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Nouns
What is Grammar?
(Un)Countable nouns
English Grammar Terms
Adjectives
Articles
The 8 English Parts of Speech
These are the words that you use to make a sentence. There
Preposition List
are only 8 types of word - and the most important is the
Verb!
Do we need to study grammar to learn a language? The short answer is "no". Very
many people in the world speak their own, native language without having studied its
grammar. Children start to speak before they even know the word "grammar". But if
you are serious about learning a foreign language, the long answer is "yes, grammar
can help you to learn a language more quickly and more efficiently." It's important to
think of grammar as something that can help you, like a friend. When you understand
the grammar (or system) of a language, you can understand many things yourself,
without having to ask a teacher or look in a book.
So think of grammar as something good, something positive, something that you can
use to find your way - like a signpost or a map.
* Except invented languages like Esperanto. And if Esperanto were widely spoken, its
rules would soon be very different.
Adjective
A word like big, red, easy, French etc. An adjective describes a noun or pronoun.
Adverb
A word like slowly, quietly, well, often etc. An adverb modifies a verb.
Article
The "indefinite" articles are a and an. The "definite article" is the.
Auxiliary Verb
A verb that is used with a main verb. Be, do and have are auxiliary verbs. Can, may,
must etc are modal auxiliary verbs.
Clause
A group of words containing a subject and its verb (for example: It was late when he
arrived).
Conjunction
A word used to connect words, phrases and clauses (for example: and, but, if).
Infinitive
The basic form of a verb as in to work or work.
Interjection
An exclamation inserted into an utterance without grammatical connection (for
example: oh!, ah!, ouch!, well!).
Modal Verb
An auxiliary verb like can, may, must etc that modifies the main verb and expresses
possibility, probability etc. It is also called "modal auxiliary verb".
Noun
A word like table, dog, teacher, America etc. A noun is the name of an object,
concept, person or place. A "concrete noun" is something you can see or touch like a
person or car. An "abstract noun" is something that you cannot see or touch like a
decision or happiness. A "countable noun" is something that you can count (for
example: bottle, song, dollar). An "uncountable noun" is something that you cannot
count (for example: water, music, money).
Object
In the active voice, a noun or its equivalent that receives the action of the verb. In the
passive voice, a noun or its equivalent that does the action of the verb.
Participle
The -ing and -ed forms of verbs. The -ing form is called the "present participle". The
-ed form is called the "past participle" (for irregular verbs, this is column 3).
Part Of Speech
One of the eight classes of word in English - noun, verb, adjective, adverb, pronoun,
preposition, conjunction and interjection.
Passive Voice
In the passive voice, the subject receives the action of the verb (eg The President was
killed). See also Active Voice.
Phrase
A group of words not containing a subject and its verb (eg on the table, the girl in a
red dress).
Predicate
Each sentence contains (or implies) two parts: a subject and a predicate. The predicate
is what is said about the subject.
Preposition
A word like at, to, in, over etc. Prepositions usually come before a noun and give
information about things like time, place and direction.
Pronoun
A word like I, me, you, he, him, it etc. A pronoun replaces a noun.
Sentence
A group of words that express a thought. A sentence conveys a statement, question,
exclamation or command. A sentence contains or implies a subject and a predicate. In
simple terms, a sentence must contain a verb and (usually) a subject. A sentence starts
with a capital letter and ends with a full stop (.), question mark (?) or exclamation
mark (!).
Subject
Every sentence contains (or implies) two parts: a subject and a predicate. The subject
is the main noun (or equivalent) in a sentence about which something is said.
Tense
The form of a verb that shows us when the action or state happens (past, present or
future). Note that the name of a tense is not always a guide to when the action
happens. The "present continuous tense", for example, can be used to talk about the
present or the future.
Verb
A word like (to) work, (to) love, (to) begin. A verb describes an action or state.
We can categorize English words into 8 basic types or classes. These classes are
called "parts of speech".
It's quite important to recognize parts of speech. This helps you to analyze sentences
and understand them. It also helps you to construct good sentences.
In this lesson, we have an overview of the eight parts of speech, followed by a quiz to
check your understanding:
Adjective describes a noun a/an, the, 69, My dog is big. I like big
some, good, big, dogs.
red, well,
interesting
Preposition links a noun to to, at, after, on, but We went to school on
another word Monday.
Conjunction joins clauses or and, but, when I like dogs and I like
sentences or words cats. I like cats and
dogs. I like dogs but I
don't like cats.
Interjection short exclamation, oh!, ouch!, hi!, Ouch! That hurts! Hi!
sometimes inserted well How are you? Well, I
into a sentence don't know.
* Some grammar sources categorize English into 9 or 10 parts of speech. At
EnglishClub.com, we use the traditional categorization of 8 parts of speech. Examples
of other categorizations are:
To analyze the part of speech, ask yourself: "What job is this word doing in this
sentence?"
