Download Grammar Terms Revision!

Grammar Terms Revision!
Syntax and sentence structures
• The Simple Sentence consists of just one clause, that is, it has only
a single verb, and the verb dictates the structure of the sentence:
• Subject + Verb
“I arrived.”
• Subject + Verb + Object
“I shot J.R.”
• Subject + Verb + Object + Object
“I bought Jerry a
car.”
• Subject + Verb + Complement
“I am happy.”
• Subject + Verb + Adverbial
“I went to Paris.”
• Of course, optional extras can be added on, adjectives squeezed in
before nouns, an adverb tagged on just about anywhere, or
another clause tagged on to make a compound or complex
sentence.
• ) remains the same in both – i.e. the dog.
Nouns
Proper Noun, Concrete Noun, Abstract Noun, Semantic Field,
Connotation, Denotation, Synonym, Antonym, Hyponym
(specific), Hypernymn (general), Noun Phrase
£100k-a-week Man United striker Dimitar Berbatov tells Big Issue vendor he’s ‘skint’
He may have just signed a £30.75million deal with Manchester United, but Dimitar Berbatov
doesn’t have a penny to spare.
The 27-year-old declined to buy a copy of the Big Issue last night after enjoying a plush dinner at
Manchester’s San Carlo restaurant.
The former Spurs striker told a homeless vendor he was ‘skint’, according to onlookers.
After a persistent sales pitch, Berbatov eventually relented and borrowed some change from a
friend.
He certainly wasn’t strapped for cash earlier this week when he celebrated his move to Old Trafford
– and new £100,000-a-week pay packet – by blowing £2,500 on 25 pairs of trainers at Selfridges in
Manchester.
A source told The Sun: ‘Berbatov was like a boy in a sweet shop. He wanted to celebrate his move
– and huge pay rise – by doing some shopping.
‘Before we knew it, he had chosen 25 pairs. God knows why anyone would want 25 pairs of new
trainers. That’s enough for two football teams, the referee and the two linesmen.’
Adjectives
Attributive Adjective, Predicative Adjective, Descriptive Adjective, Evaluative Adjective,
Comparative Adjective, Superlative Adjective, Adjective Phrase
And adjective is a word which fills one of the following spaces in a sentence:
• The man is ______.
• The ______ man climbed a tree.
The first sentence is an example of a predicative adjective, where the adjective is linked to
the noun it is describing with the copular verb “is”.
The second sentence is an example of an attributive adjective, where the adjective simply
premodifies the noun.
An alternative definition of an adjective is any word which modifies a noun. What is the
difference between the two uses of an adjective, predicative and attributive? On what
grounds would an author chose between one form and the other?
• The man is stupid.
• The stupid man climbed a tree.
The purpose of the first sentence is simply to communicate a particular quality of the
sentence’s subject. However, the purpose of the second sentence is primarily to tell us
what the subject did i.e. climbed a tree, that the subject is stupid is a secondary
consideration.
Adjectives
Comparatives –
Superlatives -
Adjectives are made comparative with the addition of the suffix “er” or by the use of the word “more”, whilst superlatives use
“est” or “most”.
Pronouns
What is a Pronoun?
The easiest way to define a pronoun is “any word which takes the place of
a noun”
• John went to the Mary’s house.
–
• He went to her house..
Personal Pronouns. (Also included in this group is the pronoun it, though
this pronoun does not usually refer to a person.)
There are three personal pronouns, and each has a singular and a plural
form:
Person
1st
2nd
3rd
Singular
Plural
Pronouns
Possessive
•
mine, yours, his, hers, ours, theirs
“The white car is mine”
Reflexive
•
•
myself, yourself, himself, herself, itself, oneself, ourselves, yourselves,
themselves
“He injured himself playing football”
Relative
•
•
that, which, who, whose, whom, where, when
“The book that you gave me was really boring”
Demonstrative
•
•
this, that, these, those
“This is a new car”
Interrogative
•
•
who, what, why, where, when, whatever
“What did he say to you?”
