English Grammar Summary

Welcome to the English grammar summary! Grammar is what we use to structure language. It is an essential part of any language. Without it, our language would not make sense! This summary will provide you with all of the necessary information about grammar. The summary will be split into two main parts: Basic English Grammar and Advanced English Grammar.

Basic English Grammar

The elements of basic English grammar are:

• Parts of speech (this includes word classes)
• Phrases
• Clauses
• Sentences
• Sentence functions

Let's look at these in more detail!

Word Classes

• We group words into word classes based on the function they perform in a sentence.

• The four main word classes are nouns, adjectives, verbs, and adverbs. These are lexical classes that give meaning to a sentence.

• The other five word classes are prepositions, pronouns, determiners, conjunctions, and interjections. These are function classes that are used to explain grammatical and structural relationships between words.

• It is important to look at the context of a sentence in order to work out which word class a word belongs to.

• A verb is a word that expresses an action, event, feeling, or state of being. They normally describe what the noun or subject is doing.

• A main verb is a verb that can stand on its own (e.g. walk, talk, eat, drink) whereas auxiliary verbs 'help' the main verb (e.g. can, could, shall, should).

• Linking verbs (copula verbs) connect a subject to a noun/adjective (e.g. to be).

• Inflections on verbs can express tense, person/number, mood, and voice.

• Phrasal verbs are a combination of a main verb and an adverb particle, which create their own unique meaning (e.g. drop off, track down, let go).

Copula Verb

• A copula verb is used to link the subject and the subject complement in a sentence.

• The subject of a sentence precedes (comes before) the copula verb and can be a noun, noun phrase or a pronoun.

• The subject complement follows the copula verb and can be a noun, noun phrase or adjective.

• An example of a copula verb is 'to be.' This is one of the most commonly used copula verbs in English.

• Copula verbs can be easily mixed up with auxiliary verbs. Remember that copula verbs link subjects and subject complements. Auxiliary verbs add meaning to or complete main verbs.

Gerunds

• A gerund is a verb ending in -ing that functions as a noun. For example, words such as 'singing', 'drinking', and 'playing.'

• A gerund phrase includes the gerund and any accompanying modifiers or objects.

• Gerunds and present participle verbs look the same but function differently. Present participles refer to ongoing actions, while gerunds are the subject/object of their respective sentences.

• If you are trying to decide whether a word is a gerund or a present participle, try replacing the gerund with a similar noun.

• There are 6 main types of gerunds where they function as a subject, subject complement, direct object, object complement, object of a preposition, and object of a possessive.

Adverb

• An adverb is a word that provides additional information on a verb, adjective, another adverb, or a complete clause.

• Adverbs can be used in three ways; modifying, intensifying, and connecting adverbs.

• Modifying adverbs provide extra information, e.g. 'quickly'. Intensifying adverbs strengthen the meaning of another word, e.g. 'very'. Connecting adverbs connect two clauses or sentences, e.g. 'therefore.'

• Different adverbs include; adverbs of place, time, manner, frequency, degree, purpose, and probability.

• Common suffixes for adverbs include -ly, -wards, and -wise; however, many adverbs are stand-alone words.

Pronoun

• A pronoun is a word that can replace a noun or a noun phrase in a sentence. The noun that is replaced by the pronoun is called the antecedent.

• There are seven main types of pronouns: personal pronouns, reflexive pronouns, relative pronouns, possessive pronouns, demonstrative pronouns, indefinite pronouns, and interrogative pronouns.

• Personal pronouns show person, number, and gender. They consist of subject and object pronouns. For example, I, you, they, we, she, he, it.

• Possessive pronouns tell us who owns something. For example, mine, yours, ours, theirs, hers, his.

• Reflexive pronouns refer back to a person. For example, myself, yourself, ourselves, themselves, herself, himself, itself.

• Relative pronouns connect a noun or pronoun to a clause or phrase. For example, who, whose, whom, which, that.

• Demonstrative pronouns point to a specific person or thing. For example, this, that, these, those.

• Indefinite pronouns refer to people or things that you don't need to or want to specify precisely. For example, anybody, everybody, somebody, nobody, each, every, either, neither, something, nothing.

