English Grammar

Name: Angelica Yan Marcelin

ID: 2164234.

Parts of a Speech
The parts of speech explain how a word is used in a sentence.
There are eight main parts of speech (also known as word classes): nouns, pronouns,
adjectives, verbs, adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions and interjections.

Nouns
Is a part of speech that names a person, place, thing, idea, action or quality. All nouns can
be classified into two groups of nouns: common or proper.

 Proper nouns refer to the individual name of a person, place or thing. Examples
might include Barcelona, Leonardo da Vinci, or Toyota Corolla.

 Common nouns are words used to name general items rather than specific
ones.
Example: My favorite newspaper (common noun) is the Washington Post (proper noun).

Pronouns
Is defined as a word or phrase that is used as a substitution for a noun or noun phrase,
which is known as the pronoun’s antecedent. Pronouns are short words and can do
everything that nouns can do and are one of the building blocks of a sentence. Common
pronouns are he, she, you, me, I, we, us, this, them, that. A pronoun can act as a
subject, direct object, indirect object, object of the preposition, and more and takes the
place of any person, place, animal or thing.
 As the object of the sentence, they are:
 me
 you
 her
 him
 it
 us
 them

Example: Please don't sit beside me

 Go talk to her.
 Mary put the gift under it.
 Don't look at them.

 Possessive Pronouns
Possessive pronouns show ownership or possession of a noun. They are:
 Mine
 Ours
 Yours
 His
 Her
 Its
 Theirs

Verbs
Verbs are the action words in a sentence that describe what the subject is doing. Along
with nouns, verbs are the main part of a sentence or phrase, telling a story about what is
taking place. In fact, without a verb, full thoughts can’t be properly conveyed, and even the
simplest sentences, such as Maria sings, have one. Actually, a verb can be a sentence by
itself, with the subject, in most case such as, Sing! and Drive!

 Transitive Verbs
Transitive verbs require an object to complete their meaning.

 I bought.

This sentence is incomplete. There is information that is missing.

You are probably wondering what I bought. (What did you buy Rob?)
Bought (the past of buy) is a transitive verb and a transitive verb needs an object after it
to complete the sentence. The object after a transitive verb can be a noun or a pronoun.
Example: I bought a car.

 Intransitive Verbs
The subject is doing the action of the verb and nothing receives the action. An intransitive
verb does not pass the action to an object.
Example: He arrived.

 Regular Verbs
Regular verbs form their past and past participle forms by adding –ed ,to form what are
called the simple past tense and the past participle

Walk – walked – walked

Dance – danced – danced
Paint – painted – painted
Work – worked – worked

 Irregular Verbs

They form the simple past tense and the past participle in any number of unpredictable
ways. Some irregular verbs, like let, shut, and spread, never change, whether present or
past. Others, like feel and teach, become modified versions of themselves (felt, taught) to
form both the past tense and the past participle.

Adjectives
Adjectives describe, identify, or further define nouns and pronouns in the sentence

 A descriptive adjective is a word which describes nouns and pronouns. Most of

the adjectives belong in this type. These adjectives provide information and
attribute to the nouns/pronouns they modify or describe. Descriptive adjectives are
also called qualitative adjectives.

Example: I have a fast car.

 Quantitative Adjectives
A quantitative adjective provides information about the quantity of the nouns/pronouns.

This type belongs to the question category of ‘how much’ and ‘how many’.

Example: They have three children.

 Demonstrative Adjectives
A demonstrative adjective directly refers to something or someone. Demonstrative
adjectives include the words: this, that, these, those.
A demonstrative pronoun works alone and does not precede a noun, but a demonstrative
adjective always comes before the word it modifies.

Example: These cats are cute.

 Possessive Adjectives
A possessive adjective indicates possession or ownership. It suggests the belongingness of
something to someone/something.
Some of the most used possessive adjectives are my, his, her, our, their, your.

Example: Our job is almost done.

 Interrogative Adjectives
An interrogative adjective asks a question. An interrogative adjective must be followed by
a noun or a pronoun. The interrogative adjectives are: which, what, whose. These words will
not be considered as adjectives if a noun does not follow right after them. ‘Whose’ also
belongs to the possessive adjective type.

Example: Which phone do you use?

 Compound Adjectives
When compound nouns/combined words modify other nouns, they become a compound
adjective. This type of adjective usually combines more than one word into a single lexical
unit and modifies a noun. They are often separated by a hyphen or joined together by a
quotation mark.

Example: I saw a six-foot-long snake.

Adverbs
Adverbs modify verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs. They can add to or change the
meaning of a word.