Indefinite
•
•
anything, anybody, anyone, something, somebody, someone, nothing, nobody, none, no
one
“There’s something in my shoe”
Adverbs / Adverbials
Adverb of Time, Adverb of Space, Adverb of Manner, Intensifying Adverb,
Adverb of Emphasis, Adverb of Modality, Adverb of Degree, Adverb
Phrase = Adverbial = Prepositional Phrase
• Adverbs tell us how something is done, why, when or where. They answer
questions for the reader and show us what additional information the writer feels
we need to see things from their point of view.
•
•
•
•
•
•
Adverb of Time (or frequency) – answers the question: when (or how often)?: now,
afterwards, often, never, always, frequently, recently, regularly, yesterday
Adverb of Space/Place – answers the question: where?: anywhere, outside, everywhere,
there, upstairs
Adverb of Manner – answers the question: how?: reluctantly, timidly, badly, menacingly,
effectively
Adverb of Degree / Intensifying Adverb – answers the question: how much or how little?:
certainly, very, well, almost, sort of, absolutely, much, little, just, barely, nearly
Adverb of Emphasis – answers the question – how much or how little?: badly, really,
indeed, even, at least
Adverb of Modality – answers the question – how do you (the author) feel about what
you’re saying?: perhaps, maybe, fortunately, hopefully,
Adverbs / Adverbials
As with nouns or adjectives, if an adverb is replaced in
a sentence by a group of words, i.e. that group of
words functions as an adverb, then that group of
words is an Adverbial. An adverbial can also be called
a Prepositional Phrase, owing to the fact that they
usually begin with a preposition:
•
•
•
•
I went to school slowly.
I went to school with my feet dragging on the ground.
I went to school in a foul temper.
I went to school without a care in the world.
Verbs
Auxiliary Verb, Past/Present tense,
• Infinitive – the base form of the verb – e.g. to
kill, to be, to sit, to murder
• Past Participle – the -ed form of the verb – killed,
drugged, skinned
• Present Participle – the -ing form of the verb –
killing, drugging, skinning
Active passive
Active Voice, Passive Voice, Subject, Object,
• The dog saw the cat.
• The cat was seen by the dog.
• The first sentence is written in the active voice, the
second is written in the passive voice.
• As you can see they have swapped subjects – the
subject always starts the sentence – but the agent (the
person or thing doing whatever the verb describes)
remains the same in both – i.e. the dog.
inflections
• Inflection is the name for the extra letter or letters added to nouns,
verbs and adjectives in their different grammatical forms. Nouns are
inflected in the plural, verbs are inflected in the various tenses, and
adjectives are inflected in the comparative/superlative.
• E.g. Words ending with a sibilant:-s/-ss/-sh/-ch/x.
Words ending with the letter-o. Add -es in the plural noun or
3rdperson singular verb.bus → buses (n) / busses (v)
miss → misses
wish → wishes
watch → watches
fox → foxes
potato → potatoes
do → does
determiners
Determiners are words like the, an, my, some. They are grammatically
similar. They all come at the beginning of noun phrases, and usually we
cannot use more than one determiner in the same noun phrase.
Articles:
• a, an, the
Possessive Adjectives:
• my, your, his, her, its, our, their, whose
Other determiners:
• each, every
• either, neither
• some, any, no
• much, many; more, most, little, less, least
• few, fewer, fewest
• what, whatever; which, whichever
• both, half, all
• Several, enough
prepositions
• A preposition links nouns, pronouns and phrases to other
words in a sentence. The word or phrase that the
preposition introduces is called the object of the
preposition.
• A preposition usually indicates the temporal, spatial or
logical relationship of its object to the rest of the sentence
as in the following examples:
• The book is on the table. The book is beneath the table.
The book is leaning against the table. The book
is beside the table. She held the book over the table. She
read the book during class. In each of the preceding
sentences, a preposition locates the noun "book" in space
or in time.
Four Kinds of Sentences: Declarative, Interrogative,
Imperative and Exclamatory
What types of sentences are these?
• Tomorrow I will go to the store.
• Get me some water.
• Did you go to the movies yesterday?
• She did not want to eat the pizza that I gave
her.
• Bring me some ice.