ENGLISH

Nouns (common, proper, collective, concrete, abstract)

Nouns name people, places, and things. Every noun can further be classified as common or proper. A common noun names general items.
Go into the kitchen. What do you see? Refrigerator, stove, microwave, window, curtain, coffee maker, wallpaper, spatula, sink, faucet, plate--all of these things are common nouns.

Leave the house. Where can you go? Mall, restaurant, school, post office, backyard, beach, Laundromat, supermarket, gas station--all of these places are common nouns.

Go to the mall. Who do you see? Teenager, grandmother, salesclerk, police officer, toddler, mother, father, manager, janitor, shoplifter--all of these people are common nouns.

The important thing to remember is that common nouns are general names. Thus, they are not capitalized unless they begin a sentence or are part of a title. Proper nouns, those that name specific things, are the class of nouns that require capitalization. Nouns name people, places, and things.

Collective nouns, a special class, name groups [things] composed of members [usually people].

A concrete noun names something you can experience with at least one of your senses (sight, hearing, touch, taste, and smell). Most nouns are concrete nouns.

Don't confuse a concrete noun with an abstract noun. Not all nouns are concrete. A second class of nouns is abstract. You cannot experience abstract nouns with your senses. Read this example:

Diane pushed Reliable off of her lap to register her disapproval. Disapproval is an example of an abstract noun. What color is disapproval? You don't know because you can't see it. What texture is disapproval? Who knows? You can't touch it. What flavor is disapproval? No clue! You can't taste it! Does it make a sound? Of course not! Does it smell? Not a bit!

Cases (Nominative, Objective, Possessive)

Although most students never truly think about it, nouns and pronouns have case. Latin has five; German has four. English has three cases: nominative, objective, and possessive. Regardless of how a noun functions in a sentence, it doesn’t change form. Therefore, no one bothers to think whether a noun is in the nominative or objective case; it simply doesn’t matter to a neophyte. However, a noun does change form when it falls in the possessive case. A noun changes form in the possessive case by adding an apostrophe and an s or if the noun is plural by adding s and an apostrophe:

The student’s book was found lying in the floor.

Boys’ gym clothes may be found in the bookstore.

The personal pronouns in the nominative case are:

Singular	Plural	Singular & Plural
ich = I	wir = we
du = you (informal)	ihr = you (informal plural)	Sie = you (formal)
er = he, it (masculine) sie = she, it (feminine) es = it (neuter)	sie = they

Prepositions, Conjunctions, Interjections

Common Prepositions

A preposition is a word that relates a noun or a pronoun to some other word in a sentence. A preposition describes a relationship between other words in a sentence. In itself, a word like "in" or "after" is rather meaningless and hard to define in mere words. For instance, when you do try to define a preposition like "in" or "between" or "on," you invariably use your hands to show how something is situated in relationship to something else. Prepositions are nearly always combined with other words in structures called prepositional phrases.

Conjunctions: Some words are satisfied spending an evening at home, alone, eating ice-cream right out of the box, watching Seinfeld re-runs on TV, or reading a good book. Others aren't happy unless they're out on the town, mixing it up with other words; they're joiners and they just can't help themselves. A conjunction is a joiner, a word that connects (conjoins) parts of a sentence

Interjections are words or phrases used to exclaim or protest or command. They sometimes stand by themselves, but they are often contained within larger structures.

Wow! I won the lottery!
Oh, I don't know about that.
I don't know what the heck you're talking about.
No, you shouldn't have done that.

Adjectives (Descriptive, Limiting, Comparison of Adjectives)

Adjectives modify a noun or pronoun.

There are two basic categories of adjectives. They have very different functions:

limiting adjectives, which tell the listener which item you are talking about (a small, closed category) 1. (in English and some other languages) one of a small group of adjectives that modify the nouns to which they are applied by restricting rather than describing or qualifying. This, some, and certain are limiting adjectives.
2. an adjective, as few or other, that in English follows determiners and precedes descriptive adjectives: a few red apples.
descriptive adjectives, which tell what kind of item is under discussion (most adjectives fall in this category)
Descriptive adjectives describe the noun.

