Basic English Grammar

University Learning CentreWriting HelpRon CooleyDepartment of English ron.cooley@usask.ca

Next graduate writing workshop

This session will review some of the most common problems in English grammar, usage, and punctuation. We’ll focus on how to recognize trouble spots and correct your own work.

Grammar II: Common Writing ProblemsWednesday, Nov. 7, 2012: 3:00 – 4:30 PM

Location: Physics 165 (here)

Outline

Overview/review of English grammar and grammatical terminology:

Parts of speech Parts of a sentence Sentence types

Parts of Speech: Nouns

Noun: names a person place or thing Types

Proper: names of people, places, institutions Common:

Concrete: material things (table, house, dog) Abstract: conditions, qualities, ideas (hunger, wisdom) Collective: singular nouns naming groups (family)

Countable (students, apples, books) vs. non-countable (grain, water, information)

Parts of Speech: Nouns(and their attributes)

Number Singular: book, computer, thief Plural: books, computers, thieves

Usage problem Plural nouns do not

take apostrophes.

Parts of Speech: Nouns(and their attributes)

Case (grammatical function of a noun) Subject (nominative): book, computer, thief The book was long.

Object (accusative): book, computer, thief She enjoyed the book.

Possessive (genitive): the book’s cover, the computer’s keyboard, the thief’s mask “The book’s cover made it seem interesting.”

Plural possessives

Sometimes a usage problem:the students’ timetables Apostrophe after the “s”. Omit the second “s” (not students’s). Hence, plural possessives are actually

contractions. The apostrophe signals both the

possessive form and the contraction.

Parts of Speech: Pronouns: substitute for nouns Personal pronouns: substitute for particular people

(I, you, he, she, they) Demonstrative Pronouns: substitute for things

or things (it, they, this, these, those)

Like nouns, pronouns have number and case Number:

Singular: I, you, he, she, it Plural: we, you, they

Case: Subject (Nominative): I, we, you, he, she, it, they Object (Accusative): me, us, you, him, her, it, them Possessive (Genitive): my, our, your, his, her, their

I [subject] gave him [object] your book [possessive].

Parts of Speech: PronounsTypes of Pronouns

Relative: introduce adjective clauses who, whom, that, which: “He is the man whom I love.”

Interrogative: introduce questions who, whom, which: “Which sandwich is that?”

Indefinite: refer to unspecific people or things each, some, either, anyone, all: “All are welcome.”

Reflexive: indicate that the subject and object are the same himself, herself, myself: “I hurt myself.”

Parts of Speech: Verbs“Action Words”(and their attributes) Tense (present, past, future)

Simple present (fact or repeated or usual action): I go to class

Simple past (action started/finished at specific time in past): I went to class

Simple future (promise or plan for future): I will go to class

Present perfect (action at unspecified time before now): I have gone to class Past perfect (action before another action in past): I had gone to class Future perfect (action before another action in future): I will have gone to class Present progressive (action happening now): I am going to class Past progressive (longer action in the past was interrupted): I was going to class Present perfect progressive (action started in past has continued until now): I

have been going to class Past perfect progressive (action started in past has continued until another time in

past): I had been going to class Future perfect progressive (action will continue until a particular event or time in

future): I will have been going to class

Resource: http://www.englishpage.com/verbpage/types.html

Parts of Speech: Verbs“Action Words” (and their attributes) Mood Infinitive: to go

The verb in the abstract, disconnected from a subject. Can be used as a noun: “To err is human”

Indicative: He goes to class. Used to express facts or opinions.

Imperative: Go to class! Used to make demands or give orders.

Subjunctive (often used with conditional): If I were to go to class, I would understand the subject. It is important that he go to class. Used to express unreal conditions or urgency. The subjunctive is falling out of use, especially orally.

Parts of Speech: Verbs“Action Words” (and their attributes)

Voice Active: We studied samples to determine . . . Passive: Samples were studied to determine . . . When you use the passive voice, you reverse the

normal positions of subject and object. The performer of the action becomes the object of the sentence.

Parts of Speech: Verbalsforms of verbs that can function as other parts of speech

Verbal nouns (Gerunds): Cycling is my favourite sport.

Verbal adjectives (Participles):My cycling friends like to ride on weekends.

Problems with verbals

Verbals can’t function as verbs “The reason being that I don’t like driving” is not a

sentence.

Verbals (participles) can “dangle”

Parts of Speech: Modifiersmodify (describe) other words in the sentence

Adjectives: modify (describe) nouns or pronouns I made a careful study of the book.

Adverbs: modify (describe) verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs I studied carefully. Some adverb forms are falling out of use in informal speech. Many say “close the door tight” rather than “close the door

tightly.”

Parts of Speech: Prepositions

Introduce prepositional phrases: In our study, we found . . .

