Fundamental English Grammar

• Grammar constitutes the system and structure of a language.

Parts of Speech

• Nouns represent people, places, things, or ideas.
• Pronouns replace nouns to prevent repetition, examples: he, she, it, they.
• Verbs indicate actions or states of being, such as run, is, are, were.
• Adjectives serve to describe nouns, for example: big, red, happy.
• Adverbs modify verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs, examples: quickly, very, well.
• Prepositions show the relationship between a noun or pronoun and other words in the sentence, for example: in, on, at, to, from.
• Conjunctions connect words, phrases, or clauses, e.g., and, but, or.
• Interjections express strong emotions, such as Wow! or Ouch!

Nouns

• Common nouns are general names for people, places, things, or ideas; for example, city, dog, happiness.
• Proper nouns are specific names for people, places, things, or ideas and are capitalized; for example, London, Fido, Christmas.
• Concrete nouns refer to tangible things that can be perceived with the senses, examples include table, flower, music.
• Abstract Nouns refer to intangible ideas, concepts, or qualities like love, freedom, justice.
• Countable nouns can be counted and have singular and plural forms, such as one book or two books.
• Uncountable nouns cannot be counted and typically do not have a plural form, like water, sand, information.
• Collective nouns refer to a group of things or people; examples include team, family, and committee.

Pronouns

• Personal pronouns refer to specific people or things, examples: I, you, he, she, it, we, they.
• Possessive pronouns show ownership, such as mine, yours, his, hers, its, ours, theirs.
• Reflexive pronouns refer back to the subject of the sentence, for example: myself, yourself, himself, herself, itself, ourselves, yourselves, themselves.
• Intensive pronouns emphasize a noun or pronoun, for example: I myself will do it; they have the same form as reflexive pronouns.
• Demonstrative pronouns point out specific people or things, examples: this, that, these, those.
• Relative pronouns introduce relative clauses, for example: who, whom, which, that.
• Interrogative pronouns are used to ask questions, such as who, whom, what, which, whose.
• Indefinite pronouns refer to nonspecific people or things, like someone, everyone, nobody, anything.

Verbs

• Action verbs express physical or mental actions, for example, run, think, eat.
• Linking verbs connect the subject to a noun or adjective that describes or identifies the subject, examples include is, are, was, were, seems, becomes.
• Auxiliary (helping) verbs assist the main verb, such as be, have, do.
• Transitive verbs take a direct object, for example: She kicked the ball.
• Intransitive verbs do not take a direct object, for example: He slept.

Verb Tenses

• Simple present describes habitual actions or general truths, such as I eat breakfast every day.
• Present continuous describes actions happening now, for example, I am eating breakfast.
• Simple past describes actions completed in the past, such as I ate breakfast yesterday.
• Past continuous describes actions in progress in the past, for example, I was eating breakfast when you called.
• Simple future describes actions that will happen in the future, such as I will eat breakfast tomorrow.
• Future continuous describes actions that will be in progress in the future, for example, I will be eating breakfast at 8 AM tomorrow.
• Present perfect describes actions that started in the past and continue to have an effect on the present, for example, I have eaten breakfast.
• Past perfect describes actions completed before another action in the past, for example, I had eaten breakfast before I went to work.
• Future perfect describes actions that will be completed before a specific time in the future, for example, I will have eaten breakfast by 8 AM tomorrow.

Adjectives

• Descriptive adjectives describe the qualities or characteristics of nouns; for example, tall, blue, happy.
• Limiting adjectives restrict the noun's meaning, such as numbers and possessive adjectives.
• Proper adjectives are derived from proper nouns and are capitalized, for example, French pastries.
• Articles include a, an, and the.

Adverbs

• Adverbs of manner describe how an action is performed, for example, quickly, slowly, carefully.
• Adverbs of time describe when an action occurs, such as now, yesterday, soon.
• Adverbs of place describe where an action occurs, for example, here, there, everywhere.
• Adverbs of degree describe the intensity of an action or adjective, such as very, extremely, quite.
• Conjunctive adverbs connect two independent clauses, for example, however, therefore, moreover.

