Grammar Notes (for Unit I)

[includes notes on sentence structure, types of sentences, adjectives, adverbs,

tenses, conjunctions, prepositions, the concept of ambiguity, and idiomatic
distortions]

Sentence Structure
The sentence structure is the arrangement of words, phrases and clauses in a sentence. The
syntax is as follows:
Subject + Verb + Object
Note: An independent clause would be one that is a complete sentence and makes perfect
sense on its own. While an independent sentence is one that has to be attached to an
independent clause in order to complete its meaning. (It is also known as a subordinate
clause.)
Based on this structure, there are 4 types of sentences:
i- Simple Sentence:
It contains a subject and a verb. In addition to that, it may also have an object
and a few modifiers. However, it contains only one independent clause.
For example,
She wrote.
She completed her review.
He organized his resources by theme.

ii- Compound Sentence:

It has at least two independent clauses. These two independent clauses can be
combined with a comma and a coordinating conjunction or with a semi-colon.
For example,
She created her literature review and created her reference list.
He organized his sources by theme and then he updated his reference list.

iii- Complex Sentence:

It has at least one independent clause and at least one dependent clause. Note
that if a sentence begins with a dependent clause put a “,’ after this clause.
However, if the sentence begins with an independent clause, there is not a
comma separating the two clauses.

iv- Complex Compound Sentence:

 It contains at least two independent clauses and at least one dependent clause.
Using such sentences in writing allow for more sentence variety but be careful of
bringing clarity to the intended meaning.
For example,
She completed her literature review, but she still needs to work on her methods
section even though she finished a Methods Course last semester.
With pizza and soda at hand, they studied the APA rules for many hours, and
they decided that writing an MLA article made sense because it was clear,
concise, and objective.

Subject and Object

The subject of a verb is the person or thing which performs the action of the verb.
For example: I left the room. - Here, the verb is 'left' and the act of leaving was performed by 'I'.
Hence, 'I' is the subject.
The object of the verb is the person or thing affected by the verb.
For example: She spoke to John. - Here, the action of the verb (spoke) is being done on John.
Hence, 'John' is the object.

Subject usually includes two parts: nouns and pronouns.

Nouns are naming words; they name a person, thing, place, object, idea, etc.

While pronouns are words that substitute the nouns in proceeding sentences. They are used in
the manner of referring to the noun. For example, me, my, mine, he, she, they, them, hers, his,
theirs, it, itself, themselves, ourselves, etc.

Verb
Verbs are words that express action. For example, swims, baked, grab, etc.

Following a few types of verbs anyone can come across in daily conversations:

1. Action/Dynamic verbs and Stative verbs

Action verbs usually describe actions that happen through a body or things that happen.
While stative verbs refer to a state or conditions that is unlikely to change.

2. Finite verb and Non-Finite verb

Finite verbs are those that change form according to the tense of the sentence, the
number of people or the tense. While non-finite verbs are those are not affected by the
person or the no. of the subject and tense. It can act as the noun, adjective or adverb as
well.
 For example, I like reading books.
I’ve started liking reading books.
I used to like reading books.

Here, the verb “like” is a finite verb while the verb “reading” is a non-finite verb.

3. Principle verb
Principle verb is the main verb of the sentence. Both stative and dynamic verbs can also be
called principle verbs.

4. Linking verbs
These are also called Copular verbs. They link the subject with the subject compliment.
Some of them are forms of be (is, are, am, was, were), become, look, seem, grow, taste,
appear, feel, get, etc.

5. Auxiliary Verb
It’s a verb used to express tense or mood. It has no meaning of its own. They rather add
functional or grammatical meaning to the clauses in which they appear. They perform
their functions in several different ways:

• By expressing tense (providing a time reference, i.e. past, present, or future)

• Grammatical aspect (expresses how verb relates to the flow of time)
• Modality (quantifies verbs)
• Voice (describes the relationship between the action expressed by the verb and the
participants identified by the verb’s subject, object, etc.)
• Adds emphasis to a sentence

Auxiliary verbs almost always appear together with a main verb, and though there
are only a few of them, they are among the most frequently occurring verbs in the
English language.

