Simple English Grammar

by Ronald Walker

 In English there are 8 parts of speech or ways words perform in a sentence.

These are:

Let us discuss each one separately.

NOUN

A noun is the name of a person, place, thing, quality or idea.

Types of Nouns

COMMON: Used for general class nouns. Examples: man, woman, bird PROPER: Used for specifics. Examples: April, Mars, USA, Japan (Always capitalized.) COLLECTIVE: Singular in form but singular or plural in meaning. Example: A flock of birds, My family CONCRETE: Physical Objects. Example: rock, tree, car ABSTRACT: Ideas, qualities, concepts. Example: beauty, love, religion

(But Christianity, though it is an abstract noun, is also a proper noun and is capitalized.)

 When used in sentences NOUNS (and particularly PRONOUNS) have GENDER, NUMBER and CASE.

GENDER, though rarely used in English, refers to the "attribute" of the noun (or pronoun). That attribute can be Masculine, Feminine or Neuter.

NUMBER is whether the noun is singular (1 and only 1) or plural (more than one). Most nouns have a singular and a plural form. Some nouns (not very many) have only singular or only plural forms.

CASE means that the noun (though usually a pronoun) may some times change form depending upon its function in the sentence. The function of a word in a sentence (subject, object etc.) is determined by the position it has in the sentence. (Each word has a physical location in a sentence. This is called its position.)

There are 4 noun CASES. To decline a noun is to state all its forms in its various cases and numbers (singular and plural).

The noun cases are:

Nominative: This case is used when the noun is the subject of the sentence. Example: "Bill is tall." Bill is the subject of the sentence and is in the nominative case.

Genitive: This case is used to indicate possession or ownership. Example: "Bill's hat is red." The 's is the genitive case. To be exact it should read as "The hat of Bill. .". However this is an awkward construction and is not used too often.

Dative: This case is used when the noun is the indirect object of the sentence. Example: "Bill's hat fell from the shelf to the floor." In this sentence "the shelf" is the indirect object of the sentence and would be in the dative case.

Accusative: This case is used when the noun is the direct object of the sentence. Example: "Bill's hat fell from the shelf to the floor." Here, "the floor" is the direct object of the sentence and would take the accusative case.

Pronouns

There is a secondary category of nouns called pronouns. A pronoun is used in the place of a noun to avoid repetition or to save time in conversation or in writing. Examples of PRONOUNS are the words he, she and it. There are also the declined(or CASE) forms of these words.

Pronoun declensions:

First Person Second Person Third Person

Sing. Plural Sing. and Plural Singular Plural

NOMINATIVE I we you he, she, it they

GENITIVE mine our(ours) your(yours)2 his, hers, its their(theirs)2

DATIVE me us you her, him, it them

ACCUSATIVE me us you her, him, it them

Interrogative Pronouns: These words indicate questions.

Who, what, when, where, why and how.

When referring to people an unknown noun (or pronoun) usually takes the masculine gender.

Example: The chairman took his position at the desk.

In this example his is a pronoun (in the masculine gender) which refers to the chairman.

Note: Currently there are attempts to "de-sex" English word usage. Though personally I do not agree with these attempts the "de-sexing" can be accomplished in other ways. The use of the term chairwoman or chairperson are acceptable variants. To "de-sex" the situation, the sentence could be written as: "The chairperson took its position at the desk. However in English it is not used for persons only for things or animals. I would suggest using: "The chairperson took a position at the desk." A little change in meaning but it does "de-sex" the situation.

Most inanimate nouns such as boats and buildings take a feminine pronoun.

ADJECTIVE

Adjectives modify or give more information about a noun. Example: "Bill's red hat fell from the shelf to the floor." In this situation red (though it is an abstract noun) is used as an adjective to give further information about the hat.

An adjective must agree with the noun it modifies in gender, number and case. This means that if a noun is masculine the adjective must be masculine. If the noun is plural the adjective that modifies the noun must also be plural. If the noun is in the nominative case the adjective must be in the nominative case.

In usage, some words are primarily used for men and some are primarily used for women. Example: pretty for women and handsome for men. (Though I guess very few would notice the contradiction I would never refer to a man as hysterical.)

Adjectives have an attribute which is used to give additional information to or about the noun which it modifies. This is called form.

The form of an adjective has 3 categories. These are positive, comparative and superlative. Form is used when assigning quality to a noun as measured against something else.

Example: Mary is pretty. (Pretty is the positive form.)

Mary is prettier than Helen. (Prettier is the comparative form. The comparative form is used when comparing two and only two.)

Mary is the prettiest of all the women in the room.

(Prettiest is the superlative form. The superlative form is used when comparing three or more.)

 In most situations the comparative and superlative forms of adjectives are formed by adding -er or -est to the end of the adjective. However, in situations where the adjective has three or more syllables the words more and most are added in front of the unchanged adjective to form the comparative and superlative respectfully.