• Interrogative pronouns are wh-words that are used to ask questions. For example, who, whom, whose, what, which.

Preposition

• A preposition is often a small word showing how two parts of a sentence are connected in relation to time, place, movement/direction, or relationship.

• Prepositions often come before a noun, a noun phrase, or a pronoun; however, they may be used in a variety of ways.

• Prepositions can be split into three main groups: prepositions of time, prepositions of place, and prepositions of movement/direction.

• Prepositions can also be grouped based on how they look; this includes single-word prepositions, two-word prepositions, and three-word prepositions.

Conjunction

• A conjunction is a word that connects two words, clauses, or phrases. They help to form longer, more complex sentences from simple sentences.

• The three main types of conjunction are coordinating conjunctions, subordinating conjunctions, and correlative conjunctions.

• Coordinating conjunctions join two parts of a sentence that have equal meaning/importance. The acronym FANBOYS helps us to remember the 7 coordinating conjunctions: For, And, Nor, But, Or, Yet, and So.

• Subordinating conjunctions join two parts of a sentence that have unequal importance as one clause/phrase depends on the other. This is mainly an independent clause and a dependent clause.

• Correlative conjunctions are two conjunctions that work together in a sentence e.g either/or.

Determiner

• A determiner is a word that specifies a noun and gives more information about location, quantity, or ownership. Determiners always come before a noun or a noun phrase. If the word replaces the noun then it is most likely to be a pronoun.

• There are six main types of determiners; articles, demonstratives, possessive determiners, interrogative determiners, quantifiers, and determiners as numbers.

• Articles are words that determine a noun. They are the/a/an.

• Demonstrative determiners point to the thing that they mention. They are this/these/that/those.

• Possessive determiners show ownership. For example, my/his/hers/their.

• Interrogative determiners are used to formulate questions. They are whose/what/which.

• Quantifiers give information about the quantity of a noun. They include words such as some, any, none/all as well as cardinal and ordinal numbers (e.g. one, two, three, first, second, third).

Articles

• An article is a type of determiner that comes before a noun to show whether it is specific or non-specific.

• The English language has two main types of articles: definite and indefinite.

Definite and indefinite articles

• The definite article 'the' is used before specific, unique, or known nouns.

• The indefinite articles 'a/an' are used before unspecific and general nouns.

• The article 'a' comes before nouns beginning with a consonant sound and 'an' comes before a noun beginning with a vowel sound. Articles can also come before adjectives in a noun phrase.

Types of Phrases

• A noun phrase is a group of words that consists of a noun (or pronoun) and other words that modify the noun. It adds information about the noun.

• An adjective phrase is a group of words that consists of an adjective and other words that modify or complement it. It is used to add detail to a noun.

• An adverb phrase is a group of words that consists of an adverb and often its modifiers. It functions as an adverb in a sentence, with the purpose of modifying verbs, adjectives or other adverbs.

• A verb phrase is a group of words that consists of a main verb and other verbs (such as copulas and auxiliaries). It can also include other modifiers.

• A prepositional phrase is a group of words that acts as either an adjective or adverb in a sentence. It consists of a preposition and an object, and can also include other modifiers.

Types of Clauses

• Clauses are the basic building blocks of a sentence.

• There are two major clause types: independent clauses and dependent clauses

• An independent clause (also called the main clause) can be a complete sentence.

Independent vs dependent clause

• Independent and dependent clauses can be used to create four different types of sentences: simple sentences, compound sentences, complex sentences, and compound-complex sentences.

Independent Clause

• Independent clauses are the foundation for all sentences.

• Independent clauses contain a complete idea and can stand alone as sentences. For example, 'Kevin sat on the chair.'

• They are formed with a subject and a predicate (they can optionally include a modifier and an object).

• Independent clauses can be joined together with punctuation and conjunctions.

• Independent clauses can be combined with other independent clauses and dependent clauses to create different sentence types in the English language.

Dependent Clause

• Dependent clauses add extra information to a sentence.

• Dependent clauses rely on independent clauses; they do not make sense on their own. For example, in the sentence 'I drank water because I was thirsty', the dependent clause is 'because I was thirsty.'

