English Grammar

The Sentence

In our written communication, we generally use words in

groups; as,

Little cat sat in a corner.

A group of words like this, which makes complete sense, is

called a Sentence.

Sentences are made of two parts: the subject and the

predicate.
The subject is the person or thing that performs some action
or we describe something about that person or thing.
The predicate, on the other hand, is that action or
description about that person or thing.
Complete sentences need both the subject and the predicate.

The Clause

Sentences can be broken down into clauses. For example:

The boy is going to the school, and he is going to eat there.
This is a complete sentence composed of two clauses. There
are mainly two types of clauses: independent clauses and
subordinate clauses.
Independent clauses act as complete sentences, while
subordinate clauses cannot stand alone and need another
clause to complete their meaning. For example:
Independent clause: “The boy went to the school.”/ " He has a
chain of gold.
Subordinate clause: “After the boy went to the school…” /
" ...which is made of gold."
He has a chain which is made of gold.

The Phrase
A group of two or more grammatically linked words that do
not have subject and predicate is a phrase. For example:
The girl is at home, and tomorrow she is going to the
amusement park.
You can see that “the amusement park” is a phrase located in
the second clause of the complete sentence above.

Parts of Speech

Words are divided into different kinds or classes, called

Parts of Speech according to their use. The function the word
serves in a sentence is what makes it whatever part of speech
it is.
For example, the word “run” can be used as more than one
part of speech:
Sammy hit a home run. (run is a noun, direct object of hit)
You mustn’t run near the swimming pool. (run is a verb, part of
the verb phrase must (not) run)
The parts of speech are eight in number:

1. Adjective
2. Adverb
3. Conjunction
 4. Interjection
5. Noun
6. Preposition
7. Pronoun
8. Verb
These eight categories can be expanded e.g. by Article and
Numeral. In the following tables we concentrate on the eight
main categories.
Parts of
Examples
Speech
Look! He is sitting on an old chair
Adjective
and is snoring loudly.
Look! He is sitting on an old chair
Adverb
and is snoring loudly.
Look! He is sitting on an old
Conjunction
chair and is snoring loudly.
Interjectio Look! He is sitting on an old chair
n and is snoring loudly.
Look! He is sitting on an
Noun
old chair and is snoring loudly.
Look! He is sitting on an old chair
Preposition
and is snoring loudly.
Look! He is sitting on an old chair
Pronoun
and is snoring loudly.
Look! He is sitting on an old chair
Verb
and is snoring loudly.
Parts of
Explanation
Speech
describes a noun or a pronouns (how
Adjective
something or someone is)
describes a verb, an adjective or an
Adverb adverb (how someone does
something)
Conjunction joins words or phrases
Interjectio
expresses a feeling
n
Noun names a person or a thing
expresses a connection between
Preposition
persons or things
Pronoun can substitute a noun
Verb expresses an action or a state
NOUN – Nouns are naming words. We cannot talk about
anything until we have given it a name. It is a word used as the
name of a person, place and thing.
The rose smells sweet.
Akbar was a great king.
His courage won him honour.
PRONOUN – A pronoun is a word that is used instead of a
noun.
Ali is absent, because he is ill.
The books are where you left them.
VERBS – The verb is the motor that runs the sentence. A verb
enables us to say something about a noun. It is used to
express an action or state.
Karachi is a big city.
The girl wrote a letter to her cousin.
ADJECTIVE – An adjective is a word that describes a noun. It
is used to add something to the meaning of a noun.
Ahmad is tall boy.
There are fifty boys in the class.
ADVERB – An adverb adds something to the meaning of a
verb, an adjective, or another adverb.
The horse runs swiftly.
She pronounced the word quite correctly.
PREPOSITION – A preposition is a word that comes in front
of a noun or a pronoun and shows a connection between that
noun or pronoun and some other word in the sentence.
There is a cow in the garden.
A fair little girl sat under a tree.
CONJUNCTION – A conjunction joins words and groups of
words.
I ran fast, but missed the train.
Two and two make four.
INTERJECTION — An interjection is a word or phrase
thrown into a sentence to express an emotion, for example:8
Hurrah! we have won the game.
Oh! she fell from stairs.
The Noun
A noun is a word used to describe a person, place, thing, event,
idea, and so on. Nouns represent one of the main elements of
sentences, along with verbs, adjectives, prepositions and
articles.
Nouns usually function as subjects or objects within
sentences, although they can also act as adjectives and
adverbs.
Here is a list with the different types of nouns:
1. Proper nouns
Used to describe a unique person or thing, proper nouns always
start with a capital letter. Examples include Maria, Pakistan,
and Manchester United.
2. Common nouns
Common nouns are used to describe persons or things in
general. Examples include girl, country, and team
3. Concrete nouns
Nouns that can be perceived through the five senses are
called concrete nouns. Examples
include ball, rainbow and melody.
4. Abstract nouns
Nouns that cannot be perceived through the five senses are
called abstract nouns. Examples include love, courage,
and childhood.
5. Countable nouns

