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Grammar Rules! PDF
Grammar Rules! PDF
Word Class
To identify a Noun
To identify an adverb
Adverbs usually end with the suffix ‘ly’ which is attached to the adjective. It
explains to what extent the action takes place and with what frequency.
They finished the project exhaustedly with many elements sloppily completed.
To identify an adjective
• Adjectives are describing words describing the noun. They usually end with
ful, ive, able, ible, nal,
• Some adjectives take up the past tense or the continuous verb tense form.
For ex: Exhaustive, exhaustible, exhausted, exhausting – all these 4 words are
adjective forms of the verb exhaust.
Conjunctions
As can also mean like, in the same way - for example, "She watched him as a cat
watches a mouse".
1 As is used to mean because, but it is also used when two events happen at the
same time.
In "I must stop now as I have to go out." it means because, but in "She watched
him as the train passed close to his house." it doesn't mean because.
3 because.
The vase was smashed as Jenny knocked it over. ( obvious reason)
4 even though
Improbable as it seems, it's true
Because :
Ex: We waited for him for a long time but he did not turn up.
We were supposed to go the party last night; however, it was called off much to
our surprise.
As’ but’ is generally used as a conjunction, a sentence should not begin with ‘but’.
• Unless brings in the meaning of except on the condition that or except under
the circumstances that
• In, At and On are prepositions of time and place showing the time and date
of events, activities and situations and positions of people, places and things.
in June/ In the shop – Time period – for seasons, months, years, enclosed areas,
cities, states, countries.
on Monday / On the wall – On a day or On that date and touching the surface of
smthng.
• For & Since – explain how long an event, activity or situation has continued
I have been sick since last night – since + a point of time + past tense
• By, Until and Till – describe a time limit for commencement or completion
of an activity.
From-----to/till – defines the beginning and end of a period of time, present, past
or future
Pronouns
Leap years, which have 366 days, contain an extra day in February.
Refer to the video – Pronouns under the Learn – English section for personal
pronouns and their object forms.
Articles
a) First vs Subsequent Rule : The general rule states that the first mention
of a noun is indefinite and all subsequent references to this noun are
definite and take the.
The first group consists of nouns which refer to shared knowledge of the
situation or context. For example, in Canada you can say
But you couldn't say this in Toronto, where there are many hospitals. You
would have to name the particular hospital in your first reference to it:
c) Use the definite article to refer to the whole transport system, rather than
to an individual vehicle:
[if you use the construction "by PLUS means of transport," there is no
article: I go bysubway].
Activity
I go to bed at 11 o'clock.
Object
Activity
Object
Activity
Object
Activity
Object
Activity
Object
Activity
She is in class.
Object
Noun Numbers
"There are several students in the lobby. A number are here to see the president."
• The word following the phrase one of the (as an object of the preposition of)
will always be plural.
Tenses
When it comes to Tenses watch out for signal words in the context
• For the Simple Present these are adverbs of frequency: always, often,
usually, sometimes, seldom, never
Other phrases of time can occur, like: every day, every week, every year, on
Mondays, after school
• For the Simple Past these are expressions of time in the past.
Modal Verbs
• Modal Verbs are always followed by the base form of the verb meaning the
1st verb form.
Would and could as modals indicate logical possibility with would being stronger than
could.
For ex: Changing these settings could produce more favorable results - a logical possibility
in the future
Degree of Comparison
Do not use more along with a comparative adjective formed with -er nor
use most along with a superlative adjective formed with -est (e.g., do not write that
something is more heavier or most heaviest).
So - emotional expression of very and is more than often followed by that (used to
denote both negative and positive things)
Too - to denote something negative esp when the result or outcome is problematic
The traffic was moving so slowly that he arrived three hours late.
For e.g.
Having read the book the boy came out of the room.
In the above examples, if you see, there is a time gap between the actions. It happens
one after the other.
It's not mandatory to use ' who' after those in every sentence.
For e.g:
Yes, who is followed by those in sentences but it depends on the entire context and what
you're trying to convey.
For e.g. Happy are those who know the value of health
Fiji islands - a group of more than 800 islands are of volcanic origin. Since there is more
than one island it is plural however Fiji is an independent state located on the Fiji islands.
Likewise the Hawaiin islands are a large group of eight major islands, one of which is the
Hawaii island.
Past Participle indicates past or completed action or time. The past participle is often
used when we want to express a passive action. Is formed by adding d or ed to the base
form of regular verbs and various other ways for irregular verbs.
As an adjective:
Perfect participle is used to form an active sentence with the past participle. There is a
time gap between the actions. It indicates completed action.
E.g. Having read the book the boy came out of the room.