They are of two types: primal and modal

Primal (be, do, have)

i- Have
“Have” is a very important verb that can stand alone in all its tenses, including has, have,
having, had, and hadn’t or had not. It is usually used to denote ownership, and it can also
be used to discuss ability or describe appearance. “Have” is also a very popular substitute
for the verbs “eat” and “drink.” For example: “Let’s have dinner.”
When used as an auxiliary verb, have is always teamed up with another verb to create a
complete verb phrase, making it easy to differentiate between uses. You can see the
difference in the sentences below:
 • Jerry has a large coffee stain on his shirt. → Has = action verb
• Jerry has bought a new shirt to replace the one that was ruined earlier. → Has =
auxiliary verb; bought is a past participle that competes the verb phrase.
• Jerry should have been more careful! → Have = auxiliary verb; phrase “should have
been” expresses time and evaluates Jerry’s actions.

ii- Do
“Do” can be used as an action verb that stands alone in all its tenses, including to
do, do, does, done, did and didn’t, doesn’t or did not .
When used as an auxiliary verb, do is always paired up with another verb to create a
complete verb phrase. In some cases, it is used to add emphasis: “I did put the garbage
out!” Do is often used to form questions and negated clauses. It is also used in elliptical
sentences, where the main verb is understood and is omitted as a result. For example: “He
plays piano well, doesn’t he?” or “They all had dinner, but I didn’t.”
• Because he spills things so often, Jerry does more laundry than most people.  Does
= action verb
• Jerry didn’t put his coffee in a cup with a lid.  Didn’t = auxiliary verb
• Jerry doesn’t always spill things, but it happens a lot.  Doesn’t = auxiliary verb

iii- Be
“Be” or “to be” is an important verb that has a multitude of uses in English. It can be used as
an action verb that stands alone in all its tenses including be, to be, been, am, are, is, was,
were, wasn’t, was not aren’t, are not, weren’t and were not.
When used as an auxiliary verb, be is always paired with another verb to create a complete
verb phrase. It can be singular or plural, present or past. Negative sentences are formed by
adding the word “not”.
• Jerry is messy.  Is = action verb
• Although he is always complaining about his accidents, Jerry fails to pay attention. 
is = auxiliary verb
• Jerry is going to be doing extra laundry for the rest of his life.  to be = auxiliary verb

Modal Auxiliary verbs

In addition to the three main auxiliary verbs, have, do, and be, there are additional auxiliary
verbs. These are called modal auxiliary verbs, and they never change form. A complete list
of modal auxiliary verbs follows:
• Can
• Could
• May
 • Might
• Must
• Ought to
• Shall
• Should
• Will
• Would

6. Regular and Irregular verbs

Regular verbs are those verbs who past and past principle have a fixed end, i.e., they
end with the suffix -ed or -d. (Also, the verbs that end with -y are changed to -ied.)
For example, work (work, worked, worked); look (look, looked, looked).

Irregular verbs are those verbs which do not follow the normal rules of conjugation
to form the past or past participle form. They are also sometimes called strong verbs.
For example, do (do, did, done); go (go, went, gone).

7. Transitive and Intransitive verbs

A verb can be described as transitive or intransitive based on whether it requires

an object to express a complete thought or not. A transitive verb is one that only
makes sense if it exerts it’s action on an object. An intransitive verb will make sense
without one. Some verbs may be used both ways.
A better word to associate with transitive is transfer. A transitive verb needs
to transfer its action to something or someone—an object. In essence, transitive
means “to affect something else.”

How to identify a transitive verb

Transitive verbs are not just verbs that can take an object; they demand objects. Without an
object to affect, the sentence that a transitive verb inhabits will not seem complete.

Please bring coffee.

In this sentence, the verb bring is transitive; its object is coffee, the thing that is being
brought. Without an object of some kind, this verb cannot function.

Please bring.
Bring what, or who? The question begs itself because the meaning of bring demands it.

Here are some more examples of transitive verbs and their objects.

The girls carry water to their village.

Juan threw the ball.
Could you phone the neighbours?
I caught a cold.
She loves rainbows.
Lila conveyed the message.

Each of the verbs in these sentences have objects that complete the verbs’ actions. If the
objects were taken out, the results would be illogical and questions would be raised in the
mind of the reader; for example, Lila conveyed. Conveyed what?

How to identify an intransitive verb

An intransitive verb is the opposite of a transitive verb: It does not require an object to act
upon.

They jumped.
The dog ran.
She sang.
A light was shining.

None of these verbs require an object for the sentence to make sense, and all of them can
end a sentence. Some imperative forms of verbs can even make comprehensible one-word
sentences.

Run!
Sing!

A number of English verbs can only be intransitive; that is, they will never make sense paired
with an object. Two examples of intransitive-only verbs are arrive and die. You
can’t arrive something, and you certainly can’t die something; it is impossible for an object
to follow these verbs.

Adverbs
An adverb is a word that modifies (describes) a verb (he sings loudly), an adjective (very tall),

another adverb (ended too quickly), or even a whole sentence (Fortunately, I had brought

an umbrella). Adverbs often end in –ly, but some (such as fast) look exactly the same as

their adjective counterparts.

