English Grammar For Dummies

From English Grammar For Dummies by Geraldine Woods

Mastering English grammar starts with identifying the parts of speech and parts of a sentence. Knowing how to use the right pronoun, the right punctuation, verb tenses, and subject-verb agreement will get you on your way to understanding the rules of English grammar.

Parts of Speech in English Grammar

Pats of speech are the basic types of words you use in English grammar. You need to recognize and learn these parts of speech to use them correctly and understand explanations of English grammar.

Noun: names a person, place, thing, idea (Lulu, jail, cantaloupe, loyalty, and so on)
Pronoun: takes the place of a noun (he, who, I, what, and so on)
Verb: expresses action or being (scrambled, was, should win, and so on)
Adjective: describes a noun or pronoun (messy, strange, alien, and so on)
Adverb: describes a verb, adjective, or other adverb (willingly, woefully, very, and so on)
Preposition: relates a noun or a pronoun to another word in the sentence (by, for, from, and so on)
Conjunction: ties two words or groups of words together (and, after, although, and so on)
Interjection: expresses strong emotion (yikes! wow! ouch! and so on)

English Grammar Basics: Parts of a Sentence

Take time to learn these four basic parts that are the building blocks of a sentence in English grammar. Remember, every sentence needs a verb.

Verb (also called the predicate): expresses the action or state of being
Subject: the person or thing being talked about
Complement: a word or group of words that completes the meaning of the subject-verb pair
Types of complements: direct and indirect objects, subject complement, objective complement

Pronoun Tips for Proper English Grammar

Pronouns are used as a substitute for nouns. Different types of pronouns used in English grammar have their own set of rules. Use these tips when you use pronouns:

Pronouns that may be used only as subjects or subject complements: I, he, she, we, they, who, whoever.
Pronouns that may be used only as objects or objective complements: me, him, her, us, them, whom, whomever.
Common pronouns that may be used as either subjects or objects: you, it, everyone, anyone, no one, someone, mine, ours, yours, theirs, either, neither, each, everybody, anybody, nobody, somebody, everything, anything, nothing, something, any, none, some, which, what, that.
Pronouns that show possession: my, mine, your, yours, his, her, hers, its, our, ours, their, theirs, whose.

English Grammar Tips for Subject-Verb Agreement

When it comes to the subject-verb relationships, opposites do not attract. Matching pairs are preferred in English grammar. Use these tips when deciding how to match subject-verb agreement:

Match singular subjects with singular verbs, plural subjects with plural verbs.
Amounts of time and money are usually singular (ten dollars is).
Either/or and neither/nor: Match the verb to the closest subject (neither the boys nor the girl is).
Either and neither, without their partners or and nor, always take a singular verb (either of the apples is).
All subjects preceded by each and every take a singular verb.
Both, few, several, and many are always plural.

Placing Proper Punctuation

Punctuation helps you get your point across and adds tone to your sentence. Punctuation helps you convey how you want people to “hear” the words. Although you have a lot of elbow room with exactly how you want to use punctuation, English grammar does have certain rules that you should follow. (Note that not all rules and guidelines for these punctuation marks are presented here.)

Endmarks: All sentences need an endmark: a period, question mark, exclamation point, or ellipsis. Never put two endmarks at the end of the same sentence.
Apostrophes: For singular ownership generally add ‘s; for plural ownership generally add s’.
Commas: In direct address use commas to separate the name from the rest of the sentence. In lists, place commas between items in a list but not before the first item. When combining two complete sentences with a conjunction, place a comma before the conjunction. If you have one subject and two verbs, don’t put a comma before the conjunction.

Verb Tense Tips in English Grammar

In English grammar, verb tenses place the action (or state of being) of the sentence at a point in time. Six different verb tenses represent time:

Simple present tense tells what is happening now: John checks his e-mail.
Simple past tense tells what happened before now: George checked his e-mail this morning.
Simple future talks about what has not happened yet: Patty will check her e-mail after work.
Present perfect tense expresses an action or state of being in the present that has some connection with the past: Linda has checked her e-mail every morning for three weeks.
Past perfect tense places an event before another event in the past:Luckily, Bill had checked his e-mail before the server crashed.
Future perfect tense talks about something that has not happened yet in relation to another event in the future: Amanda will have read ten days' worth of e-mail before the day is done.