AP Lang Grammar

Noun

person, place, or thing

Common noun

General name for a person, place, or thing, and is not capitalized (ex. Highschool, building).

Proper noun

Specific name for a person, place, or thing and is capitalized (ex. FRANCIS LEWIS high school, JOHN JAY high school).

Action Verb

Doing something or possessing something (ex. I am HAVING chicken, I am EATING meat). —> HAS to have ACTION — something you are DOING.

Linking Verb

Connects the subject to a noun or adjective (ex. Jason BECAME a BUSINESS MAJOR -> connecting Jason, the subject, to the common noun, business major). —-> describing something without showing an action.

Helping/Auxiliary Verb

Used before an action verb/linking verbs to show TENSE (ex. Jane IS MOVING to a new house).

Adjective

Describes a noun or a pronoun (quality, size, amount of something).

Adverb

Describes adjectives, verbs, or another adverb (ex. Smoothly, quickly).

Preposition

A location/location in time.

Conjunction

Join words, phrases, or clauses together (and, because, but).

Interjections

Words that show emotion; usually have an exclamation point with it.

Personal/Subjective Pronouns

Replace people (Ex. Instead of saying Joe likes coffee so JOE went to Starbucks, you'd say Joe likes coffee so SHE went to Starbucks) —> He, She, They, We, etc.

Demonstrative Pronouns

Pronouns that point to specific things without saying their actual name. i.e. this, that, there, and those. (this, these refer to things near the speaker. that, those refer to nouns further away)

Interrogative Pronouns

Pronouns used to ask questions (who, where, what, which).

Indefinite Pronouns

Non-specific things (someone, something, anyone) —> anything ending with -one/thing uses singular here!!

Reflexive/Objective Pronouns

Pronouns that refer back to the subject (herself, himself, myself, ourselves).

Possessive Pronouns

Pronouns that show ownership/possession of something (Hers, His, Theirs).

Relative Pronouns

Add more information to a sentence (who, whom, what, which).

Reciprocal Pronouns

Used for actions/expressing feelings towards another person.

Single Subject

Single verb (single verbs end with S)

Plural Subject

Plural verb (plural verbs do not have an S).

Two or more subjects connected by “and”

Use a plural verbs.

Two or more subjects connected by "or" or "nor"

Use same verb form as you would with the subject thats right before the verb.

Subject-Verb Agreement

The verb must always go a long with the form of the subject in a sentence (ex. Single subject, single verb; plural subject, plural verb).

Words that will always have a singular verb with it:

Each, someone, anybody, either, anyone, neither, nobody, one, somebody, no one, anybody, everyone, everybody.

Words that can be both plural or singular, depending on how it is used in a sentence:

Most, some, any, all, most!