 Adverb of manner explain how an action is carried out. Very often adverbs of
manner are adjectives with -ly added to the end.

Example: She passed the exam easily

 Adverbs of place

An adverb of place, sometimes called spatial adverbs, will help explain where an action
happens. Adverbs of place will be associated with the action of the verb in a sentence,
providing context for direction, distance and position: southeast, everywhere, up, left, close
by, back, inside, around.

Example: New York is located north of Philadelphia.

Jane is moving far away.

The cat is sleeping on the bed.

 Adverbs of Frequency

Adverbs of frequency are used to express time or how often something occurs.

Example: I will always love you

Adverbs of definite frequency will usually be placed at the end of the sentence.

Example: The newspaper is bought daily.

  Adverbs of Time

Adverbs of time, while seemingly similar to adverbs of frequency, tell us when something
happens.

Example: I have to go now.

Prepositions
A preposition is a word used to link nouns, pronouns, or phrases to other words within a
sentence. They act to connect the people, objects, time and locations of a
sentence. Prepositions are usually short words, and they are normally placed directly in
front of nouns.

Verb + to

 He admitted to the charge.

 I go to Vancouver on vacation twice a year.
 William can relate to the character in the play.

Verb + for:

 He must apologize for his actions.

 We searched for ages before we found the perfect apartment.
 I provide for my family by working two jobs.

Verb + with:

 I don’t agree with your claim.

 The lawyer said he will meet with your representatives.
 They began with a quick warm-up.

Verb + of:

 I dream of a better life.

 Have you heard of Shakespeare?
 The bread consists of dough, raisins and a little honey.

Verb + in:

 Does Rick believe in miracles?

 Fallon lives in New York.
 The bus accident resulted in my being late to work.

Verb + at
 We arrived at our destination.
  Will the baby smile at her mother?

Verb + on:

 We should really concentrate on our studies now.

 Helen insisted on Brenda’s company.
 Morris experimented on some canvas.

Verb + from:

 Dad retired from the navy in the 1970s.

 Billy Bob, please refrain from doing that.

Conjunctions
A conjunction is a part of speech that is used to connect words, phrases, clauses, or
sentences.

 And
 As
 Because
 But
 For
 Just as
 Or
 Neither
 Nor
 Not only
 So
 Whether
 Yet

 Conjunctions are for connecting thoughts, actions, and ideas as well as nouns,
clauses, and other parts of speech. For example: Mary went to the
supermarket and bought oranges.

 Conjunctions are useful for making lists. For example: We made pancakes,
eggs, and coffee for breakfast.

Interjections.
 interjections usually express sudden feelings, you’ll often see them used to convey
surprise (both good surprises and bad ones) or excitement.

 "Yikes, I didn't realize that there was a test on grammar today!"

 "Oh no, I can't believe that it is snowing here again!"
 "Wow, this is such a pleasant surprise!"

 Ah well
 Hey!
 Hmm
 Uh-huh
 Bingo
 Boom
 Gosh
 Ack!
 Duh
 Ho-ho-ho


Simple Present
We use the simple present tense when an action is happening right now, or when it
happens regularly (or unceasingly, which is why it’s sometimes called present indefinite).
Depending on the person, the simple present tense is formed by using the root form or by
adding -s or -es to the end.

Example: I work in London / She works in London.

We use do and does to make questions with the present simple. We use does for the third
person singular (she/he/it) and do for the others.

Where do Angela and Rita live?

What does Angela do?
When does Rita usually get up?

present perfect.
Unfinished actions that started in the past and continue to the present , which is used to
show that an action has taken place once or many times before now.

 I've known Julie for ten years (and I still know her).
 My brother has been to Mexico three times.

The present perfect is formed using has/have + past participle. Questions are indicated
by inverting the subject and has/have.

 Statement: You have seen that movie many times.

 Question: Have you seen that movie many times?
  Negative: You have not seen that movie many times.

Example: I have been to France.

This sentence means that you have had the experience of being in France. Maybe you
have been there once, or several times.

Simple Past
The simple past tense shows that you are talking about something that has already
happened. Unlike the past continuous tense, which is used to talk about past events that
happened over a period of time, the simple past tense emphasizes that the action is
finished.

For regular verbs, add -ed to the root form of the verb (or just -d if the root form already
ends in an e): Play - Played

For the verb to be – Was or were

Example: I was in France in June.

The formula for asking a question in the simple past tense is did + subject + root form of
verb: Did you call Debbie?

 I saw a movie yesterday.

 I didn't see a play yesterday.
 Last year, I traveled to Japan.
 Last year, I didn't travel to Korea.