For example,
Tom Longboat did not run badly.
Tom is very tall.

The race finished too quickly.

Fortunately, Lucy recorded Tom’s win.

Adverb and Adjectives:

Adverbs can also modify adjectives and other adverbs. Often, the purpose of the adverb is

to add a degree of intensity to the adjective.

For example,
The woman is quite pretty.
This book is more interesting than the last one.

The weather report is almost always right.

The adverb almost is modifying the adverb always, and they’re both modifying right.

Adverbs and Sentences:

Some adverbs can modify entire sentences—unsurprisingly, these are called sentence
adverbs. Common ones include generally, fortunately, interestingly, and accordingly.
Sentence adverbs don’t describe one particular thing in the sentence—instead, they
describe a general feeling about all of the information in the sentence.

Fortunately, we got there in time.

Interestingly, no one at the auction seemed interested in bidding on the antique spoon
collection.

At one time, the use of the word hopefully as a sentence adverb (e.g., Hopefully, I’ll get this
job) was condemned. People continued to use it though, and many style guides and
dictionaries now accept it. There are still plenty of readers out there who hate it though, so
it’s a good idea to avoid using it in formal writing.
Adjectives

Adjectives are words that describe or modify other words, making your writing and speaking
much more specific, and a whole lot more interesting. Words like small, blue, and sharp are
descriptive, and they are all examples of adjectives. Because adjectives are used to identify
or quantify individual people and unique things, they are usually positioned before the noun
and pronoun that they modify. Some sentences contain multiple adjectives.

In the following examples, the highlighted words are adjectives:

1. They live in a big, beautiful.
2. Since it’s a hot day, Lisa is wearing a sleeveless.
3. The mountaintops are covered in sparkling.
4. On her birthday, Brenda received an antique vase filled with fragrant.

Types of Adjectives:
There are a total of 8 types of adjectives in English grammar namely Descriptive, Numeral,
Quantitative, Demonstrative, Interrogative, Possessive, Proper, and Exclamatory.

S.No. Adjective Types/ Kinds Examples

Descriptive Adjective (show the quality of a person or

1 Large, beautiful, careful, hateful etc.
thing)

Numeral Adjective (shows the number of people and

2 Five, few, many, several, first etc.
things)

Quantitative Adjective (shows the actual quantity of a

3 Some, much, little, any, half, whole
thing)

Demonstrative Adjective (points out which person or

4 This, that, these, those, such
thing is meant)

Interrogative Adjective (are used with nouns to ask

5 What, which, whose,
questions)

Possessive Adjective (to express who owns or

6 Mu, our, your, his, her, its, their
possesses something)

English, Indian tea, French wines,

7 Proper Adjective (formed from proper nouns)
Turkish tobacco

Exclamatory Adjective (sometimes used as an

8 What, how
exclamatory adjective)
Prepositions
A preposition is a word or a group of words used before a noun, pronoun, or noun phrase to
show direction, time, place, location, spatial relationships, or to introduce an object.

Prepositions of Direction

“to”, “in”, “into”, “on”, and “onto”

- She drove to the store

- Drive on(to) the grass and park the car there.

Prepositions of Time

To refer to one point in time, use the prepositions “in”, “at”, and “on”

Use “in” with parts of the day (not specific times), months, years, and seasons.

Use “at” with the time of the day. You can also use it with noon, night, and midnight.

Use “on” with days.

To refer to extended time, use the prepositions “since”, “for”, “during”, “from…to”,
“from…until”, “with”, and “within”.

- I have lived in Minneapolis since 2005.

- He will be in Toronto for 3 weeks.
- She will graduate within 2 years.
- He works part time during the summer.
- I will collect data from January to June.

Prepositions of Place

To refer to a place, use the prepositions “in” (the point itself), “at” (the general vicinity),
“on” (the surface). And “inside” (something contained).

To refer to an object at a higher point, use the prepositions “over” and “above”. To refer to
an object lower than a point, use the prepositions “below”, “beneath”, “under”, and
“underneath”.

To refer to an object close to a point, use the prepositions “by”, “near”, “next to”,
“between”, “among”, and “opposite”.

Prepositions of Location
To refer to a location, use the prepositions “in” (an area or volume), “at” (a point), and “on”
(a surface).

