from," "with," "by," "for," "about," "under," "over"
  • Compound prepositions: Consist of two or more words (e.g., according to, because of, in spite of)
• Conjunctions: Words that connect words, phrases, or clauses (e.g., "and," "but," "or")
  • Coordinating conjunctions: Connect words or groups of words of equal grammatical rank (e.g., and, but, or, nor, for, so, yet)
  • Subordinating conjunctions: Connect a subordinate clause to a main clause (e.g., because, although, if, when, while, since)
  • Correlative conjunctions: Used in pairs (e.g., either/or, neither/nor, both/and, not only/but also)
• Interjections: Words that express strong emotion (e.g., "wow," "ouch," "hurray")

Sentence Structure

• Subject: The noun or pronoun that performs the action of the verb
• Predicate: The part of the sentence that contains the verb and describes what the subject does or is
• Clause: A group of words containing a subject and a verb
  • Independent clause: Can stand alone as a sentence
  • Dependent clause: Cannot stand alone as a sentence; it relies on an independent clause
• Phrase: A group of related words that does not contain both a subject and a verb
• Simple sentence: Contains one independent clause
• Compound sentence: Contains two or more independent clauses joined by a coordinating conjunction, semicolon, or colon
• Complex sentence: Contains one independent clause and one or more dependent clauses
• Compound-complex sentence: Contains two or more independent clauses and one or more dependent clauses

Verb Tenses

• Present tense: Describes actions happening now (e.g., "I walk")
• Past tense: Describes actions that happened in the past (e.g., "I walked")
• Future tense: Describes actions that will happen in the future (e.g., "I will walk")
• Perfect tenses: Indicate completed actions
  • Present perfect: Action started in the past and continues to the present (e.g., "I have walked")
  • Past perfect: Action completed before another action in the past (e.g., "I had walked")
  • Future perfect: Action will be completed before a specific time in the future (e.g., "I will have walked")
• Progressive tenses: Indicate ongoing actions
  • Present progressive: Action is happening now (e.g., "I am walking")
  • Past progressive: Action was happening in the past (e.g., "I was walking")
  • Future progressive: Action will be happening in the future (e.g., "I will be walking")
• Perfect progressive tenses: Combine perfect and progressive aspects
  • Present perfect progressive: Action started in the past, continues to the present, and is ongoing (e.g., "I have been walking")
  • Past perfect progressive: Action had been happening before another action in the past (e.g., "I had been walking")
  • Future perfect progressive: Action will have been happening before a specific time in the future (e.g., "I will have been walking")

Subject-Verb Agreement

• Singular subjects take singular verbs (e.g., "He walks")
• Plural subjects take plural verbs (e.g., "They walk")
• Indefinite pronouns (e.g., everyone, someone, no one, each, every) usually take singular verbs
• Compound subjects joined by "and" usually take plural verbs
• When parts of a subject are joined by "or" or "nor," the verb agrees with the part of the subject closer to the verb

Punctuation

• Period (.): Used at the end of declarative sentences
• Question mark (?): Used at the end of interrogative sentences
• Exclamation point (!): Used at the end of exclamatory sentences
• Comma (,): Used to separate items in a list, clauses, and phrases
• Semicolon (;): Used to join two independent clauses
• Colon (:): Used to introduce a list, explanation, or example
• Apostrophe (‘): Used to indicate possession or contractions
• Quotation marks (“ ”): Used to enclose direct quotations
• Parentheses ( ): Used to enclose additional information or clarifications
• Brackets [ ]: Used to enclose added information/clarification in a quotation
• Hyphen (-): Used to join words or parts of words
• Ellipsis (...): Used to indicate omission of words

Common Grammatical Errors

• Subject-verb agreement errors
• Pronoun agreement errors: Pronouns must agree in number and gender with their antecedents
• Misplaced modifiers: Modifiers should be placed as close as possible to the words they modify
• Dangling modifiers: Modifiers must have a clear subject to modify
• Incorrect verb tense
• Incorrect use of commas, semicolons, and apostrophes
• Run-on sentences: Two or more independent clauses not properly joined
• Sentence fragments: Incomplete sentences missing a subject or verb
• Lack of Parallelism: Items in a list must have the same grammatical structure