English Grammar: Punctuation

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• English grammar is the structural foundation of the English language, encompassing rules for sentence construction, word usage, and punctuation
• Mastery of grammar is essential for clear and effective communication in writing and speaking

Punctuation Rules

• Punctuation marks are symbols used to clarify meaning and structure in written language

• Common punctuation marks include periods, commas, question marks, exclamation points, semicolons, colons, apostrophes, quotation marks, parentheses, brackets, and hyphens

• Periods (.) indicate the end of a declarative sentence

• Commas (,) separate elements in a series, introduce clauses, and set off introductory phrases

• Question marks (?) indicate a question

• Exclamation points (!) express strong emotion or emphasis

• Semicolons (;) connect related independent clauses

• Colons (:) introduce lists, explanations, or examples

• Apostrophes (') indicate possession or contractions

• Quotation marks (" ") enclose direct quotations or indicate titles of short works

• Parentheses ( ) provide additional information or clarification

• Brackets [ ] are used for editorial insertions or clarifications within quotations

• Hyphens (-) connect words or parts of words

Verb Tenses

• Verb tenses indicate when an action occurred in time

• The three main verb tenses are past, present, and future

• Each tense has simple, continuous, perfect, and perfect continuous forms

• Simple present tense describes habits, general truths, or current states

• Present continuous tense describes actions happening now or around now

• Present perfect tense describes actions that started in the past and continue to the present or have a result in the present

• Present perfect continuous tense describes actions that started in the past and are still continuing

• Simple past tense describes completed actions in the past

• Past continuous tense describes actions in progress at a specific time in the past

• Past perfect tense describes actions completed before another action in the past

• Past perfect continuous tense describes actions that were in progress before another action in the past

• Simple future tense describes actions that will happen in the future

• Future continuous tense describes actions that will be in progress at a specific time in the future

• Future perfect tense describes actions that will be completed before a specific time in the future

• Future perfect continuous tense describes actions that will have been in progress for a period of time before a specific time in the future

Subject-Verb Agreement

• Subject-verb agreement means that a verb must agree in number (singular or plural) with its subject
• Singular subjects take singular verbs, and plural subjects take plural verbs
• Compound subjects joined by "and" usually take a plural verb
• When subjects are joined by "or" or "nor," the verb agrees with the subject closest to it
• Indefinite pronouns (e.g., everyone, someone, nobody) can be singular or plural, depending on the context
• Collective nouns (e.g., team, family, committee) can be singular or plural, depending on whether they are acting as a unit or as individual members

Sentence Structure

• A sentence is a group of words that expresses a complete thought

• The basic sentence structure includes a subject and a predicate

• There are four main types of sentences: simple, compound, complex, and compound-complex

• A simple sentence contains one independent clause

• A compound sentence contains two or more independent clauses joined by a coordinating conjunction (e.g., and, but, or) or a semicolon

• A complex sentence contains one independent clause and one or more dependent clauses

• A compound-complex sentence contains two or more independent clauses and one or more dependent clauses

• Phrases are groups of related words that do not contain a subject and a verb

• Clauses are groups of related words that contain a subject and a verb

Parts of Speech

• Parts of speech are the categories to which words are assigned based on their function in a sentence

• The eight main parts of speech are nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions, and interjections

• Nouns name persons, places, things, or ideas and can be common or proper, concrete or abstract, countable or uncountable, and singular or plural

• Pronouns replace nouns and can be personal, possessive, reflexive, relative, demonstrative, or indefinite

• Verbs express actions or states of being and can be action verbs, linking verbs, or helping verbs

• Adjectives describe nouns and can be descriptive, limiting, or proper

• Adverbs modify verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs and indicate manner, time, place, degree, or frequency

• Prepositions show the relationship between a noun or pronoun and other words in the sentence

• Conjunctions connect words, phrases, or clauses and can be coordinating, subordinating, or correlative

• Interjections express emotion and have no grammatical function in the sentence