Modern English has six tenses, each of which has a corresponding continuous tense. The first three tenses, present, past, and future, present few problems. Only third person singular in the present tense differs in form: Present tense of regular (weak) verbs: Today I walk. Today he walks. Yesterday I walked. Tomorrow I shall/will walk. The … Read more
English verbs have four moods: indicative, imperative, subjunctive, and infinitive. Mood is the form of the verb that shows the mode or manner in which a thought is expressed. 1. Indicative Mood: expresses an assertion, denial, or question: Little Rock is the capital of Arkansas. Ostriches cannot fly. Have you finished your homework? 2. Imperative … Read more
English verbs are said to have two voices: active and passive. Active Voice: the subject of the sentence performs the action: His son catches fly balls. Creative children often dream in class. Note: Verbs in the active voice may be either transitive or intransitive. Passive Voice: the subject receives the action: The ball was caught … Read more
English has three kinds of Verbs: transitive, intransitive, and incomplete. 1. Transitive Verbs A verb is transitive when the action is carried across to a receiver: The farmer grows potatoes. Elvis sang ballads. The receiver is called the direct object. It answers the question “What?” or “Whom? after the verb. Grows what? Potatoes. Sang what? … Read more
The words a, an, and the are generally called articles and sometimes classed as a separate part of speech. In function, however, they can be grouped with the demonstrative adjectives that are used to point things out rather than describe them. Definite Article The is called the definite article because it points out a particular … Read more
An adjective is a word that describes a noun. There are two kinds: attributive and predicative. An adjective is used attributively when it stands next to a noun and describes it: The black cat climbed a tree. NOTE: The verb participle forms can be used as adjectives: The man felt a paralyzing fear. Flavored oatmeal … Read more
Adverbs are used to describe or modify a verb, adjective, clause, or another adverb. Basically, they modify everything except nouns and pronouns (which are modified by adjectives). Example of an adverb modifying a verb: He was running fast. (fast modifies running) Example of an adverb modifying an adjective: She took a very small piece of … Read more
Prepositions are used to link nouns and pronouns to other words within a sentence. The words linked to are called objects. Usually prepositions show a spatial or temporal relationship between the noun and the object, like in the example below: The cat is under the table. Cat is the noun. Under is the preposition. Table … Read more
Pronouns are used to replace nouns within sentences, making them less repetitive and mechanic. For example, saying “Mary didn’t go to school because Mary was sick” doesn’t sound very good. Instead, if you say “Mary didn’t go to school because she was sick” it will make the sentence flow better. There are several types of … Read more
The English language has both regular and irregular plural forms of nouns. The most common case is when you need to add -s to the noun. For example one car and two cars. The other two cases of the regular plural form are: nouns that end with s, x, ch or sh, where you add … Read more
A noun is a word used to describe a person, place, thing, event, idea, and so on. Nouns represent one of the main elements of sentences, along with verbs, adjectives, prepositions and articles. Nouns usually function as subjects or objects within sentences, although they can also act as adjectives and adverbs. Here is a list … Read more
Welcome to English Grammar 101, the newest category on Daily Writing Tips. I thought that creating a series of posts covering the basic grammar rules and parts of speech would be useful to many people, especially if you consider the diversity of our readership. On this first post we’ll cover sentences, clauses and phrases. Sentences … Read more