Examples of descriptive adjectives [in bold]:

yellow banana, tall pole, wide door, deep ditch, flowing river, honest man, stormy sky

The suffixes below, when added to a word, will make that word into an adjective.
Suffixes, source, meaning, and example:

-able -ible -from -abilis (Latin) means-that can be - portable, audible

-al from -alis (Latin) means of, like, having the nature of - ornamental

-ate from atus (Latin) means of or having to do with - colligate

-ful from -ful (Old English) means full of - playful

-ive from -ivus (Latin) means of or having to do with - massive

-ous from osus (Latin) means full of - joyous

Here's a list of common adjective endings (suffixes):
-able, -al, -ant, -ary, -ed, -en, -ent, -ful, -ic, -ish, -less, -ous, -some, -y

COMPARISON OF ADJECTIVES

FORMING THE COMPARATIVE AND SUPERLATIVE

Number of Syllables	Comparative	superlative
one syllable	+ -er	+ -est
tall	taller	tallest

one syllable with the spelling consonant + single vowel + consonant: double the final consonant:
fat	fatter	fattest
big	bigger	biggest
sad	sadder	saddest

Number of syllables	Comparative	Superlative
two syllables	+ -er OR more + adj	+ -est OR most + adj
ending in: -y, -ly, -ow ending in: -le, -er or -ure these common adjectives - handsome, polite, pleasant, common, quiet
happy	happier/ more happy	happiest/ most happy
yellow	yellower/ more yellow	yellowest/ most yellow
simple	simpler/ more simple	simplest/ most simple
tender	tenderer/ more tender	tenderest/ most tender
If you are not sure, use MORE + OR MOST + Note: Adjectives ending in '-y' like happy, pretty, busy, sunny, lucky etc:. replace the -y with -ier or -iest in the comparative and superlative form
busy	busier	busiest

Number of syllables	Comparative	Superlative
three syllables or more	more + adj	most + adj
important	more important	most important
expensive	more expensive	most expensive

Examples; a. A cat is fast, a tiger is faster but a cheetah is the fastest
b. A car is heavy, a truck is heavier, but a train is the heaviest
c. A park bench is comfortable, a restaurant chair is more comfortable, but a sofa is the most comfortable

Capitalization & Punctuation

Capitalize this!

The first word of every sentence.
The first-person singular pronoun, I.
The first, last, and important words in a title. (The concept "important words" usually does not include articles, short prepositions (which means you might want to capitalize "towards" or "between," say), the "to" of an infinitive, and coordinating conjunctions. This is not true in APA Reference lists (where we capitalize only the first word), nor is it necessarily true for titles in other languages. Also, on book jackets, aesthetic considerations will sometimes override the rules.)
Proper nouns
- Specific persons and things: George W. Bush, the White House, General Motors Corporation.
- Specific geographical locations: Hartford, Connecticut, Africa, Forest Park Zoo, Lake Erie, the Northeast, the Southend. However, we do not capitalize compass directions or locations that aren't being used as names: the north side of the city; we're leaving the Northwest and heading south this winter. When we combine proper nouns, we capitalize attributive words when they precede place-names, as in Lakes Erie and Ontario, but the opposite happens when the order is reversed: the Appalachian and Adirondack mountains. When a term is used descriptively, as opposed to being an actual part of a proper noun, do not capitalize it, as in "The California deserts do not get as hot as the Sahara Desert."
- Names of celestial bodies: Mars, Saturn, the Milky Way. Do not, howver, capitalize earth, moon, sun, except when those names appear in a context in which other (capitalized) celestial bodies are mentioned. "I like it here on earth," but "It is further from Earth to Mars than it is from Mercury to the Sun.
- Names of newspapers and journals. Do not, however, capitalize the word the, even when it is part of the newspaper's title: the Hartford Courant.
- Days of the week, months, holidays. Do not, however, capitalize the names of seasons (spring, summer, fall, autumn, winter). "Next winter, we're traveling south; by spring, we'll be back up north."
- Historical events: World War I, the Renaissance, the Crusades.
- Races, nationalities, languages: Swedes, Swedish, African American, Jewish, French, Native American. (Most writers do not capitalize whites, blacks.)
- Names of religions and religious terms: God, Christ, Allah, Buddha, Christianity, Christians, Judaism, Jews, Islam, Muslims.
- Names of courses: Economics, Biology 101. (However, we would write: "I'm taking courses in biology and earth science this summer.")
- Brand names: Tide, Maytag, Chevrolet.
Names of relationships only when they are a part of or a substitute for a person's name. (Often this means that when there is a modifier, such as a possessive pronoun, in front of such a word, we do not capitalize it.)
- Let's go visit Grandmother today. Let's go visit my grandmother today.
- I remember Uncle Arthur. I remember my Uncle Arthur. My uncle is unforgettable.
This also means that we don't normally capitalize the name of a "vocative" or term of endearment:
- Can you get the paper for me, hon?
- Drop the gun, sweetie. I didn't mean it.

