What is Grammar?

Definition
grammar (noun):
The whole system and structure of a
language or of languages in general,
usually taken as consisting of syntax
and morphology and sometimes also
phonology and semantics.
Explanation
Grammar is the system of a language. People
sometimes describe grammar as the "rules" of a
language; but in fact no language has rules. If we use
the word "rules", we suggest that somebody created
the rules first and then spoke the language, like a new
game.
But languages did not start like that.
Languages started by people making
sounds which evolved into words, phrases
and sentences. No commonly-spoken
language is fixed. All languages change over
time. What we call "grammar" is simply a
reflection of a language at a particular time.
Do we need to study grammar to learn a
language?
The short answer is "no". Very many people in the
world speak their own, native language without having
studied its grammar. Children start to speak before
they even know the word "grammar". But if you are
serious about learning a foreign language, the long
answer is "yes, grammar can help you to learn a
language more quickly and more efficiently.
What is part of speech?
a category to which a word is assigned in accordance with its
syntactic functions.
In English the main parts of speech are:
 Noun
 Pronoun
Adjective
Determiner/articles,
Verb,
adverb
Preposition
Conjunction
Interjection
 Noun
Definition
Noun is a naming word which
names a person (John), a place
(Pakistan), a material thing (pen),
and a non-material thing (Justice,
sweetness, information)
Concrete Noun
A concrete noun is used to name any person, place, or
thing existing in a form that can be touched, felt and
seen (e.g. boy, book, cloud). It is divided into five
parts.
Proper noun
Common noun
Material noun
Collective noun
Compound noun
Proper Noun
Proper nouns name particular people, places and
things
(e.g. Bob, London ,The United Nations)
Note: Proper noun, when written, always begins with a
capital letter.
Common Noun

Common nouns name members of a class of people or

things that share the name in common with all the
other members of its class. E.g. woman, book, chair
etc.
Or a common noun is a name given in common to
every person or thing of the same class or kind.
Note: Common here means shared.
Material Noun

It is the name of a matter or substance of which anything

is made; as gold, silver, iron, steel, cotton, milk, clay,
rice.
Collective noun
A collective noun is a name given to a number (or
collection) of persons or things taken together and
spoken as a whole.
E.g. Crowd, team, fleet, jury, flock etc.
Note: All collective nouns, as family, team etc can
take a singular or plural verb: singular if we
consider the word to mean a single group or unit.
E g. our team is the best.
Or plural if we consider the word to mean a
number of individual’s
E.g. our team are wearing black jerseys.
Compound Noun

 
A compound noun is a name given to a noun made up of
two nouns.
E.g. classroom, Postgraduate etc
Note: As the first noun is used as an adjective to modify
the second noun, it must be singular; however, there
are some exceptions.
E.g. sports car, Accounts department, Customs office,
Physics teacher etc
Abstract Noun
 

Abstract nouns name non-material things, qualities, states and concepts

existing only in our minds
e.g. happiness, beauty, wisdom, soul etc.
Or
abstract noun is a noun, which we can’t see or touch, but can feel.

Abstract nouns are derived from:

A: Adjectives: kind – kindness. Honest---honesty

B: Verbs: grow- growth. Negotiate- negotiation. Arrange- arrangement.

C: Common nouns: child-childhood, Slave- Slavery, Friend –friendship

Countable Nouns

 
Countable nouns are the names f people and objects
that can be counted.
e.g. chair, book, student etc.
Countable nouns have singular and plural forms
while uncountable nouns don’t.
Singular and Plural Nouns

 
As we mentioned before a countable noun has two forms; singular and
plural.
 
I-Singular Noun:
 
A noun, which denotes one person, place or thing, is said to be in the
singular number; as boy, pen, city etc.
 
II-Plural Nouns:
A noun, which does not denote one person or thing but denotes more than
one person, place or thing is said to be in the plural number;
as boys, men, cities etc.
The plural forms of count nouns

When we want to change a count

noun to its plural form, first we
should know whether the noun
has a regular or an irregular
plural form.
The plural form of regular
countable nouns is made by
adding (s or es) to them
e.g.
book -books bus – buses.
Note: The plural form of most
nouns is made by adding (s) to
them.
But the plural form of nouns ending with (s, sh, ch,
x, z,) is formed by adding (es) to them.

E.g. bus-buses
dish- dishes
church- churches
box-boxes
buzz- buzzes
•The plural form of most nouns ending in (o),
preceded by a consonant is formed by adding (es) to
them.
•E.g. mango-mangoes
• potato-potatoes
• hero- heroes
• volcano-volcanoes.
Note: few nouns ending in (o) are changed to plural
form merely by adding (s); as
• pianos
•kilos
•photos
•commandos
• cantos
•The plural form of a compound noun is
formed by adding (s) to its main or
principle noun; as,
• son-in-law sons-in-law,
• step-son step-sons,
•passer-by passers-by etc.
•The plural form of nouns ending in (y)
preceded by a consonant is made by
changing (y) into I and adding (es) .as;
• lady ladies,
•baby babies etc.
However, if a noun ends in (y) preceded by a
vowel merely takes (s) for its plural form.
E.g.
•boys
• toys
• keys
•The plural form of the nouns ending in (f
or fe) is made by changing (f or fe) to “v”
and adding (es) as
•Theif---Theives
•Life---Lives
•Loaf-Loaves
•Half-Halves
•Wife-Wives
•sheaf-Sheaves
•Calf-Calves
•Knife- Knives
•Some nouns like dwarf, hoof, and
wharf can take either (s or es) in their
plural forms .
e.g.
• hoofs or hooves,
• dwarfs dwarves,
•wharfs or wharves.
The plural form of irregular nouns:

There are no specific rules to change an irregular noun to its

plural form, as some of them are made plural by adding (en),
E.g.
ox-oxen ( en )
some of them change their forms and vowels
e.g.
tooth-teeth ( vowel change)
and some of them have the same singular and plural forms.
e.g.
sheep-sheep. ( no change)
Uncountable Nouns
Uncountable nouns are substances, concepts etc that we cannot
divide into separate elements. We cannot "count" them. For
example, we cannot count "milk".
We can count "bottles of milk" or "litres of milk", but we cannot
count "milk" itself. Here are some more uncountable nouns:
music, art, love, happiness
advice, information, news
furniture, luggage
rice, sugar, butter, water
electricity, gas, power
money, currency
We usually treat uncountable nouns as
singular. We use a singular verb. For
example:

This news is very important.

Your luggage looks heavy.
Gender of genders
 There are four Nouns: in English.
1-Masculine Gender:
 
A noun that denotes a male is said to be of the masculine
gender.
E.g. man, lion, waiter etc.
 
2-Faminine Gender:
 
A noun that denotes a female is said to be of the feminine
gender.
E.g. woman, actress, lioness etc.
 
 
3-Neuter Gender:
A noun that denotes a thing that is neither male
nor female is said to be of the neuter gender.
E.g. Hand, pen , toy etc.
 
4-Common Gender:
 
A noun that either denotes a male or female is
said t be of the common gender.
E.g. parent, child, student etc.