English grammar

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Introduction

English grammar is the set of structural rules that govern the English language. English is a West Germanic language in the Indo-European language family, whose speakers, called Anglophones, originated in early medieval England on the island of Great Britain.

Origins of English

English is a West Germanic language. It came from Anglo-Frisian dialects brought to Britain in the mid-5th to 7th centuries AD by Anglo-Saxons who migrated from what is now northwest Germany, southern Denmark and the Netherlands.

It is also heavily based on Latin, the language used by the Roman Empire, that existed from 27 BC to around 1453.

The Grammar

Alphabet, Pronunciation, and an Introduction to basic Pronunciation NEEDS EDITING

Parts of Speech

There are nine different parts of speech, each with several subcategories.

noun - a word that names a person, animal, place, thing, or idea. (examples: fireman, dog, church, computer, friendship). A commonly found subcategory of the noun in English is the proper noun, which denotes someone or something's name with a capital letter at the beginning of the word. (examples: Penelope, Russia)
verb - a word that describes an action or state of existence. The most common verbs you'll see are called 'action verbs', but there exists many other kinds of verbs as well such as the 'auxiliary verb', which gives functional or grammatical meaning to the sentence it appears in. Common examples are 'is' and 'was'. (examples: run, jump, like, want, is)
pronoun - a word that is used in place of a noun. These are used to decrease redundancy in sentences. The pronoun 'I' is always capitalised in a sentence. (examples: I, you, he, she, we, they)
adjective - a word that describes a noun (examples: big, red, dark)
adverb - a word that modifies a verb or adjective (when, where, how) (examples: quickly, yesterday, everywhere)
preposition - a word that connects a noun or pronoun to a sentence (examples: on, at, by, as, after)
conjunction - a word that links two words, phrases, or sentences (example: and, or, because)
interjection - a word that conveys emotion (example: ahem!, egad!, ouch!, yahoo!)
articles - a word that introduces a noun (example: a, an, the)

The Basics of the Noun

The Basics of the Verb

Transitivity

The Simple Tenses

The Basics of the Pronoun

The Basics of the Adjective

Subjects and Predicates

Simple Subject

A simple subject is a noun that tells who or what the sentence is about. Usually a simple subject is one word. Read the following example sentence: Bob jumped. In the sentence, Bob is the simple subject. Bob is the who or what of the sentence. Read the following example sentence: Bob the basketball star jumped three feet in the air. Bob is still the simple subject of the sentence.

Simple Predicate

The simple predicate is the verb or verb phrase. It tells what the subject did, is doing, or will do. Read the following example sentence: Bob jumped. In the sentence, jumped is the simple predicate. Jumped is the 'What did he do' of the sentence. Read the following example sentence: Bob the basketball star jumped three feet in the air. Jumped is still the simple predicate of the sentence.

Syntax, or Sentence Formation

Simple Sentences

Helping Verbs in the Past Tense

To obtain a clear understanding of the helping verb in the English past tense, we must review the simple past, since that is what we will use for our examples. The simple past includes sentences like 'Bob jumped' or 'Bob flew.' However, when we add a helping verb that does not change the actual tense, the main verb reverts to the infinitive.

Example: Bob jumped. Bob flew.

        Bob did jump.     Bob did fly.