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Verbal - Basic Grammar Rules

This document provides an overview of basic grammar rules. It discusses the following topics in 3 sentences or less each: parts of speech, agreement, diction, grammatical construction, idioms, logical predication, parallelism, rhetorical construction, and verb form. The document is intended as a reference for proper grammar usage and avoiding errors in areas such as subject-verb agreement, pronoun usage, sentence structure, word choice, and verb tense.

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131 views

Verbal - Basic Grammar Rules

This document provides an overview of basic grammar rules. It discusses the following topics in 3 sentences or less each: parts of speech, agreement, diction, grammatical construction, idioms, logical predication, parallelism, rhetorical construction, and verb form. The document is intended as a reference for proper grammar usage and avoiding errors in areas such as subject-verb agreement, pronoun usage, sentence structure, word choice, and verb tense.

Uploaded by

tripathi.ankit557
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PPT, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Verbal Ability

Basic Grammar Rules


Your Grammar is a reflection of
your image. Good or bad you
have made an impression –
Jeffrey Gitomer
Contents
• Parts of Speech
• Agreement
• Diction
• Grammatical Construction
• Idiom
• Logical Predication
• Parallelism
• Rhetorical Construction
• Verb Form
Parts of Speech

1. Noun – Concrete or Abstract Entity (ex. Love, beauty, freedom)


2. Pronoun – Substitute for Noun
3. Verb – Activity or Process
4. Adverb – Modifies verb or any other Parts of Speech (except Noun); Answers
questions such as how? When? Where? Ex. Walked slowly; playing upstairs
5. Adjectives – Describing words about a noun ex. Happy people
6. Conjunction – To combine two sentences/phrases for; and; nor; but; or; yet; so
7. Interjection – Expressing emotions ex. Hi, bye, good bye
8. Preposition – Modifier/complement to Noun/Verb/Adverb/Adjective ex.
Sleep throughout; choose from; insist on

Idioms – Combination of words with a figurative meaning different from literal


meaning
Agreement
• Elements within a sentence to be consistent
• Noun-Verb Agreement – Singular subjects take singular verbs
and plural subjects take plural verbs. Ex.
I walk to the store I walks to the store
We go to school We goes to school
The number of residents The number of residents
has grown have grown
The masses have spoken The masses has spoken
• Pronoun Agreement – Pronoun must agree with noun/pronoun
it refers to in person, number and gender. Ex.
– When you dream, you are usually asleep
– When kids went to sleep, they slept like logs
Diction
• Dictionary meaning and context of usage should be correct
• Among/Between – Among is used to refer to relationships
involving more than two objects while between is for two objects
– We divided our winnings among the three of us
– She and I divided the cake between us
• As/Like – As can be a prep. meaning “in the capacity of ” but also a
conjunction followed by a verb. Like is used as a prep. followed by a noun,
object pronoun or a verb ending in “ing”
I work as a librarian I work like a librarian
Do as I say, not as I do Do like I say, not like I do
It felt as a dream It felt like a dream
People as you inspire me People like you inspire me
There is nothing as biking on a rainy day There is nothing like biking on a rainy day
Diction
• Mass and Count Words – Nouns quantified by an amount and number
We bough a loaf of bread We bought one bread
He wished me many happiness He wished me much happiness
We passed many buildings We passed much buildings

• Pronouns – Myself should not be used for I or me.


Mom and I had to go to the store
He gave the present to Dad and me
Grammatical Construction
• Good grammar requires complete sentences
• Fragments – Parts of sentence disconnected from the main clause
– We saw the doctor and his nurse at the party
– We saw the doctor at the party. And his nurse

• Run-on sentences – 2 independent clauses that run together


without proper punctuation.
– Joseph is still a feared batsman; most bowlers don’t want to face him
– Joseph is still a feared batsman most bowlers don’t want to face him

• Constructions – Avoid wordy, redundant constructions


– We could not come to the meeting because of a conflict
– The reason we could not come to the meeting is because of a conflict
Idiom
• Use correct idiom and avoid non-standard expressions
• Prepositions – Specific prepositions have specific purposes
– She likes to jog in/on the morning
– They ranged in age from 10 to/up to 15
• Correlatives – word combinations such as “not only…but also”
should be followed by an element of same grammatical type
– I have called not only to thank her but also I told her about the next meeting
– I have called not only to thank her but also to tell her about the next meeting
• Forms of comparison – Fewer (specific number), less than (quantity),
Between …and (choice), Farther (distance), further (degree)
– There were … children in my class this year (fewer/less)
– There was … devastation than I was told (fewer/less)
– We had to choose between vanilla … chocolate (and/or)
– I ran …. than John, but he took his weight training … than I did (farther/further)
Logical Predication
• Modification Problems – Modifiers to be positioned correctly so
there is no illogical references/comparisons or distorted meaning
– I put the cake by the door that I baked
– Reading my mind, she gave me the delicious cookie
– In the middle ages, the world was … flat
Parallelism
• Different elements in the sentence should be parallel to each other
– I took a bath, sleeping and waking up refreshed
– I took a bath, went to sleep and woke up refreshed
– The only way to know is taking the plunge
– The only way to know is to take the plunge
Rhetorical Construction
• Avoid awkward, wordy, redundant, imprecise or unclear sentences
– Before we left to go on our vacation, we watered the plants, checked to be sure that
the stove had been turned off, and also burglar alarm to set it
– Before we left on vacation, we watered the plants, checked to see that the stove was
off and set the burglar alarm.
Verb Form
• Verb should have correct tense.
– I went to school yesterday (past)
– I go to school every weekday (present)
– I will go to school tomorrow (future)
• Each tense also has 3 forms
– Perfect form (used with past participle) ex. Walked, ran
– Progressive form (used with present participle) ex. Walking, running
– Perfect progressive form (used with present participle) ex. Walking, running
Thank You !
Ankit Tripathi
[email protected]

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