Pronouns (Personal in Nominative and Objective Case, Possessive, Compound, Interrogative, Relative, Pronominal)

A pronoun is used in place of a noun to refer to the person, place, or thing the noun names. There are different types of pronouns. The list below describes eight types of pronouns and gives examples of them.

The pronouns are the elements of the sentence that indicate or replace the person, the animal or the object, that is doing an action, or receiving an action, without specifying (or repeating) his/her/its name or noun. Pro-noun (pro'noun) - n. A word used as a substitilte for a noun, as he, she, that. [<OF pronom <L pronomen < pro- in place of + nomen name, noun] A word used to take the place of one or more nouns is called a pronoun. Pronoun case.

Demonstrative pronouns - point out a specific person or thing.
Examples - this, that, these, those

Indefinite pronouns - refer to other people or things in general, not specifically.
Examples - any, someone, nothing, everybody

Objective pronouns - are used when the pronoun is the object that the verb affects in a sentence.
Examples - you, him, it, them

Plural pronouns - refer to more than one thing or person.
Examples - our, they, theirs, we

Possessive pronouns - show that something belongs to someone.
Examples - mine, hers, its, yours

Reflexive pronouns - refers back to a noun or pronoun used earlier.
Examples - itself, ourselves, myself, yourself

Relative pronouns - connect parts of sentences to each other.
Examples - that, which, who, whatever

Subjective pronouns - are used when the pronoun is the subject doing the action in a sentence.
Examples - I, he, she, those

A definition of pro-nom-i-nal - (pro^.nom'ə^.n ə l) - adjetive- Of, pertaining to, like, or having the nature of a pronoun. [ <LL pronominalis <L pronomen. See PRONOUN.] pro^.nom'i^.nal^.ly adv:

Interrogative Pronouns

The interrogative pronouns (who/which/what) introduce questions. (What is that? Who will help me? Which do you prefer?) Which is generally used with more specific reference than what. If we're taking a quiz and I ask "Which questions give you the most trouble?", I am referring to specific questions on that quiz. If I ask "What questions give you most trouble"? I could be asking what kind of questions on that quiz (or what kind of question, generically, in general) gives you trouble. The interrogative pronouns also act as Determiners: It doesn't matter which beer you buy. He doesn't know whose car he hit. In this determiner role, they are sometimes called interrogative adjectives.

Pronominal adjective - The possessive case of a personal pronoun used attributively: my, your, his, her, its, our, their, whose, and, poetically. mine and thine.

Adjective pronoun - Any pronoun used like an adjective; as, that boy, this house, which man. Any demonstrative pronoun, any indefinite pronoun (except none), and any interrogative and relative pronoun (except who) may be used as an adjective pronoun.

Demonstrative pronoun - A pronoun that directly points out its antecedents.

