It describes the various kinds of words and their uses in a sentence.

What is grammar anyway? Grammar is a set of rules on how to put words, phrases, and clauses together to express ideas clearly.

Parts of Speech

✤ noun (n.) !

✤ pronoun (p.)!

✤ adjective (adj.)!

✤ verb (v.)!

✤ adverb (adv.)!

✤ preposition (prep.)!

✤ conjunction (conj.)!

✤ interjection (interj.)

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Nouns: people, places, things, or ideas

✤ Proper: specific people, places, or things (always capitalized) *J.R.R. Tolkien *Philadelphia!

✤ Common: non-specific, general people, places, or things (not capitalized) *author *statue!

✤ Abstract: refer to states, concepts, feelings, or quantities *lonely *joy!

✤ Concrete: tangible things, perceivable through senses *flag *cake

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Nouns II

✤ Collective: groups of people, or things *teams *audience!

✤ Hyphenated Compound: nouns that are joined together to form another term *brother-in-law *maid-of-honor!

✤ Appositives: noun phrases that come before or after other nouns or pronouns to describe them *Shannon, my sister, is nice. *A miniature black poodle, Tony’s dog is very cuddly.

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Pronouns: take the place of nouns

✤ Personal: refer to specific persons or things *When my friends got the news, they called me.!

✤ Subject: personal pronouns that function as the subject of the main verb *I *We *He/She/It *You *They **As each student arrives, she will take a seat. !

✤ Object: personal pronouns used as the object of the verb, preposition, or infinitive phrase *Me *You *Him/Her/It *Us *Them **The eagle? Did Meg really see it?

Pronouns II (remember, in some cases pronouns can act as adjectives too)

✤ Possessive: used to indicate ownership (sometimes adjectives) *Mine/My *Yours/Your *His/Her(s)/Its *Our(s) *Theirs/Their **The Lord of the Rings is his favorite movie. !

✤ Demonstrative: point to or identify nouns (sometimes adjectives) *This *That *These *Those **That hat is exquisite! !

✤ Reflexive: refer back to the subject of a sentence and are used when the subject and object of a verb or preposition are the same (they reinforce or clarify) *Myself/Ourselves *Yourself/Yourselves *Herself/Himself/Itself/Themselves **Dottie cut herself on the sharp knife.

Pronouns III

✤ Interrogative: used to ask questions (who is the subject of a verb and whom is the object of a verb or preposition) *Who/Whom *Which/What **Who is knocking at the door? **To whom shall I give the flowers? !

✤ Relative: introduce subordinate clauses that function as adjectives (describing words) *Who/Whom *That/Which **The girl who won the tennis match is my cousin. **These are the people for whom we are fighting.!

✤ Indefinite: refer to non-specific persons or things *All *Another *Any *Anybody *Anyone *Anything *Both *Each *Everybody *Everyone *Everything *Many *Nobody *None *No One *One *Several *Some *Somebody *Someone **Does everyone sing that way in choir? !

✤ Reciprocal: indicate a mutual action in which two or more people participate equally (they can also act like possessive adjectives) *Each Other *One Another **The girls talk to each other every day after school. **Sue and Mary borrowed each other’s dresses.

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Adjectives: describe people or things

✤ Descriptive Adjectives: always come BEFORE the noun or noun phrase they modify and answer: Which one? How many? What kind? **The long-stemmed roses are elegant. **There were sixteen candles on my cake. !

✤ Predicate Adjectives: follow linking verbs and describe the subject **Saylor is happy. **The books seem interesting.

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Adjectives II

✤ Comparative Adjectives: are used to compare two things (the suffix er is used to form most comparatives) **The Ohio River is longer than the Mississippi Rivier. **Camden is happier than Paulina.!

✤ Superlative Adjectives: are used to compare three or more things (the suffix est is used to form most superlatives, sometimes the word “most” preceeds) **The Missouri River is the longest river in the U.S. **My friends from Uganda are the most grateful people I have ever met. !

✤ Irregular Forms: some adjectives have comparative and superlative forms that need to be memorized as they don’t fit “the rules” *good/better/best *bad/worse/worst *little/less/least *much/more/most * far/farther/further/farthest/furthest!

✤ Proper Adjectives: come from proper names and are always capitalized *French bread *Spanish omelet *English countryside

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Verbs: express action or state of being, and tell something about the subject

✤ Action Verb: expresses an action that the subject of the sentence carries out **Delilah drove to her friend’s house.!

✤ Linking Verb: expresses a state of being and connects subjects to predicates, include the “sense” verbs (to feel, to look, to taste, to smell) the most common linking verb is “to be” *be *remain *feel *seem *grow *smell *look *taste **Carlita and her sisters are painters. !