Countable nouns can be counted. They also have both a

singular and a plural form. Examples
include toys, children and books.
6. Non-countable nouns
These nouns (usually) cannot be counted, and they don’t have a
plural form. Examples include sympathy, laughter and oxygen.
7. Collective nouns
Collective nouns are used to describe groups of things.
Examples include flock, committee and murder.
The Pronoun
Pronouns are used to replace nouns within sentences, making
them less repetitive and mechanic. For example, saying “ Maria
didn’t go to school because Maria was sick” does not sound
very good. Instead, if we say “Maria didn’t go to school
because she was sick” it will make the sentence flow better.
There are several types of pronouns, below we will find the
most common ones:
1. Subjective personal pronouns. As the name implies,
subjective pronouns act as subjects within sentences. They
are: I, you, he, she, we, they, and it.
Example: I am going to the bank while he is going to the
market.
2. Objective personal pronouns. These pronouns act as the
object of verbs within sentences. They are: me, you, him, her,
us, them and it.
Example: The ball was going to hit me in the face.
3. Possessive personal pronouns. These pronouns are used to
indicate possession, and they are placed after the object in
question (as opposed to possessive adjectives
like my and your, which are placed before the object). They
are: mine, yours, his, hers, ours, theirs and its.
Example of possessive adjective: This is my car.
Example of possessive pronoun: This car is mine.
4. Reflexive pronouns. This special class of pronouns is used
when the object is the same as the subject on the sentence.
They are myself, yourself, himself, herself, ourselves,
themselves and itself.
Example: I managed to cut myself in the kitchen.
5. Interrogative pronouns. These pronouns are used to ask
questions. They are what, which, who, whom and whose.
Example: What are the odds?
6. Demonstrative pronouns. These pronouns are used to
indicate a noun and distinguish it from other entities. Notice
that demonstrative pronouns replace the noun (while
demonstrative determiners modify them). They are: this,
that, 
Example of a demonstrative determiner: This house is ugly.
Example of a demonstrative pronoun: This is the right one.
7. Indefinite pronouns. As the name implies, indefinite
pronouns do not refer to a specific thing, place or person.
There are many of them, including anyone, anywhere,
everyone, none, someone and so on.
Example: Everyone is going to the party.
The Verbs
Verbs are the most important component of any sentence.
These words talk about the action or the state of any noun or
subject. This means  that verbs show what the subject is
doing or what is the state or situation of the subject.
He ran to the store. - Here the verb ran describes the action
of the subject ‘he’ 
She is a creative person. - Here there is no action being done.
Instead the auxiliary verb ‘is’ shows the state of the subject
‘she’ as being ‘creative’. 
English has three kinds of Verbs: transitive, intransitive, and
incomplete.
1. Transitive Verbs:
Transitive means "pass over". So, a transitive verb is a verb
which passes over to an object on which, or for which some
action is performed. as:
The farmer  grows potatoes. Elena sang ballads.
The receiver is called the direct object. It answers the
question “What?” or “Whom? after the verb. Grows
what? Potatoes. Sang what? Ballads.
Here "grows" and "sang" are transitive verbs which pass over
to objects "potatoes" and "Ballads" respectively.
2. Intransitive Verbs
A verb is intransitive when the action stays with the verb. It
does not pass over to any object:
Corn grows. Elvis sang.
Adding a prepositional phrase to modify the verb does not
change the fact that the action remains with the subject:
Corn grows in the fields. Elvis sang all over the world.
Both transitive and intransitive verbs are action verbs.
3. Incomplete Verbs
There are three types of incomplete verbs:
i. Being verbs – also called linking or copulative verbs
to be, seem, become, taste, smell, sound, feel
TIP: Some of these verbs can also be used transitively. If in
doubt, substitute a form of to be for the verb. If the
sentence still makes sense, the verb is being used as a
copulative verb:
He feels depressed. He is depressed.
He feels the wall. He is the wall.
ii. Auxiliary verbs – also called helping verbs
be, have, shall, will, do, and may.
He could have gone earlier.
iii. Semi-auxiliary verbs
must, can, ought, dare, need.
You must not go. You dare not go.
Verb Tense
Modern English has six tenses, each of which has a
corresponding continuous tense.
The first three tenses, present, past, and future, present few
problems. Only third person singular in the present tense
differs in form:
Present tense of regular (weak) verbs:
Today I walk. Today he walks.
Yesterday I walked.
Tomorrow I shall/will walk.
The dwindling class of irregular (strong) verbs must be
learned individually.
Today I go. Today he goes.
Yesterday I went.
Tomorrow I shall/will go.
The other three tenses, perfect, past perfect, and future
perfect, are formed with the helping verbs have, has, and had.
Perfect: used to express an event that has just finished, and
to describe an event which, although in the past, has effects