Usage is highly idiomatic (i.e. governed by convention, not by rule) We say “Reaction x takes place

under certain conditions” not “Reaction x takes place with

certain conditions”

Express location or relationship: in, on, to, into, with, through, under, between, before, etc.

Parts of Speech: Conjunctions

Coordinating: and, yet, but Join equal sentence elements (independent clauses) Road construction can be inconvenient, but it is necessary.

Correlative: either/or, neither/nor, not only/but also Always work in pairs to link parallel sentence elements This project not only gave me experience working with others,

but also pushed me to think about the complicated nature of today’s workplace.

Subordinating: although, because, unless, whenever, if, when Introduce subordinate clauses Because he enjoys walking, he often takes backpacking

vacations.

Conjunctive adverbs: however, therefore, furthermore Indicate the relationship between independent clauses I didn’t know which job to take; therefore, I declined both offers.

Parts of Speech: Articles (the, a, an)introduce a noun (but not always)

Definite Indefinite

Singular countable

the book a book

Plural countable the books books

Non-countable the information information

Rules for Article use Most English speakers don’t

even realize there are rules.

Complicated, but one easy-to-remember rule: singular countable nouns ALWAYS take articles.

Rensselaer PolytechnicCentre for Communication Practices

Article Usage guide http://www.ccp.rpi.edu/resourc

es/article-usage/

Parts of a Sentence

The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog’s back. Subject: the noun performing the action (and

words and phrases associated with it) “The quick brown fox”

Predicate: the verb (and words associated with it) “jumped over the lazy dog’s back.” The object (the noun receiving the action) is part

of the predicate: “the lazy dog’s back”

Parts of a Sentence: Phrases and Clauses

Phrase: a group of words lacking either a subject or a predicate.

A phrase can function as any of the main parts of speech: verb phrase, noun phrase, adjective phrase, adverb phrase

Parts of a Sentence: Phrases and Clauses

Clause: a group of words containing both a subject and a predicate.

Independent clause: could stand alone as a sentence.

Subordinate clause: could not stand alone as a sentence; needs to be attached to a main clause.

A subordinate clause—also called a dependent clause—will begin with

a subordinate conjunction or a relative pronoun

after althoughas becausebefore even ifeven though ifin order that onceprovided that rather thansince so thatthan thatthough unlessuntil whenwhenever wherewhereas whereverwhether whilewhy

that which

whichever whowhoever whoseverwhom whosewhomever

Subordinate clauses introduced by relative pronouns (relative clauses) can be either restrictive on non-restrictive

A restrictive clause provides essential informationabout the subject of a sentence: it restricts the meaning of a sentence by identifying the specific qualities of the noun or pronoun.

Restrictive: “The officer helped the civilians who had been

shot.” Non-restrictive: “The officer helped the civilians, who had been

shot.”

Subordinate clauses introduced by relative pronouns (relative clauses) can be either restrictive on non-restrictive

Restrictive clauses usually begin with “that” The meat that was contaminated with e-coli was

removed from stores.

Non restrictive clauses usually begin with “which” and are set off by commas. The meat, which was contaminated with e-coli,

was removed from stores.

Sentence Types (three basic types, plus combinations)

A string of simple sentences will often make your writing seem simplistic.

A paragraph with NO simple sentences will fatigue your reader.

Useful for variety and emphasis: Many issues concerning this

new model remain unclear.

Simple: subject, predicate, and sometimes object: I go to class

Sentence Types (three basic types, plus combinations) Compound: two (or more) independent clauses

joined by a coordinating conjunction: I go to class, and you go to the lab.

Use compound sentences to enumerate related facts (especially in pairs) There are approximately 5.2 million deaths from injuries

every year, and non-fatal injuries account for about one-tenth of the global burden of disease.

Or to present simple contrasts Physical activity brings the risk of injury, but inactivity leads

to other health problems.

Sentence Types (three basic types, plus combinations)

Complex: at least one independent (main) clause and at least one subordinate clause. Whenever I go to class, you go to the lab.

Use complex sentences to convey the relationship between related ideas By the time they get support, most of the students

will have failed at the most important task, learning to read.

Sentence Types: Examples

We use labor income as a proxy for domestic wealth and find empirical support for these predictions. (compound sentence)

We test the implications of an international asset pricing model, in which agents have preferences that are exogenously defined over both their own consumption and the contemporaneous average consumption of a reference group, defined in this paper as the agent's countrymen. (complex sentence)

These preferences are termed “keeping up with the Joneses.”(simple sentence)

Adapted from: Gómez, Juan-Pedro, Richard Priestley, and Fernando Zapatero. 2009. “Implications of Keeping-up-with-the-Joneses Behavior for the Equilibrium Cross Section of Stock Returns: International Evidence.” International Journal of Finance 64: 2703-37.

Resources:

General Parts of Speech/Sentences: Online Writing Lab at University of Ottawa

http://www.writingcentre.uottawa.ca/hypergrammar/partsp.html