What Are Nouns?

The easy way to remember nouns is that they refer to a person, place or thing. Even
intangible or abstract concepts like ideas or thoughts are things.
A mother
North America
The table
A plan
A wish
The use of nouns is fairly obvious; its difficult to make an actual mistake with a noun.
Errors usually involve the words around the noun, or perhaps a singular/plural mistake.
Most nouns which refer to people are gender neutral (teacher, doctor, lawyer) but a few
are gender specific (actor/actress, waiter/waitress). Modern English has adjusted to
accommodate gender; a fireman is male, a firewoman is female, and a firefighter is
gender neutral.

Uses of Nouns
In a sentence, nouns can play the role of subject, direct object, indirect object, subject
complement, object complement, appositive, or adjective.
Maria is happy.
Maria is the subject.
Give the books to her .
Books is a direct object; her is the indirect object.
Mary is a teacher .
Teacher is a subject complement.
I now pronounce you husband and wife .
Husband and wife are object complements.
My brother Michael is six years old.
Michael is an appositive.
He is a speed demon .

Speed is a noun which is modifying demon; speed is acting like an adjective.

Uses of Verbs
Verbs tell you whats actually happening in the sentence, what the subject is doing or
having done to it. Of course, when you think about all the things that can happen, and all
the things that subjects are capable of doing, you can see the astonishing potential
range of actions.
There are two specific uses for verbs. The first is to put a motionless noun into motion,
or to change its motion.
Annie went to the market.
Went gets Annie moving out the door and doing the shopping.
Annie went to the market, and then she stopped in at the bookstore.
First Annie does the shopping, and then she goes to do more interesting errands.
Mark lifted the rock.
We washed the car.
The girls played games all day.
These kinds of verbs are called action verbs. If you can do it, its an action verb.
The second use for a noun is to link the subject of the sentence to something which
describes the subject. If you cant do it, its probably a linking verb.
I am tired.
Its difficult to am, so this is likely a linking verb. Its connecting the subject I to the state
of being tired.

Helping Verbs (Auxiliary Verbs)

Helping verbs or auxiliary verbs are the little verbs which go along with the main
verb. Helping verbs dont show the action of the subject, they just show the tense of the
verb.
Matt used to like playing golf.
The main verb is like, and used to is the helping verb which tells us it was in the past.

What did you do on your holidays?

The cat was playing with string.
Tonight, it will be snowing.
When we were growing up, we liked to play in the park.
Helping verbs are also used in conditional sentences; these verbs help to create the
state of condition.
If you work hard, you should get to wherever you want to be.
Alex might come over tomorrow, if he gets his essay finished.

Main Verbs
The main verb is also called the lexical verb. This term refers to the important verb in the
sentence, the one which shows the action of the subject. Main verbs can stand alone, or
they can be helped along by some other little verbs (a.k.a. auxiliary verbs).
I was happy.
In this sentence, was is the main verb.
I was feeling happy.
In this sentence, feeling is the main verb and was is the auxiliary verb.
I must have been feeling happy.
Feeling is still the main verb.
If I were to be fired , I would be unhappy.
Where did they go?
What are we going to do ?
Be, have and do can be used as main verbs, even though they dont involve physical
activity.

Simple Present Tense (Present

Indefinite)
The simple present tense is the one which we use when an action is happening right
now, or when it happens regularly (or unceasingly, which is why its sometimes
called present indefinite). The simple present tense is formed by using the root form or
by adding -s or -es to the end, depending on the person.
Regular Verbs
In present tense, regular verbs use the root form, except for third person singular (which
ends in -s).
First person singular: I write
Second person singular: You write
Third person singular: He/she/it writes (note the -s)
First person plural: We write
Second person plural: You write
Third person plural: They write
I write grammar books.
This sentence implies that I write grammar books on a regular basis, perhaps as a
career.
Anna writes the letter.
This sentence could be from a narrative, telling a story about what Anna is doing right
now.
Here are some other examples:
I go , you go , he/she/it goes , we go , you go , they go
I see , you see , he/she/it sees , we see , you see , they see
I learn , you learn , he/she/it learns , we learn , you learn , they learn
Irregular Verbs

Irregular present tense verbs are things like to be, which change for each person.
First person singular: I am
Second person singular: You are
Third person singular: He/she/it is
First person plural: We are
Second person plural: You are
Third person plural: They are
I am 20 years old.
You are 20 years old.
He is 20 years old.

Simple Past Tense

The simple past refers to things that have already happened, and are finished doing
their thing.
World War II was from 1939-1945.
Mom cooked supper.
I did the dishes.
Margaret aced her math exam.
Regular Verbs
Regular verbs are changed to the simple past by adding -ed to the end of the root form.
If the verb already ends in -e, we just add -d.

Play played
Type typed
Listen listened
Push pushed
Love loved

Irregular Verbs
Irregular verbs follow no pattern when they change to the simple past tense. Youll have
to check a dictionary if youre unsure as to what the past tense might be.

See saw
Build built
Go went
Do did
Leap leapt
Rise rose
Dig dug
Some verbs dont change from their present form.

Put put
Cut cut
Set set
Cost cost
Hit hit