Singular

This

that

Plural

These

those

The same forms are used for all genders, persons, and cases.

Indefinite pronoun - A pronoun that represents an object indefinitely or generally. The principal indefinite pronouns are another, any, . both, each, either, neither, none, one, other, some, such. None and any are both singular and plural. Again an indefinite pronoun is a pronoun that belongs to a class whose members indicate indefinite reference.

Examples:

anybody
one
somebody

Interrogative pronoun A pronoun that is used to ask a question.

Singular and Plural

Subjective	Possessive	Objective
who	whose	whom
which	whose, of which	which
what	of what	what

. Of what occurs in such sentences as Of what are you speaking? What are you speaking of!

Personal pronoun - A pronoun that shows by its form the person speaking, the person spoken to, or the person or thing spoken of.

Singular	Subjective	Possessive	Objective
1st person	I	my or mine	me
2nd person	you (thou)	your or yours (thy or thine)	you(thee)
3rd person masculine feminine neuter	he she it	his her or hers its	him her it

Plural:

Singular	Subjective	Possessive	Objective
1st person	we	our or ours	us
2nd person	you (ye)	your or yours	you
3rd person	they	their or theirs	them

Reflexive pronoun - A pronoun formed by adding -self or -selves to the oblique cases of the personal pronoun. They serve as an intensive: I, myself, was there; or a reference back to a personal pronoun where the same person is both subject and object: He hit himself

	Singular	Plural
1st person	myself	ourselves
2nd person	yourself	yourselves
3rd person	himself, herself, itself	themselves

Relative pronoun - A pronoun that relates to an antecedent and introduces a qualifying clause: We found a boatman who ferried us.

Subjective	Possessive	Objective
who	whose	whom
which	of which	which
what	of what	what
that		that

Sometimes as and but are regarded as relative pronouns: Such men as survived the accident; There is not a man but remembers that day. The relative pronouns who (with its inflected forms whose and whom), which, and what, are identical in form with the interrogative pronouns but they undergo shifts of meaning, in interrogative use, often being indefinite and general in reference: What (if anything or of all possible things) is he talking about? But: He is talking about what (specifically) he knows best. These pronouns, when used to introduce an indirect question, are by nature both relative and interrogative: They asked what he wanted; whom he preferred as a colleague; which party he belonged to. Similarly, that is not only a demonstrative but also a relative pronoun and it makes a specific and limiting reference in either use.

Like the relative pronouns, the interrogative pronouns introduce noun clauses, and like the relative pronouns, the interrogative pronouns play a subject role in the clauses they introduce:

We know who is guilty of this crime.
I already told the detective what I know about it.

If one is interested in the uses of one as a numerical and impersonal pronoun, one should click the enter button.

Verbs (Regular and Irregular, Transitive, Intransitive, Linking, Active and Passive Voice, Simple and Compound Tenses, Mood, Agreement of Verb with Subject)

The verb is king in English. The shortest sentence contains a verb. You can make a one-word sentence with a verb, for example: "Stop!" You cannot make a one-word sentence with any other type of word.

Verbs are sometimes described as "action words". This is partly true. Many verbs give the idea of action, of "doing" something. For example, words like run, fight, do and work all convey action.

But some verbs do not give the idea of action; they give the idea of existence, of state, of "being". For example, verbs like be, exist, seem and belong all convey state.

A verb always has a subject. (In the sentence "John speaks English", John is the subject and speaks is the verb.) In simple terms, therefore, we can say that verbs are words that tell us what a subject does or is; they describe:

action (Ram plays football.)
state (Anthony seems kind.)

There is something very special about verbs in English. Most other words (adjectives, adverbs, prepositions etc) do not change in form (although nouns can have singular and plural forms). But almost all verbs change in form. For example, the verb to work has five forms:

to work, work, works, worked, working

Of course, this is still very few forms compared to some languages which may have thirty or more forms for a single verb.

Verbs carry the idea of being or action in the sentence.

I am a student.
The students passed all their courses.