✤ Helping Verbs: accompany the main verbs to indicate tense, voice, mood, and number (they create verb phrases) *be *have *do *can *may *will *shall *must **I will help you wash the car today. **Aurturo does want to go to the movies with you.

Verb Voices, Moods and Tenses

✤ Active Voice: the subject of the sentence performs the action **Miranda wrote the book. !

✤ Passive Voice: the subject receives the verb’s action **The book was written by Miranda. !

✤ Indicative Mood: expresses a statement, exclamation or question **What time is it? !

✤ Subjunctive Mood: expresses wishes, doubts or statements that are contrary to the fact **I wish you were here to see the show. !

✤ Imperative Mood: makes a demand or request **Please pass the salt. !

✤ Present Tense: present condition **He writes scary stories.!

✤ Past Tense: completed action **She went to the store. !

✤ Future Tense: future action **I will go to the mall later. !

✤ Perfect Tense: indicates that an action was completed sometime in the past or will be completed sometimes in the future **By next week, my parents will have sold their house.

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Verbs: Transitive or Intransitive✤ Transitive Verbs: verbs that take a

direct object (asking whom or what after a verb will let you know whether or not it is transitive) **She made a cake. (What? a cake) **Annie saw them last week at the movies. (Whom? them) !

✤ Intransitive Verbs: have no direct object (the verb might express action, but the action is not done to anyone or anything) **We slept late on Saturday. (Slept whom? No. Slept what? No.) **They stood in line for an hour. (Stood whom or what? No.)

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Verb Forms:

✤ Infinitives: BASE WORD +“TO” nouns or adjectives **It is important to love your neighbor as yourself. **Lorelai has stories to tell. !

✤ Participles: BASE WORD + SUFFIX can be used as adjectives to modify nouns or pronouns, present participles end in -ing, past participles end in -ed, -en, -d, -t, or -n **The singing canary flew through the window. **The frozen man sat by the fire to warm up.!

✤ Gerunds: present participles that are used in sentences as NOUNS (they can be used as nouns can: subject, object) **Driving without a seatbelt can be dangerous. **I always like reading a good book at the beach. **Max wrote an essay about the benefits of eating well.

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Adverbs: modify (change) verbs, adjectives or other verbs (usually end in -ly)

✤ Modifying Verbs: they answer questions such as “How?” “When?” “Where?” “Why?” or “How much?” **Jane spoke softly. **Li went to the library yesterday. !

✤ Modifying Adjectives: they come before the adjectives they modify **That statement is entirely true. **It was a wonderfully quiet afternoon. !

✤ Modifying Adverbs: (also called INTENSIFIERS) always come before the adverb they modify **The baby cried quite loudly because she was hungry. **We stared rather intently at the painting.

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Adverbs II

✤ Conjunctive Adverbs: used to join together two clauses, usually preceded by a semicolon and followed by a comma *also *consequently *finally *furthermore *however *indeed *instead *likewise *thus *therefore *then *still *otherwise *next *nevertheless *meanwhile **I should have gone to bed; instead, I watched a movie. **It is raining; otherwise, I would have gone to the beach.

Adverbs … got them yet?

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Prepositions: show details on time, space and direction (can function as nouns, adjectives or adverbs)

✤ Prepositions: combine nouns or pronouns to create phrases that modify (change) verbs, nouns, pronouns, or adjectives **She rummaged around through the attic. **He was looking beneath the bench of his window-seat for a lost book.

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Prepositions II

✤ Preposition Samples: *about *above *across *after *against *along *among *around *at *before *behind *below *beneath *beside *between *beyond *by *down *during *except *for *from *in/inside/into * like *near *of *off *on/onto *out/outside *over *past *since *through *throughout *to *toward *under *underneath *until *up/upon *with/within *without

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Conjunctions: join words or groups of words in a sentence

✤ Coordinating Conjunctions: connect words and clauses of equal status (independent clause to independent clause)*and *or *but *so *for *yet *nor **We bought apples and bananas. **We saw many clouds, yet it didn’t rain.!

✤ Subordinating Conjunctions: join clauses of unequal status (one clause is depended on the other) *after *before *than *when *although *how *that *where *as *if *though *whether *because *since *until *while **After Theo ran the marathon, he collapsed in exhaustion. **Layla didn’t want to go to the mall because she didn’t have any money. !

✤ Correlative Conjunctions: must join elements that are alike *both…and *either…or *neither…nor *not only…but also *so…as *whether…or **I had to either study for the test or risk failing it! **Not only did she forget to bring the cake, but she also forgot to bake it.

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Interjections: convey emotion in a sentence

✤ Interjections: they often start a sentence, or interrupt, but are not a part of a sentence’s actual grammar, they often end with EXCLAMATION POINTS *wow *eww *yuck *well *NO! *yikes *boo *ouch **Well, she said she’d be here at 8 o’clock. **Wow! That was some ride.

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