Grammar: the rules of a language for changing the form of words and combining them into sentences; a person's
knowledge and use of a language.
It can also be defined as the study of principles which govern the formation and the interpretation of words, phrases and
sentences. [Radford]
Grammar course studies:
Grammar focuses on two domain of linguistic analysis:
 Morphology: Parts of Speech (Lexical Categories/ word class/ lexical class)
 Syntax: Sentence Structure
Etymology: the word grammar derives from Greek γραμματικὴ τέχνη (grammatikē technē), which means "art of
letters," from γράμμα (gramma), "letter", itself from γράφειν (graphein), "to draw, to write.”
Different Grammars:
1. Descriptive Grammar: looks at the way a language is actually used by its speakers and then attempts to analyze it
and formulate rules about the structure.
2. Prescriptive Grammar: lays out rules about the structure of a language.
3. Universal Grammar (UG): is a theory of linguistics postulating principles of grammar shared by all languages,
thought to be innate to humans (linguistic nativism). It attempts to explain language acquisition in general, not
describe specific languages. Universal grammar proposes a set of rules intended to explain language acquisition in
child development.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -Parts of speech (Lexical Categories/ Word Class):
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
Noun: a name of a person, place, thing, idea, living creature, quality, action or an entity.
Pronoun: replaces a noun.
Verb: describes an action, event, state, sensation.
Adjective: describes a noun or a pronoun.
Adverb: describes a verb, an adjective, a clause, a sentence and another adverb.
Preposition: an expression with some meaning of position, direction or time.
Article: a word that limits the noun.
Conjunction: a word that joins sentences, clauses, phrases or words.
Interjection: a word that shows surprise or exclamation.
Sentence: A group of words arranged together to express a meaningful and complete idea.
 A sentence can be nominal – begins with a nominal phrase; or verbal – begins with a verbal phrase. Arabic has both
types, whereas English has only nominal sentence.
 English sentences MUST have a verb.
 English sentences arrangement is: Subject + Verb + the rest of the sentence (object, prepositional phrase…etc.)
 A sentence can be either affirmative or negative.
 Sentence structure has three types: simple, compound and complex
Types of sentences: there are four types of sentence:
 Statement: gives information (My name is Nora), or confirmation (I did go to school yesterday).
 Interrogative (Question): requests information: Wh-Q words /information questions (What is your name?), or
confirmation: yes/ no questions (Is your name Nora?).
 Exclamation: expresses emotions (What a wonderful name (you have!), (How wonderful you are!))
 Imperative (Command): tells what to do ((You)Tell me about yourself.)
Form VS Function
Form of the word is how a word looks like.
Function of the word is the performance of the word, i.e. what a word does.
Helping Verbs (Auxiliary Verbs):
All helping verbs are used with a main verb (either expressed or understood). There are 2 groups of helping verbs:
Primary helping verbs, used mainly to change the tense or voice of the main verb, and in making questions and
negatives.
Modal helping verbs (modal auxiliaries), used to change the mood of the main verb.
Helping Verb VS Main Verb
Be, have and do are three verbs that can function either as helping verbs or main verbs.
Verb
BE
HAVE
DO
Function
Helping only (copula
verb)
Helping and main
Helping only
Tense
It comes with another (main) verb in progressive tenses
In passive voice
It comes alone in simple tenses
It comes with another verb in perfect, and perfect progressive tenses
Main
It comes alone in a statement in simple tenses
It comes with the verb (be) in progressive tenses.
In questions, negative statements and emphatic statements in simple tenses (past
and present only)
Helping only
(dummy verb)
Main
It comes alone in a statement in simple tenses (past and present).
It comes with the verb (be) in progressive tenses.
Verb forms (Conjugations): These forms function as verbs, but they can function differently according to their
position in the sentence and meaning.
Be
Do
Have
Go
Walk
Verb 0 (V0)
Infinitive form
Verb 1 (V1)
Simple Present form
Verb 2 (V2)
Simple Past form
Verb 3 (V3)
Past Participle
form
Verb 4 (V4)
Present Participle form
V0 (To+ verb)
(To+ base form)
V1 (V / V+-s)
(base form/ base
form + -s)
Am/ is/ are
Do/ does
Have/ has
Go/ goes
Walk/ walks
 Main verb in
simple present
tense.
V2 (V+ -ed)
(base form+ -ed)
V3 (V+ -en)
(base form + -en)
V4 (V + -ing)
(base form + -ing)
Was/ were
did
had
went
walked
 Main verb in
simple past
tense.
been
done
had
gone
walked
 Main verb in
perfect tenses;
 Participle
adjective;
 Main verb in
the passive
voice.
To be
To do
To have
To go
To walk
Complicated uses:
 After certain verbs
 After too and
enough
 After adjectives
 After (for) structures
+ nouns
Irregula
r verbs
Verb (V)
Base form;
the simplest
form of the
verb;
Without
additions
Verb
being
doing
having
Going
Walking
 Main verb in
progressive tenses
and perfect
progressive tenses;
 Participle adjective;
 Noun as in gerunds.
Tense: the times shown by verbs (present, past, future, etc.). It tells when an action takes place. There are 12 tenses in
English in the active voice:
The simple present tense
S + V1 (V+ -s)
The present progressive tense
S+ BE (am/ is/ are)+ V4 (V+ -ing)
The present perfect tense
S+ HAVE (have/has)+ V3 (V+ -en)
The present perfect progressive tense
S+ HAVE (have/ has)+ been + V4 (V+ -ing)
The simple past tense
S+ V2 (V+ -ed)
The past progressive
S+ BE (was/ were)+ V4(V+ -ing)
The past perfect tense
S+ had + V3 (V+ -en)
The past perfect progressive tense
S+ had+ been + V4 (V+ -ing)
The simple future tense
S+ will + V (base form)
The future progressive tense
S+ will+ be+ V4(V+ -ing)
The future perfect tense
S+ will +have + V3 (V+ -en)
The future perfect progressive tense
S+ will +have +been +V4 (V+ -ing)
Notes on Tenses:
S= Subject
V= Verb
BE (capitalized)* = the verb (be) is conjugated according to the subject.
HAVE (capitalized)* = the verb (have) is conjugated according to the subject.
Simple tenses usually involve ONE verb. It is the main verb. (Will) in the simple future tense is a modal that indicates
the tense.
Progressive tenses indicate: action in progress that occurs within duration of time.
Perfect tenses involve a relation between two (or more) events, actions, situations…etc; one (has/had/ will have) been
perfected before the other.
Present perfect (progressive): a relation between past event (action, situation…etc.) and the present time.
Past perfect (progressive): a relation between past event (action, situation…etc) and the past time.
Future perfect (progressive): a relation between future event (action, situation…etc) and the future time.