Understanding English Grammar

• 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

Parts of Speech

• Nouns: Words that represent people, places, things, or ideas (e.g., "dog," "house," "freedom")
• Pronouns: Words that replace nouns to avoid repetition (e.g., "he," "she," "it," "they")
• Verbs: Words that express actions or states of being (e.g., "run," "is," "believe")
• Adjectives: Words that describe nouns (e.g., "big," "red," "happy")
• Adverbs: Words that modify verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs (e.g., "quickly," "very," "loudly")
• Prepositions: Words that show the relationship between a noun or pronoun and other words in the sentence (e.g., "on," "in," "at," "to," "from")
• Conjunctions: Words that connect words, phrases, or clauses (e.g., "and," "but," "or," "because")
• 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 says something about the subject
• Clause: A group of words that contains a subject and a verb
  • Independent Clause: Expresses a complete thought and can stand alone as a sentence
  • Dependent Clause: Does not express a complete thought and cannot stand alone as a sentence
• Phrase: A group of related words that does not contain a subject and a verb

Types of Sentences

• Simple Sentence: Contains one independent clause (e.g., "The dog barked.")
• Compound Sentence: Contains two or more independent clauses joined by a coordinating conjunction (e.g., "The dog barked, and the cat meowed.")
• Complex Sentence: Contains one independent clause and one or more dependent clauses (e.g., "Because it was raining, we stayed inside.")
• Compound-Complex Sentence: Contains two or more independent clauses and one or more dependent clauses (e.g., "Because it was raining, we stayed inside, and we watched a movie.")

Verb Tenses

• Present Tense: Expresses an action or state of being that is happening now or that happens regularly (e.g., "I eat," "She works")
• Past Tense: Expresses an action or state of being that happened in the past (e.g., "I ate," "She worked")
• Future Tense: Expresses an action or state of being that will happen in the future (e.g., "I will eat," "She will work")
• Perfect Tenses: Express actions completed at some point
  • Present Perfect: Action started in the past and continues to the present (e.g., "I have eaten")
  • Past Perfect: Action completed before another past action (e.g., "I had eaten before she arrived")
  • Future Perfect: Action will be completed before a specific time in the future (e.g., "I will have eaten by then")
• Progressive Tenses: Express ongoing actions
  • Present Progressive: Is happening now (e.g., "I am eating")
  • Past Progressive: Was happening in the past (e.g., "I was eating")
  • Future Progressive: Will be happening in the future (e.g., "I will be eating")
• Perfect Progressive: Combines perfect and progressive aspects
  • Present Perfect Progressive: Started in the past, continues, and has been ongoing (e.g., "I have been eating")
  • Past Perfect Progressive: Was ongoing before another past action (e.g., "I had been eating before she arrived")
  • Future Perfect Progressive: Will have been ongoing before a specific time in the future (e.g., "I will have been eating by then")

Subject-Verb Agreement

• Singular subjects take singular verbs (e.g., "He runs")
• Plural subjects take plural verbs (e.g., "They run")
• Collective nouns (e.g., "team," "family") can be singular or plural depending on whether they are acting as a unit or as individual members

Pronoun Agreement

• Pronouns must agree in number and gender with the nouns they refer to
• Singular nouns take singular pronouns (e.g., "The dog wagged its tail")
• Plural nouns take plural pronouns (e.g., "The dogs wagged their tails")

Punctuation

• Period (.): Used to end declarative sentences
• Question Mark (?): Used to end interrogative sentences
• Exclamation Point (!): Used to end exclamatory sentences
• Comma (,): Used to separate items in a list, set off introductory phrases and clauses, and join independent clauses with a coordinating conjunction
• Semicolon (;): Used to join two closely related independent clauses
• Colon (:): Used to introduce a list, explanation, or example
• Apostrophe ('): Used to show possession or to indicate a contraction
• Quotation Marks (" "): Used to enclose direct quotations
• Parentheses ( ): Used to add extra information or clarification
• Hyphen (-): Used to join words or parts of words
• Dash (—): Used to indicate a sudden break or interruption in thought

Common Grammatical Errors

• Subject-Verb Agreement Errors: Occur when the verb does not agree in number with the subject
• Pronoun Agreement Errors: Occur when the pronoun does not agree in number or gender with the noun it refers to
• Misplaced Modifiers: Occur when a modifier is placed in the wrong part of the sentence, making it unclear what it is modifying
• Dangling Modifiers: Occur when a modifier does not have a clear word or phrase to modify
• Run-On Sentences: Occur when two or more independent clauses are joined without proper punctuation or conjunctions
• Comma Splices: Occur when two independent clauses are joined only by a comma
• Fragment Sentences: Occur when a sentence is missing a subject or a verb or does not express a complete thought
• Incorrect Verb Tense: Using the wrong form of the verb
• Unclear or Ambiguous Pronouns: When it's not clear which noun a pronoun refers to

Style and Usage

• Diction: Word choice
• Tone: The attitude or feeling conveyed in a piece of writing
• Active Voice: The subject performs the action (e.g., "The dog chased the ball")
• Passive Voice: The subject receives the action (e.g., "The ball was chased by the dog")
• Parallelism: Using the same grammatical structure for similar ideas
• Clarity: Writing that is easy to understand
• Conciseness: Writing that is brief and to the point
• Coherence: The logical flow of ideas in a piece of writing

Clauses review

• Adjective Clauses: Modify nouns or pronouns, often beginning with relative pronouns (who, whom, which, that) or relative adverbs (when, where, why)
• Adverb Clauses: Modify verbs, adjectives, or adverbs, and are introduced by subordinating conjunctions (e.g., because, although, if, when, while)
• Noun Clauses: Function as nouns and can be subjects, objects, or complements in a sentence.

Phrases review

• Noun Phrase: Functions as a noun
• Verb Phrase: Includes the main verb and any auxiliary verbs
• Prepositional Phrase: Begins with a preposition and modifies another word
• Gerund Phrase: Begins with a gerund (verb form ending in -ing that functions as a noun)
• Infinitive Phrase: Begins with an infinitive (to + verb)
• Participial Phrase: Begins with a participle (verb form used as an adjective)
• Appositive Phrase: Renames or identifies a noun or pronoun

Determiners review

• Articles: a, an, the
• Demonstratives: this, that, these, those
• Possessives: my, your, his, her, its, our, their
• Quantifiers: some, any, many, few, several, each, every, all, no

Sentence Types by Purpose

• Declarative: Makes a statement
• Interrogative: Asks a question
• Imperative: Gives a command
• Exclamatory: Expresses strong emotion

Conditionals review

• Zero Conditional: Describes general truths or habits (If + present simple, present simple)
• First Conditional: Describes a likely future situation (If + present simple, will + base form)
• Second Conditional: Describes an unlikely or hypothetical situation (If + past simple, would + base form)
• Third Conditional: Describes a past situation that did not happen (If + past perfect, would have + past participle)
• Mixed Conditional: Combines different parts of conditionals to describe unreal past and present scenarios

Conjunctions review

• Coordinating: Connects words, phrases, or independent clauses of equal importance (and, but, or, nor, for, so, yet)
• Subordinating: Introduces dependent clauses and connects them to independent clauses (because, although, if, when, while, since, as, until, unless, after, before)
• Correlative: Pairs of conjunctions used to connect elements of equal importance (both/and, either/or, neither/nor, not only/but also, whether/or)