Example: Mary is beautiful.

Mary is more beautiful than Helen.

Of all the women in the room, Mary is the most beautiful.

VERB

Verbs make a statement, ask a question or to give a command or direction. Verbs have the qualities of mood, and voice. Verbs are conjugated and have tense, number and person.

Types of Verbs

Infinitive: This is the "raw" form of the verb with out any conjugations. "I like to sing."

Transitive: Requires an object to complete its meaning. They can also be changed from active to passive voice.

"The man opened the door." Intransitive: Does not require an object to complete its meaning. "I was in my room."

Some verbs can be transitive in one sentence and intransitive in another.

Transitive: She reads novels. [Object is novels.]

Intransitive: She reads well. [No object.]

 Mood Mood is used to indicate the purpose of the verb. Indicative: This is a statement of fact or asks a question. Do you want to visit America?

[Want is in the indicative mood.]

 Imperative: Gives a command, makes a request or gives direction. Used for direct address. Kiss me now!

[Kiss is in the imperative mood.]

 Subjunctive: Used to state conditions that are contrary to (present) fact. "If I were king of the forest." (Song from "The Wizard of Oz") [This is probably the most often misused form of English. Most people usually use "If I was. . " This is incorrect.] Voice

Voice is used to indicate whether the subject of the sentence causes or receives the action of the verb.

Active Voice: A verb having a direct object is active. The subject of an active verb acts.

Bill loves Mary.

[Mary is the direct object.]

 Passive Voice: Is always used in a verb phrase containing a part of the verb to be as an auxiliary plus a past participle. The subject of a passive verb does not act. Mary is loved by Bill. Tense

Tense indicates the time sequence of the verb. Verbs are conjugated (or inflected). To conjugate a verb is to use it in its proper tense, voice, mood, person and number.

The tenses of verbs are:

Present: Action occurring at the present time. I am here.

Past: Action in the immediate past. I was here.

Future: Action which will happen. I will be here

Present Perfect: Action in present tense which is already past

(Uses the present form of have as a "helping verb".) I have been here. He has been here. Past Perfect: Action in the past tense which is already past. (Uses the past form of have as a "helping verb".) I had been here. He has been here. Future Perfect: Action which will be complete at some future time. I will have been here. Participles are a verb form which indicates continuous action.

Present participle: I am running.

Past participle: I was running.

Future participle: I will be running.

Present perfect participle: I have been running.

Past perfect participle: I had been running.

Future perfect participle: I will have been running.

 Person and Number. As with nouns, verbs have number. They can be singular or plural. Verbs also have person. First person: The verb action is "autobiographical". "I am reading a book." I am is first person singular.

Second person: The verb action is directed to a specific person.

"You are reading a book." You are is second person singular. Third person: The verb action is directed to some one not present in the direct action of the sentence. "He is reading a book." He is is third personsingular. Verbs must agree with all other words in the sentence, phrase or clause in person (1st, 2nd or 3rd) and number (singular or plural).

ADVERB

An adverb modifies or gives additional information to words in a sentence that are not nouns or pronouns. Usually these are used to modify verbs. They are used after the verb. Helen sings quietly.

Adverbs can often be formed from adjectives by adding -ly to an adjective. Adverbs can also have forms of comparison similar to adjectives.

Barbara sings more quietly than does Helen.

Nancy sings most quietly of all.

CONJUNCTION

A conjunction joins words, phrases or clauses. If, and, but, since, as, because. . .

ARTICLE

An article is often (not always) used in front of a noun to indicate importance or priority of the noun.

Types of articles.

Indefinite: Used to indicate a not specific general noun or nouns. a bird, an apple. A and an are the indefinite articles. (If the next word starts with a vowel use an.)

Definite: Used to indicate a specific noun or nouns. the book, the store.

PREPOSITION

Used to indicate a quality or direction of a noun or pronoun He is in the store.

INTERJECTION

Used for strong emotion. Ouch! That hurts. To put it all together: Wow! Kathy is a pretty girl and she sings well while in the shower.

Wow! [Interjection]

Kathy [Proper Noun, subject of the sentence]

is [verb, third person, singular-present tense, active voice, indicative mood]

a [indefinite article]

pretty [adjective in the positive form]

girl [common noun]

and [conjunction]

she [pronoun-used instead of Kathy]

sings [verb agrees with all the other verbs in this sentence]

well [adverb]

while [conjunction]

in [preposition]

the [definite article]

shower. [noun-object of the sentence-singular in number]
SUMMARY

Nouns have gender, number and case. Pronouns have person, gender, number and case.

Adjectives have gender number and case. Adjectives must agree with the noun they modify in gender, number and case.

Verbs have mood, voice and tense as well as person and number. A verb must agree with its subject in person and number.

Though this is a very brief treatment of English grammar this will meet a very large portion of your needs.