As we will see on this page, verbs are classified in many ways. First, some verbs require an object to complete their meaning: "She gave _____ ?" Gave what? She gave money to the church. These verbs are called transitive. Verbs that are intransitive do not require objects: "The building collapsed." In English, you cannot tell the difference between a transitive and intransitive verb by its form; you have to see how the verb is functioning within the sentence. In fact, a verb can be both transitive and intransitive: "The monster collapsed the building by sitting on it."

Although you will seldom hear the term, a ditransitive verb — such as cause or give — is one that can take a direct object and an indirect object at the same time: "That horrid music gave me a headache." Ditransitive verbs are slightly different, then, from factitive verbs, in that the latter take two objects.

Verbs are also classified as either finite or non-finite. A finite verb makes an assertion or expresses a state of being and can stand by itself as the main verb of a sentence.

The truck demolished the restaurant.
The leaves were yellow and sickly.

Non-finite verbs (think "unfinished") cannot, by themselves, be main verbs:

The broken window . . .
The wheezing gentleman . . .

Another, more useful term for non-finite verb is verbal. In this section, we discuss various verbal forms: infinitives, gerunds, and participles.

Simple Tenses

Tense is the form a verb takes to indicate a particular time period. Roughly speaking, the tense indicates whether something happened in the past, the present or the future.

Tense - (tens) n - A form of a verb that relates it to time viewed either as finite past, present, or future, or as non-finite.

►Sequence of tenses In inflected languages, the customary choice of tense for a verb that follows another in a sentence, particularly in reported or in direct discourse.

►The general principle of sequence of tenses in English is that present follows present and past follows past. Thus, the tense of the subordinate clause tends to shift back to agree with the tense of the main verb. "He wants to go," becomes, in indirect discourse, "They said that he –wanted to go." However, if continued, habitual, future, or universal action is expressed, the present tense may be retained in the subordinate clause: They told me that he is still in town; Columbus proved that the world is round. The present tense is also retained in the subordinate clause for emphasis: They just learned he is going after all. In subordinate clauses of purpose the general rule of tense sequence holds true: We are working so that we can go to Europe; we worked so that' we could go to Europe. In conditional sentences expressing a simple fact or open question, the main and subordinate verbs remain independent: If he said that, l can' t prove it. However, sequence of tenses is strictly observed in a highly improbable or contrary-to-fact statement. Time present is then expressed by the use of the past tense: If he had any sense, he wouldn't drive that car. Time past is expressed by the past perfect tense: If I had had my wits about me, I would have telephoned immediately. [<0F - tens <L - tempus time, tense]

Sentence Diagrams

Diagramming Sentences - Sentence Parts and Patterns

Every year on the afternoon of December 24, you, a Christmas procrastinator, loaded down with sacks and boxes, walk from store to store, down endless aisles, your eyes scanning windows and racks to find the perfect presents for Mom, Grandpa, and Uncle Joe, but since you know in your heart of hearts that Uncle Joe will appreciate nothing you give him and that you will capitulate to necessity and buy Grandpa a fifth of Seagram’s, you concentrate on Mom, as you move into the aisle that you hope to be able to call the final stop of this holiday season.

The basic bones of this sentence are the subject and verb of each main clause (you walk and you concentrate) along with the coordinating conjunction but

The words to, from, and on are prepositions. Prepositional phrases consist of prepositions and their objects; thus, from store, to store, and on Mom are prepositional phrases. These prepositional phrases are adverbial in nature because they modify verbs. On the other hand, the prepositional phrase in the sentence The man on the roof is your father is adjectival because it modifies the noun man.

The noun procrastinator is said to be in apposition with the pronoun you. An appositive, which is usually a noun, is placed in a sentence to further identify or explain another word or words. The indefinite article a and the noun Christmas, a noun used here as an adjective, modify procrastinator.

Check out the rest of the paragraph

Adverbs (Time, Place, Manner)

Adverbs modify (describe) verbs, adjectives or other adverbs.