Form :
Present Participle (P.P)- Verb form with an 'ing' ending. e.g - singing
Present Continuous (P.C) - A form of the verb ' to be' + a present participle. e.g. is singing
Usage:
Present participle - P.P cannot stand alone as the main verb, it requires a subject and a
predicate.
I remember Anu singing her favorite song at the get together - Correct
Present Continuous - P.C is used for ongoing actions i.e. actions occurring at the time of
speaking and for actions that take place for a short period of time.
Anu is singing her favorite song. ( the verb in P.C may itself serve as the predicate of a
sentence.
For ex: Ravi threw the paper. Ravi is the subject, threw is the verb and the direct object
is paper which receives the action, threw.
Indirect objects is when the subject does something to something or someone else. For
ex, Arun bought Ritu a watch. Arun - Subject, watch - direct object , receives the action,
bought and Ritu is the indirect object.
For direct objects – identify the action verb and ask the question what? or whom?
An indirect object answers the question "to whom?", "for whom?", "for what?"...
Affect means to have an influence on or cause a change in something and mostly used as
a verb. starts with 'a' - action
Ex: Some experts think that video games affect children's brains negatively.
Affect is rarely used as a noun but in the field of psychology it refers to an emotional
state.
A complete sentence will have a subject and a predicate. The subject is one who does the
action answering the questin who or what and the predicate is the part that expresses
what is said about the subject and will contain the verb.
Subject - I
Usage of 'Them'
Them is used either as a direct object of a verb - We saw them at the conference (We saw
,who?)
In all of the above examples, 'them' is substituting someone who is not present in the
context.
In the above example, there is no need for 'them', as 'questions', which is the direct object
is already stated in the context.
while is used when two longer actions happen simultaneously and the focus is on the
activity.
For ex: She stayed with me while she was looking for a house.
When is used to refer to specific time periods and the activity occurs nearly the same time
or shortly after another activity.
'Later' and 'later on' are both used to express later on in time. While you can substitute
later on with later almost always but it is incorrect to substitute later with later on in the
below examples.
However you can use either later or later on in examples like these.
Nominative Case - Is used for the subject of the verb, one that denotes who or what does
the action. - I, You , he , she , it, we , they
Accusative Case - Is used for the object of the verb , one that receives the action - me,
you, him, her, it, us, them
For ex: He offended me - He - Nominative - subject of the verb, me - Accusative - object
of the verb
1. Subjective or Nominative case: These nouns are used as the subject of a sentence or
used as a predcate noun that follows a 'be' verb
Example: Raj drove to the store. Raj is a subjective noun, he is the one who drove to the
store.
Leena sang for many years. Leena was the one doing the singing. Leena is the subjective
noun.
Predicate Noun
The teacher was the speaker - The speaker is renaming who the speaker was and it is
linked by 'was' - be verb
Sonali is a Poet - Poet is the predicate noun as it renaming who Sonali is and it id linked by
the verb - 'is'.
2. Objective Case : Nouns are referred to as objective when they are used as direct
objects, indirect objects or objects of a preposition.
Direct objects receive action in a sentence - Ask the question what or whom to identify
them
Show him the phone now - Show whom the phone? - Him. Him is the direct object.
My brother threw a basket. Threw what?. A basket. Basket is the direct object.
Indirect Object: Indirect objects receive the direct object. To identify them, identify the
direct object first and then ask who received that direct object.
Sai threw his brother the football. The verb is throw, throw what? The football which is the
direct object. Threw it to whom? His brother who is the recepient of the direct
object(football) and therefore is the indirect object.
Objects os a preposition: The object of a preposition is the noun or pronoun that follows
the preposition
He eats with me. With is the preposition so me is the object of the preposition
3. Possessive case: Nouns are considered possessive when they show ownership
Sai's bag was huge. Sais is the possessive noun showing ownership of the bag
Collocations
Collocations are partly or fully fixed expressions that become established through repeated
context-dependent use. In simpler words, they are merely two or more words that often
go together. They are of different types.
1. adjective + noun - 'excruciating pain'. Pain is the noun form and excrutiating is the
adjective describing the pain.
2. noun+ noun - a surge of anger, in this phrase surge is the noun meaning 'a sudden
rush' and anger is also a noun.
3. verb+ noun - commit suicide - commit is the action word (verb) and suicide is the noun.
5. verb+prepositional phrase - burst into tears - the verb ' burst' clubbed with the
prepositional phrase 'into tears'.
6. verb + adverb - wave frantically - wave is the verb and frantically is the adverb showing
the extent or how he/she waved.
So, these expressions have been repeatedly used by people in specific contexts.
Other examples would be fully aware, regular exercise, round of applause, plane took off,
give a presentation, filled with horror, burst into tears, whispered softly, vaguely
remember, crystal clear, middle management, cosmetic surgery, nuclear family , the list is
endless.