English grammar

Nouns

Describes people, places, things, animals, ideas, feelings

cat, love, cloud, Peter

Proper nouns

Names of specific people, places, occasions, they usually begin with a capital letter

opposite: common nouns

days of the week, holidays, titles

Common nouns

Both countable and uncountable nouns

opposite: proper nouns

All nounns that are not names, or begin with capital letters

Countable nouns 

Common noun, entities viewed as countable

Singular form: a, one, every - student

Plural form: ten, many, those - students 

Uncountable nouns

common noun, often accompanied by determiners such as much, your, that

No use of a/an or numerals

The verb is always in singular

Collective nouns: groups of things, not living beeing, furniture, software

Abstract concepts: no physical existence, no -s in the end, love, knowledge, a thought, an idea

Genetive in nouns

Shows ownership (by apostrophe’ )

usually between two nouns

My brother’s car

The pupils’ red books

Of construction

For inanimate (non living) nouns

The roof of the house

The houses roof

Noun phrase 

A group of words centered around a noun 

By, for example, adding a determiner and adjective and/or extra information to describe/modify the noun 

The (determiner) huge (adjective) lion (noun) on the savannah (extra information) 

Subject verb-agreement

The verb in a phrase takes the same singular or plural form as the subject

singular subject → singular verb

I walk to shool (singular)

She walks to shool (plural)

(Third person singular: -s)

Articles

The words that come before a noun

A/an: used for new, unfamiliar, general (indefinate) nouns

A dog walked past the house

The: known, familiar nouns, specific (definate) nouns

The dog Maya ran away

No article: general human activites/ideas/habits

I go to church every Sunday.

Pronoun 

A word that replaces a noun 

Instead of repeating a name, replace it with her or his

Frida is my friend. She is very kind.

My her, everyone

Personal pronouns

I, you, she, he, it, we, you, they

Possesive pronouns

My/mine, your/yours, their/theirs

Ex: my money, its mine

Reflexive pronouns 

Myself, yourself

Ex: I love myself 

Reciprocal pronouns

Each other, one another 

Ex: we love each other 

Demonstrative pronouns

Singular: this, that

This is my cat

Plural: these, those

Those are my pants

Interrogative pronouns

Who? Whom? Whose? Which? What?

General: what books?

Selection: which restaurant, this or that

Relative pronouns

who, whom, whosw, what, which, that 

Quantifying pronouns

Indefinite - all, some, any, no

Verbs

A word that describes what you do.

It also identifies states (be), relations (love), whats going on in our heads(think), what we experience (see).

Jump, bought, will drive, should

Regular verbs 

Inflected like this: walk - walked - walked 

-ed is added to form the past tense and the past participle pronounciation

Infinite form

past tense

Past particular

Needs the auxiliary verb 

He has played 

Main verbs

Can stand on its own in the simple form of the present tens (i sing), or the past tense (i sang) , or goes together with another verb, an auxiliary verb (i have sung)

sv: huvudverb

Auxiliary verbs 

Verbs that go with/supports/modify main verbs 

auxiliary verbs are used when: 

Negated clauses (with not): 

She does not smoke 

Questions (do):

Do you like this?

To make the main verb more emphatic: 

He does look smart in that suit 

in progressive form:

Performing an action (opposite to simple form)

be+-ing form of the main verb

I am/was/will be running 

in passive construction:

common in academic writing

The study was performed by… 

Primary auxiliary verbs

DO BE HAVE

They carry little meaning by themselves

Can be the main verbs

The group did a good job

London is the capital of the UK

She has Herpes

Modal auxiliaries

Express meanings such as ability, obligation, permission, probability, volition (willingness to do something)

They don’t have an infinite form

No past participle form

No ing-form

can/could, may/might, must, have, got to, ought to, will/would

I know we can make it (ability)

Progressive form 

Auxiliary be+-ing form of the main verb

The verb is the same form but the auxiliary verb changes form 

I am (was, will be) studying English

The simple form

Used about something in progress, limited amount of time, happening around the same time you’re speaking

1. Habits: I get up early in the morning

2. States: I love you

Passive construction

common in academic writing

The study was performed by… last year

Active

Passive

Past tense

Present tense

Present perfect

Past perfect

Adjectives

A word that describes a noun or a pronoun 

The huge lion is over there

The wind was strong 

It was hard to hold his hand 

Beautiful, red, taller, hot, sweet, white, salty

Adverbs

Words that tell you why, when, how where something is done

Gives information about a verb, an adjective or an adverb

He sings well

He walked rather awkwardly

She is very generous

He laughed softly

Different adverb types

Time - always, often, never

Place - here, there

Degree - almost, much, very

For asking questions - how when where

For linking clauses or sentences - however , furthermore

Irregular plural

1. mutation: man→men, goose→geese

2. -n: child→children

3. -f→-v (es): calf→calves, knife→knives

4. -es: potato→potatoes

Foreign plurals

From Latin:-a→-ae, -us→-i

formula→formulae

stimulus→stimuli

From Greek: -is→-es, -on→a

analysis→analyses

crisis→crises

Zero plurals

Plurals without a plural marker

sheep→sheep

Always plural

Pairs of things usually only have a plural form

trousers, glasses, scissors, jeans 

Always used with plural forms of verbs and pronouns 

The pajamas are blue. They look nice.

Logical plurals

Talk about more than one thing, change from one thing to another

Change seats, buses, trains, changed their minds

When do you use A/An?

A - when the word starts with a consonant sound

A young man was seen, young sounds like “joung”, J is a consonant, therefore A

An – when the word starts with a vowel sound

An MP gave a talk, MP sounds like “Em Pe”, E is a vowel, therefore An

Are or is?

I am You are He, she, it is They are You are We are Are: Plural Is: Third person singular

This or it?

Use there is/are when you want to present or introduce something new.

Use it when you are referring to something already mentioned or known.