• Dependent clauses can be used in two types of sentences. They are included in complex sentences and compound-complex sentences.

• Dependent clauses contain information about time, place, etc., and always relate to the independent clause somehow.

• There are three main types of dependent clauses: adverbial clauses, adjective clauses and noun clauses.

Types of Sentences

• There are four types of sentences: simple, compound, complex, and compound-complex sentences.

• Simple sentences contain one independent clause.

• Compound sentences contain two (or more) independent clauses, joined together by a comma and a coordinating conjunction or a semicolon.

• Complex sentences contain at least one dependent clause linked to the main clause with a subordinating conjunction.

• Compound-complex sentences contain at least one dependent clause and at least two independent clauses.

Simple sentence

• A simple sentence is a type of sentence. The four types of sentences are simple, compound, complex, and compound-complex sentences.

• Simple sentences are formed using an independent clause. Clauses are the building blocks for sentences, and independent clauses work on their own.

• Simple sentences are direct, easy to understand, and clear about their information.

• Simple sentences must contain a subject and a verb. They can optionally also have an object and/or a modifier.

• An example of a simple sentence is 'The bus was late.'

Compound Sentence

• A compound sentence is one of four types of sentences. The others are simple sentences, complex sentences, and compound-complex sentences.

• A compound sentence comprises two or more independent clauses. Each independent clause contains a subject and a verb and can work on its own.

• Compound sentences are useful when trying to link together multiple ideas.

• You can identify compound sentences by looking at the number and type of clauses. If they are all independent clauses and there is more than one clause, you know it's a compound sentence.

• An example of a compound sentence is 'She has a cat, but wants a rabbit too.'

Complex Sentence

• Complex sentences are one of the four sentence types used in the English language.

• The four sentence types are simple, compound, complex, and compound-complex.

• Complex sentences contain one independent clause and at least one dependent clause.

• Complex sentences are often used when we need to add information or give a reason for something - this is when we would use a dependent clause.

• We can identify a complex sentence by looking at the number and type of clauses it contains. If there is one independent and at least one dependent clause, we know the sentence is complex.

• An example of a complex sentence is 'If you don't come home now, you'll be grounded.'

Compound-Complex Sentence

• A compound-complex sentence is a type of sentence containing three or more clauses. This includes at least two independent clauses and at least one dependent clause.

• A compound-complex sentence is a combination of a compound sentence and a complex sentence.

• When linking clauses to form compound-complex sentences, we often use conjunctions, such as for, but, and, or, etc.

• Compound-complex sentences help us to express longer, more complex thoughts and link multiple ideas together.

• An example of a compound-complex sentence is 'Despite the weather being cold, I still ate the ice cream and enjoyed it.'

Sentence Functions

• Interrogatives typically start with a 'wh-' question word or an auxiliary verb.

• Negative interrogatives can be used to ask literal questions, emphasise or point, or highlight an expected answer.

Imperatives

• An imperative is one of the four main sentence functions in the English language.

• The main purpose of an imperative is to give a command.

• An imperative sentence is formed using a base verb, such as stop or wait and typically has no subject.

• Imperative sentences end with either a full stop or an exclamation mark.

• An imperative sentence has six main purposes. They are; to command or request, instruct, advise, invite, wish, and give warning.

Exclamatives

• Exclamative sentences are used to express strong thoughts, feelings, emotions, and personal assessments.

• Exclamative sentences must contain the words what or how. Remember, all exclamative sentences are exclamations but not all exclamations are exclamative sentences.

• Exclamative sentences typically end with an exclamation mark. Be careful not to overuse these.

• Exclamative sentences are often shortened and don't contain a verb. E.g. 'What a nice surprise!'

• We often put interjections at the beginning of exclamative sentences to add emphasis. E.g. 'Wow! What a lovely car! '

Advanced English Grammar

Some elements of advanced English grammar are:

• Tenses
• Aspects
• Grammatical Voices
• Grammatical Mood
• Conditional Sentences
• Morphemes
• Prefixes
• Suffixes
• Allomorphs

• The present tense is one of the most commonly used tenses in spoken English.

• An example of the present tense is 'I am walking to the shops.' This shows that the event is happening in that present moment.