In the table below you can see a few examples. Of course, there are more, even for
some of the words in the table. In fact, if you look in a good dictionary you will see
that the word but has six jobs to do:
2
What did she ask you to do?
3
I left my shoes under the kitchen
table.
4
If we finish our work quickly we
can go to the movies.
5
On Saturdays I work from nine to
five.
6
I want to go to a university in the
United States.
7
I'm sure I have met your girlfriend
before.
8
Well, I don't think I will be here to
answer the phone.
9
Andy knocked on the door but
nobody answered.
10
After lunch let's go out for a coffee.
Reset
Verbs
What Are Verbs?
Tenses
I sing, I am singing, I have sung, I have been singing, I sang, I was singing
Conditionals | Quiz
if I win, if I won, if I had won
Modal Verbs
can, shall, must...
Questions | Quiz
Do you like me?, Why do you like me?, Do you like me or him?
Subjunctive | Quiz
She insists that he come
Going to
I am going to do it
Nouns
It's not easy to describe a noun. In simple terms, nouns are "things" (and verbs are
"actions"). Like food. Food (noun) is something you eat (verb). Or happiness.
Happiness (noun) is something you want (verb). Or human being. A human being
(noun) is something you are (verb).
Possessive 's
Adding 's or ' to show possession.
John's car, my parents' house
Noun as Adjective
Sometimes we use a noun to describe another noun. In that case, the first noun is
"acting as" an adjective.
love story, tooth-brush, bathroom
Adjectives
An adjective is a word that tells us more about a noun. (By "noun" we include
pronouns and noun phrases.)
Adjectives can be used before a noun (I like Chinese food) or after certain verbs (It is
hard).
We can often use two or more adjectives together (a beautiful young French lady).
Determiners
the, a/an, this, some, any
Adjective Order (with Quiz)
beautiful, long, dark brown
Comparative Adjectives
richer, more exciting
Superlative Adjectives
the richest, the most exciting
see also:
Noun as Adjective
coffee cup, bus station, research centre
Adverbs
An adverb is a word that tells us more about a verb. An adverb "qualifies" or
"modifies" a verb (The man ranquickly). But adverbs can also modify adjectives
(Tara is really beautiful), or even other adverbs (It works very well).
Many different kinds of word are called adverbs. We can usually recognise an adverb
by its:
1. Function (Job)
2. Form
3. Position
1. Function
The principal job of an adverb is to modify (give more information about) verbs,
adjectives and other adverbs. In the following examples, the adverb is in bold and the
word that it modifies is in italics.
• Modify a verb:
- John speaks loudly. (How does John speak?)
- Mary lives locally. (Where does Mary live?)
- She never smokes. (When does she smoke?)
• Modify an adjective:
- He is reallyhandsome.
• Modify another adverb:
- She drives incrediblyslowly.
2. Form
Many adverbs end in -ly. We form such adverbs by adding -ly to the adjective. Here
are some examples:
But not all words that end in -ly are adverbs. "Friendly", for example, is an adjective.
3. Position
Adverbs of Frequency
always, sometimes, never...
Adverbs Quiz
English Pronouns
Pronouns are small words that take the place of a noun. We can use a pronoun instead
of a noun. Pronouns are words like: he, you, ours, themselves, some, each... If we
didn't have pronouns, we would have to repeat a lot of nouns. We would have to say
things like:
• Do you like the president? I don't like the president. The president is
too pompous.
Personal Pronouns
I, you, he, me, your, his...
Pronoun Case
subjective, objective, possessive
English Prepositions
A preposition is a word governing, and usually coming in front of, a noun or
pronoun and expressing a relation to another word or element, as in:
List of Prepositions
Prepositions of Place
at the bus stop, in the box, on the wall
Prepositions of Time
at Christmas, in May, on Friday
For a full list of 150 prepositions, including one-word and complex prepositions,
with 370 example sentences, try the English Club ebook English Prepositions
Listed.
Conjunctions
A conjunction is a word that "joins". A conjunction joins two parts of a sentence.
and, but, or, nor, for, yet, so although, because, since, unless
Form
• Single Word
for example: and, but, because, although
Function
Position
Interjections
Hi! That's an interjection. :-)
Interjections like er and um are also known as
Interjection is a big name for a "hesitation devices". They are extremely
little word. Interjections are short common in English. People use them when
exclamations like Oh!, Um or Ah! they don't know what to say, or to indicate that
They have no real grammatical they are thinking about what to say. You
value but we use them quite often, should learn to recognize them when you hear
usually more in speaking than in them and realize that they have no real
writing. When interjections are meaning.
inserted into a sentence, they have no grammatical connection to the sentence. An
interjection is sometimes followed by an exclamation mark (!) when written.