Grammar
Nouns
Pronouns
Verbs
Prepositions
Adjectives
Articles
Adverbs
Conjunctions/Connectives
Phrases/clauses/subordinate clause
Subject/Object
Articles
The three articles are “a”,
“an” and “the”.
Nouns
Nouns are naming words. They refer to a name, place, brand or thing.
The most popular noun is a common noun – these are a name of a thing
have no capital letter: chair, table, tree.
The other most popular noun is a proper noun – these are names of
People, Places and Brands and require a capital letter: Mrs Woodward,
London, Nike.
There are also abstract nouns and collective nouns. An abstract noun
Is a word for ideas and concepts: jealousy, boredom, happiness, honesty.
A collective noun is a collection of things: pride, swarm, flock. Both these nouns do
not need a capital letter – unless they start at the beginning of a sentence.
A concrete noun is a noun that refers to people and things that exist
Physically and can be seen, touched, smelled, heard and tasted.
Pronouns
Pronouns are those handy words which save us from repeating the noun. They
Replace the noun: He, me, she, it, he, her, him, his, you, they, your, their, our,
We, them, I, us. There is no need to use a capital letter for a pronoun – unless
It starts at the beginning of a sentence.
Possessive pronouns tell you who or what owns a noun.
Relative pronouns introduce more information about the noun.
Verbs
Verbs are doing words. All main verbs have two simple tenses, the present
tense and the past tense: I walk – present; I walked – past;
Action verbs – running, bought, putting on, has seen.
Verbs of state (states of mind)- feel, hate, wishes,
Agreed, mean, belonged, is being, expecting, were tasting.
Active and Passive verbs - an active verb is something you are physically doing
An action – a passive verb is something you have already done (you are not
doing it at the moment): The eggs were thrown – passive; The old castle is
haunted by ghosts.
Auxiliary Verbs – are verbs which are used together with other verbs:
We are going; Lucy has grown; Can you play? The most common auxiliary verbs
Are: be, have and do.
Modal Verbs – are: can and will.
Adjectives
Adjectives describe nouns. They make the noun more interesting and build
up detail: wonderful, expensive, blue, shiny, mischievious.
Adverbs
Adverbs describe the verb. They make the verb more interesting – top tip –
They usually end in “LY”: quickly, secretly, carefully,
Although, you can have adverbials; soon, perhaps, never, sometimes
Prepositions
Prepositions tell us when or where something happened: under, around,
between, on, opposite, after, over, into, ahead and to.
Phrases/Clauses and Subordinate
Clause
A main clause is a group of words which contain a verb and someone
Doing the action (it makes sense on its own): Ann went to the bank;
A complex sentences are those that contain a subordinate clause as well as
a main clause; He stayed at home because he was ill.
A subordinate clause is is a less important bit of a sentence which does not
make sense on its own .
It will be introduced by a linking word such as when, if, because or
that: While you were out, I watched TV – subordinate clause is while you
Were out.
A phrase is a small part of a sentence, usually without a verb:
Under the stairs – prepositional phrase
Blue leather shoes – noun phrase
Very slowly – adverbial phrase
Conjunctions/Connectives
Conjunctions/Connectives are words that join two parts of a sentence or clause
together: but, however, therefore, not withstanding, and, so, meanwhile
(and so on).
Subject and Object
The subject is either a noun or a pronoun and normally the subject comes
before the verb in a sentence.
The Object is a also a noun phrase or a pronoun:
She used her old skateboard – she is the subject – skateboard is the object.