Future Tense

• The main function of the future tense is to express an action (or state of being) that has not yet happened but is expected to happen in the future.

• We can use the future tense to talk about plans, predictions, make invitations, express willingness, make suggestions, look back at a future event, and much more.

• The four future verb tenses are: future simple tense, future continuous (progressive) tense, future perfect tense, and future perfect progressive (continuous) tense.

• We form the future tense using the modal auxiliary verb 'will' + the verb root. For example, 'tomorrow I will visit my grandma.'

• We can also talk about the future using a combination of other tenses and aspects.

Aspects

• Aspect tells us important time-related characteristics of a sentence such as whether the verb is ongoing, repeated, or completed. The four aspects are: simple, continuous, perfective, and perfect continuous.

• The simple aspect simply states that an action or state has taken/is taking/will take place.

• The progressive aspect expresses that the action or state of a verb is ongoing and uncompleted.

• The perfective aspect expresses that an action is complete. The action is normally linked to a specific point in time in the past, present, or future.

• The perfect progressive aspect expresses an ongoing (progressive) action or state that was/is/will be completed at a later point in time (perfect).

Progressive Aspect

• The progressive aspect expresses an action or state of being that is ongoing and not yet completed.

• Aspect is combined with tense to create verb tenses.

• The three progressive verb tenses are the past progressive tense, present progressive tense, and future progressive tense.

• The progressive aspect is the opposite of the perfective (completed) aspect which tells us that an action or state has been completed.

Perfect Aspect

• The perfect aspect is one of the two aspects used in the English language, along with the progressive aspect.

• It is used to show that an action or state has already been completed.

• The perfect aspect is paired with a tense to create verb tenses. These verb tenses are perfect past tense, perfect present tense, and perfect future tense.

Grammatical Voices

• A grammatical voice describes the relationship between a participant (e.g subject and/or object) and an action (e.g verb)

• There are two types of grammatical voice: active voice and passive voice.

• The active voice shows that the subject is doing the action.

• The passive voice shows that the subject is being acted on i.e. the subject is not doing the action themselves but having the action done to them by someone/something else.

• The active voice is more common, although the passive voice can be useful in certain instances - such as to draw focus on the object.

Active Voice

• The active voice is a type of grammatical voice.

• The active voice occurs in sentences where the subject actively performs the verb.

• Sentences in the active voice follow the subject-verb-object structure. For example:

The SVO structure

• Active voice sentences contain active verbs.

• The active voice is more common than the passive voice, as it is more clear and direct.

Passive voice

• The passive voice is a type of grammatical voice.

• The passive voice is formed when the verb acts upon the subject of the sentence rather than the subject enacting the verb.

• Other common characteristics of the passive voice include: a form of the verb -to be, a past participle of a verb, a direct or implied 'by.'

• There are two types of passive voice: short passive voice and long passive voice.

Short vs long passive voice

• There are some situations where the passive voice is appropriate and some when it should be avoided. For example, the passive voice is generally not acceptable if used to avoid blaming someone for something they did.

Grammatical Mood

• The term grammatical mood refers to the use of verbs and different verb forms to indicate (show) the purpose of a sentence.

• There are five main grammatical moods in the English language: indicative mood, interrogative mood, imperative mood, conditional mood, and subjunctive mood.

• The indicative mood is used when the speaker wishes to express something they believe to be true, such as a factual statement, an opinion, or a fact-checking question.

• The imperative mood is used for commands and instructions.

• The interrogative mood is used for asking questions.

• The subjunctive mood is to discuss hypothetical situations, express wishes, give a demand or suggestion, and explore conditional situations.

• The conditional mood is most commonly used when the occurrence or completion of one action is dependent on another.

Indicative Mood

• Grammatical mood refers to the use of verb forms which show the purpose of a sentence and how it should be understood.

• The indicative mood is the use of verb forms to show that a sentence is a statement. It indicates something that is assumed to be true such as facts, opinions, or fact-checking questions.

• We recognise the indicative mood from the basic form of the verb which can be changed according to tense, person, or number.

• We use the indicative mood to form declarative sentences.

• An example of a sentence that uses the indicative mood is 'I sang karaoke at my friend's birthday party.'