- They live in the country. (an area)

- She will find him at the library. (a point)
- There is a lot of dirt on the window. (a surface)

Prepositions of Spatial Relationships

To refer to a spatial relationship, use the prepositions “above”, “across”, “against”, “ahead
of”, “along”, “among”, “around”, “behind”, “below, “beneath”, “beside”, between”, “from”,
“in front of”, “inside”, “near”, “off”, “out of”, “out of”, “through”, “toward”, “under”, and
“within”.

- The post office is across the street from the grocery store.
- We will stop at many attractions along the way.
- The kids are hiding behind the tree.
- Walk toward the garage and then turn left.

Some Common Verb + Preposition Combinations

About: worry, complain, read

- He worries about the future.

- She complained about the homework.
- I read about the flooding in the city.

At: arrive (a building or event), smile, look

- He arrived at the airport 2 hours early.

- The children smiled at her.
- She looked at him.

From: differ, suffer

- The results differ from my original idea.

- She suffers from dementia.
For: account, allow, search

- Be sure to account for any discrepancies.

- I returned the transcripts to the interviewees to allow for revisions to be
made.
- They are searching for the missing dog.

In: occur, result, succeed

- The same problem occurred in three out of four cases.

- My recruitment strategies resulted in finding 10 participants.
- She will succeed in completing her degree.

Of: approve, consist, smell

- I approve of the idea.

- The recipe consists of three basic ingredients.
- The basement smells of mildew.

On: concentrate, depend, insist

- He is concentrating on his work.

- They depend on each other.
- I must insist on following this rule.

To: belong, contribute, lead, refer

- Bears belong to the family of mammals.

- I hope to contribute to the previous research.
- My results will lead to future research on the topic.
- Please refer to my previous explanation.
With: (dis)agree, argue, deal

- I (dis)agree with you.

- She argued with him.
- They will deal with the situation.

Articles
An article is a short monosyllabic word that is used to define if the noun is specific or not.
Articles are normally used before nouns and since they are used to speak about the noun,
they can be considered as adjectives.

There are three articles in English – ‘a’, ‘an’ and ‘the’. These articles are divided into two
types namely:

Definite Article

Among the three articles, ‘the’ is said to be the definite article. A definite article is used to
determine something that is specific or particular. It is also used before plural nouns and to
indicate the superlative degree of comparison. Furthermore, it can be used before collective
nouns as well.

For example:

- The Sun sets in the west.

In the above sentence, the nouns ‘Sun’ and ‘west’ are proper nouns and are specific and so
the definite article has to be used.

- The children are playing cricket.

In the above sentence, the definite article is used to determine the plural noun, ‘children’.

- This is the world’s longest river.

In the above sentence, the definite article is used to denote the superlative degree of
comparison.
Indefinite Article

The articles ‘an’ and ‘an’ are termed as indefinite articles. An indefinite article, as the name
suggests, is used to indicate something that is not definite or specific. It can also be used
before singular nouns.

Among the indefinite articles, ‘an’ is used before singular nouns that start with vowel
sounds and ‘a’ is used before singular nouns that begin with consonant sounds.

For example:

- I had an apple for breakfast.

- Do you have an eraser?
- I saw an aeroplane.
- She has a pet dog.
- My father is a doctor.

Conjunctions
Conjunctions are parts of speech that connect words, phrases, clauses, or sentences. There
are three kinds of conjunctions: coordinating, paired, and subordinating.

Co-ordinating Conjunctions

Coordinating conjunctions connect words or phrases that serve the same grammatical
purpose in a sentence. There are seven main coordinating conjunctions in English, which
form the acronym FANBOYS:

F: for: The teachers were frustrated, for the school had cut funding for all enrichment
programs.*

A: and: In this course, I will write a literature review, a case study, and a final paper.**

N: nor: The students did not complete their homework, nor did they pass the test.

B: but: The study is several years old but still valuable to this study.

O: or: At the end of the class, the students can choose to write an essay or take a test.
Y: yet: The patient complained of chronic pain, yet she refused treatment.

S: so: I have only been a nurse for one year, so I have little experience with paper charting.

* "For" is rarely used as a conjunction in modern English.

** When the conjunctions "and" and "or" connect three or more words or phrases, use a
serial comma to separate items in the series.

Transitional words such as "however" and "therefore" can also function as conjunctions:

- The authors agreed on the prevalence of the problem; however, they

disagreed on the problem’s cause.
- Several employees complained about the new policies, and therefore, the
manager held an all-staff meeting to address their concerns.

Paired Conjunctions

Paired conjunctions consist of two words or phrases that help make a point or establish
alternatives. Although paired conjunctions can be helpful in structuring a sentence, they can
also make sentences wordier than necessary, so use these conjunctions sparingly.

