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Grammar Basics
Just as a building is made up of concrete, lumber, steel beams, and
bricks put together in a certain way, languages are made up of
different parts of speech combined into sentences. To be a real
expert of buildings, you should be able to produce a construction
diagram. To be a real expert in composing sentences, it helps if you
can produce a diagram of a sentence.
Verbs
There are three kinds of verbs.
Action verbs: show the action;
it’s what the subject of the sentence
is doing
Verbs
Being or Linking Verbs: show that something
exists. They also connect the subject
with a word that describes it.
Am, is, are, was, were, be, being, been
Beings verbs also tell how something tastes,
looks & feels.
That pizza looks delicious.
Verbs
Helping Verbs : are used along with another
verb to help it out. They are placed
before other verbs to form verb
phrases.
have, has, had, shall, will, should, would, may, might,
must, can, and could are helping verbs.
All “being” verbs can also act as helping verbs.
Park City is the home of the
Miners.
Park City has been in existence since
1876.
Tina has been dancing since she was 4.
Verbals are forms of verbs
used as other parts of speech.
Gerunds are forms of the verb that
function as nouns. They always end in
"ing.”
Skiing is the best sport.
Participles are forms of the verb that
function as adjectives. They can end
in "ed,” or "ing."
• The dancing bear was wearing a tutu.
• I picked a wilted flower.
Infinitives are forms of the verb
that may acts as adjectives,
adverbs or nouns. They include
"to" plus the base form of the
verb, as in "to run.”
• To run takes a lot of energy.
• Requirements to get into college
are strict.
Nouns
name persons, places, things, and ideas.
Nouns can be used as
•
subjects of sentences,
•
direct objects of sentences,
•
subjective complements of sentences,
•
appositives,
•
objects of prepositions, infinitives, participles,
or gerunds.
Pronouns
take the place of nouns and can be
used in the same places as
nouns.
There are five types of pronouns:
personal, relative, interrogative, indefinite,
and demonstrative.
Personal pronouns
A Personal pronoun is a pronoun that stands in for a person.
Nominative case pronouns are used as subjects of sentences:
I, you, he, she, it, we, they.
Objective case pronouns are used as direct objects, objects of
prepositions, participles, gerunds or infinitives:
me, you, him, her, it, us, them.
Possessive case pronouns show possession:
my, mine, your, yours, his, hers, its, our, ours, their, theirs.
Reflexive pronouns will never be subjects; they show action
reflected back to the person named:
myself, yourself, himself, herself, itself, ourselves,
yourselves, themselves.
Relative Pronouns
are used to connect dependent
clauses to independent clauses:
who – nominative case
whom – objective case
whose – possessive case
which and that – any case
Interrogative Pronouns
ask questions:
who – nominative case
whom – objective case
whose – possessive case
which and what – any case.
Indefinite Pronouns
do not refer to any specific person, place, thing, or
idea. Many times they are used to denote a
quality.
Singular
anybody, anything, anyone, each, either, everyone, everybody,
everything, neither, nobody, no one, one, someone,
something
Plural
all, both, few, most, none, some
If none means “not one,” it is singular.
Demonstrative Pronouns
act as adjectives and point out:
this
that
these
those (all any case).
Think dis, dat, dese, and dose—
demonstrative.
Adjectives
describe nouns and pronouns.
They answer the questions:
which one? what kind of? how
many?
They usually precede the noun or
pronoun that they modify.
Adverbs
describe verb, adjectives, and other
adverbs.
They answer the questions “how,” “when,”
“where,” “why,” and “how much.”
Some people do not fully understand Aggie
traditions.
Early in its history, Texas A&M University enrolled
only male students.
Prepositions
will be adverbs if not followed by an object in a
prepositional phrase.
In the sky above (adverb), we saw an Apache helicopter flown by a
Texas Aggie.
In the sky above the stadium (preposition “above” followed by a noun
object “stadium”), we saw an Apache helicopter flown by a
Texas Aggie.
Prepositional phrases show relationships and can be
used as adjective and adverbs.
Remember
“anything an Aggie can do at Kyle Field.”
The Aggie can go over, under, around, through,
beside, between, above, across, against, at,
among, after, before, behind, beyond, by, down,
into, from, in, near, off, to, past, through,
toward, on, or up Kyle Field.
About, during, for, except, throughout, until are
also prepositions.
Early in its history, Texas A&M University was a military
school for male students.
Conjunctions
Hooking up words with
phrases and clauses!
There are two kinds of conjunctions:
coordinating
subordinating
Coordinating
Conjunctions
connect elements of equal value.
Think A. B. Fonsy—and, but, for, or, nor, so, yet
Jack and Jill went up the hill.
The PCHS Cheerleaders yell and dance at Dozier Field.
Strange but true, Park City and Heber are rivals.
PCHS Miners excel on the athletic field and in the classroom.
To be or not to be is the question.
Correlative conjunctions also
connect things of equal value.
either/or, neither/nor, both/and, or not
only/but also
Either Dozier Field or The Eccles Center will be the place where
important events happen on the PCHS campus.
Neither Mr. O’Connor nor Mr. McIntosh miss important events on the
PCHS campus.
Both Homecoming and Prom are important events at PCHS.
The Booster Club not only supports the team at the games, but also
raises money for the team.
Subordinating
Conjunctions
connect dependent (adverb) clauses to independent clauses.
After, although, as, as if, as _____as, because, before, if, in order
that, since, so that, than, though, unless, until, when, whenever,
wherever, while are all subordinating conjunctions.
When you add any of these words to an independent clause, it
becomes a dependent clause.
“The Miners win a football game.” (independent clause)
becomes “After the Miners win a football game,” (dependent clause),
so you have to attach it to an independent clause to keep it from
being a fragment.
After the Miners win a football game, there are fireworks at Dozier
Field.
Interjections
express excitement.
Wow!
Geez!
Hurray, I’m finished!
Sentences
Instead of getting married again, I am
going to find a woman I don’t like and
just give her a house.—Rod Stewart
Sometimes I think war is God’s way of
teaching us geography.—Paul
Rodriguez