that continue into the present.
Queen Elizabeth has reigned for 56 years.
Past perfect: used to express an event that took place before
another action, also in the past.
I had driven all the way to Oklahoma when I realized my
mistake.
Future perfect: used to express an event that will have taken
place at some time in the future.
As of February 26, I shall have been in this job six years.
Verbs Voice
English verbs are said to have two voices: active and passive.
Active Voice: The subject of the sentence performs the
action:
His son catches fly balls. Creative children often dream in
class.
Note: Verbs in the active voice may be either transitive or
intransitive.
Passive Voice: The subject receives the action:
The ball was caught by the first baseman.
The duty is performed by the new recruits.
The dough was beaten by the mixer.
The mailman was bitten by the dog.
Only transitive verbs can be used in the passive voice. What
would be the direct object of the verb in the active voice
becomes the subject of the verb in the passive voice:
Active voice: The dog bit the mailman. “bit” is a transitive
verb. The receiver/direct object is “mailman.”
Passive voice: The mailman was bitten by the dog. “bit” is now
in the passive voice. The “receiver” has become the subject of
the verb.
A passive verb in either present or past tense will always have
two parts: some form of the verb to be (am, is, are, was,
were), and a past participle (verb form ending in -ed, -en, or
any form used with have when forming a perfect tense).
NOTE: The mere presence of the verb to be does not indicate
that a verb is in the passive voice. The test of a verb in the
passive voice is the two-part question:
Is the subject performing the action of the verb or is the
subject receiving the action of the verb?
If the subject is receiving the action, then the verb is in
passive voice.
Sometimes the passive voice is the best way to express a
thought.
The Adjective
An adjective is a word that describes a noun. There are two
kinds: attributive and predicative.
An adjective is used attributively when it stands next to a
noun and describes it:
The  black  cat climbed a tree.
NOTE: The verb participle forms can be used as adjectives:
The man felt a  paralyzing  fear. Flavored  oatmeal tastes
better than plain oatmeal.
The usual place of the adjective in English is in front of the
noun. You can have a whole string of adjectives if you
like: The  tall thin evil-looking  cowboy roped the  short, fat,
inoffensive  calf.
Sometimes, for rhetorical or poetic effect, the adjective can
come after the noun:
Sarah  Plain  and  Tall (book title)
This is the forest  primeval.
An adjective is used predicatively when a verb separates it
from the noun or pronoun it describes:
The umpire was  wrong.
The crowd was  furious.
She seems  tired  today.
This soup tastes  bad.
The dog’s coat feels  smooth.
The verbs that can be completed by predicate adjectives are
called being verbs or copulative verbs. They include all the
forms of to be and sensing verbs like seem, feel, and taste.
Adjective Classifications
qualitative: good, bad, happy, blue, French
possessive: my, thy, his, her, its, our, your, their
relative and interrogative: which, what, whatever, etc.
numeral: one, two, second, single, etc.
indefinite: some, any, much, few, every, etc.
demonstrative: this, that, the, a (an), such
NOTE: the demonstrative adjectives the and a (an) are so
important in English that they have a special name: articles.
They are discussed separately (i.e. coming soon).
The Adverbs
Adverbs are used to describe or modify a verb, adjective,
clause, or another adverb. Basically, they modify everything
except nouns and pronouns (which are modified by adjectives).
Example of an adverb modifying a verb:
He was running fast. (fast modifies running)
Example of an adverb modifying an adjective:
She took a very small piece of the cake. (very modifies small)
Example of an adverb modifying a sentence:
Strangely, the man left the room. (strangely modifies the
whole sentence)
Usually adverbs answer to the questions “When?” (adverbs of
time), “Where?” (adverbs of place), and “How?” (adverbs of
manner).
Adverbs can also be used to connect clauses and sentences (in
this case they are called conjunctive adverbs). For example:
It was dark. Therefore, we needed the torch. (therefore
connects the two sentences)
The Preposition
Prepositions are used to link nouns and pronouns to other
words within a sentence. The words linked to are called
objects.
Usually prepositions show a spatial or temporal relationship
between the noun and the object, like in the example below:
The cat is under the table.
Cat is the noun. Under is the preposition. Table is the object.
Here is a list with the most common prepositions: about,
above, after, among, around, along, at, before, behind,
beneath, beside, between, by, down, from, in, into, like, near,
of, off, on, out, over, through, to, up, upon, under, and with .
Notice that you can also have a prepositional phrase, which is
formed by the preposition and its object. A preposition
phrase can function as adverb, adjective or noun. For example:
The dog was running under the rain.
The prepositional phrase “under the rain” acts as an adverb,
specifying where the dog was running.
The Conjunction