• both…and
• not only…but also
• either…or
• neither…nor

Subordinating Conjunctions

Subordinating conjunctions join a subordinate clause to a main clause and establishes a

relationship between the two. There are many subordinating clauses, but here are some of
the most common:

• after
• although
• as much as/as soon as/as long as
• as though
• because
• before
• how
• if
 • in order to/in order that
• once
• since
• than
• that
• though
• unless
• until
• when/whenever
• where/wherever
• whether
• while

There are two ways to structure a sentence using a subordinate conjunction:

1. Main clause (independent clause) + subordinate clause (dependent clause)

2. Subordinate clause (dependent clause) + comma (, + main clause (independent
clause)

Concept of Ambiguity
Ambiguity is the type of meaning in which a phrase, statement or resolution is not explicitly
defined, making several interpretations plausible. A common aspect of ambiguity is
uncertainty. It is thus an attribute of any idea or statement whose intended meaning cannot
be definitively resolved according to a rule or process with a finite number of steps. (The
“ambi” part of the term reflects an idea of "two", as in "two meanings".)

In speech and writing, there are two basic types of ambiguity:

• Lexical ambiguity is the presence of two or more possible meanings within a single
word.
• Syntactic ambiguity is the presence of two or more possible meanings within a
single sentence or sequence of words.

Examples and Observations

 • "Brave men run in my family."
– Bob Hope as "Painless" Peter Potter in The Paleface, 1948

• "As I was leaving this morning, I said to myself, 'The last thing you must do is forget
your speech.' And, sure enough, as I left the house this morning, the last thing I did
was to forget my speech."– Rowan Atkinson

• "I can't tell you how much I enjoyed meeting your husband."
– William Empson, Seven Types of Ambiguity, 1947

• Union Demands Increased Unemployment– newspaper headline

Idiomatic Distortion
Idiomatic expressions are linguistic expressions, grammatical forms, phrases or words that
are used conventionally and possess a figurative meaning which cannot be predicted from
the individual components or literal meanings of the constituent parts. These expressions
play an important role in human communication, since their emotive and cultural
connotations facilitate the expression of meaning at both linguistic and cultural levels.

Here are some other idiomatic phrases that have been confused over time and often
incorrectly used.

Do you give someone free rein or free reign. The latter usually refers to person of royalty ie
king or queen who would reign over their people. It’s horses, however, that wear reins.

You often hear the phrase rein in. This means to tame or pull back, so if you want to say free
rein, which means the opposite, think of horses.

Do you say chomping at the bit, or champing at the bit? The temptation to say chomping is
great as it seems to make sense. For the origin, it’s down to horses again, the meaning
literally to chew on a metal mouthpiece, translates to impatience or eagerness.

It’s widely held that “chomp” is a variant of the older “champ.” They both mean noisily
chewing on something, but “champ” is the term that has long been associated with this
idiom, in the tradition of English history.

Baited breath = Bated breath: If your breath smells like worms then you may

have baited breath. The word bated comes from the verb, “abate” meaning to

recede. This means that by “waiting with bated breath” you are holding your breath

while waiting. Have you ever heard someone utter the phrase, “I won’t hold my

breath?”
A few more examples:

1. I could care less = I couldn’t care less: This is what one would say to express
the highest level of indifference possible regarding a situation. By properly
using this idiom, one is essentially stating that, “It is impossible for me to care
any less about this situation because I have no more cares to give. I’ve run
out of care. I am the no Care Bear for this moment. The cares I have could
divide by 0. This is not the care you are looking for. The care you have
reached is no longer in service, please try back later.”
2. Extract revenge = Exact revenge: The use of the word exact in this case
means to accomplish.
3. Deep-seeded = Deep-seated: The use of seated means that something is
solidly in place.
4. Doggy-dog world = Dog-eat-dog world: This phrase is used to define cut-
throat behaviour to get what one wants.
5. It’s a mute point = It’s a moot point: Unless your point can not speak, moot is
the word you were looking for; moot meaning obsolete or irrelevant.
6. Case and point = Case in point: This is the phrase used for a specific example
of what one is talking about.
7. Nipping it in the butt = Nipping it in the bud: By nipping it in the bud, you are
preventing the problem from flowering. No butt nipping, please.
8. Irregardless = Regardless: Irregardless is not actually a word. Regardless
means inspite of everything, no matter what.
9. You have another thing coming = You have another think coming: As weird as
it sounds, this is supposed to mean, you better think again. Thing = think.
10. Wreck havoc = Wreak havoc: The word wreak means to cause. The word
havoc means chaos. Wreck havoc literally translates into chaos, destroying
chaos.