Adverbs are words that modify

a verb (He drove slowly. — How did he drive?)
an adjective (He drove a very fast car. — How fast was his car?)
another adverb (She moved quite slowly down the aisle. — How slowly did she move?)

communicative intent of adverbs

Adverbs answer these questions. Where? When? How? Why? and To what extent?

KINDS OF ADVERBS - RELATIVE ADVERBS - The following adverbs can be used to join sentences or clauses. They replace the more formal structure of preposition + which in a relative clause:

where, when, why

Examples:

That's the restaurant where we met for the first time.
(where = at/in which)

I remember the day when we first met.
(when = on which)

There was a very hot summer the year when he was born.
(when = in which)

Tell me (the reason) why you were late home.
(why = for which, but could replace the whole phrase 'the reason for which')

Adverbs are an adjective which can modify a verb, a clause, another adjective or a phrase.

Adjectives are generally turned into adverbs with the addition of a -ly suffix, though this is not a concrete rule.

Examples of adverbs are:

Jack is swimming quickly.
Unfortunately, he lost the race.
We told him to run much faster.

Manner - Adverbs which answer the question How?

Place - Adverbs which answer the question Where?

Time - Adverbs which answer the question of When?

Number - Adverbs which answer the question of How Often or How Many?

Purpose - Adverbs which answer the question Why?

developmental order

Since adverbs are used to answer WHY questions, it might be assumed that the acquisition order of the communicative intent of manner, place, time, number, and purpose might well follow the same developmental order of question forms. If that is the case, then the resulting developmental order would be:

Place - Answers Where questions

Number - Answers How often or How many

Manner - Answers How question

Purpose - Answers Why question

Time - Answers When question

PUNCTUATION

Click on the mark in the chart to jump to that section:
.	?	!	:
;	-	—	( )
[ ]	. . .	’	“ ”
/	,

Phrases, Clauses (Adjectival Clauses, Adverbial Clauses, Noun Clauses), Sentences (Simple and Compound Sentences, Complex and Compound-Complex Sentences)

The Subjunctive in Adjectival Clauses - Adjectives are words that modify a noun, describing or limiting it. Examples of adjectives are the new hat, the pretty dress, many intelligent students. An entire clause may serve an adjectival purpose, describing a noun or pronoun - the antecedent - in a sense, for example:

1. Do you have a dress which will go with these shoes?

2. Yes, I have a dress which will be perfect.

3. I don't see any dress (that) I like.

Note that in all three examples above, there is an adjectival clause (the part in bold-faced tyope) that modifies or refers back to the word dress. That is, the antecedent in all three cases is dress, but in each case the situation is different: in number one, the antecedent is indefinite, that is, we don't know if such a dress exists; in number two, the antecedent is definite, that is, it definitely is portrayed as existing; in number three, the antecedent is negated, that is, its existence is denied or at least doubtful.

Definition of Adverbial Clauses - an adverbial clause is a clause that has an adverb-like function in modifying another clause.

Discussion - An adverbial clause is likely to be distinct in its syntax or verb morphology.

Example (English) - He kept quiet in order to avoid trouble.

Generic - An adverbial clause is a kind of

An adverb may be a single word such as quickly, here or yesterday (see the page Adverbs), or a phrase such as the day before yesterday or to see my mother (see the page Adverb Phrases). However, adverbs can also be clauses, containing a subject and a full verb. This page will explain the basic types of adverb clauses (sometimes called "adverbial clauses") and how to recognize them.

Noun Clause - Verb Agreement - a subordinate clause that functions as a noun within a main clause.

EXAMPLE:

Everyone took their books and left. (informal speech) (More commonly used in spoken English)

Everyone took his book and left. (formal speech)

Using Clauses as Nouns, Adjectives, and Adverbs

Why Sentence Structure Matters

Simple Sentence - Clauses can be combined in various ways. But, if a sentence contains only an independent clause -- with no other clause -- it will be a simple sentence. A simple sentence is an independent clause. IC = Independent Clause (simple sentence)

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