A conjunction joins words and groups of words.

There are two classes of conjunction: co-
ordinate orcoordinating and subordinateor subordinating.
Co-ordinate conjunctions: and, but, either…or, neither…nor.
Subordinate conjunctions: that, as, after, before, since,
when, where, unless, if.
Mother and Father are driving me to New Orleans. (and is a
coordinate conjunction joining words of equal significance in
the sentence.
I painted the walls but Jack painted the woodwork. (but is a
coordinate conjunction joining clauses of equal significance in
the sentence. Either clause could stand alone as a sentence.)
Since you can’t get away, we’ll go without you.
(Since is a subordinate conjunction joining a less important
thought to a more important thought. The main clause, we’ll go
without you, can stand alone as a complete thought. The
subordinate clause, Since you can’t get away, is an incomplete
thought. It is dependent upon the main clause for meaning.)
NOTE: The relative pronouns who, whom, which, and that are
used in the same way that subordinate conjunctions are. The
difference is that the relative pronouns serve three purposes
at once:
1) they stand for a noun in the main clause
2) they connect the clauses
3) they serve as a subject or object word in the subordinate
clause:
He is the man who invented the hula hoop. (who stands
for man and is the subject of invented)
Charles is the boy whom the other children tease.
(whom stands for boy and is the object of tease)
Give me the piece of string that is waxed. (that stands
for string and is the subject of is waxed)
There goes the  horse  which won the Derby. (which refers
to horse and is the subject of won)
The possessive adjective whose can also be used to join
clauses:
That’s the bird whose plumage I admire. (Whose refers
to bird and describes plumage)
The Interjection

Interjection comes from a Latin word that means “throw

between.” It’s a word or phrase that is thrown into a sentence
to express an emotion:
Goodness, how you’ve grown!
Darn, I forgot my lunch!
Alas, will he never return?
Strictly speaking, an interjection is not a part of speech. It
serves no grammatical function but is rather “a noisy
utterance like the cry of an animal” (F.J. Rahtz). Interjections
express feeling or emotion, not thought and have been called
“the miserable refuge of the speechless.”