Subjunctive Mood

• Grammatical mood is a verb category that gives information about how the sentence should be understood.

• The subjunctive mood expresses a wish, obligation, possibility, or suggestion. It usually refers to a hypothetical situation that has not yet happened and is not guaranteed to happen.

• We can recognise the subjunctive from the use of the bare form of the verb, the use of 'were', the use of 'be', the use of 'that', 'if', or 'wish'.

• The subjunctive mood is often used in sentences that consist of two or more clauses, one which is subjunctive and the other which is indicative.

• An example of a sentence that uses the subjunctive mood is 'If I were you, I wouldn't go out tonight.'

Infinitive Mood

• Grammatical mood' refers to the use of verb forms that indicate the purpose of a sentence and how it should be perceived.

• The infinitive mood is the verb form that expresses an action or state but does not refer to any subject.

• Verbs in the infinitive mood are mainly used as other parts of speech rather than as the main verb. To form an infinitive verb form, we combine the word 'to' with the base form of the verb.

• We can split the infinitive into 3 different types: full infinitives, bare infinitives, and split infinitives.

• An example of a sentence that uses the infinitive mood is 'Maria came over to meet me.'

Optative Mood

• Grammatical moods are grammatical features applied to verbs in order to make the meaning of the verbs clear according to how the speaker or writer intended.

• There are additional grammatical moods: the optative and the potential, but neither is used very often in English.

• The optative mood is used to express wishes, desires, hopes, prayers, and curses, and is quite similar in many ways to the subjunctive mood.

• The optative mood can be identified by the use of certain modal verbs, the 'if only' structure, and the use of 'let's' or 'let us'.

• An example of a sentence that uses the optative mood is 'May you live and long and happy life.'

Potential Mood

• The potential mood is a type of grammatical mood. The term grammatical mood refers to the use of verbs and different verb forms to indicate the purpose of a sentence.

• The potential mood expresses possibility and potential, including obligation, necessity, willingness, liberty, and power.

• The potential mood is used when the speaker believes that there is potential that the event or situation being discussed will take place.

• We form the potential mood using modal verbs (a type of auxiliary verb) and the infinitive form of a verb without 'to'.

• An example of a sentence that uses the potential mood is 'She might be visiting tomorrow.'

Imperative Mood

• Grammatical mood refers to the use of verb forms which show the purpose of a sentence and how it should be understood.

• The imperative mood is a verb form that expresses a command. This includes requests, instructions, orders, warnings, and advice.

• We form the imperative mood using the base form of the verb. For negative commands, we place the word 'Don't' (i.e. 'do not') in front of the verb.

• When writing a command, we often use exclamation marks to add emphasis.

• An example of a sentence that uses the imperative mood is 'Read the book aloud.'

Interrogative Mood

• Grammatical mood helps us to understand the purpose of a sentence and how it should be understood e.g. whether it's a question, demand, statement, wish, etc.

• The interrogative mood is the use of verb forms to indicate the sentence is a question.

• To form a sentence in the interrogative mood, we use an auxiliary verb (i.e. 'helping' verb) along with the main verb and place it before the subject (the person/thing performing the action) of the sentence.

• The use of question marks (?) helps us to recognise the interrogative mood.

• An example of a sentence that uses the interrogative mood is 'Have you been to London before?'

Morphemes

• A prefix is a type of affix attached to the beginning of a base word (or root) to change its meaning.

• The word prefix itself is the combination of the prefix - pre and the base word - fix.

• Prefixes can be used to make a word negative, show repetition, or indicate an opinion.

• A prefix is a bound morpheme, meaning it must be attached to a root word.

• A hyphen can be used alongside a prefix for several reasons, such as:

• to prevent ambiguity, when the root word is a proper noun
• when the last letter of the prefix is the same as the first letter of the root word
• when the prefix is either ex or self.

Suffix

• A suffix is a type of affix that is placed at the end of a root word to change its meaning or grammatical function.

• Suffixes are often used to change the word class of a word, show plurality, show tense, and more.

• A suffix is a bound morpheme, meaning it must be attached to a root word.

• There are two types of suffixes in the English language: derivational and inflectional.