Prepositions

• Simple prepositions are single words, for example, in, on, at, to, from.
• Compound prepositions consist of two or more words, such as according to, in front of, because of.
• Prepositions of time indicate when something happens, for instance, at, on, in, before, after.
• Prepositions of place indicate where something is located, for example, in, on, at, under, over, beside.
• Prepositions of direction indicate movement or direction, for instance, to, from, into, through, toward.

Conjunctions

• Coordinating conjunctions connect words, phrases, or independent clauses of equal rank, for example, and, but, or, nor, for, so, yet.
• Subordinating conjunctions introduce dependent clauses, such as because, although, if, since, when, while.
• Correlative conjunctions are pairs of conjunctions that work together, for example, either/or, neither/nor, not only/but also.

Sentence Structure

• The subject is the noun or pronoun that performs the action of the verb.
• The predicate is the part of the sentence that contains the verb and says something about the subject.
• A clause is a group of words that features a subject and a predicate.
• An independent clause can stand alone as a sentence.
• A dependent clause cannot stand alone as a sentence and must be connected to an independent clause.
• A phrase constitutes a group of related words lacking both a subject and a predicate.

Sentence Types

• Simple Sentence: Contains one independent clause (e.g., I went to the store.).
• Compound Sentence: Contains two or more independent clauses joined by a coordinating conjunction or semicolon (e.g., I went to the store, and I bought milk.).
• Complex Sentence: Contains one independent clause and one or more dependent clauses (e.g., Because it was raining, I took an umbrella.).
• Compound-Complex Sentence: Contains two or more independent clauses and one or more dependent clauses (e.g., Because it was raining, I took an umbrella, and I went to the store.).

Punctuation

• Period (.): Marks the end of a declarative sentence.
• Question Mark (?): Marks the end of an interrogative sentence.
• Exclamation Point (!): Marks the end of an exclamatory sentence.
• Comma (,): Separates elements in a series, sets off introductory phrases or clauses, and separates independent clauses joined by a coordinating conjunction.
• Semicolon (;): Joins two independent clauses or separates items in a series when commas are already used.
• Colon (:): Introduces a list, explanation, or example.
• Apostrophe ('): Indicates possession or contraction.
• Quotation Marks (" "): Enclose direct quotations.
• Parentheses ( ): Enclose additional information or clarification.
• Brackets ([ ]): Enclose added information or comments within quotations.
• Hyphen (-): Joins words or parts of words.
• Dash (—): Indicates a sudden break or interruption in thought.

Subject-Verb Agreement

• Singular subjects take singular verbs, for example, He runs.
• Plural subjects take plural verbs, for example, They run.
• Collective nouns can be singular or plural depending on whether they are acting as a unit or individually, for example, The team is playing well or The team are arguing among themselves.

Pronoun Agreement

• Pronouns must agree in number and gender with the nouns they refer to, for example, The dog wagged its tail.

Misplaced and Dangling Modifiers

• Misplaced modifiers are words or phrases incorrectly placed in a sentence, causing confusion; for example, "I saw a dog running down the street with a red collar" becomes "I saw a dog with a red collar running down the street."
• Dangling modifiers are words or phrases that do not clearly modify any word in the sentence; for example, "Running down the street, the house was beautiful" should be "Running down the street, I saw a beautiful house."

Common Grammatical Errors

• Subject-verb agreement errors: For instance, "They was going to the store" should be "They were going to the store."
• Pronoun agreement errors: For example, "Everyone should bring their book" should be "Everyone should bring his or her book."
• Incorrect pronoun case: For instance, "John and me went to the park" should be "John and I went to the park".
• Misplaced modifiers: For example, "I almost ate the whole pizza" might incorrectly imply you didn't eat the pizza; "I ate almost the whole pizza" clarifies the amount consumed.
• Dangling modifiers: For example, "Walking down the street, the flowers smelled nice" should be "Walking down the street, I smelled the flowers".
• Comma splices: Joining two independent clauses with only a comma (e.g., I went to the store, I bought milk) requires correction using a semicolon, conjunction, or creating two separate sentences.
• Run-on sentences: Combining two independent clauses without adequate punctuation or conjunctions (e.g., I went to the store I bought milk) needs punctuation and/or conjunctions for correction.
• Fragment sentences: Incomplete sentences lacking a subject or verb or not expressing a complete thought (e.g., Because I wanted to) should be connected to an independent clause or completed to constitute a full sentence.