Grammar
Grammar
See Word Parts of Speech & Grammar Rules for list of commonly used words, their parts of speech categories, and the rules governing their use
Parts of Speech
nouns
- persons, places, things
- proper nouns
- nouns as modifiers
- ex. "dog food"
- see Nouns as Modifiers (meg.com)
- nouns as modifiers
verbs
- express action/s
- verb phrases
- verb forms
- infinitive
- conjugations
- participles
- verb forms that act like an adjective
- "past participle"
- use the -ed forms
- where the simple past tense of a verb is used to show a condition of something
- examples:
- "Boiled water is sanitized" ("boiled" and "sanitized" are both adjectives that describe the noun, "water")
- "present participle"
- uses the -ing form
- examples:
- "The boiling water is hot" ("boiling" describes the water)
- gerund
- verbs that act as nouns
- use the -ing form
- examples
- "to swim" + -ing = "swimming" = a noun for the act of swimming
- "Boiling water sanitizes it" ("boiling" is an act, therefore a noun, from the verb "to boil")
- gerunds are often interchangeable with infinitives
- "I hate doing math" versus "I hate to do math"
- See
conjugations
adverbs
adjectives
- modify nouns
articles
- definite
- the
- refers to a specific noun, usually already stated or defined
- indefinite
- a or an
- refers to a general noun, usually not already stated or defined
- indefinite articles are not used to refer to a general noun or one that cannot be counteed
- ex. "water" cannot be counted, so "a water" is incorrect
- "may I have a water" should be instead "may I have some water"
- ex. "water" cannot be counted, so "a water" is incorrect
- zero articles
- when the noun represents a generic idea, the article can be omitted
- ex.
- "They went on vacation" as opposed to "they went on a vacation "
- see
- [https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/general_writing/grammar/using_articles.html Purdue OWN Using Articles}
- What Are Articles?
pronouns
- "pro" = for; "noun"
- refer to a noun in oder to avoid repetition
- pronoun forms
- subject
- object
- possessive
- comparisons
- see How to Pick Pronouns for Comparisons (Dummies)
prepositions
- express relationship in time, place, or sequence
interjections
- aside remarks or interruptions
- exclamation
- expresses a spontaneous reaction or emotion
- examples
- "no!"
- "okay"
- "damn!"
- "heh!"
- examples
- expresses a spontaneous reaction or emotion
Modifiers
https://academicguides.waldenu.edu/writingcenter/grammar/modifiers
Sentence Diagramming
- diagraming sentences means identifying every part of speech of the words in a sentence
- see Using Nouns and Noun Phrases as Object Complements