Understanding Grammar: Parts of Speech & Structure

• Grammar is the set of structural rules governing the composition of clauses, phrases, and words in any given natural language.
• Grammar is a system of linguistic rules, and competence of these rules is possessed by native speakers of that language.

Parts of Speech

• Nouns: Words that represent people, places, things, or ideas
• 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, become)
• Adjectives: Words that describe nouns (e.g., big, red, interesting)
• Adverbs: Words that modify verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs (e.g., quickly, very, well)
• Prepositions: Words that show the relationship between a noun or pronoun and other words in the sentence (e.g., on, in, at, from, to)
• Conjunctions: Words that connect words, phrases, or clauses (e.g., and, but, or, because)
• Interjections: Words that express strong emotion (e.g., Wow! Ouch!)

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
• Object: The noun or pronoun that receives the action of the verb
• Phrase: A group of related words that does not contain both a subject and a verb
• Clause: A group of related words that contains both a subject and a verb and can be independent or dependent

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 or a semicolon (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 Simple: Used for habits, general truths, and facts (e.g., I eat, she eats)
• Present Continuous: Used for actions happening now or around now (e.g., I am eating, she is eating)
• Past Simple: Used for completed actions in the past (e.g., I ate, she ate)
• Past Continuous: Used for actions in progress at a specific time in the past (e.g., I was eating, she was eating)
• Present Perfect: Used for actions that started in the past and continue to the present or have a result in the present (e.g., I have eaten, she has eaten)
• Present Perfect Continuous: Used for actions that started in the past and continue to the present, emphasizing the duration (e.g., I have been eating, she has been eating)
• Past Perfect: Used for actions completed before another action in the past (e.g., I had eaten, she had eaten)
• Past Perfect Continuous: Used for actions in progress before another action in the past (e.g., I had been eating, she had been eating)
• Future Simple: Used for predictions or intentions (e.g., I will eat, she will eat)
• Future Continuous: Used for actions that will be in progress at a specific time in the future (e.g., I will be eating, she will be eating)
• Future Perfect: Used for actions that will be completed before a specific time in the future (e.g., I will have eaten, she will have eaten)
• Future Perfect Continuous: Used for actions that will have been in progress for a period of time before a specific time in the future (e.g., I will have been eating, she will have been eating)

Subject-Verb Agreement

• Singular subjects take singular verbs (e.g., "He eats.")
• Plural subjects take plural verbs (e.g., "They eat.")
• Collective nouns can be singular or plural depending on whether they are acting as a unit or as individuals (e.g., "The team is playing well." vs. "The team are arguing among themselves.")

Pronoun Agreement

• Pronouns must agree in number and gender with the nouns they refer to (e.g., "The dog wagged its tail.")

Common Grammatical Errors

• Subject-verb disagreement
• Pronoun disagreement
• Misplaced modifiers: Phrases or clauses that are not clearly connected to the word they are intended to modify (e.g., "Walking down the street, the building was tall." should be "Walking down the street, I saw the tall building.")
• Dangling modifiers: Modifiers that do not have a clear word to modify in the sentence (e.g., "Having finished the game, the dinner was prepared." should be "Having finished the game, we prepared dinner.")
• Incorrect tense usage
• Incorrect use of articles (a, an, the)
• Comma splices: Joining two independent clauses with only a comma (e.g., "I went to the store, I bought milk." should be "I went to the store, and I bought milk.")
• Run-on sentences: Joining two or more independent clauses without proper punctuation or conjunctions
• Sentence Fragments: Incomplete sentences, missing a subject or a verb (e.g. "Because it rained.")

Punctuation Marks

• Period (.): Marks the end of a declarative sentence
• Question Mark (?): Marks the end of an interrogative sentence
• Exclamation Point (!): Marks the end of a sentence expressing strong emotion
• Comma (,): Separates elements in a list, clauses, and phrases
• Semicolon (;): Connects two independent clauses or separates items in a list when the items already contain commas
• Colon (:): Introduces a list, explanation, or example
• Apostrophe ('): Indicates possession or contraction
• Quotation Marks (" "): Encloses direct quotations or titles of short works
• Parentheses ( ): Encloses additional information or clarification
• Brackets [ ]: Encloses editorial comments or corrections within a quotation
• Hyphen (-): Connects words or parts of words
• Dash (—): Indicates a break in thought or sets off a parenthetical element

Active and Passive Voice

• 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.")
• Active voice is generally preferred for clarity and directness.

Conditional Sentences

• Type 0: General truths (e.g., "If you heat water to 100 degrees Celsius, it boils.")
• Type 1: Possible conditions and their likely results (e.g., "If it rains, I will stay home.")
• Type 2: Hypothetical conditions and their probable results (e.g., "If I won the lottery, I would travel the world.")
• Type 3: Impossible conditions and their results in the past (e.g., "If I had studied harder, I would have passed the exam.")
• Mixed Conditionals: Combine different types of conditional clauses to express more complex relationships

Figures of Speech

• Simile: A comparison using "like" or "as" (e.g., "He is as brave as a lion.")
• Metaphor: A direct comparison without using "like" or "as" (e.g., "She is a shining star.")
• Personification: Giving human qualities to non-human things (e.g., "The wind whispered secrets.")
• Hyperbole: An exaggeration (e.g., "I'm so hungry I could eat a horse.")
• Understatement: A statement that is deliberately less forceful than expected (e.g., "It's a bit cold" when it's freezing outside.)
• Irony: The expression of one's meaning by using language that normally signifies the opposite, typically for humorous or emphatic effect.
• Alliteration: The occurrence of the same letter or sound at the beginning of adjacent or closely connected words.
• Onomatopoeia: A word that phonetically imitates or suggests the sound that it describes
• Idiom: A group of words established by usage as having a meaning not deducible from those of the individual words