Basic english Grammar

Material from British Council/yale writing center/esl sentence structure

Part of speech

•Each word has a part of speech

•Noun - summary, proposal

•Pronoun - it, he, she

•Verb - summarize, propose, agree

Part of speech

•Adjective - suitable, proper

•Adverb - thoroughly, appropriately

•Preposition - over, on, under

•Conjunction- and, or, nor

•Interjection - well, oh

phrase

•Group of words

•Noun phrase - both of my friends, the student committee

•Verb phrase - is watching, have decided

•Prepositional phrase - in the light

•Adverbial phrase - as soon as possible

clause

•Is a group of words with a subject & a predicate

•Actors perform on a stage.

•A subject can be noun phrase

•A group of people

•A verb can be verb phrase

•is standing at a bus stop

Clause structure

Noun [phrase] Verb [phrase]

A group of people

is standing at a bus stop

Jane and her family

Are watching TV

There ArePeople in the room

It Is raining heavily

This dish Tastes delicious

Noun phrase

•Some words come after a noun

•With a prepositional phrase

•The shop around the corner

•With -ing phrase

•A student talking to a teacher

•With a relative clause

•The woman who discovered radium

•With “that” clause

•We disagree with the idea that a fundraiser should be organized.

•With to infinitives

•Do you need a place to stay?

sentence

•Simple sentence

•Compound sentence

•Complex sentence

Simple sentence

•Subject + Verb

•Must have a subject & a verb

•School / start / at / 8 a.m.

•Verb must agree with subject

•School starts

•Begin with CAPITAL LETTER and end with . [full stop]

•School starts at 8 a.m.

•Can use adjective, adverb, preposition to add information

•My school starts at 8 a.m. on the dot.

•The purpose of this proposal is to summarize.

•Two [2] simple sentences are combined together by a conjunction with comma

•and/or/nor/but/so/for/yet

•The cupcakes are delicious, but they are expensive.

•The machine breaks down constantly, and takes a lot time to get repaired.

Compound sentence

Complex sentence

•Main clause + dependent clause

•Use subordinating conjunctions to join clauses

•although, if, because, when

•I would advise against it because it’s not really what we are looking for.

•Use relative clause to modify a noun preceded

•which, who, whom, where, --

•The student committee, who came up with this idea, decided to make some changes.

Grammatical error

•Do not repeat a noun with a pronoun in the same clause

•My mother she told me to do the dishes.

•My cellphone I lost it at a movie theater.

Noun vs. pronoun

conjunction

•Do not double-use the conjunction

•Although my classes are easy, but my grades are not very good.

•Because the traffic is congested, therefore I come to class late.

adverb

•Do not put an adverb BETWEEN a verb and its direct object

•Our professor has assigned already the term papers.

•Our professor has already assigned the term papers.

•Incorrect use of punctuation

•The students want to pass the test they study every day.

•The students want to pass the test. They study every day.

•Incorrect use of linking words [conjunction]

•It was a beautiful day we wanted to go the beach.

•It was a beautiful day, and/so we wanted to go the beach.

Run-on sentence

fragment

•A sentence is missing a subject or a verb

•Visit an orphanage.

•A gerund is used incorrectly

•We planning to have BBQ buffet.

•A dependent clause is written as a complete sentence

•Because we can raise much money.

•Studying on weekends very hard

•My family is from Australia they moved to Canada

•The experiment failed no one paid attention to it

•The committee they organized the fundraiser

•I disagree with the idea. Because it doesn’t sound promising.

What’s wrong?

•Studying on weekends is very hard.

•My family is from Australia, then they moved to Canada.

•The experiment failed because no one paid attention to it.

•The committee organized the fundraiser. [remove it]

•I disagree with the idea because it doesn’t sound promising.