Understanding the basics

Words
Unit 1 – Nouns - ‫االسماء‬
Nouns are defined as words that refer to a person, place, thing, or idea.

Types of nouns
 Concrete nouns refer to things that can be perceived with our senses.
 Abstract nouns refer to things that cannot be perceived with our senses.
 Animate nouns refer to things that are alive.
 Inanimate nouns refer to things that are not alive.
 Proper nouns are nouns that are actual names (capitalize first letter for proper nouns regardless of their
location in the sentence)
 Common nouns are nouns that are not names.
 Singular nouns & plural nouns (regular & irregular)
 Count & non-count

Unit 2 – Verbs - ‫االفعال‬

Action verbs are defined as words that express an action by a noun.

Types of verbs
 Infinitive verb is the base form of a verb without any adds to it.
 Linking verbs are verbs that express relationship between the noun and whatever follows it (be, seem,
become, feel, sound ……)
 Transitive verbs are action verbs that act upon something (write, throw, read)
 Intransitive verbs are action verbs that don’t act upon something (sleep, die, arrive)
 Phrasal verbs contain 2 words, first is action verb while the second called a particle (looked up, drop off,
pointed out)

Unit 3 – Determiners – ‫ادوات التعريف‬

Defined as words that telling us a little more about a noun, they occur directly before of a noun.

Types of determiners
 Articles are the simplest forms of determiners (The, a, an)
 Demonstratives (this, that, these, those)
 Possessives are words to indicate ownership
 Possessive pronouns (my, your, his, her, its, our, their)
 Possessive proper noun (proper noun + ’s)
 Quantifiers are words to indicate amount or quantity (all, any, both, every, each, either, neither, little,
most, many, much, several, some, few)
Unit 4 – Adjectives - ‫صفه‬
Defined as a word that refers to a characteristic of a noun or describe it and it comes right before the noun (tall
boy, high heels, best friend, chocolate cake)

Unit 5 – Propositions – ‫حروف الجر‬

Defined as words that indicate information about direction, location, or time.

Types of prepositions
 Word prepositions consists of one word (at, on, in, to, of, by, with, from, about, ………)
 Phrasal prepositions consists of 2 words (due to, along with, because of, up to, …….)

Unit 6 – Conjunctions – ‫حروف العطف‬

Defined as words that connect words, phrases, or sentences together.

Types of conjunctions
 Coordinating conjunctions connect same types of words, phrases, or sentences.
 Most common (and, or, but, nor)
 Less common (for, so, yet)
 Subordinating conjunctions connect different types of sentences (although, after, which, once, since,
because, as, if, when, even if, rather than, ………)
 Correlative conjunctions connect different types of sentences, they come in pairs (both/and, either/or,
neither/nor, if/then)

Unit 7 – Pronouns - ‫الضمير‬

Defined as words that replace nouns in a sentence.

Types of pronouns
 Subject pronouns are words that replace subject nouns that is doing the action in a sentence (I, you, he,
she, it, we, they)
 Object pronouns are words that replace object nouns that is not doing the action in a sentence (me, you,
him, her, it, us, them)
 Reflexive pronouns are words ending with -self or -selves to refer to the same person or thing more than
once in the same sentence (myself, yourself, himself, herself, itself, ourselves, yourselves, themselves)
 Demonstrative pronouns are same words as demonstrative determiners but without a noun to follow them
(this, that, these, those)
 Possessive pronouns are word that indicate ownership followed by a noun, same as possessive determiners
(my, your, his, her, its, our, their)
 Nominal possessive pronouns are words that indicate ownership but are not followed by a noun (Mine,
yours, his, hers, its, ours, theirs)

Unit 8 – Adverbs – ‫المفعول‬

Defined as words that indicate information about location, time, degree, and manner.

Phrases
Unit 1 - Noun phrases
 Noun alone
 Adjective + noun
 Determiner + noun
 Determiner + Adjective(s) + noun
 pronoun

Unit 2 - Prepositional phrases

 Preposition + noun phrase

Unit 3 - Verb phrases

 Verb alone
 Verb + adjective
 Verb + noun phrase
 Verb + prepositional phrase
 Verb + noun phrase + prepositional phrase

Unit 4 - Auxiliary phrases

 Helping verb + main verb

Types of helping verbs

 The verb “have” and its forms (have, has, had)
 The verb “be” and its forms (am, is, are, was, were, be, been)
 Modal verbs are verbs that add information, such as possibility, necessity, or requests to the main verb
(can, may, shall, will, must, could, might, should, would, able to, ought to, going to, would to, have to, need to)

Unit 5 - Compound phrases

 Compound noun phrase is any tow noun phrases joined by a coordinating conjunction.
 Compound verb phrase is any tow verb phrases joined by a coordinating conjunction.

Unit 6 - Subjects & Objects

 Subject of a sentence is the doer of the action and usually found at or near the beginning of the sentence.

 Direct object of a sentence is the receiver of the action and usually found after the main verb.
 Indirect object of a sentence is the receiver of the direct object and can occur after the direct object
using “to or for” or before the direct object without using “to or for”
 Sentences
Unit 1 - Function of sentences
Categories of sentences by function
 Declaratives: sentences that make a statement
 Interrogatives: sentences that ask a question
 Imperatives: sentences that give a command
 Exclamations: sentences that express strong emotions

Unit 2 – Types of Sentences

Words combine to form phrases, phrases combine to form clauses, clauses combine to form sentences.
A clause must at least contain one subject and one main verb.

Simple sentence
A sentence that contain only one clause.

Compound sentence
A sentence that contains more than one clause joined by a coordinating conjunction.

Complex sentence
A sentence that contains of at least 2 clauses: a main clause and a dependent clause, joined by a subordinating
conjunction or a relative pronoun.
* the subordinating clause and the relative pronoun can be omitted.

Compound – complex sentence

A compound – complex sentence has at least 2 main clauses and 1 dependent clause, it a combination of compound
and complex sentences.